Family Bits 3: Multicart Madness - Available Now!!!

[fcgamer | 4,753]

Okay, so we are happy to announce that Family Bits 3 has arrived and can be purchased from the link below:

Family Bits: Volume 3: Allwein, Dave, fcgamer, Kennedy, Jeff "tanooki": 9798386186746: Amazon.com: Books

Just a few disclaimers regarding the book:

a. Unlike the first installment of Family Bits, this installment definitely falls 100% into the "reference" category of books. Essentially, it is a collection of several hundred Famicom multicarts ranging from the 1980s to the late 1990s, and the book lists out the contents of each cartridge, as well as if the contents has been altered or not from the original games.

b. Some of the information (such as release dates or publishers) is missing for some items, but that is just the nature of beast with these kinds of games. Places have been left so that if more data is discovered, people can write it in. I prefer to leave something blank than circulate bogus information, then try to "recall" the information years later, after it's been treated as fact.

c. Multicarts are hard to "name" - therefore, they are listed in this book somewhat in chronological order, but not entirely. As mysterious and fun as it is to purchase a few random multicarts and then see what's on them, thus to can it be fun to just randomly thumb through this book and look at the contents of different cartridges.

d. The book isn't exhaustive, as it would be impossible to list every multicart out there; however, it does give a good idea of how multicarts evolved over time.

e. Due to space constraints, multicarts from around the year 2000 onwards will appear in another future volume of Family Bits.

With all that said, enjoy! This isn't a casual reading book, but I learned so much myself over the course of researching and compiling this book and contents, and feel confident to be able to determine the contents of almost any multicart from that timeframe with accuracy, just by looking at the label, and I feel those who are interested in the topic of multicarts could do the same if they spent a few hours looking through this book.

Enjoy!

Edited April 19, 2023 by fcgamer

[DefaultGen | 5,432]

Wait what! Did I miss volume 2?

[ThePhleo | 2,185]

3 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Wait what! Did I miss volume 2?

^ seriously, how did I miss #2

[fcgamer | 4,753]

@DefaultGen @ThePhleo Don't worry guys, number 2 isn't out yet! There's a reason for the madness, I swear, didn't mean to scare everyone

Volume 2 will contain all of the unlicensed originals / unauthorized originals / pirate originals / bootleg originals not covered in Volume 1 - these range from companies such as Codemasters (Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy, Micro Machines) to Korean companies (Menace Beach) to Hacker International (Japan), to lone wolf A Chudov (Russia); however, also slated for this volume is the set of original games coming out of mainland China. I have a lot, but not nearly all of them (some of the companies there released 100+ games each). Furthermore, as many of those games are RPGs and what not, it's a bit harder for me to write about them with 100% accuracy.

As such, I have asked a mainland Chinese collector friend for help on the matter. Although there likely will be some gaps in the book (some of the games are really obscure, not even confirmed to exist), it's a volume that I can't complete properly on my own, so it requires more time (and funds) to put together. That's why I am continuing to work on it in the background, as I finish up the other volumes in the forefront. (I've got the whole series sketched out, relating to the contents and everything).

Volume II is unauthorized original games from outside of Taiwan

I also plan to do a couple other mini volumes as well, but they will be smaller and cheaper.

[DefaultGen | 5,432]

What would we do without you

[Ferris Bueller | 495]

9 hours ago, fcgamer said:

Don't worry guys, number 2 isn't out yet!

I was just searching Amazon thinking, "How did I miss an issue?"

[fcgamer | 4,753]

Bump!

Got almost all of the games and information implemented. Still have a few (modern) items to implement, as well as some screenshots. 

I have a long weekend coming up next week, and I think I'm on track for releasing this book by the end of March. If not, it'll be ready by April at the latest!

If you are interested in multicarts, or want to purchase a few multis but have no idea if it'll be a good cart or not, this will be the book to own!!!

[GPX | 1,373]

@fcgamer, good luck with the sales! Mad respect to anyone who compiles a ton of pages talking about their passion on games. 

[fcgamer | 4,753]

Almost there...

[a3quit4s | 4,124]

7 hours ago, fcgamer said:

Almost there...

Is it still possible to get a volume 1?

edit: NM Amazon ftw

Edited March 13, 2023 by a3quit4s

[ThePhleo | 2,185]

[fcgamer | 4,753]

[ThePhleo | 2,185]

On 4/14/2023 at 6:56 AM, fcgamer said:

 

what does it mean!!???

[fcgamer | 4,753]

5 minutes ago, ThePhleo said:

 

what does it mean!!???

Well it's been ready since last Thursday, but it has been stuck in Amazon review hell since then (should be reviewed and subsequently published in 72 hours unless there's issues). 

As annoying as it is, I'm also a bit worried some slob will take a look and reject the manuscript based on the fact that it's about game multicarts, despite it just being a historical reference guide rather than links to romz or AliExpress carts for sale or something like that.

 

[Ankos | 463]

14 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Well it's been ready since last Thursday, but it has been stuck in Amazon review hell since then (should be reviewed and subsequently published in 72 hours unless there's issues). 

