ThePhleo

I think I figured out the problem...though it changes my browsing habits for the internet in general. I don’t have cookies enabled on my browser. Enabling it disables the banners once and for all when I click them

Can we get rid of those banners up top? I have to click them off every time I log in, and sometimes theres three of them.

Any way to get a full scan of those two different NES Football manuals? I’d love to do a pixel for pixel examination of each page and see what differences there are.

:V that’s what I was saying... * and (T) mean the exact same thing. My full theory: 1. -USA* and (T) mean that there is a rear projection TV warning in the manual. 2. -USA* manuals are for games that were released before the inclusion of RPTV warning in the manual. These games should be reprints rather than unique original releases. 3. (T) manuals are for games that were released AFTER the RPTV warning was printed in the document by default. 4. There should be no manuals with -USA* AND a (T) on the same manual. But there may be variants with them separate.

Here is the definitive list of NES Sticker variants, Hangtabs, and Screw Variants. As far as I can tell, there is VERY little room for improvement but as new things surface I'm sure things can change. I think it's safe to say that 5-screw Stadium Events is legitimate with 3 known copies floating out there (C, CI, and CIB) and from my research, 3-Screw DK Math is in a similar boat to the Ultra/Konami 5-Screw variants....also, 5-Screw R.C. Pro-Am is still super weird.

