Official(?) Chinese Gameboy Multicart?

[DDCecil]

Does anyone know anything about this Irem 4 in 1 cart (or anything like it?):

Game Cart: http://i27.tinypic.com/iwonk5.jpg

Game 1 (Title): http://i25.tinypic.com/29vbfqx.jpg
Game 2 (Title): http://i26.tinypic.com/fk1euq.jpg
Game 3 (Title): http://i27.tinypic.com/59uhpy.jpg
Game 3 (In Game): http://i25.tinypic.com/2vb1xsl.jpg
Game 4 (Title): http://i29.tinypic.com/2927g4j.jpg

[Byron]

It's a pirate, it has to be.
Irem and Nintendo had nothing to do with it, I'm guessing their names are on it because Nintendo made the Game Boy, Irem made R-Type, and the pirates are trying to look legit.

Other than that, I'm out of guesses.

[manuel]

It looks damn legit. But you never know with China.

[nintendodork]

The pirates would have to have balls to put both company logos and the Nintendo Seal of Quality on it if this were a pirate.  I think it's legit...

[manuel]

I thought the same, but on the other hand it's China. 

All the logos and the Nintendo Game Boy sign are original and unaltered.

[UglyJoe]

The rom is dumped as "Mani 4-in-1".  I've never heard of the company Mani, but I'm not very good with the whole pirate companies thing.

[L___E___T]

You can tell it's a pirate, as it uses the gameboy box art background. 

Nintendo are super strict on what art can be used where.  There's no way they would have given this art willingly (no scanners back then) or woked with IREM and suggested it.

[UglyJoe]

It is a pirate, but I don't think the background proves anything.  It's generic enough that I don't think Nintendo would have cared too  much if someone used it.  Also, I can assure you that scanners did exist in the 80s.

[L___E___T]

What I meant was, they wouldn't have been as readily available as one might assume, but I don't believe they would havecreadily supplied that art.

[DDCecil]

Here's more info I stumbled upon:

http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=20250

[michal99]

It's legit Nintendo cart. As when you open it there's Nintendo board as on any other Nintendo GB cart.
Mani was Chines Nintendo distributor as Nintendo couldn't sell their product directly in China in that time (because of the politic system).
I have few of these Chines cart and also the Taito one.
 

[NintendoKing]

The rom is dumped as "Mani 4-in-1".  I've never heard of the company Mani, but I'm not very good with the whole pirate companies thing.

It's written on my Chinese copy of Zoids Densetsu for Gameboy! The back of the manual says MANI.

[L___E___T]

Mani were the distributor in Hong Kong (after Simon I think, or before Simon?) and some other parts of Asia.  I am genuinely suprised that the gameboy ever made it to mainland China, because it wasn't really allowed at the time for the same reasons as Comboy as michal said.  However, the Hyundai thing was a workaround, I thought it would've been stricter in China.

Spoiler

[close]

You're going to love this - Mani had three offices across Hong Kong and China, you learn something new every day!



http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2011/09/exploring-chinese-gameboy-games-few.html

Also, while Mani were the distributor, the multicarts are not necessarily 'official'.  First of all they're glob-tops and were third party games.  Of coursebthe were some official multicarts from Konami and Tomy, but I don't think they're glob tops are they?  It's been suggested some of the were a move on the distributor's part to try and combat the multicarts of the era, which would make sense but it's just theorising.

The single cart games are absolutely official, but I wish the was some more info on some of the multicart games.  
The info I could find just showed glob tops for those:

http://hhug.me/?post=5

[fcgamer]

I think they were all official...need to keep in mind that these carts were manufactured in China for a (primarily) Chinese audience.  All of these had official boxes, manuals, etc.  See no reason why Mani would renegade and produce unlicensed / pirated crap after dealing with Nintendo, probably they had the rights to do whatever they wanted, with Nintendo's permission, making these official.

In either case, I am trying to collect these CHN carts.  If anyone has any for sale or trade, please contact me.  I can trade or pay handsomely. 

[L___E___T]

probably they had the rights to do whatever they wanted, with Nintendo's permission, making these official.

That's what I mean - I don't see that as official in the true sense, it's just licensed out If it doesn't meet the usual quality
(like a POS keyring with a poorly printed Nintendo logo on).

The multicarts are glob tops though, check the links or open one of your carts  
Interested to know where these were manufactured - doesn't look like taiwan and I suspect it was Hong Kong, but if it was China then I'd be interested in how that worked in theory, politically.