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Work In Progress: Complete List of NA(US) Game Boy Cartridge Variants


RH

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List of games from 1989 - late 1990 that are in the zone of revisions without a rev update.  the top 6 has been documented as known revisions without label rev updates. 

Happy hunting. 

Malibu Beach Volleyball (®, Game Link)
Tennis (Made In Japan Side   2 Line Logo)
Dr. Mario (2 Line Logo)
Dragon's Lair: The Legend (Error Logo)
Double Dragon (2 Line Logo)
Heavyweight Championship Boxing (®, Game Link)
NFL Football (2 Line Logo)
Tetris
Motocross Maniacs

 

Looking at LOGO for 2 line vs. 3 line

Snoopy's Magic Show
Side Pocket
Serpent
Revenge of the 'Gator
Quarth
Qix
Power Racer
Play Action Football
Pipe Dream
Penguin Wars
Kwirk
Ishido: The Way of Stones
In Your Face
Hyper Lode Runner
Heiankyo Alien
Hal Wrestling
Golf
Flipull
Fist of the North Star
Double Dragon
Dexterity
Boomer's Adventure in Asmik World
Bases Loaded
Baseball

Game Boy on side looking at TM vs R

Balloon Kid
Castlevania Adventure, The
Ghostbusters II
Nemesis
Quarth
Skate Or Die: Bad 'N Rad

Edited by JVOSS
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Ok, I tell you guys what I'm willing to do because between a combo of not having time and being lazy, this list has gotten a little slack since @RpgCollector dropped the bomb that we weren't looking at the Black/Red logos.

@Splain, @JVOSS, @RpgCollector & @samsamsamsmasmasma, I'm willing to give you guys access to my spreadsheet to edit it, but here's what I want to do.

First, I'm going to Add two new columns.  The first will be called TM/R.  In this column, put a "TM" or "R" depending on which annotation is on the cartridge.  If we happen to find a duplicate, duplicate the line, and simply change the value so that both are covered this way.  We won't need any special notes, just an annotation of TM/R.

Next, I'm going to add another column for the "Badge".  How many unique badge types have we found? Three or four?  Well, I'd like to come up with a short name for each type (Something like "2-MP" which would stand for 2-line, Multiplayer or "GBP1" which could stand for "Game Boy Player, version 1").  We will put this identifier in a new column.  I can't check but if some carts have the single/multiplayer badge AND the Game Boy Player badge, we may have to split that out into a third column.

Anyway, I'll work through this list with everyone if we really, really want to have public documentation of this stuff.  Regardless, we should probably check most of the carts in all of our collections if we want to be thorough, but that would take me time.  I do think, however, we could split of the list and work through it as a team.  I have a complete set, and I know Splain does.  I also have probably 200+ duplicate carts I'm sitting on my duff waiting to sell.

We've had a lot of conversation and my main issue is that I like to have verification that whatever I'm putting on the spreadsheet is accurate  I trust you guys but seeing photos of new variants, especially side by side, helps me double-check that I'm cataloging everything correctly.  Since I trust you guys, I don't mind giving you access to update the spreadsheet, so long as you are 100% sure that you've found a new version of the game.  Of course, make mention of your finding(s) over here, but I have nothing against sharing the responsibility.

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2 hours ago, RH said:

 

We've had a lot of conversation and my main issue is that I like to have verification that whatever I'm putting on the spreadsheet is accurate  I trust you guys but seeing photos of new variants, especially side by side, helps me double-check that I'm cataloging everything correctly.  Since I trust you guys, I don't mind giving you access to update the spreadsheet, so long as you are 100% sure that you've found a new version of the game.  Of course, make mention of your finding(s) over here, but I have nothing against sharing the responsibility.

@RH,  as much as i would love to have access to the list and help maintain it. i think it is best protected to only one person.   it's to easy to say something is documented but is another thing to say it's verified.  just as the no dash TR had to be verified but manipulate people that same scrutiny should be done one each entry before adding to the "official" list. 

should you have questions as to how bad this could go just look at the
game-boy-database.com great ideal and now they have sold-out.

