ThePhleo

If the FDS is its own system then so is the Konami Q-Ta, Datach, Karaeoke Studio, Nanttettate Baseball games, and the Aladdin Deck Enhancer. They're just things that add functionality to the Famicom/NES. They're no different than glorified MMC chips.

More than half the licensed 72-Pin NES library is available as 60-Pin.... There's no special hardware being used in a pin converter...some 72-Pin games have blank pins, and the earliest games even use famicom converters. Not to mention the 72-Pin/60-Pin games available as FDS games.

Woooooooooooo! I've been calling it this in private for years now. Thank you for this. In reality, I've been calling it "Nintendo 8-Bit Family" because we have... Famicom Famicom Disk System FamicomBox Nintendo Entertainment System PlayChoice-10 Samurai Hyundai Comboy And all the bootlegs, namely popular ones like Dendy, Phantom, MicroGenius, Q-Boy, etc.

Sorry Dave, I've been working on marrying the 72-Pin / 60-Pin library. If you can consider eastern European and south American 60-Pin garbage part of the Famicom set then I can consider the 72-Pin / 60-Pin libraries one and the same! Plus we both know that Brazil and Sachen didn't care about pin counts, and the FamicomBox is a 72-pin system for Japan....not to mention the Famicom Disk doesn't even use Pins, and the PlayChoice-10 is its own thing all together.

Oh, and @Penguin long time no chat. Have you ever seen any SNES Test carts with the "slot" style cartridge shell instead of the slide?

@fcgamer , I just wanted to chime in and say that test carts exist in four possible major variants. Yellow 5-Screw Yellow 3-Screw Grey 5-Screw Grey 3-Screw There's also minor revisions like the shape of the label, but I'm not entirely sure if those count as actual variants since they may be repair center made labels. Also, in all my years I've never come across any documentation that proves that "The Legend of Zelda Test Cartridge" is an authentic service material, especially since they come in a variety of front label variants. The only thing that lends to their legitimacy is the fact that all "real" test carts have no assembly line stamp on their back labels, meaning it's the normal "Gold Label" but no physical imprint of an assembly line...no other game in the library to my knowledge has this unique feature. There's also been a Gyromite, and Duck Hunt test cart to have surfaced...but only one of each to my knowledge and they're almost definitely service center customs. Ironically though, if the service center did make them, then they're authentic anyway...so the 3-Screw DK Math theory of them being service center repairs still makes them real.

Thanks again for another year of this challenge @Reed Rothchild But I did *beat* some games. I just didn't play by the rules exactly. I played 63 games this year (more actually, just forgot some), and I beat 14 of them....never had time to finish God of War

They were definitely not all shipped on day 1. As I said, 8539 is the first known print run, but there's 5K1, 5K2, 5K3, and 5K4 which is basically the entire month of October. So, they sold their initial print run, and had more manufactured. Also, only the first of first of all first print black box prints have a manual typo on the back. The PO Box number is 957, but is erroneously listed as 9572. This is corrected in the next batch of manuals. There are currently 5 known chip dates for Super Mario Bros., and the 9572 manual is only found in the 8539 print run.

Yep! Asterix, and Smurfs were reprinted in 1996 for PAL regions. This again goes back to me being tongue-in-cheek to "Do we even know that all 677 NES games aren't modern fabrications? Did 1985 ever even happen? Did the universe exist even a second ago?" Nintendo themselves claims that they launched the NES on October 18, 1985 and that through the holiday season of 1985 approximately 90,000 units were sold during that time. I'll have to find the source for that, but it's known data. There are multiple instances of chip dates reading 8539, 5K1, 5K2, 5K3 and I think 5K4 (5 = 1985, K = September, 4 = Week 4) In order for any of these games to run in a USA NES it must have the USA CIC chip inside the cartridge. The earliest known CIC chip is 8538 or 8539. For there to be ANY chance of them not getting the games on the store shelves of FAO Schwarz on October 18, 1985, then you would have to deny that the NES launched on that date and come up with a new reasonable date.

Virtually EVERY NES game that has a date printed on its box (nearly all games printed and reprinted from October 1988 to December 1996) has its estimated release window within 3 weeks of its earliest known date code. The same goes for chip dates and manual dates. Nintendo was on its A game in terms of capabilities to get product on shelves. Of course there are exceptions in a library 713 games large. But generally speaking, there's a clear pattern of amazing manufacturing capabilities. Also, virtually all black box games first known chip dates are 8538 and 8539. So either Nintendo had zero product for October 18, 1985...or they were just good at selling stuff quick.

I think it was that way too. All the "cool kids" did it and you had to manually go into your profile settings and add your location and name. I remember only the SOOPER cool kids picked their location as Antarctica.

Good point, knowing each others names was such a good value for building community bonds. @Gloves we need to see each others NAMESZZZZ...

