VGS rare variant/error thread Nintendo edition

[phart010 | 1,707]

9 minutes ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

I'm pretty sure you are just thinking of EEPROM. They look like Mask Roms (no quartz window), but are programmed like EPROMs (but are erased electronically instead of with an ultraviolet light source).

From here, "In mask ROM, a mask is used in the wafer process stage to write program code and data supplied by the equipment manufacturer. Each customer requires a custom mask, which means a wafer processing step, package assembly step and test step each time a customer order is placed. This sequence takes a minimum of six to 10 days." (not the best description but the best I could find).

From the Wikipedia page for EPROM, "Storing data in the memory requires selecting a given address and applying a higher voltage to the transistors. This creates an avalanche discharge of electrons, which have enough energy to pass through the insulating oxide layer and accumulate on the gate electrode. When the high voltage is removed, the electrons are trapped on the electrode.[4] Because of the high insulation value of the silicon oxide surrounding the gate, the stored charge cannot readily leak away and the data can be retained for decades."

Essentially Mask Roms are not "burned", they are manufactured using an involved process only possible by large chip manufactures. While EPROMs can be programmed just by sending the correct signals to the already manufactured chip.

Haha we both posted a similar response around the same time. Only other thing I wanted to add is that the physical nature of mask roms (as opposed to electrically charged data) is what makes them less susceptible to bit rot

 

4 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

Thanks guys.  I learned something!  I know at larger pressing for CDs, that 'stamp' is actually cheaper in bulk and the laser burn is done at a lower print level.  So its cheaper per CD to 'stamp' them.

Yes the initial tooling required to setup mask roms or disc presses has a high fixed cost. If you have a large enough volume, then that fixed cost can be distributed across so many units that it basically vanishes. But for smaller quantities the tooling costs can be prohibitively expensive 

Edited March 17, 2021 by phart010

[guitarzombie | 924]

9 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Haha we both posted a similar response around the same time. Only other thing I wanted to add is that the physical nature of mask roms (as opposed to electrically charged data) is what makes them less susceptible to bit rot

I did not know about this either!

[NESCollector15 | 40]

On 4/24/2020 at 10:43 AM, NesQuest said:

It’s seems to be pretty rare.  There’s what, 5 or 6 reported on here?  That’s approximately the same that was on NA and how long was that site around.  I saw one appear on eBay, missed it and it took me the better part of about 2 years to find another!

I found mine a few weeks ago on Offerup for 10 dollars it was listed for a year I got pretty lucky with finding mine here it is.

[NESCollector15 | 40]

On 4/24/2020 at 10:43 AM, NesQuest said:

It’s seems to be pretty rare.  There’s what, 5 or 6 reported on here?  That’s approximately the same that was on NA and how long was that site around.  I saw one appear on eBay, missed it and it took me the better part of about 2 years to find another!

I found mine a few weeks ago on Offerup for 10 dollars it was listed for a year I got pretty lucky with finding mine here it is.

[NESCollector15 | 40]

Can someone help me with this, so I bought this Golf and the seals looks like it’s a round seal I have other people telling me it’s oval and not round but it looks round to me. Can someone shed some light on this thanks.

Edited March 29, 2021 by NESCollector15

[bowser | 598]

It's definitely oval.

[NESCollector15 | 40]

2 minutes ago, bowser said:

It's definitely oval.

Ok to me it looks round.

[SilverspoonGaming | 332]

2 hours ago, bowser said:

It's definitely oval.

Absolutely oval...

[Divingninja | 47]

13 hours ago, NESCollector15 said:

Ok to me it looks round.

Looks round (circle) in that picture at that angle when you zoom in, but should be an oval when you get it and look at it.

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

For reference, this is what the circle seal looks like.

You'll notice that the oval seal is white and gold while this one is black and gold.

[Stormarov.45 | 32]

Wow! 7 posts wasted on this oval v round thing. It's OVAL. The angle is only even slightly making an optical illusion.

However, if this cart were to have the print shift error, then we'd be talking... 

