OK i'm sure everyone knows about all the variations there are. but I was looking through all my doubles noticed something on my double dragon and milon secret castle carts.

one of the DD has nintendos seal of quality in the bottom right it is gold/white, shaped like an oval and another has a black and gold one as a circle.

one of my milons has the seal a gold/white seal ov quality as a circle and the other as an oval.

Everything else on these carts are the same. Is one just a later release? Why would they keep changing there seal of quality?

I dont know why they kept changing their seal.  I would guess its marketing related.  Either that, or the makers of the game were given the seal, and told to incorporate it into the label art. and they just did what they wanted.

Take a look at "Bandai Golf".  The seal is probably pink on that one.
If you have "A Boy and His Blob", you will notice the seal on that is HUGE.


Since I collect seal variations, the 3 main ones I look for are:
Round
Oval with a TM
Oval with a R

Outside North America there is a different Round one too.

What is painful is trying to find boxes and manuals that match up to those seals :)

Al

yeah thats got to be a pain finding boxes to match the game. There must be so many variations. You must have a ton of games.

Just wait until NationalGamesDepot's list. I've a feeling we'll all be: 1. Crying ourselves to sleep on our huge pillows, and 2. posting our variants on eBay within the week in sheer desparation.

You know it's going to be an uphill battle when you've acquired 3 or 4 of some long-run carts....and they're all different...even if you ignore back-labels and security-vs-standard screw variants ... some US releases I think have as many as 6 and perhaps more. Just on the label/seal/release code/bugfixes. Sometimes it's just a color on the end label.

After it's released I think I'll be eliminating my (R) vs TM oval seal variants and a lot of the software update variants (just keeping the A and getting rid of the older version). I will keep my 3 vs 5 screw, but don't currently differentiate on screw types or back-labels (both of which can be modfied / swapped and I think therefore I don't want to collect). Haven't decided about codes that don't have any accompanying label variations...Gretzky Hockey has different numerical suffices ( NES-xx-USA-3 ex. ) but they correspond to uniform/helmet variants so that's something I'd like to keep.

Ugh I'm reeling thinking about it. :) Good luck
- Dan

dangevin wrote on 09. Sep 2006 at 09:26:

Just wait until NationalGamesDepot's list. I've a feeling we'll all be: 1. Crying ourselves to sleep on our huge pillows, and 2. posting our variants on eBay within the week in sheer desparation. You know it's going to be an uphill battle when you've acquired 3 or 4 of some long-run carts....and they're all different...even if you ignore back-labels and security-vs-standard screw variants ... some US releases I think have as many as 6 and perhaps more. Just on the label/seal/release code/bugfixes. Sometimes it's just a color on the end label. After it's released I think I'll be eliminating my (R) vs TM oval seal variants and a lot of the software update variants (just keeping the A and getting rid of the older version). I will keep my 3 vs 5 screw, but don't currently differentiate on screw types or back-labels (both of which can be modfied / swapped and I think therefore I don't want to collect). Haven't decided about codes that don't have any accompanying label variations...Gretzky Hockey has different numerical suffices ( NES-xx-USA-3 ex. ) but they correspond to uniform/helmet variants so that's something I'd like to keep. Ugh I'm reeling thinking about it. :) Good luck - Dan

what a person collects is totally up to them myself I dont consider a cart a label varation unless the entire label is completly different  like the 2 metroids..and cart cases I dont consider the carts color a big deal its to easy to swap labels..now carts like pacman and ms pacman one being on a grey nintendo cart and one being on a engen cart I would consider two different varations..Im sure if you could look at every single nes cart made and noted any little difference you could find ten thousand or more varations..but if thats something someone wants to do I dont see anything wrong with it.

Um....I don't think I said there was anything wrong with collecting them all, I totally respect what Dain, NGD and other total-variant collectors do. They pioneer the hobby and make it easier for all of us to decide our personal taste to collecting. Just thought I'd chip in. I don't mean to offend. I guess I was not clear.

Can't wait to see NGD's NES list. At one time...five plus years ago...I thought I had every variant there was. And just quit looking. I had all of etlers list and a few more. Then a year ago I found this website.....CRAP!! I have seen more top-of-the-line info here than I thought even existed. The thrill is back in collecting NES for me. And I hope I have just ONE variant that NGD will miss on his list ;D ;D. It would sure make me feel better about MY collecting years!

I am sure you will have a varaint I don't, there are so many out there it is impossible to have them all.  You should make a list of the ones you have, and I will compare it to mine and add in any that I might be missing.  I really need to get my list done, but it is such a pain in the ass to find time to work on it anymore.
~~NGD

Once you post your list, I'll be sure to go through it and let you know anything I have thats not listed.  I'm doubting I'll find anything but who knows.

I might be able to help with CAN releases.

Al