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Post by Rastanfarian on Feb 19, 2016 3:35:36 GMT
Quoting myself; There was generally ~3 months between Japanese and US releases, presumably due to the logistics of shipping etc. Wonder Boy released in Japan on 1987-03-22, so that seems to be the cut off for when the "SM" (and English only PAL) variants were produced. I found a picture of an "SM" Great Baseball, so that solves that mystery, every game released up until June 1987 in the US has an "SM" variant. The PAL English only variant of Space Harrier that I got from Hong Kong has an ® instead of "SM". Two other English only (excluding later released RPGs) PAL games are also known to have ® instead of "SM"; Bank Panic and Spy Vs Spy. The ROM chips generally have the ROM production date on them in the format YYWW. It's easy to see on cards (although not all of them use this format), for cartridges you have to open them up. Here are the dates on the two English only NTANL® cards in barney's Italian games thread, and the date of my Space Harrier; Spy Vs Spy (IT) 8714 (April, 1987) Bank Panic (IT) 8720 (May, 1987) Space Harrier (HK) 8720 (May, 1987) That fits well with the last "SM" game (Wonder Boy) getting released in Japan in March 1987 (and in the US three months later). Rastanfarian, do you feel comfortable opening the cartridge of your PAL "SM" Wonder Boy and reporting the date on the chip(s)? PAL Space Harrier is actually a different ROM and number (7080) than the US/Canadian release(7001), which shares the JP ROM. World Grand Prix also has different ROMs and numbers for 60Hz and 50Hz countries. So it looks like they switched from "SM" to ® around about April 1987, and then on or after May 1987 switched to 5 language covers. I'm not aware of anyone finding a pre-production Great Soccer card - the Italian manual does seem to be more-or-less a translation of the English version. Thanks, so looking at several Italian Great Soccer cards, they all have a date of "8714" (April, 1987). So it seems that it was indeed released later in Italy. Good spot, it actually does appear that the Italian manuals were manufactured by Sega rather than the local distributor. It's odd that the earlier games have translations of the pre-production manuals. I'll open up WonderBoy tomorrow or some time this weekend. Also I have found an all English 'sm' Space Harrier. I'll upload pictures of that too. Would you like me to open that cart as well? The manual for the 'sm' Space Harrier has a slightly different manual then my ® U.S. Harrier. It has both black and blue on the cover page as opposed to just blue on the U.S. one. I'll double check my Spy vs. Spy and Bank Panic cards as well, for 'sm' vs. ®.
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Post by bkk on Feb 19, 2016 10:55:17 GMT
Oh cool, this is getting interesting. Yes, please do open the cart of the PAL English SM Space Harrier. You can also run a test on it to find out which ROM it uses. The PAL ROM glitches (mainly his feet) at 60hz (I assume that you have a US SMS to test this). The PAL English ® version is the PAL ROM.
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Post by Rastanfarian on Feb 19, 2016 12:05:08 GMT
Oh cool, this is getting interesting. Yes, please do open the cart of the PAL English SM Space Harrier. You can also run a test on it to find out which ROM it uses. The PAL ROM glitches (mainly his feet) at 60hz (I assume that you have a US SMS to test this). The PAL English ® version is the PAL ROM. I will give both the U.S. and Pal(?) a run through and check for glitchiness. I haven't played the game in a long time (not one of favorite TBH), so I need to play the U.S. one to verify any differences. I'll open both SH and WB and get pictures up ASAP.
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Post by barney on Feb 19, 2016 18:13:04 GMT
I found a picture of an "SM" Great Baseball, so that solves that mystery, every game released up until June 1987 in the US has an "SM" variant. Oh sorry, I hadn't clicked that it was a US "SM" Great Baseball that you were looking for - I could have confirmed that a long time ago (it's the cover used for the Italian version).
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Post by bkk on Feb 19, 2016 18:44:10 GMT
I found a picture of an "SM" Great Baseball, so that solves that mystery, every game released up until June 1987 in the US has an "SM" variant. Oh sorry, I hadn't clicked that it was a US "SM" Great Baseball that you were looking for - I could have confirmed that a long time ago (it's the cover used for the Italian version). Doh! I don't know why I had the Italian release listed as ®. Well, there's still the PAL version to find, if it exists.
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Post by bkk on Feb 29, 2016 13:25:54 GMT
Confirmed: 1986 manufactured Australian SMS; Model No. 3010-03 (03 was the code for Australia) Serial No. 86602773 (First digit denotes manufacturer - 8 = made in Japan - second denotes last digit of year - 6 = 1986 - third denotes production run) And I notice that rupert's WKK warranty has model nuber and serial number on it; Model No. 3010-11 (11 was the code for Hong Kong) Serial No. 86628879 So 1986 manufactured Hong Kong SMS also confirmed. For Model No. 3005-18 (Germany) I've come across eleven serial numbers starting with 865 (1986) ranging from 02514 to 18705. There should also by an Italian model (probably 3010-13) from 1986, but I haven't seen one yet.