Here is the list of all known USA NES boxes with Hangtabs, and NES cartridges with known 5-Screw releases. Version 1.4 will include Canadian hangtabs and screw variants as a separate list. First Party Titles (Black Boxes) Information Screws Hangtabs Sticker Seals Publisher Title 5-Screw 3-Screw Hangtab No Hangtab Matte Glossy Nintendo 10-Yard Fight Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Balloon Fight Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Nintendo Baseball Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Clu Clu Land Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Nintendo Donkey Kong Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Nintendo Donkey Kong 3 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Nintendo Donkey Kong Jr. Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Nintendo Donkey Kong Jr. Math Yes Sort Of Yes No No Yes Nintendo Duck Hunt Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Excitebike Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Golf Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Gumshoe Yes No Yes No No Yes Nintendo Gyromite Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Hogan's Alley Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Ice Climber Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Kung Fu Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Mach Rider Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Nintendo Mario Bros. Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Nintendo Pinball Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Popeye Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Nintendo Pro Wrestling Yes Yes Yes Yes - - Nintendo Slalom Yes Yes Yes Yes - - Nintendo Soccer Yes Rumored Yes No Yes Yes Nintendo Stack-Up Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Nintendo Super Mario Bros. Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Tennis Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Urban Champion Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Nintendo Volleyball Yes Yes Yes Yes - - Nintendo Wild Gunman Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Wrecking Crew Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes NOTES: Donkey Kong Jr. Math - Multiple 3-screw copies have been confirmed to exist, but all known photos of the circuit boards show that they were manufactured during the 5-screw phase of the NES lifespan. It is believed that these cartridges are refurbished. If you have a photo of a 3-screw Donkey Kong Jr. Math circuit board please message me so I can analyze it. Soccer - Some photos are out there showing a 3-screw Soccer but none are taken well enough to defitively prove it is the USA release. First Party Titles (Others) Information Screws Hangtabs Publisher Title 5-Screw 3-Screw Hangtab No Hangtab Nintendo Kid Icarus Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Legend of Zelda, The Yes Yes No Yes Nintendo Metroid Yes Yes Yes Yes Nintendo Mike Tyson's Punch-Out Yes Yes No Yes Nintendo R.C. Pro-Am* Rumored Yes No Yes Nintendo Rad Racer Yes Yes No Yes NOTES: R.C. Pro-Am - A single photo of a 5-screw cartridge exists, but this game was released well after the 5-screw to 3-screw transition period. It is believed that this cartridge is at best a refurbished copy, or at worst a complete hoax. Third Party Titles Information Screws Hangtabs Publisher Title 5-Screw 3-Screw Hangtab No Hangtab Capcom 1942 Yes Yes Yes Yes Acclaim 3-D Battles of World Runner, The Yes Yes Yes Yes SNK Alpha Mission Yes Yes No Yes Taito Arkanoid Yes Yes No Yes SNK Athena Yes Yes Yes Yes Data East Breakthru Yes Yes No Yes Data East BurgerTime Yes Yes Yes Yes Konami Castlevania Yes Yes Yes Yes Bandai Chubby Cherub Yes No Yes No Capcom Commando Yes Yes Yes Yes Broderbund Deadly Towers Yes Yes Yes Yes Konami Double Dribble Yes Yes Unlikely* Yes Taito Elevator Action Yes Yes Yes Yes Bandai Family Fun Fitness: Athletic World Yes Sort Of Yes Sort Of Bandai Family Fun Fitness: Stadium Events Yes Yes No Yes Capcom Ghosts 'n Goblins Yes Yes Yes Yes Konami Goonies II, The Yes Yes No Yes LJN Gotcha: The Sport Yes Yes No Yes Konami Gradius Yes Yes Yes Yes SNK Ikari Warriors Yes Yes Yes Yes LJN Jaws Yes Yes No Yes Data East Karate Champ Yes Yes Yes Yes LJN Karate Kid, The Possible Yes No Yes Data East Kid Niki: Radical Ninja Yes Yes No Yes Taito Legend of Kage, The Yes Yes Yes Yes Broderbund Lode Runner Yes Yes Yes Yes FCI Lunar Pool Yes Yes No Yes Bandai M.U.S.C.L.E. Tag Team Match Yes Rumored Yes Rumored Capcom Mega Man Yes Yes No Yes Tecmo Mighty Bombjack Yes Yes Yes Yes Bandai Ninja Kid Yes Yes Yes Yes Broderbund Raid on Bungeling Bay Yes Yes Yes Yes Data East Ring King Yes Yes Unlikely* Yes Konami Rush'n Attack Yes Yes Yes Yes Tecmo Rygar Yes Yes Yes Yes Capcom Section-Z Yes Yes Yes Yes Data East Side Pocket Possible Yes No Yes Sunsoft Sky Kid Yes Yes Yes Yes Tecmo Solomon's Key Yes Yes Yes Yes Broderbund Spelunker Yes Yes Yes Yes Sunsoft Spy Hunter Yes Yes Yes Yes IREM Sqoon Yes No Yes No Tecmo Star Force Yes Yes No Yes Acclaim Star Voyager Yes Yes Yes Yes Konami Stinger Yes Yes Yes Yes Activision Super Pitfall Yes Yes No Yes Data East Tag Team Wrestling Yes Yes Yes Yes Acclaim Tiger-Heli Yes Yes No Yes Konami Top Gun Yes Yes No Yes Konami Track & Field Yes Yes Yes Yes Capcom Trojan Yes Yes Yes Yes Acclaim Winter Games Yes Yes Unlikely* Yes Acclaim Wizards & Warriors Yes Yes No Yes FCI Zanac Yes Yes No Yes NOTES: Double Dribble, and Ring King - Released immediately after the hangtab to no-hangtab transition. It is still possible a hangtab copy may exist but it is highly unlikely this late in the NES game collecting hobby. Karate Kid, and Side Pocket - Released immediately after the 5-screw to 3-screw transition. It is still possible that 5-screw copies may exist but it is highly unlikely this late in the NES game collecting hobby. Family Fun Fitness: Athletic World - Rereleased by Bandai without the Family Fun Fitness branding in a 3-screw variant. It is up to you to determine whether you consider that a unique release or the same release. The Family Fun Fitness version of this game is exceedingly rare to find with the box and manual, but the cartridge is extemely easy to find since the first re-release of the game only changed the box and manual but left the cartridge completely unchanged. Konami 5-Screw Mystery Variants These are games that should not have 5-screw variants, but do anyway. There are theories about why they exist but there is no solid evidence yet. These games are true anomalies in the NES library. The games by Konami/Ultra that normally should have 5-Screw variants are not listed here. These missing titles are Castlevania, Double Dribble, Goonies II, Gradius, Rush'n Attack, Stinger, Top Gun, and Track & Field. Edit: Given some new information, it seems that early Konami games can also come in these "Konami 5-Screw Mystery Variants". The on going pattern is they use later labels (such as Oval seal of Qualities) and have no rear label. I've now added all early Konami games as "Possible" and will await proof to begin coming in. Publisher Title 5-screw 3-Screw Konami Adventures of Bayou Billy, The Yes Yes Ultra Base Wars: Cyber Stadium Series Yes Yes Konami Castlevania II: Simon's Quest Yes Yes Konami Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Yes Yes Konami Contra Yes Yes Ultra Defender of the Crown Yes Yes Konami Jackal Yes Yes Ultra Kings of the Beach Professional Beach Volleyball Yes Yes Ultra Metal Gear Yes Yes Ultra Mission: Impossible Yes Yes Ultra Q*Bert Yes Yes Ultra Rollergames Yes Yes Ultra Silent Service Yes Yes Ultra Skate or Die Yes Yes Ultra Ski or Die Yes Yes Ultra Snake's Revenge Yes Yes Konami Super C Yes Yes Ultra Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Yes Yes Ultra Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game Yes Yes Konami Tiny Toon Adventures Yes Yes Konami Top Gun: The Second Mission Yes Yes Konami Track & Field II Yes Yes Konami Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? Yes Yes Konami Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge Possible Yes Konami Blades of Steel Possible Yes Ultra Gyruss Possible Yes Konami Jack Nicklaus' Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship Golf Possible Yes Konami Laser Invasion Possible Yes Konami Life Force Possible Yes Konami Lone Ranger Possible Yes Ultra Pirates! Possible Yes Konami Batman Returns Unlikely Yes Konami Bucky O'Hare Unlikely Yes Konami Contra Force Unlikely Yes Konami King's Quest V Unlikely Yes Konami Monster in My Pocket Unlikely Yes Ultra Nightshade Unlikely Yes Ultra Star Trek 25th Anniversary Unlikely Yes Konami Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project Unlikely Yes Konami Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters Unlikely Yes Konami Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Trouble in Wackyland Unlikely Yes Konami Tiny Toon Adventures Cartoon Workshop Unlikely Yes Konami Zen: Intergalactic Ninja Unlikely Yes

