So I'm working on a project about NES games with save batteries and the different gold label variations. I need some verification about some things:

1. There are 3 different gold labels. (Original all black text version, 2nd version with black and red text, 3rd version which is all black text but is in English and French.
2. The first NES game to have a save battery was Zelda.
3. The second NES game to have one was Zelda II.
4. The third NES game to have one was Ultima: Exodus which is also the first third party game to have one.

If anyone more OCD than me can confirm this I would greatly appreciate it.

There are two versions for the black and red text back labels. The difference between the first and second versions is the second has the year 1985 in the lower right and some copyright/tradmark symbols.

Here are ebay listings with pictures for these two variants:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/333290528668
https://www.ebay.com/itm/173930666629

As far as I know, these are the only four variants for the Zeldas (haven't researched other NES games). Zelda 1 has all four, but Zelda 2 only has 2-4 (because there's no non rev-A Zelda 2).

Thank you. I did not know there were 2 black and red text labels. Pretty easy to mistake one for the other.

Can we confirm Zelda II was the 2nd game to have a battery? Ultima is most likely wrong. There are alot of wrong release dates online so it's hard to say who's right and who's wrong. Bootgod which seems to be the most accurate when it comes to dates has them as:

Zelda II - December 1988 (which was during the chip shortage so pretty sure this is right)

Ultima: Exodus - February 1989 (that can't be right as it has the oval seal which didn't start appearing until April)

If you can provide me a list of NES games you need checked, I can go through mine.

I don't really need anything checked per se. Just need to know what was the third game. Based on the research I've done, I think I can safely say Zelda II was in fact the second game. All of the other games that have batteries all have the oval seal which rolled out around March 1989. (if I'm wrong about that please let me know)

If you know the dates for each label variation, let me know.

So far from what I've seen it seems like:

Label 1 - 87-88
Label 2 - 88-89
Label 3 - 89-92
Label 4 - 92-94

I found another one. It's exactly the same as the first black and red text label except all the text is black. This one seems fairly rare as it was hard to find. I don't think zelda II came this way, but I could be wrong. Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/163066435281

so gold games only? just making sure, because dragon warrior came out in '86 where as zelda 2 came out in '87

I think he's going for the US releases. DW was '89 and Zelda II '88 (nominally, though most probably bought it in '89 due to the chip shortage.)

 

aww, gotcha, sorry still a noob here, just wondering   thanks for clarification. We always got games second hand or after they went down in price as a kid    Guess i shouldn't just google and should look into it before posting lol.

I think the biggest question is when Ultima Exodus NES was released. I know it was the first true RPG on the system (it beat DW to the stores by a few months), but exactly when has been a bit of an enigma.

You're killin me smalls...

That explains why there was a large gap between label 1 and label 2.

Alright, I believe the no code Made In Japan carts are from fall of 87? If that's the case then it should be like this:


Label 1 - Summer 1987 - Fall 1988
  Label 3 - Summer 1988 - Spring 1989

Label 4 - Spring 1989 - Summer 1992

Label 5 - Summer 1992 - Winter 1994

I've never really looked into release dates for variants. But the no code Made In Japan carts came with labels 1-3, so the time period for label 2 could be small. Do you know when the Rev-A switch happened? Label 2 is the first with Rev-A, so it's start time would be determined by the rev-A switch. The end of label 2 was probably before Zelda II released, but I don't know how much before.

The label 3/4 switch happened before the oval seal switch since there's a label 4 with the circle seal.

Label 5 was used on the classic series games. I believe those came out in October 1992. It's in the Pak Watch for that issue of Nintendo Power.

I'm not sure if a Label 1 appeared on anything else besides a 5 screw Zelda.

I know it's posted somewhere on this site but I believe the 3 screw Rev-A carts started coming out during fall of 1987.

Since there was no battery game released between Zelda and Zelda II it's hard to say when label 2 ended and when label 3 started. I'm guessing sometime during the summer of 1988 since the new labels had to be ready for the Zelda II launch in October.

It's hard saying when the round seal label 4 carts came out. I had to be shortly before the oval seal switch.

Yes this is true but the label 4/5 switch happened sometime during Spring/Summer of 1992.

Kind of a random question, but for those that were old enough at the time to remember...did battery backed cartridges make a big impact? It seems like that must have been pretty crazy to not only have a golden cart with a game as good as Zelda, but it magically saved your profile with your own custom name.

It was a big deal. We take it for granted now with modern gaming and auto saving but the ability to "Save" your progress and pick up right where you left off without having to entire a long password was special.

