Mario box

[Guitari]

Hi All, I've just obtained this Mario. The cart is PAL yet the box says for use in North America only. Any chance I have a North American box?

 

Many thanks

[+save2600]

Did you buy it used? Possible the seller just mixed stuff to assemble a CIB example.

 

Or ALL Mario boxes say NTSC, when they stuffed PAL carts in 'em at the factory?

 

Or possible some PAL games received NTSC boxes by accident. Lots of mishaps going on with Atari stuff around this time.

[Guitari]

Yes used. I guess I shall never know!

Maybe members could post pics of their pal boxes..

[Mayhem]

All PAL games are still in NTSC boxes, there ARE no PAL boxes for the Atari published games.

[gambler172]

Yep.....Mayhem is right....but most of my Pal boxes are made in China.....most NTSC boxes are made in Taiwan....

[ultrasteve]

To resurrect this thread, I'm in a slightly different predicament! I have a sealed Mario Bros that I don't really want to open, but I want to know if it's PAL or not! It was sold as such, but without opening it I don't know...

 

My box does NOT have the text to say that it is for use only with North American and NTSC TV sets, but some NA boxes were like that anyway, at least for other games.

 

Anyone else with the PAL version want to chip in?

[H.E.R.O.]

Are there any words on the box that may indicate if it's NTSC or PAL by the spelling?

[ultrasteve]

Are there any words on the box that may indicate if it's NTSC or PAL by the spelling?

That's something I thought of, but no, not in this case. I'm not convinced Atari really cared about localisation anyway!

[+save2600]

What about the UPC codes... do they differ between regions? Seems like they should, since they're different products.

 

-edit-

 

Was reminded above what Mayhem said about Atari produced boxes, so that probably goes for the UPC too, but what a shame and how strange.

[ultrasteve]

As another twist in the saga, I bought another version that has a silver strip overprinted on top of the bit that says 'For NTSC systems' on the back of the box. I've never seen this but as it's one of the later releases maybe it was another of Atari's famous cost-cutting measures? It's a German release, with a German language manual.

 

Anyone else ever seen this overprinted silver strip?

 

[+sixersfan105]

I've definitely seen the silver strip before on some PAL boxes. Additionally, another way to tell if you've got a PAL game is as follows...Some PAL games sold in certain countries have a flimsy text-only German or French language manual between the outside of the box and the shrink wrap. I have noticed that those exceptions also typically contain a gold sticker on the side of the box, overlapping the front of the box a bit, too, that says Serie ORO - which means gold series, according to Google Translate, in both Spanish and Italian. Those gold stickers are also sometimes present without the additional language manual on the back.

 

They are certainly not present on all PAL sealed games, but whenever you see the sticker and/or the additional language manual on the back, you know - without fail - that the enclosed game is PAL format. Here's a pic showing the gold sticker that I'm talking about...

[ongikong]

Anyone else ever seen this overprinted silver strip?

 

IMG_5274.jpg

IMG_5275.jpg

... Mhhh strange the red square is missing :-)

 

 

I also have a PAL copy in box. Bought here in Germany on a flea market several years ago:

[MrBeefy]

The strip isn't from like a sticker on the shrink wrap that kept that part of the box from fading in light? Just a thought.

[ultrasteve]

@ongikong: I think I have seen them with and without the red square next to that line - but a good point.

 

@sixersfan105: I have a couple of those (without the gold sticker but with a black and white leaflet on the outer) but this one was not sealed when I got it, unlike the sealed one I referenced earlier in the thread!

 

@MrBeefy: Good thought, but this is definitely overprint.

[Jason_Atari]

The majority of my PAL 7800 boxes are white on the back, some with multiple screen shots.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Jason_Atari

[ultrasteve]

That's just down to each game, I have quite a few that are white, but I'm not sure that's a marker for them being PAL.

[Shawn]

That's just down to each game, I have quite a few that are white, but I'm not sure that's a marker for them being PAL.

 

It's not.

[+sixersfan105]

My box does NOT have the text to say that it is for use only with North American and NTSC TV sets, but some NA boxes were like that anyway, at least for other games.

Yeah, fwiw, I don't believe any copies of Mario Bros for 7800, regardless of NTSC or PAL, had text on the box that said "For use only with North American and NTSC TV sets" or anything to that effect. At least I haven't come across them personally.

 

Also, it's my understanding that any boxes that had language about "For use only with North American and NTSC" etc. actually had that on EVERY box sold, regardless of NTSC vs. PAL. Xevious and Crossbow are a couple that ring a bell. Actually remember learning that on a thread from last year about US vs. UK releases and how to tell the difference. It's very tough to distinguish, unless there's a leaflet manual addition on the back, gold sticker (only in some PAL countries) on the box. Seems like all the boxes themselves are identical. Classic Atari Corp.