FF logo or not?

[L___E___T]

 

Hi friends,

Do we have any kind of rundown of which original red and white Famicoms use the FF (Famicom Family) logo and which do not?

I've been doing some research and it appears some games have the FF logo on and also variants without the FF logo.

I would love to get some information on this as it isn't something I had noticed much before.  Is it tied to age or regions?

[chowder]

I don't have any particular year/timeframe, but the non-FF Famicoms are the older ones.  Internally, they (generally) have older revision CPU/PPU chips, and always have a separate power board connected by a grey ribbon cable - the newer systems are all on one PCB. 

Additionally, the FF Famicoms have "VCCI" mentioned on the label on the base, and the cartridge slot will have metal shielding around the connector.

[L___E___T]

 

Thanks, so that settles that at least in part - now here's the tricky question - while Feroswan and I were discussing the silver series games, we noticed there are some game variants - some that contain the FF mark and some that don't.  Donkey Kong (silver box) is one of these.  Strange thing is that some early games don't include the FF logo (Hogan's Alley pulseline) while some early games do (Super Mario Bros.) so it's not as if we can just assume this was a logo that came online later.  There are variants of DK (silver box) that also have a barcode on the back, where the original pulseline games didn't, so is there something more to this FF mark?  Doctor Mario has it for example, as does SMB3.


I guess the point of this thread is to try and ascertain why the FF logo was sometimes included and sometimes not.  If we take it that it means all the family of peripherals and a sort of 'compatability' mark with the Famicom - why would some games have particular revisions wher it's not included? It seems really odd...

[chowder]

Everything I can find suggests that the Famicom Family logo is something Nintendo used from 1988 onwards.  It looks like some early games that were reprinted included the logo - they wouldn't have made the entire stock of (for example) SMB at the release date.  Compare these two SMB boxes:

http://s21.photobucket.com/user/cheesemeister05/media/smb-box-j.jpg.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lLPZauMX0Qw/TsvkP9_-eXI/AAAAAAAADWQ/TIfi9YNPGEE/s1600/SuperMarioBros_Famicom_boxfront.jpg

[famifan]

Everything I can find suggests that the Famicom Family logo is something Nintendo used from 1988 onwards. 

what if at this point nintendo finally gave up with family computer branding?

as you know, initially, famicom was launched as a computer for a family, not as a kiddish gaming machine connected to TV.

BASIC, keyboard, data recorder, 3d system, networks. It even got a floppy disk drive (aka FDS). Who knows, maybe successful launching of NES in US totally ruined it as a computer? NES - nintendo entertainment system. It was made entirely for 'entertainment' and nothing more.

that's why I hate NES. And always will continue to do that. 

[L___E___T]

 



Well, they didn't drop the moniker at that point, as it was still used across all branding but I think perhaps, the initial 'sell-in' tactic had been achieved so no need to dress it up so much after that.

The Super Famicom didn't use the full name from what I gather.

But that derailing aside - I do appreciate the date range Chowder.  Where did you get that from?  What pins it to that year?

The SMB comparison is very useful, and of course it would make sense that they'd reprint and reprint going by the Toyota 70s lean-stock mentality that ruled still at that time.

[chowder]

But that derailing aside - I do appreciate the date range Chowder.  Where did you get that from?  What pins it to that year?

I was basing that solely on Famicom PCB revisions.  They have a date stamped on the board, and I've seen quite a few   HVC-CPU-07 boards were used up until 1988, after that it was HVC-CPU-GPM-02 - these are the "FF" branded models.

The ever-reliable() Wikipedia seems to back that up (logo info on the right):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System#Third-party_licensing

[ImATrackMan]

I've seen quite a few  HVC-CPU-07 boards were used up until 1988

My replacement FC came with its manual with the date stamped on the back. It turns 28 on the 26th of this month. I'd love to know the absolute latest that non-FF Famicoms were manufactured. Spring '88 is the latest I've seen as of now.