Atari Rescue Group Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I was out with my brother the other day and wandered into this NES cartridge in a thrift store. The label caught my eye as it doesn't belong on this shape of cartridge, so I bought it. After I got it home and looked it over a bit I could see wires inside. Weighs 4.3 oz (121g). Can't find the screw remover I bought a few years ago so I've ordered another one. I've got a NES compatible player somewhere so I'll plug it in pretty soon and check it out. I've never played Super Mario Bros. before so the suspense is unbearable....... Best news is that my brother paid for it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennybrooks Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 Similar to this article: http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/39 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Cade Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 Not a prototype, but an early import conversion to NES. There was an import game store in Atlanta in the early 90's that would do stuff like this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video_Invader Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 Not a prototype, but an early import conversion to NES. There was an import game store in Atlanta in the early 90's that would do stuff like this... I agree. It looks like they took the label off an actual import and placed it on the U.S. version. Probably due to the original label being destroyed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 (edited) That makes no sense. Who would remove a label off a import cartridge just to place it on a US cartridge? I can all but guarantee that what's shown here is sloppily done pirate. Super Mario Brothers 3 released in Japan almost to the day that the American Super Mario Brothers 2 was released. Then over the following year and a half before its official American release, many pirated copies of the Famicom version were sold over here. Super Mario Brothers 3 was a very anticipated game that wasn't coming stateside fast enough for many gamers. So pirates naturally took advantage of it and gave thousands of American gamers a sneak preview of it. Edited August 1, 2013 by Atariboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video_Invader Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 That makes no sense. Who would remove a label off a import cartridge just to place it on a US cartridge? I can all but guarantee that what's shown here is sloppily done pirate. Super Mario Brothers 3 released in Japan almost to the day that the American Super Mario Brothers 2 was released. Then over the following year and a half before its official American release, many pirated copies of the Famicom version were sold over here. Super Mario Brothers 3 was a very anticipated game that wasn't coming stateside fast enough for many gamers. So pirates naturally took advantage of it and gave thousands of American gamers a sneak preview of it. Like it couldn't happen? You know the world is full of idiots. If you look up an original import, it'll have the same exact label. Think about it, if someone had an import game lying around without a Famicom but had acquired a U.S. version of the game with no label, they may have decided to switch them for the heck of it since the U.S. version would be the one getting used. Not impossible. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 (edited) I didn't say that it was impossible that the situation you suggested could happen. I said that it didn't make any sense to do such a thing so it was highly unlikely that was the case with this cartridge. Chances are that the counterfeit operation simply used the same labels that they were using to counterfeit Famicom cartridges for the Japanese marketplace and didn't see the need to go to any extra effort to make it more authentic looking. And if there's any lingering doubts, look at his picture and read what he said about the insides. If this was a legitimate SMB3 cartridge for the American NES like you're suggesting, those wires shouldn't be there. It's definitely a counterfeit. Edited August 1, 2013 by Atariboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video_Invader Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 counterfeit = junk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Rescue Group Posted August 2, 2013 Author Share Posted August 2, 2013 Thanks for all the info. I'm still waiting on the tool to arrive so I can open it up. Makes sense that it likely is some sort of pirate job with that Famicom label on it. Whoever made it had to want to play it really bad with all of the wiring in there. I'll be able to plug it into a player over the weekend and when the tool arrives I will be posting some photos of the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video_Invader Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 Thanks for all the info. I'm still waiting on the tool to arrive so I can open it up. Makes sense that it likely is some sort of pirate job with that Famicom label on it. Whoever made it had to want to play it really bad with all of the wiring in there. I'll be able to plug it into a player over the weekend and when the tool arrives I will be posting some photos of the board. Doesn't make sense why someone would do it. It's not like you can't find the game or it's expensive or something. I used to work a video store and we modified a flathead screwdriver to remove those screws. Only takes a couple minutes and what you end up with is a "U" shaped fork that'll grab those screws and take em right out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 (edited) It makes sense that they bothered to do it when you consider the circumstances of this game. It took a year and half to make it to North America, Nintendo was hyping it up during much of that time, the NES was by far the most popular console in North America, and Super Mario Brothers was its most popular series.. So it was a lucrative black market for the most highly anticipated NES release in history until Nintendo finally officially released it. Makes perfect sense to me. Afterwards, it's hard to imagine there having been much money there to justify going to the bother with how labor intensive this looks to of been when the game was officially available for probably significantly less money than the premium that pirated copies like this had probably been going for before release. Edited August 3, 2013 by Atariboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaperman Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 Is anybody else seeing the 'gyromite upgrade' as an awesome idea? I think I'll have to do it with my Parodius Da! It's all in english anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Rescue Group Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 I haven't been able to play it yet, but I got it opened up and it is a pirate job. Looks like it was a lot of work to get the boards soldered together with all those wires! The surgeon used a piece of double sided tape on it--had to unstick that from the casing to extricate it. I don't know what these things go for but anyone who is interested in it please send me an offer. Here are some photos. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Wow, that's a lot of careful and delicate soldering. What is the function of small chip on the NES connector board? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busterm Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 (edited) That is the 10NES chip found on game PCB's to work with the Lockout chip inside the USA Nintendo. Most likely this is the work of an import shop. They just cut up a cheap NES game connector leaving the 10NES so that the game would play on a USA NES Here is some detailed reading on the matter http://www.allnes.com/howto_72pin.php The 10NES chip was installed in every officially licensed NES cartridge released in the US. The console would check to make sure that the 10NES chip was in the game and functional before it would let the system boot up. Nintendo did this for two reasons - #1, they controlled the manufacture of these chips, and thus controlled licensing. #2, the chip was designed to thwart piracy, as the reverse-engineering required to bypass the lockout chip violated copyright law. Edited August 6, 2013 by busterm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianC Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 (edited) Actually, that looks like a Famicom PCB attached to an adapter. Telling from the picture, it has the MMC3A chip, so I think it's a genuine Famicom PCB. I did an image search and the pictures of the SMB3 PCB match the one shown inside that cart. Edited August 10, 2013 by BrianC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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