I was looking through my carts and then I found this:


This was the back label for Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II. The only change I see is the added "-1" and the removal of the "Rd. Ⓜ". I remember this being a later release and sure enough it came out in March 1994. So, I thought maybe Wario's Woods would have the same label and it does (https://www.ebay.com/itm/153624555584).

This is when I discovered bootgod has release dates, a filter for games with save batteries, and back label codes (http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/search.php?region_op=%3D%60%4... ). Circling around to your question about the first three save battery games it looks like you are correct with Ultima: Exodus releasing in February 1989.

We can use this to help figure out some dates. Labels 1 and 2 were Zelda 1 only, so bootgod won't be able to help yet. I noticed you asked if Label 1 appeared on anything besides the 5 screw zelda. There are two revisions of Zelda 1 with 3 screws and label 1, but no Zelda 2s. One doesn't have the "Made in Japan" (https://www.ebay.com/itm/202794358106) and one does (https://www.ebay.com/itm/283636423678). As there are several revisions with label 1 and a rare few with label 2, I would think that the 1/2 switch would be Spring/Summer 1988.

As you said the 2/3 switch was probably in Summer 1988 to get ready for Zelda II.

For the 3/4 switch we can start using bootgod. Ultima: Exodus (February 1989) only comes with the oval SOQ and label 4. The 3/4 change happened one revision before the SOQ change on both Zeldas (Zelda II example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/401912187898). It seems the SOQ change was also in February 1989, so this change was probably Winter 1988/89.

Bootgod lists the change for 4/5 as between Wizardry: Knight of Diamonds (April 1992) and Baseball Stars II (July 1992). I double checked ebay, and all Wizardrys had label 4 and all Baseball Stars IIs had label 5. So, the change seems like it happened Summer 1992 (as you said).

Back to the 5/6 change that I just found, the next earliest game after StarTropics II is Kirby's Adventure (May 1993) which I found with (https://www.ebay.com/itm/123929053260) and without (https://www.ebay.com/itm/163893543255) the "-1". So, the change probably happened sometime between Fall 1993 and Winter 1993/94.

Going through the back label column on the Bootgod list there is one outlier (excluding prototypes), "Overlord" (January 1993). Checking ebay I found it with two different labels. The first is Label 4 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/283508291641) which is a bit strange since the 4/5 change happened half a year earlier. But even weirder I found a unique back label (https://www.ebay.com/itm/113772050051). This one isn't even gold, it's gray. It's text is similar to Label 5, except it only has the english text, there is no "Rd.", and the "NES-USA/CAN-1" now says "REV-A". I thought this might be a publisher thing, but Virgin Games released Greg Norman's Golf Power (July 1992) not long before and it only comes with the normal Label 5.

Here is a summary of my dates:
Label 1 - Summer 1987 - Spring 1988
Label 2 - Spring 1988 - Summer 1988 (rare)
Label 3 - Summer 1988 - Winter 1988/89
Label 4 - Winter 1988/89 - Summer 1992
Label 5 - Summer 1992 - Winter 1993/94
Label 6 - Winter 1993/94 - Winter 1994/95
Label 7 - January 1993 ("Overlord" only)
 

O_o.....It took me awhile to process all of that.

As for Overlord having a gray label. It was indeed a publisher thing. I'm pretty sure Acclaim, LJN, and Virgin all used the same manufacture around 92/93.

For fun, I looked at non battery-backed games as well. Here are the five label/screw variants I own.


I'm missing quite a few (I don't have that many NES games), so I'll fill in with ebay links as well. Top Row: Wizards & Warriors, BurgerTime, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. Bottom Row: Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros 3. I'm not going to try dates, because I need to go to bed. The order is rough and I may have a couple swapped chronologically.
 

Label #	Description	Picture 5 Screw	Picture 3 Screw
1	Nintendo®	https://www.ebay.com/itm/264315125384, Soccer	N/A
2	Ⓜ Nintendo®	Top Left, Wizards & Warriors	Bottom Left, SMB
3	©Ⓜ Nintendo® 1985 (Small)	Top, BurgerTime	https://www.ebay.com/itm/362692021962, Ghosts 'n Goblins
4	©Ⓜ Nintendo® 1985 (Normal)	N/A	Bottom, SMB3
5	NES-USA/CAN	N/A	Right, Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends
6	NES-USA/CAN-1	N/A	https://www.ebay.com/itm/352710467415, Mario is Missing!
7	New, REV-A Left	N/A	https://www.ebay.com/itm/372793343561, WWF Steel Cage
8	New, REV-A Right	N/A	https://www.ebay.com/itm/283595854461, WWF Steel Cage