Wizard of Wor for VIC-20 FOUND!

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 5:28 am

one thing you missed - it is a non autostart cartridge.

If the start code is unknown then plugging it in will not show if it is working or not.

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:13 am

If it's not autostarting but you know the RAM blocks it occupies, it's as simple as asking to other Denial members

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If the owner was in good faith, he would have shown up here before, and dumped the cart. So either he's not in good faith, or he doesn't give a damn about the VIC community, preservation issues, friendly forums, and the like, and only wants to raise as much money as possible

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In either case, I wouldn't feed him.

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:26 am

Orion,

Fred (FSPorsche) has been on here since 2009 I think and has sold rare spacesnake cartridge to another user on Denial previously.

He told me he has just acquired a big lockup storage container of DVD, C64 and Vic20 stuff and I going through it.

Mike diagnosed the memory blocks it uses but that does not mean you automatically know the start address. Code would need to be scanned starting in those blocks I expect.

With help it could be dumped and a sample of code shown prior to sale which would up the price.

Even better getting it started and a screen shot.

I am sure FSPorsche could make $500 if 10 folks on Denial joined me and staked $50 each for first access if we established it was good.

Remember strange things happen - Tac Scan on the Vic-20 by Sega was found only a few years ago.

yellow_lantern · Post by **yellow_lantern** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:34 am

Vic20-Ian wrote:Not really that clever and a bit transparent if everyone did this.

I have bought some items untested and been pleasantly surprised.

I am bidding for it, anyone want to join me and share the risk and the anticipation of being the first to play this in some years?

Or shall I just put it in a picture frame and wonder at it

I would be willing to contribute up to 40 dollars. I could live with losing that amount on a [possible] fake.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:37 am

And given the propensity for eBay to pander more to buyers today, a genuine "item not as described" case would almost certainly get your money back. The fact it hasn't been tested and may not "work" is by the by, you raise a case, you're pretty likely to win.

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:00 am

I'm not getting the point. IF this is a forum of VIC enthusiasts, and he's part of it, why not simply trying to dump and make it available to the community? I think this would not lower the probability to sell it for a reasonable amount of money. He would be happy, the retrocollector bidding on it (hopefully you Ian) would be happy, we would be happy, all the VIC-20s in the world would be happy.

I can't understand why we have to collect 500 dollars and pay someone who still can do a lot of money, AFTER having dumped it for the community.

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:52 am

Orion,

I take your point.

Scenario 1 - rare find undumped - value medium, interest very high, risk high

Scenario 2 - rare find, dumped & released, - value medium, interest only to completionists, risk low

Scenario 3 - rare find, dumped & verified but not released or demonstrated running - value High, interest very high, risk low

Scenario 3 gives the seller the highest profit

If the community rallies together and buys it then it can do that with our without risk if the seller is interested to increase his profit.

If the community does not rally together there is the risk of a Golem kind of person buying it to keep it as "my precious" and never releasing it.

There was this kind of behaviour on Virtual Boy rare released carts like Space Invaders trying to keep the cart price at $400.

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:19 am

Consider this: Anyone would gather that a tested and working prototype of this game would bring in A LOT more money than if it's untested and possibly is a fake. That alone would make anyone trying to sell it cough up a Vic-20 and test it before selling it. Yet another reason this (probably) is a fake!

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:36 am

Bo,

Could be. Then again he was slated on here for selling fake space snake only to be defended by the buyer.

Innocent until proven guilty not guilty till proven innocent in my book.

p.s.

Optimist : Glass is half Full

Pessimist : Glass is half empty

Engineer : Glass is twice as big as needed

pallas · Post by **pallas** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:00 am

even if he is not guilty, the cart may simply not work or may not be what you expect at all.

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:03 am

Mike wrote:The ROM chip reads: MOS 325338-01 8-43 3142

At least the 325338-01 puts it somewhere in the range of other ROMs for VIC-20 cartridges (I checked against a MOS chip list). The other figures form no discernible date code, though. In any case, the solder blobs put the ROM into BLK2 and BLK3, so this cartridge won't autostart.

The seller is registered here on Denial, so he might comment on this auction as well.

Wow, am ever lucky.

I have two of the MOS 325338-01 8-43 cart PCBs!!!

The downside is that I do not have a label maker handy.

I will gladly take $500 for the pair.

Naturally without the clever label they are not worth as much as the one posted on e-bay.
However, unlike the one on e-bay, they have been both tested and are fully functional.

BTW, the MOS 325338-01 is Scott Adams Adventure #4 - Voodoo Castle

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:54 am

Brian,

I will put you in the glass half empty group then

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:57 am

pallas wrote:even if he is not guilty, the cart may simply not work or may not be what you expect at all.

Glass a quarter full

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 11:17 am

Vic20-Ian wrote:Brian,

I will put you in the glass half empty group then

By the way the dates codes on your cartridges both look to be later than the one advertised. If Wizard of Wor was developed around the same time as Omega Race then this might not make sense.

However, having worked in all sorts of manufacturing you never know when a particular date code item will get used.

e.g. prototype group may have a delivery of proms in early months and a slow consumption rate compared with manufacturing.

Anything is possible.

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 11:52 am

Vic20-Ian wrote:By the way the dates codes on your cartridges both look to be later than the one advertised.

Forever the optimist!

Only the MOS mask ROM chip # is relevant.

MOS 325337-01 is Scott Adams Adventure #3 - Mission Impossible
MOS 325339-01 is Scott Adams Adventure #5 - The Count

I have tested about 3 or 4 of each of the above.

I have quite a number of cartridge PCBs and a while ago, I thought about creating a cross reference list, but I have lots of other projects on the go.

Here are a few:
MOS 901269-01 - Omega Race
MOS 901293-01 - Number Nabber
MOS 901303-01 - Tooth Invaders
MOS 325312-02 - Slot
MOS 901253-01 - Sargon II Chess
MOS 901277-01 - Clowns
MOS 901280-01 - Gorf
MOS 901271-01 + MOS 901272=01 - Pinball Spectacular

I sent info along to ebay seller. Hopefully he does the right thing and updates the description.