Mystery Xonox Cartridge

[Dolt]

I picked up this Xonox double-ender on eBay from a seller in Germany, who said in his listing that he thought it was an NTSC cart. The cart in question is "Artillery Duel / Super Kung-Fu." I can't find a listing in the Digital Press guide for anything by that name (and yes, it appears to be "Chuck Norris Superkicks" under a different name). The added weird thing is that "Super Kung-Fu" has vertical hold 'problems' (like a PAL cart would here in the US) while the "Artillery Duel" side appears on the screen just fine. Does anyone know what the story is with this cart?

Clive

[CPUWIZ]

Are you sure it isn't the other way around ? Artillery duel was programmed with a strange amount of scanlines that some TV's can't handle.

[Dolt]

I swear that's the order. Also, I checked and yes, it is "CNSK" under a different name.

[Jobf]

Looks like this:?

 

http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html...areLabelID=1957

[Spirantho]

Ah, so YOU were the one who outbid me on that. :-)

It's PAL, almost certainly. I queried it with the seller who was unaware that PAL double-enders existed. If it really is NTSC then that's a good find, but why would an NTSC cart be in Germany?

 

Incidentally, the other double-ender he sold (to me!) was PAL...

[Eckhard Stolberg]

Are you sure it isn't the other way around ? Artillery duel was programmed with a strange amount of scanlines that some TV's can't handle.

That's true. Artillery Duel does much less scannlines than it should do. But they kept that in the PAL version as well, so the PAL version of Artillery Duel almost does the right number of scanlines for a nice 60Hz NTSC display.

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

[Jobf]

Yes, it will be PAL. The NTSC version is Chuck Norris Superkicks/Artillery Duel.

 

BTW: The Artillery Duel / Super Kung-Fu in the AA database is mine. If you have one for trade with a better label, let me know

[+Marc Oberhäuser]

Yep, it's a PAL cartridge. I bought this double ender back in the days and contacted the company because the AD did not work on my TV. They replaced the double ender with SL/RH. In the German magazine Telematch was written, that all AD/SKF carts were buggy (I guess they simply put the NTSC version of AD on this double ender).

 

Best,

Marc.

[Video]

I have an NTSC version, but it's called Chuck Norris here. I don't know if the region is in the name, or if it was just a licensing thing ran out or what.

[Mindfield]

I have an NTSC version, but it's called Chuck Norris here.  I don't know if the region is in the name, or if it was just a licensing thing ran out or what.

 

Probably just an international marketing thing. They likely figured that most people in Europe probably wouldn't know who the hell Chuck Norris was, being an Ameri-centric icon and all, so his endorsement of the game abroad would have just caused people to say, "Who??" Better to generalize the game than risk confusion, from a marketing perspective. Celebrity endorsements only work if you're a celebrity where it's being marketed, after all.

 

Plus, Chuck got royalties off of anything that used his name, including Superkicks. By altering the name for sale abroad in order to avoid confusion, they also wouldn't have to pay him any royalties for units sold outside of North America, so it makes sense from a financial standpoint, too.

[Dolt]

It may well have been that the endorsement was limited to North America. For instance, stars like Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt do commercials in Japan (apparently it's considered quite a prestigious thing to do there) but those endorsements don't extend to the US, because our culture would claim it's tacky (unless you're Sting, apparently). :wink:

 

So, getting back to the topic, can anyone tell me what this double-ender might be worth then?

[Mindfield]

At a guess I'd probably say not a whole great deal more than the US version; the fact that it's PAL would make it only worthwhile to hardcore collectors in North America, and it's probably not all that rare in Europe.

[IBP]

I've seen it twice in a year of collecting on ebay. It's probably a rarety 5 here in the youknighted kingdom I'd guess.