NintendoAge http://nintendoage.com/forum/ -Sqooner Question about NES games with batteries and their gold labels http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=188566 2019-10-08T02:17:34 -05.00 austin532 18

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
]]> Question about NES games with batteries and their gold labels http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=188566 2019-10-08T01:48:47 -05.00 austin532 18
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. ]]> Question about NES games with batteries and their gold labels http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=188566 2019-10-08T00:55:13 -05.00 austin532 18

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%40%60&region=USA&class_op=%3D%60%40%60&class=Licensed&battery=Yes&select_fields%5B%5D=20&field=6&order=asc&rows=400&rfa=2+11+3+6+47+7). 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)
  ]]> Question about NES games with batteries and their gold labels http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=188566 2019-09-05T23:42:37 -05.00 austin532 18 Question about NES games with batteries and their gold labels http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=188566 2019-09-05T22:49:27 -05.00 austin532 18 Question about NES games with batteries and their gold labels http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=188566 2019-09-03T23:45:56 -05.00 austin532 18
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. ]]> Question about NES games with batteries and their gold labels http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=188566 2019-09-03T23:00:28 -05.00 austin532 18 Originally posted by: austin532
 
Originally posted by: 0xDEAFC0DE

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

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 2 - Fall 1987 - Summer 1988 (rare)
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. ]]> Question about NES games with batteries and their gold labels http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=188566 2019-09-03T22:24:48 -05.00 austin532 18 Originally posted by: 0xDEAFC0DE

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
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 2 - Fall 1987 - Summer 1988 (rare)
 
Label 3 - Summer 1988 - Spring 1989

Label 4 - Spring 1989 - Summer 1992

Label 5 - Summer 1992 - Winter 1994 ]]> Question about NES games with batteries and their gold labels http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=188566 2019-09-03T22:08:17 -05.00 austin532 18 Question about NES games with batteries and their gold labels http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=188566 2019-09-03T22:06:19 -05.00 austin532 18   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. ]]>