Denial

softensive wrote:Any update about this cartridge? I am curious what it is...

I am also very curious. I received confirmation that eBay's Global Shipping Center in the UK received the item today and is now preparing customs documents. Hopefully I will have it soon...

The cartridge has finally arrived and I've tried it out on my VIC. The good news is that it works and will be easy to dump the image.

The bad news is ... I'll let the screenshot speak for itself


My only question now is why did Satoru Iwata think "Space Rocks" was a good title for a chess game?

Any possibility that the interesting part is hidden somewhere in the chips?
If not, given the price paid, the seller is suspect of fraud...

orion70 wrote:Any possibility that the interesting part is hidden somewhere in the chips?

I think that would be unlikely given the following:
1. The cartridge contained a ROM rather than an EPROM, as I would have expected in a prototype cartridge.
2. Upon closer inspection, the label was glued on top of another label. I didn't peel it off, but I would suspect it's a Sargon II label under there.
3. The seller included an additional item that was not in the pictures - an empty Sargon II box.

orion70 wrote:If not, given the price paid, the seller is suspect of fraud...

I filed a claim with eBay's buyer protection program and I have already received a refund. I will be delivering the package to the post office today and it will soon be on its way back to the U.K.

Good for you, too bad for another missed discovery in VIC-20's history!

Out of interest, does the seller have an account or email address previously registered here? Check email address for seller with the admins.

We nearly had something like this with Wizard of Wor a while back.

I advocated dumping it and validating it before sale. I had PMed the seller.

A lot of naysayers on the forum put the guy off. Not sure what happened in the end.

Yeah, I'd say dump all the banks before you ship it back, just to be sure.

ka20 wrote:[...] 1. The cartridge contained a ROM [...] Sargon II [...]

http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... 9&start=39

The ROM number of VIC-1919 Sargon II Chess is 901253-01.

A bit of a shame. Someone must have thought they could make an easy buck? If you did really want Sargon II that bad I have it sitting above my head right now.
Still a fun game, but that's my own opinion.