Spot-the-difference games, how to hack them and how to exploit that knowledge for variant hunting.

[RH | 4,903]

If you care about game label and cover variants, this might be one of interest for you, so read along.

It all starts with a quick discussion about spot-the-difference games.  Here's an example.  In the photos below, photo #2 is different in 10 different ways.  Can you spot the differences?

 

Big deal, right?  We've all played these games before.  In context to this discussion, you can spot them on your own.  However, there is a "mental hack" (or cheat) you can use to spot the differences nearly instantaneously.  First, resize the images so that they are small enough for you to lean back, cross your eyes (like it's a Magic Eye image) and make the two images converge as one.  When you do this, your brain will make the differences sort of "flicker".  I did it on the image above and I instantly spotted 8.  The last two are probably close to the other 8 and my mind probably processed two close to each other as one specific change. 

I didn't take the time to catalog all of the above difference but the crossed-eye technique makes these games extremely easy.  I learned about this years ago and since then these games have no longer been fun unless someone shows me a difficult one and I "blow their mind" at how fast I can find all of the changes.  Turns out, I'm not genius, I'm cheating.  My brain likes to recall "useless" hacks like this and pull them out if it's ever beneficial at a future time.

Ok, cool, but this is a post in General Collecting so what does this have to do with variants? Many serial number revision changes, at least for Nintendo games, have to do with label or cover art changes.  When you see a serial number on a Nintendo game, Nintendo would increase the revision number on the serial if they made a change.  So, a modified label on a GB game would go from DMG-AA-USA to DMG-AA-USA-1.  Most of the time, these label or box changes are obvious.  Maybe it's the publication of a Player's Choice copy with the respective PC logo, an updated ESRB rating or even a new publisher slapped their logo over the former publishers name.  Regardless, in some case the difference that required a revision bump isn't easy to tell.  Here's an example-- The Castlevania Adventure for Game Boy.

(Taken from The Complete List of NA(US) Game Boy Cartridge Variants)

Even with a really good eye, you may be tempted to think that there is no difference between these two labels.  True, you could spot subtle variations in color, and of course the revision change itself but those shouldn't count because they wouldn't cause a revision change.  So... why did this go from the initial version to Rev-1?  Let's use our eye-cross technique and see... can you spot the difference? 

The answers are below in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

1.  By the stock "GAME BOY" logo on the label, there was originally a TM.  The newer label has an (R)
2. Outer text is positioned and sized differently (and there's the rev change, of course.)  IMHO, these are definitely label differences, but I don't count them as label revision change worthy.  My gut tells me that these values were set at print-time and that's why they kind of float all over the place for GB games.  Still, your eye catches the placement changes and font-size differences.
3. Oops... I took this photo and there was a spec of dust to the right of the "E" in GAME BOY, between to the two vertical lines within the graphic.  I confirmed this wasn't on my label before posting this.  Regardless, this difference pops out with the crossed-eye technique and if you didn't know it was dust, you might think this was an issue with printing or an art change. Sorry, but it's just a noticeable speck of dust.

If you found the differences on your own then you know that what caused the revision increment on the label is unbelievably easy to miss.  I've not done this a lot with other games (I admit laziness) but in Game Boy variant hunting, there have been a couple of labels that I couldn't find the difference before I became aware of this technique.  I've intended to go back to my notes and do side-by-side checks for those games, but I haven't yet.  Still, I'm sure they are out there as part of the GB collection.

Anyway, if you guys are aware of any serial number revision changes to NES/GB/SNES/other games, but no one has spotted the differences, I suggest taking really clear, straight-down photos and using this side-by-side technique.  It works quite well and I'm sure it may solve a few longstanding mysteries of why label revisions were bumped when nothing noticeable appears to have changed.

If you use this technique and make any new discoveries, please post them below.  There's also a moderate chance that some very-minor label changes were made to some games and revision numbers were never bumped.  This could lead to the discover of some... rather rare but legit art changes.  Post those as well and you get double-points!

Edited June 8, 2020 by RH

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

I've never been good at doing those magic eye puzzles. I tried your first picture and after spending a while trying to align my eyes, I was not able to see any differences I didn't already know about.

My technique is just to line up the two pictures and flip back a forth quickly. Doing this with The Castlevania Adventure, I noticed one more difference. The seal of quality is slightly larger for the -1. Here's a gif:

Spoiler

[Gloves | 11,776]

Just now, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

I've never been good at doing those magic eye puzzles. I tried your first picture and after spending a while trying to align my eyes, I was not able to see any differences I didn't already know about.

My technique is just to line up the two pictures and flip back a forth quickly. Doing this with The Castlevania Adventure, I noticed one more difference. The seal of quality is slightly larger for the -1. Here's a gif:

  Hide contents

[RH | 4,903]

16 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Lol, hahaha.

[RH | 4,903]

18 minutes ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

I've never been good at doing those magic eye puzzles. I tried your first picture and after spending a while trying to align my eyes, I was not able to see any differences I didn't already know about.

My technique is just to line up the two pictures and flip back a forth quickly. Doing this with The Castlevania Adventure, I noticed one more difference. The seal of quality is slightly larger for the -1. Here's a gif:

  Reveal hidden contents

Good call on that one.  I think it was tougher to spot due to lighting.  The gif idea works just as well, except you have to make a gif, or do it on a desktop so you can quickly toggle between images.

I'll remember this though if I can't get a side by side image, though if you are using mobile, something like PicStitch and making an SbS image is rather simple too.

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

3 minutes ago, RH said:

Good call on that one.  I think it was tougher to spot due to lighting.  The gif idea works just as well, except you have to make a gif, or do it on a desktop so you can quickly toggle between images.

I'll remember this though if I can't get a side by side image, though if you are using mobile, something like PicStitch and making an SbS image is rather simple too.

Normally I don't even make a gif. That was just for demonstrative purposes. I just line up the pictures on two different layers (using a transparent top layer to make it easier), and then toggle visibility on the top layer. I use paint.net on desktop to do this, but I'm sure there's some mobile app that has the capability as well.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Very cool! I can shift the focus of my eyes immediately, so the magic eye solution is awesome for me! I'll have to try this with some NES boxes.

As for that Castlevania, is it possible that the updated code is due to a ROM revision? My understanding is that most cart code changes were due to actual revisions in the game content, rather than miniscule changes to the label. I think the first cart revision for Wayne Gretzky on the NES is that way.

Edited June 8, 2020 by DoctorEncore

[RH | 4,903]

2 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

Very cool! I can shift the focus of my eyes immediately, so the magic eye solution is awesome for me! I'll have to try this with some NES boxes.

As for that Castlevania, is it possible that the updated code is due to a ROM revision? My understanding is that most cart code changes were due to actual revisions in the game content, rather than miniscule changes to the label. I think the first cart revision for Wayne Gretzky on the NES is that way.

That's not been my experience in my observation.  Since they stamp a QA code into the label, the revision of the ROM is marked by the A, B, C, etc. at the end of the stamped digits.  I'm obviously more of a GB collector, but I assumed this was largely the same process used for NES/SNES titles as well.  And that makes sense.  Theoretically, you could have a hot title that needs 3-4 ROM revisions due to unexpected bugs found one after another.  Why update the label when you can just update a stamping tool on the product line?

But, I could be wrong.  If anyone has examples of where labels were specifically updated with new revisions, vs. the stamped numbers and letters, I'd be interested in learning about it.  Game Boy or otherwise.