Review
ASO: Armored Scrum Object was officially released on September 3, 1986, by SNK Electronics. But before it was released, and as is true of almost all games, sample carts were provided to various people, including journalists writing game reviews. The cartridge in the picture is one of the many ASO sample cartridges given out before the game’s official release. Often times, sample cartridges have different gameplay, graphics, options and music than the official release, but not always.
In the case of this sample cartridge, the label is a poor copy, obviously produced before the official label production. These sample carts were sometimes accompanied by an audio cassette tape. It’s a bit odd since the game includes the music and sound of the official release. What’s on audio tapes that accompanies these is unclear.
All of the ASO sample cartridges had the number of the sample cartridge stamped onto a label and placed on the cartridge, possibly to track who got which cartridge. In the case of this cartridge, it’s #00285 and it survived the recall and is still in collectors’ hands. Number 285 out of how many total cartridges is unknown; lower numbers have been seen for sale.
There seem to be some differences to the PRG in these sample carts, but the CHR is the same as the retail release. There don’t appear to be any differences during gameplay.
