http://nintendoage.com/forum/ -Sqooner http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=35&threadid=154011 2016-02-04T17:22:05 -05.00 Bluestone19 11 http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=35&threadid=154011 2016-02-01T19:01:30 -05.00 Bluestone19 11 http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=35&threadid=154011 2016-02-01T17:30:37 -05.00 Bluestone19 11 http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=35&threadid=154011 2015-11-13T18:24:32 -05.00 Bluestone19 11 http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=35&threadid=154011 2015-11-13T18:20:00 -05.00 Bluestone19 11 ]]> http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=35&threadid=154011 2015-11-13T16:54:22 -05.00 Bluestone19 11 http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=35&threadid=154011 2015-11-12T10:01:43 -05.00 Bluestone19 11
Not sure if you're still looking for info on this, but I can translate the flyer for you. It's nothing too exciting, basically just: "pop your enemy's balloons from above while protecting your own - once enemies have fallen to the ground, push them into the water before they revive - get hit by lightning and lose a life".

However, there is an exact date listed on this flyer - October 3, 1984. The Famicom version was released on January 22, 1985, so these screens may indeed be from an early (or at least VS. system exclusive) version. The US version of the flyer, despite having a copyright date of 1984, was most likely printed in the first half of 1985. I base this on the fact that the Hogan's Alley and Duck Hunt title screens have 1985 dates, and that's definitely when those two were released in the US (they came out in Japan circa early/mid 1984). The US NES version of the game wasn't released until around September of 1986 or so. Nintendo's official date for it is June of that year, but in reality their third batch of releases (Gumshoe, Mach Rider, Urban Champion and Balloon Fight) was somewhat delayed and didn't actually make it into stores until between around August and November, depending on the title and area, possibly due to them having their attention diverted by the somewhat stuttering national launch campaign that they were finally rolling out in more major markets at the time.

By the way, you may want to check out the "NES Launch" thread I posted over in "Collector's Corner" last month, as it includes some photos of FAO Schwarz employees playing Balloon Fight when it had just been released. ]]> http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=35&threadid=154011 2015-10-21T16:25:58 -05.00 Bluestone19 11
I knew Vs. was a lot different than the home versions, but I didn't know about these early screenshots! Very cool look at an early version of a pretty important game. ]]> http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=35&threadid=154011 2015-10-21T07:45:10 -05.00 Bluestone19 11 http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=35&threadid=154011 2015-10-20T23:21:05 -05.00 Bluestone19 11