Atari release?

[Roman]

Hi folks,

I found these pictures on some eastern European store websites:

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55833545.atari-transport-tycoon-deluxe-pc.jpg (12.46 KiB) Viewed 2187 times

https://www.playgosmart.cz/transport-ty ... 55377.html
https://hry-na-pc.heureka.sk/transport-tycoon-deluxe
https://hry-pro-pc.heureka.cz/transport-tycoon-deluxe
https://www.arukereso.hu/pc-jatek-c3255 ... p48588513/

Looks like an Atari budget rerelease of TTD in a DVD box, similar to Infogrames' 2001 replay edition. It has an ELSPA 3+ rating sign on it, and ELSPA used this sign only during 2002-2003 apparently.

Does anyone know more about this? Was this actually sold?

[Roman]

Nobody? I was hoping someone from Hungary, Czech Republic or Slovakia might know more. At first I thought it might be a mockup image mixing elements from the original 1995 Microprose box and the 2001 Infogrames replay DVD case, but the white margins on the sides are different, and the Atari logo confuses me. Why would someone feel the need to fake a product image like that?

There's another Norwegian store that uses this as the product image:

https://www.prisjakt.no/product.php?p=154449

[kamnet]

Is it fake? I wouldn't think it be out of line for Atari to have once offered that.

[Roman]

Yes, I wouldn't rule out the possibility either, it's just weird that I can find absolutely no record of this other than the linked store pages, which offer almost no details.

Surely, if this is a real existing edition, then Atari or ELSPA would have had it on record somehow. Unfortunately Atari went bankrupt in 2013, and ELSPA transformed into ukie in 2010, both making it somewhat unlikely that they still know about this.

[Roman]

To the British chaps here: Is there an agency (government or not) that keeps track of video games retail releases in the UK, like they do in France for instance? Maybe they would know.

[ChillCore]

I don't think it's a fake cd cover.

I remember a (rather short?) period of time, way back in ye olden days, when budget releases with this white layout were rather common.
Attatched another example to the end of this post, in case you did not see it before ... which I doubt ...

[Roman]

Yeah I'm familiar with that one, it's the "Smile & Buy" edition, released in 1999 by Hasbro Interactive in the UK and Germany.

[Roman]

I contacted ukie and sent them the image. Got a reply today, saying that they don't have any record for this...

[Roman]

I asked Sawyer about it and he wrote to me that he's guessing that the Atari release could be genuine, but that he doesn't have it in his archive. Remains to be sought and found, then...

[orudge]

I asked Sawyer about it and he wrote to me

Ooh, always good to see a new letter from Chris! Thanks for sharing.

[Roman]

Found it, in a charity shop in Australia! The CD is actually identical to the Infogrames replay release, though - a bit disappointing.

On the upside, I now own an copy of TTD that even Chris didn't know exists.

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