ThePhleo | 2,186 Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 (edited) Hey guys, so I'm working on my biggest and best list so far and I'm almost ready to share. I just need to verify the transition between circle seal of quality, to oval TM seal of quality, to oval R seal of quality. I've got a good idea of when and I just need you all to check your games for me. It can be a cartridge, box, or even a manual. DO YOU HAVE A CIRCLE SEAL OF QUALITY FOR ... Ultima: Exodus Dance Aerobics John Elway's Quarterback Ninja Gaiden DO YOU HAVE AN OVAL TM ™ SEAL OF QUALITY FOR... Conflict Heavy Barrel Dynowarz Super Off Road Snake's Revenge Tecmo World Wrestling (Cart confirmed) Wrath of the Black Manta Here are my current findings: Nintendo transitioned from the "Circle" seal of quality to the Oval ™ seal of quality some time during March 1989. Nintendo transitioned from the Oval ™ seal of quality to the Oval ® seal of quality some time during April 1990. The titles above are titles released somewhere in between that are sort of anomalous since their "believed" release dates are before, during, or after those transition times. Most notably, Ultima: Exodus which is believed to have been released in February 1989. Nintendo filed a trademark for the Nintendo Seal on April 24, 1989, and was granted the trademark on December 12, 1989. On the application they said the first use of the seal was March 1, 1989. This means that theoretically speaking, any game released from December 12, 1989 can have the "Oval ®" seal of quality. The USPTO Number for this trademark filing is 1570911 Edited January 21, 2021 by ThePhleo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,014 Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 I have all of the games on this list but none of the seal variants. The only weird one is Snake's Revenge which has no letters at all next to the seal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BirdDogGaming | 218 Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 (edited) Tecmo World Wrestling, oval seal TM. Edited January 21, 2021 by thatgamernerd 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePhleo | 2,186 Posted January 21, 2021 Author Share Posted January 21, 2021 (edited) 15 minutes ago, thatgamernerd said: Tecmo World Wrestling, oval seal TM. Awesome! Thanks So this leaves only four others in the "April 1989" subcategory that need TM variant confirmation...Dynowarz, Super Off Road, Snake's Revenge, and Wrath of the Black Manta. Conflict and Heavy Barrel are oddities in the "March 1989" subcategory that I just can't find TM variants when they *should* have them if they were actually released in March. Edited January 21, 2021 by ThePhleo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,841 Administrator · Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 I have 3 of these games, but none have the exact seal specified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePhleo | 2,186 Posted January 21, 2021 Author Share Posted January 21, 2021 3 hours ago, Code Monkey said: I have all of the games on this list but none of the seal variants. The only weird one is Snake's Revenge which has no letters at all next to the seal. Interesting. I gotta check mine now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeonBros | 5 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Oh time to check I know I have a Heavy Barrel with the oval have to check the others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeonBros | 5 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeonBros | 5 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Welp I have them all but these are the only other 3 with the right seal 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePhleo | 2,186 Posted January 22, 2021 Author Share Posted January 22, 2021 6 minutes ago, NeonBros said: Welp I have them all but these are the only other 3 with the right seal I can’t see what variant you have on the last post. im looking for the type of trademark symbol they use. If it’s a “TM” or a “R” symbol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeonBros | 5 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Weird getting a massive quality drop uploading from my phone. In any case I jumped the gun they're (R) not (TM) copies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorEncore | 3,691 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 9 hours ago, ThePhleo said: Ultima: Exodus Dance Aerobics John Elway's Quarterback Ninja Gaiden None of mine are circle seal and I've never seen a circle seal in the hundreds of these I've seen. I'm fairly confident they all only have oval seals. 9 hours ago, ThePhleo said: Conflict Heavy Barrel Dynowarz Super Off Road Snake's Revenge Tecmo World Wrestling (Cart confirmed) Wrath of the Black Manta Every item on this list has (R) on box and cart in my collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePhleo | 2,186 Posted January 22, 2021 Author Share Posted January 22, 2021 3 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said: None of mine are circle seal and I've never seen a circle seal in the hundreds of these I've seen. I'm fairly confident they all only have oval seals. Every item on this list has (R) on box and cart in my collection. No doubt, I’m just trying to make sure with absolute certainty they don’t exist. I can’t be the only one trying to finalize the seal of quality list Afterall! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estil | 1,265 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 (edited) Then they much later had to be sellout cowards and drop the "of Quality" part...as if to say they no longer care about ensuring quality products I mean back when you had the official Nintendo Seal of Quality, you can never go wrong Edited January 22, 2021 by Estil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,014 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 1 hour ago, ThePhleo said: No doubt, I’m just trying to make sure with absolute certainty they don’t exist. I can’t be the only one trying to finalize the seal of quality list Afterall! I am also. And I check every Side Pocket and The Karate Kid I come across to see if I find the last 2 undiscovered 5 screw cartridges supposed to exist. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaddyMulk | 64 Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 My Snake’s Revenge has an (R) and should be a first print: I haunted my local Toys R Us until this one finally came out, paid $43 for it and got ticked off when they marked it down to $20 less than six months later. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePhleo | 2,186 Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 (edited) 45 minutes ago, DaddyMulk said: My Snake’s Revenge has an (R) and should be a first print: I haunted my local Toys R Us until this one finally came out, paid $43 for it and got ticked off when they marked it down to $20 less than six months later. Thanks. This is one of the titles believed to been released during the transition from TM to R so it’s nice to have a solid lead. I still need more data points though but I’m also pretty confident that there isn’t a TM variant on this one as well. Still not confident enough to remove it though! Edit: Keep in mind I still consider a 5-screw Karate Kid, and Side Pocket in the realm of possibility. There are some things that will never be removed from certain “unconfirmed variant” lists. Edited January 23, 2021 by ThePhleo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a3quit4s | 4,126 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 (edited) Oval for heavy barrel with R and same for Wrath edit: actually all mine in the second list have the R (I don’t have Conflict) Edited January 25, 2021 by a3quit4s 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277 Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 (edited) On 1/21/2021 at 11:47 AM, ThePhleo said: Nintendo transitioned from the "Circle" seal of quality to the Oval ™ seal of quality some time during March 1989. Nintendo transitioned from the Oval ™ seal of quality to the Oval ® seal of quality some time during April 1990. I was going through some of my pictures, and I noticed one of the Zelda 2 Oval TM manuals I own has a date code of 90216 (2/16/1989). So it seems like the transition may have started a little earlier. This post has a little more info that might help pin down the Circle to Oval TM transition: I don't own a Zelda 2 Oval R (non-starred) manual, but a scan of one can be found here. It has the date code 00306 (3/6/1990) which is a month sooner than your estimate. I also happen to have a very early Zelda 2 Oval R cart (pictured below). The latest date code on any chip is 8951 (week of 12/17/1989). Although I have no clue how well the indicates when the final assembly happened. I also went through my collection of Zelda PCB pictures taken from eBay auctions, but none of the 12 Oval TM or 19 Oval R boards were older than the ones I posted (and neither were the Zelda 1 manuals, although the Zelda 1 Oval R manual does not even have a date code which has always annoyed me). Edited January 27, 2021 by 0xDEAFC0DE 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austin532 | 467 Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 Could also be that first party games got the change first. The same thing happened with the sleeves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedy_NES | 102 Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 (edited) On 1/21/2021 at 10:33 PM, BirdDogGaming said: Tecmo World Wrestling, oval seal TM. Just to add to this; I have a new old stock copy of the TM cart that came with an R manual and box. Would be interesting to know if there is a TM box and manual as well. Edited January 29, 2021 by Speedy_NES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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