 

Edited by JVOSS
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Just chiming in to say I recently obtained the Sunsoft Burgertime Deluxe and was kind of confused when a Data East logo popped up upon powering it up, obviously it was a later revision because the code said -1 but it was interesting to me that another publisher would release the same game...that didn't happen in the NES days aside from idk, Impossible Mission II and Caltron?  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom...but that was unlicensed vs. licensed.  I'm talking official licensed games being rereleased by another publisher, didn't ever happen so I was thrown off when I noticed the Sunsoft Burgertime since that property has always been Data East.

Edited by 8bitsupremacy
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38 minutes ago, 8bitsupremacy said:

Just chiming in to say I recently obtained the Sunsoft Burgertime Deluxe and was kind of confused when a Data East logo popped up upon powering it up, obviously it was a later revision because the code said -1 but it was interesting to me that another publisher would release the same game...that didn't happen in the NES days aside from idk, Impossible Mission II and Caltron?  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom...but that was unlicensed vs. licensed.  I'm talking official licensed games being rereleased by another publisher, didn't ever happen so I was thrown off when I noticed the Sunsoft Burgertime since that property has always been Data East.

@8bitsupremacy, Not knowing the full story but guessing they (Sunsoft) did not reprogram any of the openings as the library's was never re-licensed to them (Sunsoft).

I think you still get Square for The FF when Sunsoft re-released it in the late 1999-2000

 

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Editorials Team · Posted

I believe that's the case with all hand-offs like that, with the exception of Centipede. Because of Centipede, I assume that if you change the ROM at all, then it's a new release with a new product code. But I guess I don't actually have a source for that.

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Sunsoft and Electrobrain are the only two companies that I've noticed re-releasing games.  Of the two, and the many carts I tested, it doesn't seem they ever took the time to update the ROMs.  And that makes sense.  These companies were simply buying the rights to finished software and only making the minimal changes to get them out the door. Plus, they probably saved a lot of money not buying the source from these original original studios and just buying rights to use and modify the packaging/branding material and just rereleasing the final build ROM.

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Was there ever an alternate variant (not the 2 players choice variants) of DMG-ML-USA? The only variant I could find of the original revision was this here (shown below). I was wondering if they ever made a variant where both the gamecode and the "MADE IN JAPAN" text are on the left side of the cartridge. They did it for other regions (UKV variant shown below), but I don't know if the USA region had something like that.

super_mario_land_case.jpeg

gekkio-1_01_front.jpg

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On 1/7/2021 at 12:16 PM, creepsthething said:

Was there ever an alternate variant (not the 2 players choice variants) of DMG-ML-USA? The only variant I could find of the original revision was this here (shown below). I was wondering if they ever made a variant where both the gamecode and the "MADE IN JAPAN" text are on the left side of the cartridge. They did it for other regions (UKV variant shown below), but I don't know if the USA region had something like that.

none recorded yet. 

my theory is that all the launch games (Alleyway, Baseball, Super Mario Land, Tennis, Tetris) were at some time re-released with the changes of the "made in japan" on side and the catalog code rotated 180 degrees (like all other Regions).

Label changes have been found without a Rev -1 update for Tennis, Tetris

Label changes have been found with a Rev-1 label Super Mario Land, Tennis, Tetris

Label changes have not been found Alleyway, Baseball

 

 

 

Edited by JVOSS
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I have a question about my Pokémon Blue cart. The listed variant in this thread is labeled the “modified E rating” with a code of DMG-APEE-USA-1. So the modified E rating is colored in black, right? Photo of my cartridge below (forgive my mom for labeling my games back when I was a kid).

On ebay I’ve seen a white E rating label with the code DMG-APEE-USA and another black E rating with the code CGB-APCE-USA and “Blue Version Link to Red Version to catch all 150 monsters” underneath Blastoise. That’s why I was curious as I seem to see three versions of Pokémon Blue.

