Taiwan F-Zero X - Contender for Rarest N64 Game?

[fcgamer | 4,719]

This was mentioned over on the NA forums a few years back, but with all the recent interest in early 3D machines, such as N64 and Dreamcast, thought I'd start a thread here.

Several years back, shortly after @OptOut and I became friends, he bought a copy of F-Zero X for the Nintendo 64 and he made a startling discovery. There was a special white sticker applied to the back of the box, with the NUS-ROC code, branding this as an official Taiwanense version game.

Now before we get too far, it's important to mention that on every other N64 game officially imported into the country, there was a small round sticker affixed to the front of the box. This has that sticker too. The large white sticker on the back though, has never been seen on any other game, and further more, Nintendo also included an extra insert, in Chinese, in this package.

That seals the deal on this game being an official Taiwanense version game. At the moment, I only know of three of these to exist, though surely there are more; however, the print run must be quite small.

To top it off, with it being a popular series like F-Zero, this is definitely approaching grail territory imo, definitely one of the truly rare N64 games that region collectors should watch out for

Edited October 18, 2020 by fcgamer

[phart010 | 1,705]

Very interesting! Keep up the good work 

[GPX | 1,369]

What exactly does that sticker say? This seems to be a sticker variant am I right? If so, the desirability really depends on the significance of these white stickers and what they mean...?

[fcgamer | 4,719]

24 minutes ago, GPX said:

What exactly does that sticker say? This seems to be a sticker variant am I right? If so, the desirability really depends on the significance of these white stickers and what they mean...?

A quick look suggests that the sticker states the game is for Taiwan region, and we can see the added ID code and insert for this, making it a proper Taiwanense release.

Other imported games into Taiwan did not get this large white sticker with updated region code, not did they get the extra insert.

So this is more than just a sticker varient, it's an actual different regions game!

[GPX | 1,369]

2 hours ago, fcgamer said:

A quick look suggests that the sticker states the game is for Taiwan region, and we can see the added ID code and insert for this, making it a proper Taiwanense release.

Other imported games into Taiwan did not get this large white sticker with updated region code, not did they get the extra insert.

So this is more than just a sticker varient, it's an actual different regions game!

I find it a bit hard to believe if it’s an official region release, and on a popular title, only 3 has been found so far. 

Could it be possible it’s a distributor sticker? Or that certain regions within the country have different labels? Either way, it seems only a local collector will have more knowledge of this, with understanding of the local language.

 

[RH | 4,895]

Quick! Send that thing off to WATA and then to Heritage!!1!

Starting Bid: $25,000

Expected Final Bid: $120,000

Edited October 19, 2020 by RH

[OptOut | 8,881]

5 hours ago, GPX said:

I find it a bit hard to believe if it’s an official region release, and on a popular title, only 3 has been found so far. 

Could it be possible it’s a distributor sticker? Or that certain regions within the country have different labels? Either way, it seems only a local collector will have more knowledge of this, with understanding of the local language.

 

It's definitely an official Nintendo regional release, not a distributor intervention. 

The distributors did put the round sticker on the front, but they did not put the wide white sticker with the ROC code on the back or include the ROC specific insert.

There must be more than 3 of these out there, I mean of course. But I would say it's probably the rarest of the official Taiwan regional version N64 games, in my experience.

[Tyree_Cooper | 741]

the white sticker mentions the same importer (nintendo puthen)and agent/distributor (boyou) as the round gold sticker, as well as limitations for use in taiwan (it is placed in purpose to cover the same text in japanese on the box) and the "insert" is the roc precautions leaflet that was included with proper roc releases

how can you consider this a proper roc release and not a sticker variant? because it has a bigger sticker at the back and an added leaflet, really? i guess ok, whatever

[fcgamer | 4,719]

26 minutes ago, Tyree_Cooper said:

the white sticker mentions the same importer (nintendo puthen)and agent/distributor (boyou) as the round gold sticker, as well as limitations for use in taiwan (it is placed in purpose to cover the same text in japanese on the box) and the "insert" is the roc precautions leaflet that was included with proper roc releases

how can you consider this a proper roc release and not a sticker variant? because it has a bigger sticker at the back and an added leaflet, really? i guess ok, whatever

That's quite rich considering you're the one who was begging @OptOut to sell his on NA, imo that really highlights the rarity of this piece.

You mentioned in the bolded text exactly why this is an official Taiwan release, and not just a variant.

[Tyree_Cooper | 741]

so the fact that i wanted to buy one means it's not a sticker variant? cool

wait until you find out about the other large nintendo puthen sticker that some imports had

[Code Monkey | 2,005]

How could Nintendo have a F-Zero game without printing millions of copies? That doesn't sound right.

[GPX | 1,369]

@fcgamer and @Tyree_Cooper

you both could be right at the same time. That is, it could be an official Taiwan release, but also can be considered a sticker variant. 

This has a striking similarity to the well known Sonic Master System US rarer release, which was a UK import with a sticker slapped onto the back of the cover.

[bowser | 598]

Pretty cool piece. I love seeing stuff like this. However whether it's an official release or not boils down to one's personal definition I guess. If the cart doesn't have the region specific code on it then it's open to interpretation.

Were these units ever factory sealed with the white label and insert already included? Or were they imported and then modified by a distributor?

When the SNES Classic first came out I couldn't get one from the US so my friend brought me one from the Middle East. However, it had been tampered with by the distributor. It was definitely a North American unit but they removed the USB power adapter and the poster and added a sticker on the box over Nintendo's print stating no power adapter was included. Does that make it an official Middle Eastern release? No way IMO. However the sticker did have an official Nintendo code on it.

By the way, the Middle East now has official releases for the Switch because they recently got their own ratings board. Before that there were releases with the blue/gray/green circle symbol meant for the UAE/Singapore/Malaysia.

Edited October 20, 2020 by bowser

[fcgamer | 4,719]

2 hours ago, Tyree_Cooper said:

so the fact that i wanted to buy one means it's not a sticker variant? cool

wait until you find out about the other large nintendo puthen sticker that some imports had

They've been getting stickers since back in the Famicom days, but this isn't really the same thing as that.

[fcgamer | 4,719]

5 hours ago, bowser said:

Pretty cool piece. I love seeing stuff like this. However whether it's an official release or not boils down to one's personal definition I guess. If the cart doesn't have the region specific code on it then it's open to interpretation.

Were these units ever factory sealed with the white label and insert already included? Or were they imported and then modified by a distributor?

When the SNES Classic first came out I couldn't get one from the US so my friend brought me one from the Middle East. However, it had been tampered with by the distributor. It was definitely a North American unit but they removed the USB power adapter and the poster and added a sticker on the box over Nintendo's print stating no power adapter was included. Does that make it an official Middle Eastern release? No way IMO. However the sticker did have an official Nintendo code on it.

By the way, the Middle East now has official releases for the Switch because they recently got their own ratings board. Before that there were releases with the blue/gray/green circle symbol meant for the UAE/Singapore/Malaysia.

It would really depend who had done the modification. If it were a random shop importing the things, then yeah, it wouldn't count. But if Nintendo themselves handled this release and then even gave it a middle east ID code, yeah it would be the official middle east region version then.