PII

I'm partial to this one.

Yes, I do. I hadn't wanted to post it previously due to it's weird on weird nature, but the topic at hand here got me thinking otherwise. Here're some additional shots.

I've wondered about this just a bit and figured that if they were released as some kind of demo/kiosk item then it might make sense for them to turn up predominantly around the largest urban areas ie. New York, Chicago, L.A. as those would be the first choices to demo something in order for it to reach the most possible consumers. On that note one of the 5-Screws that I've acquired came from someone in the Chicago area, for whatever that's worth... Things may be about to get a bit "through the looking glass" here. I have something like that and once again I'm not going to make any claims. This copy of Goonies II 5-Screw w/no back label, security screws and White Oval Seal on the front turned up on Ebay in early 2019. It was from a seller called "mouseman140" and I think it was originally posted for $150 w/"factory mismatch" in the title. I thought it looked suspect and certainly wasn't going to dive in. I remember a couple of price drops like 120 and 100 maybe and then I kind of forgot about it for awhile. When I randomly checked again one day the price was down to a song and dance so I figured what the heck and grabbed it. This was in early March 2019. Shortly thereafter I noticed that some folks on NA were talking about this very item, most of whom seemed to find it suspect, mostly due to the state of the front label. I thought there was a possibility that it could be legit as someone having torn the label by starting at the top would then have had to remove what was left starting again from the bottom. The problem I see is that the "remaining torn portion" (white part) would have had to have gone through removal and reapplication without getting so much as a wrinkle in it. It is quite thin and would have been especially supple during removal. To give an idea, upon close up inspection there are apparent grey blotches on the white torn portion that are actually just spots where the grey shell casing can be seen through it. There is another point to be made for possible legitimacy that I noticed upon further inspection of the cartridge, but I'd rather not mention it in a public forum as I'd hate to give the wrong person any nefarious inspiration. At any rate I still regard this one as highly suspect for the one simple reason that it is a singular anomaly within an anomaly. On a related note I occasionally wonder if R.C. Pro-Am might prove to be the key to all of this at some point as it too is an anomaly within an anomaly, however it is not singular and is a well established occurrence. Recently, somewhere online I saw a photo of a 5-Screw R.C. Pro-Am that had a back label. I'm not sure if I have a snap shot of it or not, I'd have to sort through some folders. At one time I thought maybe that one could possibly have been a "normal" 5-screw as it came out in early 1988, is not Konami/Ultra; and the fact that I used to recurringly happen onto someone commenting online that they own a 5-Screw R.C. Pro-Am that they'd had since childhood. The last anomaly within this particular anomaly-field that I know of is that copy of Track & Field II 5-Screw that has a circular black seal on it and was originally documented on NA.

Correct. Personally I doubt that the two are originally connected. If anyone can prove otherwise, I'm all ears.

It's a natural presumption to make based on the economics of production. Do you really want to have to produce/purchase another (big round number, say 1000) shell casings in order to accommodate 3 circuit boards because the count is off or do you want the numbers to line up and not have to spend that extra $$$? If the back label markings that you're referring to are the usually stamped and rarely printed numbers in the upper left corner then, the last I heard was that those are thought to be assembly line numbers. The date codes I referred to are on the Circuit Board's Chips.

