Pulse line carts

[JC]

Yeah, I think so, but how the heck do you tell the difference between PAL and NTSC for the Famicom? There's no lockout chip. Remember I had a thread about this a while back!

[Doc]

Ah well.

[michaelthegreat]

Yeah, Milk and Nuts was an interesting copy job.  The tile screen is set up almost exactly like Donkey Kong (along with with a couple other sceens).  Either they worshiped the ground Nintendo walked, or it was kinda their practice game... 

Wasn't the official hong kong fc/nes shaped like a nes?  I thought that the hong kong fc style carts were all pirates.  If you look at the chips, HVC is Japan and HKV is hong kong.  I'm pretty sure the official Hong Kong ones had a lockout chip too.

ps if anyone has the milk and nuts cart with the character picture, I'd love a big photo!

[JC]

So, does what Michael is saying prove that Baseball was officially released by Nintendo with two different labels, since the chips read HVC on my copy of Baseball? Sounds like it.

[michaelthegreat]

I've never seen a pirate pay that much attention to both the nes circuit board or to what it says on the rom chips.  I don't think what you have is a pirate.  BUT, I've been told by some that any game that says "Family Computer" in english is a pirate.  You'll have an uphill climb convincing some people that what you have is not a pirate.  Not many know what a NES circuit board is supposed to look like, much less a famicom!

I've done a little more research and it does seem that there is some confusion over whether a 60 pin famicom was really released in Hong Kong.  Some say that the companies in HK that produced the famicom were allowed to repackage them for HK.  The only issue I have with that is the fact that I thought the famicoms were all made in Japan... 

I personally think that if any 60 pin famicom games were officially sold in HK, that they were the same thing as their JP counterparts and therefore the same label.

As far as more than one label--oh yeah there are tons of label variants in JP!  This was Nintendo's first try for a consol.  They certainly did not have the conformity thing down for the famicom.  Yeah the NES had 8 versions of the SMB/DH label, but I bet there are famicom games that blow that number out of the water.  For famicom games, the HVC codes were used by nintendo, but lots of companies used their own codes!  There are carts of all different colors and styles.  Then pirates are thrown in the mix.  It's a pain to open fc carts, so how do you tell if it's a pirate label or a variant? 

It's just one big mess.  I would never let myself become a fc variant collector.  It would drive me absolutely mad!

[JC]

Well damn, Michael. I thought we were going to have this solved already. I'm fully convinced that the Baseball I've got is a legit Nintendo release. I have no reason to doubt that yet. There's no mistaking that the code on the board reads HVC, as opposed to HKV. I just don't know. And you're right about pirate dudes not trying to be so accurate in making their pirates that they'd actually put HVC on the board. I've never seen a pirate with that code.

Now, if it was released in HK or in Japan, I can't say for sure. Can anyone (manuel, featherpluck) confirm whether or not that's Japanese on the label? At least we could try to give it a country of release/origin.

[vealchop]

Those characters deifnately look Chinese to me. The Japanese on my cart is completely different. JC, you may have a one of a kind item there.

[JC]

Eek! I hope not, since I'm using it to prop up my laptop (so it doesn't burst into flames!).

[michaelthegreat]

I don't know if I made it clear that I definately don't think it's a pirate.  Especially since they're marked as mitsubishi roms.  The milk an nuts I took apart was on that exact same circuit board (nrom is a pretty common early nes circuit board).  But after that, I don't know what to think. 

The earliest games were the exact same roms whether pal or nstc (I've been told that in europe that there is an early version of smb that is identicle to the nstc version and that there's a later version with some pal changes). 

I think a translator is the only way you'll learn more.

[Doc]

Eek! I hope not, since I'm using it to prop up my laptop (so it doesn't burst into flames!).

Considering how crappy that game is, it's only a fitting enough place to put it, lol.

[nes_pwnerer]

I hear the streets of Japan are paved with Baseball carts there's so many of them...

[featherplucknfilms]

Sorry I didn't notice all this talk about the baseball cart before.  That one is definitely the HK version with the Chinese characters and English Famicom. 

[JC]

I was hoping one of you Japanese-reading members would notice this thread. It's good to have that settled. Looks like vealchop was right, in the end.

[Doc]

Yay for Hong Kong stuff! But didn't veal say it was a pirate?

[JC]

Right you are...kind of. You see, vealchop's quick reaction was to think it was a pirate, but even when we were all scratching our heads wondering why it said HVC inside, he's the only one who quickly realized it must instead be HVC-HKG, and now we see he was right.

Glad to settle the debate.