I picked this up in a lot today from CL.  The label had me hoping it was gonna be a prototype, but the board is normal and no eprom.  However, the label made me wonder if it's still possible it was a final review copy or something.  Does anyone recognize this as a standard replacement label from some store or as a label they've seen on other review games?  Also, does it mean anything that it says "Contra III" on one of the chips?  I don't remember seeing the name of the game on other chips before, so that contributed to my unsureness about this.

Interesting. I am no expert in anything proto or what not, but... If I were to guess, I would say that it was a replacement label that someone made for the game. Since I've never seen another proto or the like that had a label printed like that, it would seem unlikely that for this one specific game they made a label like this and didn't do it with others.

I forget what, I've seen it before, but I do believe it was a demo for stores maybe? IIRC Majestico also was tied to that cart, maybe a run sans nice label even? Haha, but I think it was a store demo one or something.

You are not alone ^^ http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/... & follow the link from there, you'll get plenty of usefull infos

It was during a compnany take over on wholesale lots of certain titles, The orginal labels which were not included to prevent 3rd party markup. Instead new labelswith a solid red/black/white text were made. Forget the exact outcome so could be off but know 100% it is not a proto.

MrMark:
"The company that originally sold these off was based out of Waltham MA, and from what I was told by the owner is that they purchased all of the back stock of the games for a fraction of the cost. In order to ensure that the games were not returned to retail locations or sold second hand for a large mark up, they had to have generic labels produced for the games."

http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&...

Oh yeah, thank you guys, there are a number of buried threads to reference (great, now I'm one of those guys who didn't research enough before making a thread...oh well, consider it a contemporary price check ).  Here's one specifically for this title http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/...

So general consensus is that they are worth same as or slightly more than normal version, if I understand correctly.

And yeah, definitely not a proto. Although, has anyone else noticed the title of the game being printed on the chips? Is that unusual at all?

What is Majestico, or is that a typo?  edit: my emoticon smilies aren't showing up on the screen    double-edit: oh, but typed-in sad faces work...

Some guy freaked out on DP refuting my story:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/s...

Lots of holes in his claim (10 titles with labels he said, though I have photos of several he didn't mention). Worth noting his info, even if I don't agree with it.

DP is full of crazy people, who cares?! See, Mark posted there, CRAZY.

Hahaha! Well played 3Gen...

Ah, thanks, yeah that's what I was hoping was the case, but unfortunately it's he who is "100% INCORRECT"

Forgive my ignorace, by why are you so sure that you're right and he's wrong?

Could you elaborate a little?

Thank you.


EDIT: Is it possible that that guy on DP also made a bulk purchase from Majesco?

Great question!

He mentions that there were 174 carts. I personally saw hundreds, so that number is off.

He mentions that there were 10 titles with labels:

"The NOTABLE good titles were MegaMan X, Contra 3 and Turtles 4.
The who cares titles were Brunswick Bowling, Goof Troop, Porky Pig, Pac Man 2, Animaniacs, Scooby Doo and Tom & Jerry."

If there were only 10 titles with those labels, and they were the ones listed above, what about Top Gear, Battleship, WF Wrestlemania, and Jungle Strike, all of which I have owned and posted a photo of in that thread?

The only thing he may be onto is that Thumb Monkey was not likely the sole distributor of these carts, but everything else doesn't seem to add up at all.

I have one of this I bought through a website. I was told it was a direct distribution from Konami at some point which ties directly into what Mark says.

We had like 20 of the Contra carts like this around 2001-2002. Didn't know there were others. Came in a clear baggie and was told by the distributor that it was just unfinished backstock they purchased from a warehouse. Wanting to say they were around $5.50 each.

Thanks for the explanation Mark.

You Nolans are a fountain of useful information.

theres a lot on ebay right now with a Scooby Doo

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Nin...

my local store took in 2 of those contra carts and i bought one. I think there pretty cool after reading about them. thanks to this forum

Sweet!  That must have been fun seeing and recognizing them.

Ya it was way cool, especially cause the store owner made up a wierd excuse why someone made fake labels, I just laughed, plus they were selling them at a discount cause of the label.

I've been looking for other games with these labels. Eventually I'd like to own a few. I think there neat