I may as well throw down my own theory on these. All I am claiming here is a theory. I've suspected for some time now that these oddball Konami/Ultra 5-Screws might represent one or more brief phases in between "prototype" and "everything else that was mass printed for public consumption." I figure that at some point in a game's production someone has to make a decision to throw a switch and print 1000 or 25,000 (or some other big round number) boards and that the company would also have pallets of shell casings, each containing an equal or otherwise divisible number of said shell casings. I also figure that whoever is responsible would want a given run of printed boards to match up with a given pallet or number of pallets of shell casings; just figure, 1000 circuit boards printed matching up with a pallet of 1000 shell casings for example. I also figure that once the prototype(s) have been thoroughly tested and deemed ready, that it would make sense to "mass print" One, or A Few, Or Several circuit boards, give one to each head of development and have them test these out to make sure that nothing was lost, glitched or otherwise buggered up in translation. So I think maybe these started as in-house circuit boards which were placed inside old left over 5-Screw Shells so as not to booger-up the counts for Mass production. I go on to figure, that if there were then a problem in translation, development teams would go back to the prototypes, do whatever they figure necessary, and then repeat the process until all is deemed well. This could possibly account for the variance (so far) in numbers of found 5-Screw Cartridges for a given game relative to another (For example - 1 Tiny Toon Adventures and several Silent Services [so far.] ) I keep on figuring, by thinking, hmm what to do with these random Extra 5-Screw Carts now that everything's ready to go. Why not call up heads of regional distribution (say - one in New York, one in L.A., One in Chicago etc.) and see if they know anybody in the biz who'd like to purchase (for a pretty penny) an advanced copy for display/play in a store kiosk a month or three before the rest of the games ship in order to give the kiddies a reason to drop by and see what's knew, give it a whirl and part with some cash before leaving to go tell all their friends about the cool new game that such and such store has playable before release. Once the Mass Shipments go out and sell there's not much reason to keep displaying the game so eventually it gets sold as well. I do not believe that any of these ever had a box or manual. If this theory would ever turn out to be correct it would raise the possibility of functional differences between these carts and the rest of their brothers and sisters; and possibly between themselves as well (for a given game.) If that last part sounds unreasonable, I'll remind that Castlevania 3-Screw and Castlevania 5-Screw are functionally different. It's not quite the same thing, I know, but still I think its worth pointing out that a 5 screw Castlevania is program 0 and a 3-screw is program 1 (Rev-A) after a particular bug was fixed. If you're not familiar, that particular bug resulted in a crash, usually due to excessive on-screen sprites. Personally this has happened to me while playing the 5-screw during the corridor preceding the Grim Reaper (lots of enemy sprites), while fighting the Reaper (lots of Scythes/sub weapons flying around) and oddly, just before entering Dracula's Chamber at the end where nothing is happening. Perhaps time will tell. At this point it seems reasonable to suggest that maybe there is someone among us who'd like to school the rest of us on how to make sense of the date codes that are printed on each game's chips. Any takers? I would be an avid listener. Finally, I'll suggest one last related possibility that I think is reasonable, simple and almost entirely without mystique of any kind: The numbers of printed Circuit Boards and pallets of shell casings ought to line up. Circuit boards are presumably tested and shell casings are perhaps checked for flaws, cracks etc. Maybe they end up with 1000 tested working circuit boards and one broken shell casing. Don't want to mess up the count so just go and grab one of those old 5-Screw Shell Casings, seal up the extra board and ship it out with the rest. Somebody ends up with a rare variant. The only problem I see with this is that (thus far) no one seems to have claimed to have acquired one of these back in the hey-day in a box w/a manual from a store, just like usual except it was a 5-Screw. Maybe someone will open a sealed copy some day and find one, but I kind of doubt it. Maybe the corresponding 3-Screws w/out back labels will show up some day, who knows. It's a theory.

Exactly right. One of the factors that weighs heavily against these renegade 5-Screws being refurbs is the fact that not even one has been found for a game like Blades of Steel, which was an extremely popular game (that came out in North America in December of 1988). If games like "ski or die" or "base wars" have 3 found copies (I'm going off of the old NA Listing here), then it stands to reason that a game as numerous as blades of steel would have at least one found copy by now. I'm not saying it isn't out there, just that it really ought to have been found by now, if not a while ago; same goes for the "post-1991" games on this list having no known 3-Screw copies that are missing a back label...

lol, with gusto!

These are the remaining Undiscovered Likely to have a 5-Screw Carts (1991 and earlier) and the Undiscovered Unlikely to have a 5 Screw carts (1992 - 1994), respectively.

