Super Famicom Wars

[satoshi_matrix]

anyone know any specific details regarding this game? Consiering it is a late generation Super Famicom game (1998!) you would think there would be more info, but apparently not. About this game... was it released in retail? I hear sketchy bits of info that it wasn't, only through mail order like Pocket Monsters Blue.

There's a copy on ebay I plan to buy in a few hours depending on what I find out
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230110667351&fromMakeTrack=true

The seller states that it was "only released on the super famicom memory cart and thus fairly hard to find"

What is the Super Famicom Memory cart? Was it some service like the Famicom Disk System kiosks? As much as you guys can tell me the better.

[MaxXimus]

As far as I know, the memory carts were like flash carts and you'd go to stations set up and pay to download the game to the cart.

And also as far as I know, Red was the mail order game, not blue.

[kite200]

no blue is the mail order game red and green were retail

[MaxXimus]

Crazy. I was misinformed then.

[satoshi_matrix]

So it had nothing to do with the Steleview? I just want to make sure that I can play this without the use of some obscure adaptor. Since the auction is ending soon, I want to get it soon. Thoughts?

[Bergasa]

According to Nintendo Land, it was released on Satellaview: http://www.nintendoland.com/home2.htm?snes/access.htm (scroll down, there's a list of Satellaview games)

Maybe it was released on this format as well as the flash cart thing?

As a side note, it'd be cool if this came out on Virtual Console now that the Advance Wars series is popular in America.

[satoshi_matrix]

But this is BS Famicom Wars. It was a demo version that contains only the first maps and cos. The full version was released by some other means. What I'm wondering about is if you think this auction is for the BS version or the full version? From what I know about the Steleview it took a special cartridge and needed the Steleview to run. but this device doens't look like its part of it at all. Maybe Manuel could translate what the cart says?

Vertual Console Super Famicom Wars or the original Famicom Wars. There's an English patch that translates everything into English but the title due to it being flash and special. I love Famicom Wars. I even wrote a review for it here on FW if you're interested.

[Bergasa]

I will have to take a look at that review.

As for the auction, like you said, it doesn't look like part of the Satellaview. Up until this thread, I had never heard of a SNES system where you flashed games to a cart, but if that existed, then this cart definitely fits the bill. The label is just basically an artistic representation of blankness (actually, it reminds me of the Wii's channels).

I'd say it should play fine without any extra hardware.

[Bergasa]

I just found this on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Power_(cartridge)

"Each cartridge's flash RAM is divided internally into eight blocks. Unless an 8-block game is loaded onto the cartridge, however, one block is reserved for the game selection menu, leaving only seven blocks for games."

That fits your auction; they've got 7 blank images on that cart. Provided the guy actually loaded Super Famicom Wars on it, I think you're golden.

[MaxXimus]

Yeah. The boxes on the label mean its a writable cart. im jealous.

[Bergasa]

So does this mean that you can only get Super Famicom Wars through these means? Nintendo has since closed the Nintendo Power download thing (almost exactly a year ago now), but what if no download carts still hold SFW any more? What other games were exclusively released on this format?

Another thought I just had was about hacking that cart so you could load roms on to it. I wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to go about something like that, but it seems initially possible.

[satoshi_matrix]

Helpful! Thanks everyone. The seller finally emailed me back. This is what he had to say:


Hello. This is the full version, not the BS Steleview version that was released as a promo only. The game is written on a blank memory cart you could buy in retail stores in the late 90s. I had this game downloaded on the cartridge by sending the cartridge to Nintendo. The numbers you see refer to "blocks" of memory you could download games to. Nintendo would provide stickers to place over each number to identify which games were on it.  In this case, Super Famicom Wars takes the whole cartridge, so there's only one game. I've lost the sticker over the years unfortuntely. While nothing to do with the Steleview, as you guessed, the memory cart service was something indeed similar to the famicom disk system kiosks.

[Bergasa]

Hello. This is the full version, not the BS Steleview version that was released as a promo only. The game is written on a blank memory cart you could buy in retail stores in the late 90s. I had this game downloaded on the cartridge by sending the cartridge to Nintendo. The numbers you see refer to "blocks" of memory you could download games to. Nintendo would provide stickers to place over each number to identify which games were on it.  In this case, Super Famicom Wars takes the whole cartridge, so there's only one game. I've lost the sticker over the years unfortuntely. While nothing to do with the Steleview, as you guessed, the memory cart service was something indeed similar to the famicom disk system kiosks.

Well, now the mystery is solved. That's cool that you could send it to Nintendo to get them to put it on there... I wonder if you can still do this? Nintendo of Japan is crazy when they come to supporting their products-- we all know that they just recently stopped supporting the original Famicom.

[MaxXimus]

Are you serious? I didn't know that haha. what did they do to support it up until now?

[133MHz]

The Famicom and stuff was supported till 2003, they even rewrote your disks if you sent them to Nintendo.