I'm not sure how many people here remember back when Mega Man was released, but I was sitting here thinking about the origin of one of the most popular franchises in gaming history.

I remember when Mega Man was released that it was basically a dud -- can you believe that? Seriously. No one bought it, and the only way I happened upon it was they had it on clearance at Target. It wasn't until it was long since "dead" (by retail standards) that it started to gain momentum. People got it cheap, and soon realized it was actually a wonderful game. I'd imagine also that people rented it and found out that way as well -- who would actually *buy* a game that looked so dorky? It wasn't until Mega Man 2 was released that they eventually re-released Mega Man 1 because of it's gaining popularity.

I always wondered why it wasn't popular at first, and the only thing I can think of is the artwork -- that was a really lame box, to be sure. Granted, this is all from memory, so I may be off a bit.

Anyway, just wanted to share that.

-Dain

Yah I think it, along with all the other platformers that made up the "Adventure" series of Nintendo's early games, was lumped into the glut of "Mario/Not Mario" classification. I certainly didn't hear about Mega Man until #2 came out and could never get my hands of #1. I wonder why they commissioned a sequel? All I can guess is Rockman was popular in Japan and like most trans-pacific imports by the time we got #1 they were already on probably #3. Then looking for games with high Japanese sales figures to round out the product lineup for that year they ported #2 because it is quick, easy and profitable to port "new" titles for America. #2 was of course, killer and easily in my top-10 NES favorites, and since Mega Man #1 didn't get a "bad rap" it just kind of slept under the radar there was no negative press so it started an empire.

I remember renting Mega Man in 1988 or so. The artwork is laughably bad but it's still a really fun game. I remember it being REALLY hard too, so much so that I don't remember finishing it back then.
Speaking of which, how do you tell the first release from the second one? I recall one has the original, black seal of quality, and the second one has the white seal of quality. If anyone can clarify this for me that would be great.

Mega Man 2 is by far my favorite in the classic series. I remember MM2 and MM3 being incredibly popular in junior high, and the first one got swept along in Mega Man mania. Nintendo/Power threw a lot of adverts and stuff like that out there for Mega Man 2 and the sequels if I remember right.

Right, there are two seal versions. The gold (not black; the colors varied depending on the box color) round seal of approval and the white oval seal copies released later.

They didn't start using the the oval seal until the month ninja gaiden came out (mar 89). MM1 came out quite a bit earlier at Dec 87. Most of the copies out there do seem to be white seal copies; like people have suggested I'm sure the sales were relatively weak at first given the incredibly lame box art. That being said, pretty much every game that was coming out at that time was selling relatively well.

Also - I've heard white seal copies were again reissued at the end of the NES's life in 1994. Can't prove it but that's what I've heard.

The more common oval-seal rerelease must have been around time of MM4, late 1991/early 1992. All 4 of the copies I've had come through my hands have been identical; the "later" white oval with the (R) and not the (TM), and the standard Rev-A backlabel. We might be able to confirm a 1994 final rerelease if the back label is USA/CAN-1 like MM6 (1993). These variants would be as scarce as the original round seals.

And let's not forget the original original release, having 5 screws. I still don't have that one either.

-Dain

Yah hey is that confirmed at this point? Do we have a picture? I've been finalizing my 3-vs-5 needs list and there's a few I am hedging about taking off since they seemingly don't exist.

A 5-screw of this game should exist since it was released in 87. I'll have to see which ones I have (I have two of them boxed).

I don't have a picture of if and was sceptical of its existance as well. I've been told several times that it does exist, yet still no physical proof. Based on the dates, it should exist, but there are other games that fit into the dates as well yet to surface.

-Dain

I think we need to start keeping the embossed mfr. numbers on the backlabels in a database to solve problems like these on early releases. Seeing which facilities were producing which games and using the labels/backlabels as clues will help us piece together a rough chronology. We may be able to confidently say whether or not the old 5-screw cases ran out before they produced Mega Man and some other games...and also on the flip side, to see if 3-screws are possible for some transition games.

Something that helps...I think all the machines were using the large-font embosser (about 16-pt wide font compared to the small narrow 8-pt font embossed on all later games). I've observed many older games in 3-screw that still have the large font, these must have been from the transition time. If anyone can verify their round seal Mega Man's backlabel information we can compare it to other games from the same period and factory and come up with an answer forensically.

It would be safe to say that this first run of MM1 was only one factory, MAYBE two but I doubt it. It's safe to say there was only one production run of these as well, and when the quota was filled they just moved on. Finally assuming those two things are true it's a safe assumption that if there are narrow small embossed numbers on the back label, then no 5-screw exists since all 5-screw games I've observed have wide large numbers.

So the question is, who has a first-run one of these?

Yes, Mega Man was re-released somewhere around 1993. Had it not been, it would be incredibly difficult to come by today. I don't have my NP collection with me right now, but it was re-reviewed in the (then) current issue of Nintendo Power for the month that it was re-released, so you can nail down the re-release date that way. Whoever's got the NP index for issues 1-70, take a peak and see what issue(s) Mega Man was reviewed/covered in.

I have the 5 screw original FWIW, and the original box has a large round blue sticker on the front for a contest or something (again, I can't check myself because I'm not near my collection till Saturday).

I thought of you when they asked if it existed, just couldn't remember if it was Mega Man or another game you were talking about that day

dangevin: I've been storing the mfg. number since I started my database and Dain has access to it so I'm guessing it will be available here at some point too. I have not yet analyzed the data to see if I could pull anything helpful from them. I have noticed though, that on some later carts, they switched back to the wide font.

Very interesting I'll be spending some time browsing your site. Am I to understand that if a cart has a specific mfg. emboss, then the pcb inside has an ID unique to that particular plant? Or have you observed for a particular pcb that it would appear in carts marked with various different mfg emboss numbers?

the only connections between pcb and case are the following:

If the mfg number is 24 (which is printed rather than embossed), the pcb inside will be one produced by Konami.

If the case has that 4-digit alphanumeric code, the pcb inside will be one produced by Acclaim.

If the case has an 'A' (or 'B') embossed in the back label, it directly correlates with the version stamped on the chips inside. Generally, it is the PRG ROM that is revised, so rather than NES-XX-0 PRG it would be NES-XX-1 PRG

Good info. I don't think that all the boxes with stickers necessarily had five screw games inside though.

I have some sealed hangtab box capcoms (which would ostensibly contain five screw games) which don't have the box sticker and some box-sticker capcoms that don't have a hangtab back..

Anybody got a friggin x-ray machine? It would be nice to really know what carts came with what boxes with 100% certainty.

Open them up then And send me the info on the contents so I can edit them into my list

Oh totally, I'll get right on that

Haha well, if you get some spares or something...or send them to me and I'll do it C'mon, it's for the good of the community!

I'm thinking what your avatar is saying

LOL!