Newly discovered Dick Smith Tennis variant
Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:42 pm
I was very surprised to discover yet another variation of the Tennis game ROM right 2 days ago.
AFAIK the Tennis ROM was released in 3 formats only
- with Coca Cola/Sprite logo: very early version, probably sold in China and UK only in limited run
- with Wimbledon Championship (white font on red-blue background): the common version sold worldwide as a replacement to the one with Coca Cola/Sprite brand
- with Dick Smith Championship (white font on red-blue background): sold in Australia only
Well this is what I got today: a very early revision of the Dick Smith-branded ROM, with black font on yellow-cyan background.
It comes in a very early PCB (revision 700306), and EPROMs were produced in "8223", that is June 1982. This must be the time when VTech started to produce cartridges for Dick Smith Electronics.
So I suppose that this graphics was the first version of the customised ROM made by VTech for D.S. for the Australian market.
The layout is pretty close to the "fake screenshot" that appears on the Tennis games boxes sold in Italy, Australia (earlier copies) and worldwide (later copies). The one on the boxes reads "Wimbleton" and there are 2 rackets in the middle. But beside this, the colour layout is the same as appearing on this newly discovered ROM.
Needless to say, I will do my best to have the ROM dumped and released as soon as possible!
Comments welcome!
AFAIK the Tennis ROM was released in 3 formats only
- with Coca Cola/Sprite logo: very early version, probably sold in China and UK only in limited run
- with Wimbledon Championship (white font on red-blue background): the common version sold worldwide as a replacement to the one with Coca Cola/Sprite brand
- with Dick Smith Championship (white font on red-blue background): sold in Australia only
Well this is what I got today: a very early revision of the Dick Smith-branded ROM, with black font on yellow-cyan background.
It comes in a very early PCB (revision 700306), and EPROMs were produced in "8223", that is June 1982. This must be the time when VTech started to produce cartridges for Dick Smith Electronics.
So I suppose that this graphics was the first version of the customised ROM made by VTech for D.S. for the Australian market.
The layout is pretty close to the "fake screenshot" that appears on the Tennis games boxes sold in Italy, Australia (earlier copies) and worldwide (later copies). The one on the boxes reads "Wimbleton" and there are 2 rackets in the middle. But beside this, the colour layout is the same as appearing on this newly discovered ROM.
Needless to say, I will do my best to have the ROM dumped and released as soon as possible!
Comments welcome!