Mine Storm II ?

[Luitoine]

Hi everybody,

I'm new to the forum, so let me introduce myself:
I'm a french guy who discovered the Vectrex only 2 years ago at a french Exposition in Paris called "Game Story". I had never heard of the console before, but I immediately found it very attractive and a few month after that, I bought a second-hand vectrex with two controllers and a few games (Berzerk, Solar Quest and Clean Sweep) on the internet. Unfortunately it came with no overlay, but the price was really honest. Since that day, I buy some games from time to time when I find them at a good price (and I'm also waiting for my copy of Warrior by Fury Unlimited, but I'm at the end of the waiting list so I guess I'll have to be patient ).

The reason why I'm here is that I bought a copy of "Mine Storm II" in my usual Video Game Store at a very low price (actually, it was sold at the same price as all the other games with no box nor overlay). I bought the cartridge because I found it strange that "Mine Storm" was released on a cartridge since it was a build-in game, and I didn't know the whole story about Mine Storm II. Now that I've read that it's actually a rare game, my question is: how can I know if it's an original cartridge or a reproduction?

I've compared it with the over cartridges I have (which I believe are original because I don't think that a lot of people made reproduction of games that you can buy for 10€) and with pictures I found on the internet, and I found no differences, but I've never seen a reproduction cartridge... 

Here are some pictures of the cartridge I have:

Frontside


Backside


Inside


The game working (as you can see, I don't have the Mine Storm overlay )

Thank you in advance for you help!
Luitoine.

[scallen]

Nov 10, 2013 8:57:50 GMT -5 Luitoine said:

The reason why I'm here is that I bought a copy of "Mine Storm II" in my usual Video Game Store at a very low price (actually, it was sold at the same price as all the other games with no box nor overlay). I bought the cartridge because I found it strange that "Mine Storm" was released on a cartridge since it was a build-in game, and I didn't know the whole story about Mine Storm II. Now that I've read that it's actually a rare game, my question is: how can I know if it's an original cartridge or a reproduction?

I've compared it with the over cartridges I have (which I believe are original because I don't think that a lot of people made reproduction of games that you can buy for 10€) and with pictures I found on the internet, and I found no differences, but I've never seen a reproduction cartridge... 

Thank you in advance for you help!
Luitoine.

it looks like mine. and the wear on the case makes it seem legit.

popping it open and looking at the board may help determine authenticity...

[VectorX]

There probably aren't many Vectrex reproductions floating around anyway (just an opinion I'm tossing in), since, as compared with many other consoles that sold up to tens of millions of units (PlayStations, Atari 2600), there isn't much of a market for Vectrex stuff, legit, repro or otherwise.

And welcome aboard!

[Rapetou33]

Welcome Lutoine ! (I wouldn't tell you anything about your cart because I never had one in my hands).

[Mayhem]

Label looks old and more worn than you'd expect for a repro. I believe the new shells all have screw holes too. So I'd be pretty confident this was the real thing. Congrats

[VectorX]

^Yeah, especially since:

Nov 10, 2013 8:57:50 GMT -5 Luitoine said:

The reason why I'm here is that I bought a copy of "Mine Storm II" in my usual Video Game Store at a very low price (actually, it was sold at the same price as all the other games with no box nor overlay).

Ignorance over people who don't know how to price things correctly can be great, eh?

[hcmffm]

Welcome at the Vectorgaming forum, Luitoine! Always nice to have a new member, here. :-)

With your Minestorm II cartridge I'd say: "Lucky you!"- You're Minestorm II cartridge looks just like mine which I'm pretty sure is genuine and authentic. These cartridges are rare and typically sell for a MUCH higher price, so you are really very lucky to get one.

BTW, like VectorX I doubt that there are any modern remakes of Vectrex cartridges around.

[Luitoine]

Thanks to all of you for your welcome messages and answers

I think I got really lucky this time!

[50tbrd]

All the Minestorm II carts I have seen came in carts with the rounded bevel for the label. As far as I can tell these came on all games that say "Made in Ireland" and only those carts.

I think if I had the ability to make pcbs, I could buy a "Made in Ireland" cart, design a Minestorm II label and make a reproduction that would fool almost every hardcore collector. So, a reproduction of this that sells for several hundred dollars would be worth an unscrupulous person's time.

I doubt that anyone has ever gone through the trouble though and this cart looks authentic in every respect.

[TrekMD]

Welcome to VGF!! Looks like you have yourself a gem.

[VECTREXER]

Looks an authentic original Minestorm II real to me. Nice find!