As annoying as it is, I'm also a bit worried some slob will take a look and reject the manuscript based on the fact that it's about game multicarts, despite it just being a historical reference guide rather than links to romz or AliExpress carts for sale or something like that.

 

I've seen a few magazines on emulation and ROMs on xianyu. One had a CD that I think had the demo for that Sintax Castlavania game

[fcgamer | 4,753]

46 minutes ago, Ankos said:

I've seen a few magazines on emulation and ROMs on xianyu. One had a CD that I think had the demo for that Sintax Castlavania game

They weren't self published by Amazon though were they?

[Tanooki | 4,952]

E Mo Cheng (Castlevania DX) right?  That like the Metal Slug I bumbled across on mercari I'd love to get a hold of.  Garbage, but with style.

[Ankos | 463]

1 hour ago, fcgamer said:

They weren't self published by Amazon though were they?

They were not. It was surprising to me that they got published at all though

[Ankos | 463]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

E Mo Cheng (Castlevania DX) right?  That like the Metal Slug I bumbled across on mercari I'd love to get a hold of.  Garbage, but with style.

Yes, that one. It is a really rare Sintax game, but it is arguably their best. There are a lot of reskins of it that aren't too hard to come by, but those tend to have issues with hitboxes not matching the graphics

[Tanooki | 4,952]

Well I consider myself lucky having that metal slug game as it works pretty well, more so that it was that cheap too given how people are.  I'll see if I can come across it OFF ebay because that's a pit but I doubt it.

[Ankos | 463]

8 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Well I consider myself lucky having that metal slug game as it works pretty well, more so that it was that cheap too given how people are.  I'll see if I can come across it OFF ebay because that's a pit but I doubt it.

I've never found a Castlevania DX, and I've been looking pretty hard for a long time. It and Zook Hero 3 are the two Sintax games I've been searching for the hardest, but they're just plain hard to find. Sometimes I see Sintax games listed on German eBay if you want to try there, but I don't know if Castelvania DX was released out of Chinese-language regions. Sintax also claimed to sell games in Portugal, but I have never seen a Portuguese Sintax game

[MegaMan52 | 2,460]

On 4/18/2023 at 9:45 AM, Ankos said:

I've never found a Castlevania DX, and I've been looking pretty hard for a long time. It and Zook Hero 3 are the two Sintax games I've been searching for the hardest, but they're just plain hard to find.

You're talking about Rockman & Crystal for Game Boy Advance, right? I've been looking for that game for about a decade now. I've also been looking for an English copy of Zook Hero Z.

BTW, Zook's backstory is like Robocop's.

[Ankos | 463]

40 minutes ago, MegaMan52 said:

You're talking about Rockman & Crystal for Game Boy Advance, right? I've been looking for that game for about a decade now. I've also been looking for an English copy of Zook Hero Z.

No, that is the fourth entry in the Zook series, the Taiwanese name is "Zook Man ZX4". In Mainland China it had a couple of names. I paid a lot for my copy and it died on me. "Zook Hero 3" was released by Sintax. The game is kinda bad, and uses Rockman World 2 music

Btw: English Zook Z and Rockman and Crystal both normally show up out of Thailand if you want to know where to hunt those. There is also an English Zook 2 called "Rockman Zero"

[fcgamer | 4,753]

Okay, so we are happy to announce that Family Bits 3 has arrived and can be purchased from the link below:

Family Bits: Volume 3: Allwein, Dave, fcgamer, Kennedy, Jeff "tanooki": 9798386186746: Amazon.com: Books

Just a few disclaimers regarding the book:

a. Unlike the first installment of Family Bits, this installment definitely falls 100% into the "reference" category of books. Essentially, it is a collection of several hundred Famicom multicarts ranging from the 1980s to the late 1990s, and the book lists out the contents of each cartridge, as well as if the contents has been altered or not from the original games.

b. Some of the information (such as release dates or publishers) is missing for some items, but that is just the nature of beast with these kinds of games. Places have been left so that if more data is discovered, people can write it in. I prefer to leave something blank than circulate bogus information, then try to "recall" the information years later, after it's been treated as fact.

c. Multicarts are hard to "name" - therefore, they are listed in this book somewhat in chronological order, but not entirely. As mysterious and fun as it is to purchase a few random multicarts and then see what's on them, thus to can it be fun to just randomly thumb through this book and look at the contents of different cartridges.

d. The book isn't exhaustive, as it would be impossible to list every multicart out there; however, it does give a good idea of how multicarts evolved over time.

e. Due to space constraints, multicarts from around the year 2000 onwards will appear in another future volume of Family Bits.

With all that said, enjoy! This isn't a casual reading book, but I learned so much myself over the course of researching and compiling this book and contents, and feel confident to be able to determine the contents of almost any multicart from that timeframe with accuracy, just by looking at the label, and I feel those who are interested in the topic of multicarts could do the same if they spent a few hours looking through this book.

Enjoy!

[Tanooki | 4,952]

Congratulations on another volume going to print.  It was a fun bit of work there with the small contribution, and as you said it was enlightening, a good bit of historical learning.  There's so much to crack into on the Nintendo side of the 8bit era both legal, gray area, and well the utterly shady.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Tanooki