The Cardapter for the VIC-20

[Updated: 3/5/2011]

OK this is starting to get annoying. First I got hoodwinked by the fake Atari Foghat 8-track and now this! 

I was familiar with Colecovision's Expansion Module that let you play Atari 2600 games on the Colecovision and I had heard of the Intellivision's System Changer too, but when I came across this old magazine advertisement for the "Cardapter" for the VIC-20 it was totally new to me.



It was supposedly designed by The Computer Works and manufactured and distributed by Cardco, Inc to "explore a new galaxy of entertainment pleasure with your VIC-20 computer". Well that may be a bit of advertising hyperbole, but it would allow you to play Atari 2600 cartridges on your VIC-20 and I thought - hey! I've got a VIC-20 and lots of old Atari games - this thing would be cool!  (I've also got 2 working Atari 2600s but that's beside the point).

So I started searching high and low on the internet to see if I could locate and buy this obscure little device. But it didn't take long to discover that these things were nowhere to be found. Then I stumbled onto a forum where they referred to the Cardapter as a famous piece of vaporware in the classic computer scene. Even though these ads ran in a number of magazines it appears that they may never have actually been manufactured.  At least no one on the internet seems to have seen one anyway.  So it's just a cool little old ad for a device that never existed I guess.

Damn - I have to start reading magazines that were published within the last 10 years.

[Update:]

I came across another ad for the Cardapter in the Spring 1983 edition of Commodore Power Play which offered the device for $89.95.



Sorry Cardapter, fool me once...

But a few pages later in the same magazine was an ad for a different product that also offered a way to play Atari 2600 cartridges on your VIC-20!  And this one shipped with a free Atari cartridge to boot! It was called the Game Loader from Protecto Enterprizes - and I had actually heard of them before!



My curiosity was stirred once again and I hurried off to do some searching. And... according to the experts on the net this one was never actually manufactured either.  Dammit!

Still I did find another ad where the Game Loader was being sold along with several other items from Protecto that I know definitely existed - so maybe it's out there SOMEWHERE...

Ah screw it - I'll keep playing Radar Rat Race on my VIC and if I feel like playing Chopper Command I'll just break out the real 2600.

End of line.