At that rate, by the time we celebrate the NES’s 100th anniversary we should be just about done with the standard 768…in fact we’d be literally just a year away

Oh also, I’d like to see SOMETHING done about merging classifications. Tengen PAC-Man, Gauntlet, RBI Baseball, and Indiana Jones drive me crazy because they aren’t different games at all. They’re just different release technicalities of the same game. They aren’t even trying to pretend it’s different. So, maybe have a thing where the database can have two classification things instead of having a third “Licensed / Unlicensed” class it can be “Licensed, Unlicensed” the Zelda Test Cart which is also just another scenario where this edge case can be useful. Instead of “Licensed / Test” it could be “Licensed, Test” Come to think of it, there are waaaay too many possible classifications of things. Licensed, Unlicensed, Test, Pirate Original, Pirate Compilation, Competition, Not For Resale, Prototype….then there is release status which is a separate concept. Cheetahmen II, and the entire 7 game library of the Aladdin Deck Enhancer were never released. They are both unlicensed, and unreleased….but then a THIRD classification is also needed since there are things like Airball which have prototypes that were never manufactured into retail games but if they were then they would be unlicensed….there are licensed unreleased games too. So, Cheetahmen II should show up in the unlicensed general library since it was manufactured, but not Airball

Release date should have a BIG disclaimer, or have the ability to be generalized. Some release dates can only be narrowed down to year, others to quarter, others to month, others to month/week, and others to a general couple day window, and then some can even have the exact time of day they were released....some also have no known release date. Also, before we hit Step 14059 and go straight to variants and inserts, we should get our basic lists setup. Are we doing NES only? If not, then what else? Generally speaking, we're mostly '80s and '90s dudes here. So here are all the relevant systems to us Nintendo NES Super NES Nintendo 64 Gamecube Game & Watch Game Boy Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance Virtual Boy Sega Master System Genesis / CD / 32X Saturn Dreamcast Game Gear Atari 7800 Jaguar / CD Lynx PlayStation PlayStation 1 PlayStation 2 PSP Xbox Xbox Others NEC TurboGrafx-16 / CD Neo Geo / CD Neo Geo Pocket / Color 3DO CD-i Commodore CD32 Finally, Abadox is easy. It only comes with the Oval™ version of the Milton Bradley MIL-NES-US generic poster, and I think any of the four yellow PMG-XX-USA inserts 500 × 500

It makes me want pull'n'peel twizzlers....

Here's some fun data. Seems like for NES, the average CIB is 7.5 That tells me that people generally overestimate the condition of their CIBs, because who in their right mind would submit something and say "Yeah, it's in terrible condition...but it's only $175 to grade and I'll see it in 3 months!" Also, it seems wata should consider drawing the line at 6.0 instead of 6.5 because I can’t stand seeing the <6.5 column being taller than 6.5

Oh man, what I would give to play Kingdom Hearts for the first time again. That game left a mark on my personality for a few years.

Even using factory sealed games to prove inserts or the existence of certain variants requires assumptions. Assembly line work is monotonous. An assembly line worker can be lazy at any particular moment and simply forget an insert, or even a whole cartridge or manual. Is it without a shadow of a doubt that the item in your hands that you're about to open is 100% irrefutably authentic and not some sort of modern sophisticated forgery? Anyone with a couple hundred thousand to spare can buy Japanese printing and packaging equipment from the early 1980s. Do you even have any physical, tangible evidence that the item in question was ever even on store shelves? Yeah there are advertisements, and sales reports, and even receipts...but do you have proof that those are real? I'm being a bit silly here since its 3am, but the message to be blunt is that we use patterns to determine the history of old toys from the '80s and '90s and that's good enough.

There's what...1050 licensed Famicom games? So I just need one or two more!!!

Assuming we didn't drag that here And if you don't agree with me then LETS ARGUE ABOUT IT

Luckily 2 of those 4 are in fact standard licensed games without any caveats.

Nantettatte Baseball is an officially licensed Famicom game that has an expansion slot so you can update stats. There are two known update carts. It is a standard Famicom game :V. Then there's the Konami 'Space School' series. ps... @fcgamer a 7th game was confirmed to exist. Then there's the datach system. and good luck fitting THIS thing in an NES... https://famicomworld.com/system/other/karaoke-studio/

We all want it, we all want to do it...but we all want it done "the right way" and that differs person to person.....it also costs money.

I'd like to propose a standardized spread for NES CIB contents. All of the important stuff at top (Box > Game > Manual(s) > Poster(s) All of the secondary stuff that's easily swappable on the bottom (Bag > Sleeve & Foam > DOC(s) > Nintendo Power) Here are some notes: Some games might have extra special inserts like NES Play Action Football, Miracle Piano, Stack Up, Carmen Sandiego, MTPO etc. Some games might have multiple posters like Final Fantasy, or Castlequest. Some games don't even have a manual in the traditional sense, like Rollerball and Miracle Piano Some Capcom games come with multiple "registration cards" Some PAL games even have multiple manuals. Also, I didn't factor in registration cards, but they can go to the right of the poster and this is just a rough layout. Contents above are not actually what belong in that box. Pack-In games DO have boxes. They are the console itself and count as part of its CIB and you're all wrong for not including it....that includes the SMB CIB variant that comes with an NES, and FFF: Athletic World with the pad...and that also means some copies of Duck Hunt and Gyromite are in fact "Duck Hunt / Gyromite" or "Duck Hunt / Gyromite / Stack-Up"