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Post by bkk on May 24, 2016 13:01:20 GMT
So, in the first half of 1987, when PAL SMS games were still English only, SMS released in Spain. It was only a brief period of time before the games went multi-lingual later that year, so English only variants in Spain are quite rare. Still, launch consoles (should be model "3010-06") with Hang On included came with an English only manual (presumably no box) and additional Spanish instructions. It's possible that the other early English only games also included additional Spanish instructions, but this is the only one that I've seen so far. It's not completely clear, but the week code on the card looks like it might be "8714" (Beginning of April 1987). I've also come across another early SMS console model "3010-07" , this was for South East Asia (PAL-B). All of the ones that I've seen so far were in Indonesia, but I suspect that it was also sold in Singapore. Attachments;
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micki
Cloud Master
find the miracle ball!
Posts: 34
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Post by micki on May 26, 2016 11:22:33 GMT
So, in the first half of 1987, when PAL SMS games were still English only, SMS released in Spain. Nice! It's been a long time since I last saw one of these Spanish-translated manuals on A4 sheets. I didn't know Sega's very early batch of games released in Spain were English-only, but it makes sense. I didn't get my SMS until 1988/1989 but, even then, there were some of these paper sheets with manual translations floating around. It's very probable that they were shipped by Sega along with the games, for Role-Playing games that only had an English manual. I remember buying Miracle Warriors in 1989, and going back to the store (if you're Spanish, it was the infamous "Corte Inglés") to ask why my game didn't have a multi-lingual manual like any other game. The lady opened up a drawer full of translated manuals, and handed me the Miracle Warriors one, which consisted of several A4 pages like the Hang On one you posted a picture of, stapled at the corner. I lost that manual decades ago, but I wish I had kept it around, as I remember it being weirdly translated with sentences that didn't make much sense (for example, it translated "curses will fail" as it was referring to swearing, instead of the magical sense of the word "curse", I found that hilarious as I grew older, and as a kid I was always expecting some monster to call me "motherf*cker" on screen). It would be good for a laugh nowadays. I often wondered where did those translated manuals come from (USA? Japan? UK?), and back then I assumed it was the very store clerks who typed them in the backroom, which was obviously absurd. Thanks for the pic, and sorry for the rant
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Post by flatapex on May 26, 2016 11:28:36 GMT
So, in the first half of 1987, when PAL SMS games were still English only, SMS released in Spain. Nice! It's been a long time since I last saw one of these Spanish-translated manuals on A4 sheets. I didn't know Sega's very early batch of games released in Spain were English-only, but it makes sense. I didn't get my SMS until 1988/1989 but, even then, there were some of these paper sheets with manual translations floating around. It's very probable that they were shipped by Sega along with the games, for Role-Playing games that only had an English manual. I remember buying Miracle Warriors in 1989, and going back to the store (if you're Spanish, it was the infamous "Corte Inglés") to ask why my game didn't have a multi-lingual manual like any other game. The lady opened up a drawer full of translated manuals, and handed me the Miracle Warriors one, which consisted of several A4 pages like the Hang On one you posted a picture of, stapled at the corner. I lost that manual decades ago, but I wish I had kept it around, as I remember it being weirdly translated with sentences that didn't make much sense (for example, it translated "curses will fail" as it was referring to swearing, instead of the magical sense of the word "curse", I found that hilarious as I grew older, and as a kid I was always expecting some monster to call me "motherf*cker" on screen). It would be good for a laugh nowadays. I often wondered where did those translated manuals come from (USA? Japan? UK?), and back then I assumed it was the very store clerks who typed them in the backroom, which was obviously absurd. Thanks for the pic, and sorry for the rant I've been to corte ingles, they had a few psp games on clearance so I bought phantasy star portable 2 for 10 euro
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micki
Cloud Master
find the miracle ball!
Posts: 34
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Post by micki on May 27, 2016 7:42:10 GMT
I've been to corte ingles, they had a few psp games on clearance so I bought phantasy star portable 2 for 10 euro "El Corte Inglés" is a decades-old, big-ass department store here in Spain. Every semi-major city has one (or even 4!). Back in the early days, it was the most awesome source for SMS games and hardware. They had everything. Consoles on display, and a huge glass cabinet with rows of games, which you could try before buying. Every trip to that place with my parents found me staring at that cabinet with my mouth dripping like a hungry dog It's that place where I first saw an SMS console on display, and it was running Out Run (my favorite arcade game back then) on a tiny TV set. I somehow convinced my mother to come back home with a brand new SMS unit.
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yuzu
Teddy Boy
Posts: 2
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Post by yuzu on Jan 16, 2022 12:16:09 GMT
Does anyone know where games without UPC codes are from? I have several games with English only text on both the inserts and manuals. Most are card games, Hang On, Spy vs. Spy, etc. How many games were released without UPC codes? Also what Euro games were released in Canada? Any help would be appreciated.
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yuzu
Teddy Boy
Posts: 2
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Post by yuzu on Jan 16, 2022 12:16:44 GMT
First Star Software was the developer of Spy vs. Spy. But their most famous game is probably Boulder Dash. Thanks for the info! I could be wrong but I think I remember seing the insignia on more than just the Spy vs. Spy cards. I'll have to check to see if my mind is playing tricks on me. Curious why the insignia does not appear on the U.S. version. Does anyone know if it is on the cart versions released in Europe?
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