[NESCollector15 | 40]

I have a shift error print as well.

[NESCollector15 | 40]

14 hours ago, Stormarov.45 said:

Wow! 7 posts wasted on this oval v round thing. It's OVAL. The angle is only even slightly making an optical illusion.

However, if this cart were to have the print shift error, then we'd be talking... 

I have one already.

[Hybrid | 424]

3 hours ago, NESCollector15 said:

I have one already.

I got one to

 

[Stormarov.45 | 32]

I meant like this one

[AdamW | 713]

On 3/6/2021 at 10:04 AM, DK said:

If that was the case, why would the box have "For sale and use in USA, Canada and Mexico only" on it?

Sorry to necro from a month ago, but I don't think this is uncommon. I believe it's essentially quasi-legal wording tied to NAFTA/its replacement treaty: those three countries are a trade zone under it, so Nintendo just sticks this wording on any game print intended for sale in any one or more of those countries.

For instance, current Nintendo games are often produced with different case art: there's one with only English text on the case, which is usually sold in the US, and then a trilingual print (with French and Spanish also) or two bilingual prints or something like that, those intended for sale in Canada and Mexico. But they usually all have that wording or something similar on them. I'm in Canada so most of my games are bilingual or trilingual prints, but they tend to have this wording on them. e.g. I'm looking at my English/French bilingual print of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, which is clearly intended for sale in Canada with those two languages, but it still says "For sale, rental and use only in USA, Canada, Mexico and Latin America". My Nintendo-published Wii games tend to be tri-lingual (English, French, Spanish) and have the same wording.

Edited April 2, 2021 by AdamW
use nintendo-published examples :D

[AdamW | 713]

BTW, @Hybrid, would you say this Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen print qualifies?

The "Plays on DS*" blob is printed on the box, it's not a sticker (some copies of the regular Player's Choice print were sold with a similar sticker on the outside of the shrinkwrap, but this is different). The box print code is AGB-BPRE USA-2 (or AGB-BPGE USA-2 for LeafGreen), the regular and very common Player's Choice prints with the usual "Only For" triangle were USA-1. Out of 193 listings of FireRed and 206 listings of LeafGreen I've logged since November, two of each were this print (and I now own one of each :D).

I would love to know why Nintendo went to all the trouble of revising the box art for this (there's a change on the back too), and then apparently printed almost none of them.

Edited April 2, 2021 by AdamW

[Hybrid | 424]

6 hours ago, Stormarov.45 said:

I meant like this one

Still love this one

[NESCollector15 | 40]

On 4/1/2021 at 6:02 AM, Hybrid said:

I got one to

 

I thought the pic you posted is owned by wyansas 

[SilverspoonGaming | 332]

The day this thread rendered itself useless - When Golf was presented at an angle where the oval badge looked slightly rounder causing mass hysteria...

[PII | 1,884]

6 minutes ago, SilverspoonGaming said:

The day this thread rendered itself useless - When Golf was presented at an angle where the oval badge looked slightly rounder causing mass hysteria...

I'd look at it as a learning experience in how simply and elegantly perception and behavior can be skewed and altered.

(I'm not claiming any deliberation on the part of the post-er, but...), the most effective lies are the ones that contain lots of truth.

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

1 hour ago, SilverspoonGaming said:

The day this thread rendered itself useless - When Golf was presented at an angle where the oval badge looked slightly rounder causing mass hysteria...

The day the OP found it he messages me on InstaGram and I photoshopped it to prove it was oval.

Dude just wanted to see how other people react to it was all.

[Divingninja | 47]

1 hour ago, SilverspoonGaming said:

The day this thread rendered itself useless - When Golf was presented at an angle where the oval badge looked slightly rounder causing mass hysteria...

 

Did anyone actually believe it was round? All I saw were people saying oval. Some being nicer than others.

[phart010 | 1,707]

After I learned that these variants were low runs, I had to find the SML2 to match with SML. Well I just found it.

 

[Code Monkey | 2,006]

The print shift on the seal of quality isn't uncommon, I found 10-20 cartridges with that shift recently