I knew what you meant, I was just being cheeky was all. Still...who knows what else those people might have touched at that facility. Can you imagine if they were also packing FAMICOM that day...the thought horrified me. Then again in the video it seems they’re packing Canadian games...so maybe it’s ok. Also, just right after that scene there’s a Canadian Zelda in the background of the VP of NOA, Peter Main...traitor

I think the Star Code is synonymous with the Circle T. Only way to prove my theory is meeting two criteria: No Star Code manual should exist with a Circle T (Or at least, very, very few should exist...maybe as a transitionary period) All star code manuals must have the RPTV warning in the book.

Just added the initial batch of Unlicensed games. Can't say I'm happy with what I gave the rarities on them, but it's definitely a start. I don't view the entire unlicensed library as its own self contained library. Instead, I view each publisher as their own unique library, except for the super-rares like Active/Myriad/Panesian/Racermate/AGCI/Etc. You might also notice an R11 or two in there....why? Well, who really knows what the hell is up with AGCI Wally Bear, and Sharedata Chiller!

There's room to debate within three rankings for some titles, but then there are titles that can solidly fit as a half grade (Samson, BB2, Duck Tales 2) Even Super Mario Bros. (standalone), and Super Mario Bros. / DH / WCTM can be debated whether they belong in 1, 2, or 3.

Loose for now, CIB is a little tougher thanks to so many variants. I have a WIP list though.

I had a sealed Sachen game, and I wanted to open it to scan it into my computer...when I did the scan, I noticed there were purple little flakes ALL OVER THE GLASS. The ink itself just jumped off the box! Now, QC is terrible at Sachen. But I have to imagine the same is happening a little on licensed boxes. I wonder if heating up the box would help lessen the damage though? Probably not.

Hate to break the news.....but that's not true. Seems like every NES game was touched at least a few times on the assembly line. BARE HANDED no less. Check out 6:47 on this video....

Never worried too much about damaging a sealed game when opening it since the simple act of opening the flap damages the box by a little. But If I had to "professionally" open it, I would buy a nice sharp letter opener (the ones that look like a dagger) ... or a little more ghetto, a simple metal nail file.

Go for it! PS1 is a HUGE task though and I can't imagine wanting to go after a library that huge. The only reason I'm confident enough to post my lists in the first place is because I had the courage (can be translated as idiocy as well!) to make mistakes in the past. Thank you. I think I'll hold off on watering the list down...I've also added the "old" rarity guide in there for now for reference, but I do plan on deleting it eventually. It takes a lot of work to make sure the list is fair and there's still a TON of room for improvement...should we have half rankings in the upper tier? quarter or fifths in the 9.0-10 range? what about half rankings for 1.0-2.0? lots of room for improvements.