BCDA1A7B-34C0-425D-8895-611CBD84EEBD.jpeg

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28 minutes ago, The Strangest said:

I have a question about my Pokémon Blue cart. The listed variant in this thread is labeled the “modified E rating” with a code of DMG-APEE-USA-1. So the modified E rating is colored in black, right? Photo of my cartridge below (forgive my mom for labeling my games back when I was a kid).

On ebay I’ve seen a white E rating label with the code DMG-APEE-USA and another black E rating with the code CGB-APCE-USA and “Blue Version Link to Red Version to catch all 150 monsters” underneath Blastoise. That’s why I was curious as I seem to see three versions of Pokémon Blue.

BCDA1A7B-34C0-425D-8895-611CBD84EEBD.jpeg

the one with “Blue Version Link to Red Version to catch all 150 monsters” is a reproduction. They probably used the box art to make the stickers as the box does contain this text.

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New Find to be discussed as to if an error or a variant.

The Yoshi catalog code DMG-YO-USA.

while look at the labels for the 2 player link logo i can across Yoshi that had a translucent outer edge of the game pac logo. at first i thought this was normal but after look around the later prints have a non translucent boarder. 

i was thinking this might just be a play on the lighting.  so had to order one.  it arrived yesterday and it is confirmed that the one i received is no longer translucent..

as for images.20210116_130106.jpg.aded0fbf6c3716c7bc3781b6c3325324.jpg

20210116_130130.jpg

20210116_130124.jpg

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On 1/5/2021 at 5:03 PM, JVOSS said:

A few more for the variant hunters to get. 

Dragon's Lair: The Legend (Error Logo)
Double Dragon (2 Line Logo)

adding the the above i have a count of 125 127 variants.

can anyone confirm this. 

 

I would say this is incorrect. The list in the initial post has a count of 120 variants.  There has been 8 new variants that have been brought out over the past 2ish months which I have attached a photo that I personally have on hand. The would bring the total to 128.

However, the initial count of 120 includes 5 entries that I would include in the base set of 506

DuckTales ('DMG' Label)
Q Billion (Black Nintendo Logo)
Rescue of Princess Blobette, The (Error Serial No.)
Space Invaders: The Arcade Game    DMG-SP-USA-1
Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! Rev-1    

https://imgur.com/a/6FHKkcb

So my variant count is 123. That Yoshi one is interesting if we decide to count it that would make the count 124. I have the translucent one in my collection. I do see a few of the non-translucent ones listed. This does appear a potential border case in my opinion, mostly because I don't want to look for others. What is also interesting about the Yoshi one is that the cropping is different between the two. I'm not sure if this just happens typically between production runs or not. The variant count is back up to 10 million

P67uvSx.jpg

gp5SVee.jpg

Edited by samsamsamsmasmasma
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26 minutes ago, JVOSS said:

@samsamsamsmasmasma,  look like you overlooked the tetris 2 line.

 

here is the tetris family for NA.20210116_155108.jpg.d04f54eff38bad0bda64c4bc1da0ba7e.jpg

 

photo of 2 line, Made in japan left inverted 18020210116_155129.thumb.jpg.d83512d3c120e953ef81e2487652eca5.jpg

I did not overlook this variant. As it was already known (Tetris (Made in Japan Label) on the current list), I did not include a picture of this cartridge. I only posted a picture of the new found variants (8 cartridges). All of the tetris cartridges are included in the 123 total.

Edited by samsamsamsmasmasma
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2 minutes ago, samsamsamsmasmasma said:

I did not overlook this variant. As it was already known, I did not include a picture of this cartridge. I only posted a picture of the new found variants (8 cartridges). All of the tetris cartridges are included in the 123 total.

@samsamsamsmasmasma, sorry that is incorrect.  the list only has 4 there is a 5th as photoed.

which one are you saying is the "normal" cart?

Edited by JVOSS
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