I was just thinking along the same lines. IIRC the latest Konami/Ultra releases to have known 5-Screw copies, are all games released no later than 1991. If this theory is correct it would stand to reason that the remaining Konami/Ultra games from 1992 - 1994 that have no known 5-Screw copies should have some 3-screw copies floating around out there with missing back labels.

JusT WoW... lol He's got the look and the moves to back it up !

I've been working on Destination Earthstar. Any lack of memory or precision in the later levels gets intensely punished. Try to imagine getting shot - and just when you've got ahold of yourself again from the shock and you're breathing again; 5 more bullies pop out of nowhere and take turns sticking their fingers in the bullet hole... but I think I'm getting close...

Is it me or does this fella laugh like Ozzy in Chrono Trigger? Oh, please say we get to travel through time and drink Jurassic Pork Soup ! An' I wanna ride a pterodactyl too !!

Break out the shoulder pads, skip the crizappy 25 second intro and take a trip back to the greatest decade of dance. You know its a party when Godzilla shows up to boogie down! Top This. Here's Fred Astaire Not Dancing For 5 And A Half Minutes, While Audrey Hepburn..... ... Well, Yeah; Things Are Getting Strange Now.. Stewie's Up And I'd better knock if off after this one, before I Rip Van Winkle it...

Ditto - (Alpha Mission 5-Screw)

I thought I'd submit this with a brief commentary: NA (Can) 3-Screw REV-A SOCCER For a little comparison I've noticed that a 3-Screw (Can) Gyromite is considerably more rare than than a 5-Screw but really not too hard to come by compared to a (U.S.) 3-Screw Gyromite. I've also noticed that a 3-Screw Volleyball is pretty rare but all in all not too difficult to lay hands on, (U.S. or Can) In this case, I've never seen a U.S. release 3-Screw Soccer. As far as I'm aware there aren't any known to exist. I've only seen this one once before.

Seems like they don't really make that one anymore, or at least near me they don't have it on the online menu. Maybe I'll just keep my eyes peeled when I'm on the road...

Ahem... (De Chirico-ESQUE.)

I would give the shelter a call again to double verify that it's there and then ask if the guy has been barred from the property. (I recommend summoning all of your strength in order to be as polite as possible. If you've never worked in a homeless shelter you have no idea how stressful it is.) If they say no he has not, then you just have to convince him. If they say yes, you'll have to do your best to sweet talk whoever you get to speak with into allowing him to come by for it, maybe just showing up at the door outside or something - might have to explain how important it is to you and request that they let their staff know the deal. ...and take lots of deep breadths.

Nope, 1st end/saving of the King only. Plotting and executing that course was challenging enough for the time being. Fun game though, I'll def. be hunting down the crystal balls and Secret Coins for best ending at some point...

I've been, but only VERY casually so far; and I wouldn't dream of claiming it at my current skill level..

I never met an olive I didn't like. And I like my chocolate like ( -fill in name of universally despised personality here- )'s Soul -- Dark and Black.

Anchovies Kalamata Olives Artichoke Hearts Oyster Mushrooms Any Seafood Ginger Whole Garlic Cloves Habanero Peppers Taco Pizzas Also Totally Kick Ass, especially with way too much sour creme on top, mmmmm (Homer Simpson tongue hanging out throat noise here)

I'm looking to double check on the requirement for Clue. It has no default difficulty level. Instead the game requires the player to select 1 of 5 levels in order to start the game - Amateur, gumshoe, Sleuth, P.I. and Detective. So I'm just wondering if Sleuth is the requirement or if any setting will do.

I misplaced my over-world map for Dragon Warrior II a few years ago. I had it in an envelope that was kind of an obscure size and shape and I have literally never thrown out a pile of papers in my adult life, without first looking through and carefully examining each one. I figure it's probably inside a book on a bookshelf somewhere. Trouble is, I've got a lot of books. lol