The "old" list used to look like the list I posted below...really terrible that we only had one R8, and one R9...and ZERO R10's in the licensed arena. Why even HAVE an upper rarity tier if we aren't going to utilize it? Dino Peak is certainly a rare game, but with the cache discovered in South America and relative ease to convert it into a USA cartridge, the price rightfully stagnated on it and its relative availability went down. There is no "9.5" or WATA style .2/.4/.6/.8 but if there's demand for it, then it certainly can be added...though its literally splitting hairs at that point and we might as well just go all out on doing a 100% automated list with ebay availability being the only factor. "The Old" list....looks about as archaic as Etlers list IMO. I haven't used it since 2013-14 R7 Bandit Kings of Ancient China Bonk's Adventure Cowboy Kid Gun Nac Little Samson Panic Restaurant Power Blade 2 TMNT: Tournament Fighters Wayne's World R8 Flintstones: Dinosaur Peak R9 Stadium Events

Thanks for the suggestions. Some changes I want to make include bumping up Rollergames one more rank...three ranks down seems too much for that title. I also wonder how angry people would be if I made this an R1-7 scale... Ive been tempted to merge 1&2, 3&4, and 5&6 together but I don’t want to alienate the community. Its really hard to maintain a 10 point scale in a satisfying way. The only difference between an R1 and an R2 for example is you go from being nearly guaranteed to having all of them in a lot of say 50 random games to nearly guaranteed to having all of them in a lot of 100 random games.

Feel free to make suggestions for whatever stands out. I don’t want to share how I automate most of the list, but there is some going on.

The majority of the community here? No, they don't care about the Carolina Collection. But there's obviously an incentive to have the name hold value, which in my opinion is diminished with the Game of Thrones Season 8 style ending of Dain and his website.

I hear you on that one. I want to mark it as "8.5" because while price isn't the biggest factor in the list, it is a small part and having such a huge price tag on the title does tend to skew the score in the end. Same goes for Wayne's World. I think it should be an R9 but the price is too "low" for it to make the mark. Manual adjustments can be made, the vast majority of the list is automated but minor tweaks where price/old rarity are made by hand. For example, if you sort the list by price and THEN by rarity you'll notice that the majority of the "upper priced" games PER RARITY are "fan favorite" titles...this is because I believe that a "crappy" or "unknown" game shouldn't have the same rarity score as a rarer fan favorite game while being similarly prices or more expensive in some cases. In that vein, Ultima Warriors of Destiny may actually be a 7 instead of a 6 because of the fact that Mega Man 5 is priced cheaper than it...but I feel Ultima is well known enough as a brand of game that 6 is safe. But also, the rule sort of fades away once you hit R6/7 area.

People are still scared to bash Dain. He was the defacto, but absent Patriarch of the community and it still "stings" to be mad at him. I've already publicly said that GoCollect deserves little to no blame for the things that went down. They are a business, and whether or not we like it, they are doing what they feel is best in their businesses interest. One thing I do know, is that Jeff single-handedly destroyed Dain's legacy, and likely even devalued the "Caronlina Collection" to a point of irrelevancy. Not only removing the name from the website, but practically scrubbing its existence from the internet is crazy. How do you destroy a brand overnight like that is beyond me!

Awesome! Added

Added some stuff from @RoyalT and @Hybrid Also created my own new rarity guide for the NES with a little hint of a loose cart price guide. It's not the old NintendoAge list either, this is my personal rarity guide!

Very soon actually...hopefully in a week.

So here's my version of the NES rarity chart. It includes some real changes to the rarity guide including some minor demotes/promotions and a couple major movers and shakers. Let me know what you guys think about it...in summary, here are the biggest movers and shakers. Demoted by 3 Ranks from R5 to R2 Jeopardy 25th Anniversary Edition Jeopardy Jr. Edition Tennis Promoted by 3 Ranks from R4 to R7 Captain America and the Planeteers Promoted by 3 Ranks from R5 to R8 Bucky O'Hare Die Hard Kickmaster Metal Storm S.C.A.T. Swamp Thing Promoted by 3 Ranks from R6 to R9 Dragon Fighter Kid Klown in Night Mayor World Snow Brothers Sword Master Wacky Races Zombie Nation Promoted by 4 Ranks from R4 to R8 Chubby Cherub (seriously, why was this R4??)