Metroid was changed after the second game came out on Game Boy. Even used the same image as that game. It was to tie the two together so buyers would know they were the same series. Punch out was redone because Mike Tyson won the heavyweight championship. Nintendo acquired the rights to his likeness for cheap, but after he won he was going to cost a lot more so that's when we got the Mr. Dream version.
Oh man, I'm surprised you didn't talk more about the Atari vs. Nintendo lawsuit. That suit resulted in some huge, huge changes in the gaming industry for Nintendo especially. The suit was one of the reasons why Sega was able to really get a foothold in the US market and thrive.
There is a label variant for Mario 3. One has the word bros to left and the other it's on the right. Also Mario/Duckhunt has at least two slightly different labels. They are both very subtle variations but different nonetheless. Great video!
Thanks for those! They are a bit more subtle than some of the ones I covered here, but they're still cool! I gotta look through my duplicate marios and see if I've got any variants...
@@BigOleWords and do ya have any ? i know there's 2 different ones of the mario/duckhunt kart with the nintendo entertainment system on the bottom of the label on the one and on the other the nes is cut off from the bottom
I love this kind of stuff. And I have a hypothesis to offer for Gunsmoke and Metroid: -I think the painted version of the Gunsmoke cover is definitely a continuation of the covers that as you mentioned used to be painted for the Atari cartridges. My guess is the original Japanese hand-drawn art was yet another casualty in the great cartridge art wars of the NES and SNES. As for Metroid, maybe that reissue lined up with the release of either the Game Boy or Super Nintendo Metroid games? Because I remember that really slick, updated illustration of Samus being pushed hard in Nintendo Power magazine when whichever one of those came out first.
Hollywood Squares has a blue box and a black box variant. The cartridges and manuals are the same but there are two different color boxes. Also I have two copies of NES Play Action Football that are nearly identical except for the 4 player logos. One logo is a number 4 with 4 face silhouettes next to it while the other is just a big number 4. The logo difference is on the cartridge, box and manual.
I rented Gun.Smoke often as a little feller'. Since we moved a couple times, I got to see both arts. I remember the cartoon one first, as I thought there would be something different with the nicer art. Don't know which technically came first, but that's the order I recognize.
Roger Clemens Baseball has a black label version and a white label version. Awesome video! Thanks for helping me find other label variants I wasn’t aware of.
I survived the Mandela Effect and all I have are these alternate Nes Cartridges 😂 Knew this was a great concept for a video and confirmed when you said that finding information for the reasons for alternates was pretty much NIL. Great content as always and this is indeed my new favorite underrated channel on RUclips.
Damn that’s awesome! It took me a long time to find this info and honestly would’ve never even started if not for the variant Untouchables and Gun.Smoke which I got on accident :)
There are also 5 screw and 3 screw variants. I have an interest in Famicom games because I see them as variants when compared to NES carts. One interesting fact is that there are 8 variants of Super Mario that I'm aware of. 5 screws 3 screws Famicom cart Mario/Duck Hunt (Nintendo oval at bottom) Mario/Duck Hunt (Nintendo oval in middle) Mario/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet (Mario in red) Mario/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet (Mario in white) Mario/Tetris/Nintendo World Cup. You can go further and include Mario PAL carts if you see them as variants.
Yeah I kinda skipped over all the screw variants as the labels aren't too different. The Mario Bros Classic Serie you mentioned is a rad cover and one I'll get to at some point in my PAL series.
Gun.Smoke seemed to have two different covers since one was seen exclusively in the US (the painted one) and the drawing was was seen in both Canada and the US.
Even if the Gun.smoke license thing wasn't a problem I wonder if the realistic cover caused some confusion with the TV show Gunsmoke... so they were like "no look it's an anime!"
I've been collecting games for 15 years now. Recently I've been interested and focused on variants. I've been listing variants as I learn about them. Recently I've purchased the Untouchables games, Lock n Chase Data East and Sunsoft variants for Gameboy and I just purchased all 3 Wayne Gretzky Hockey variants for NES. The white blank jersey is really hard to find. I'm glad I own it now, value is going up.
Oh snap! White Jersey Gretzky? Nice! Yeah they’re really interesting and there’s not a lot out there about them. Definitely would love to discover more.
@@BigOleWords I bought a compete copy of the blank white jersey from the original owner. The box art and manual art have the white uniform with Kings logo but the cartridge is the white blank. I thought that was odd. I've even looked for any box or manual art with blank jersey but none exist that I know of.
I know three more. Mike Tyson’s punch out has a variant with white bullets/dots instead of red. Mario/Duck Hunt has a variant, one with the seal at bottom left and a white line separating the artwork of the two, and the other does not have either. Mario/Duck Hunt/Track meet, one with Mario in red overalls and one with him in white overalls. Great video as always!
The PAL version of Mike Tyson's Punch-out!! has the same picture as the American one, but with solid grey under the title. You can only see the upper half of the referee's body and it looks like he's in the foreground like he's the game's mascot.
Yes, Namco & Tengen. I just found your videos. I like your content. They are intelligent and informative. & you don't sound annoying when you talk. The Tengen version was far superior & it has a 2 player co-op mode.
I seen the gray The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link carts, Punch-Out!! "Classic Series", and yellow Metroid released around the same time as the original front loader NES around the early 1990’s, likely 1992. And not all the cartridges got new artwork. I like the Metroid re-release yellow artwork more than the original. I wish Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, Hogan's Alley, Wild Gunman, Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, Golf, Pinball, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Mario Bros., Baseball, Tennis, Golf, Balloon Fight, Wrecking Crew, Soccer, Volleyball, Pro Wrestling, Rad Racer, R.C. Pro-Am, Ice Hockey, and World Class Track Meet could’ve got a “Classic Series” re-release with different artwork, 1992-1994, during the NES' lifespan when the Super NES was released.
Metroid is the classic series(box says classic in red) Zelda gray is to distinguish the rerelease Punch out is cuz of copyright lost. 50grand didn't get u much back then plus he lost title right before renewal not to mention prison lol The black pacman is missing 4 rows of code at the end of it hex stack. No game changing though. I believe it was to allow higher scoring
I could swear the Adventure of Link cartridge was chrome silver, not gold. I have a vivid memory of renting it and noticed right away how cool it looked, like silver.
I have seen kinda sun worn copies that appear silver, but they only used silver cartridges for the unlicensed games. Would’ve been cool to have Zelda 1 in gold and Zelda 2 in silver!
My local burger joint had games for rent in the '80s (didn't every business?) and I concur. His brand new copy of The Adventure of Link was pure silver, not gold. I've never been able to confirm my memory of this with any documentation, but I will swear to my dying day that it's true. The game was silver.
I remember the grey Zelda carts and yellow Metroid being released around the same time as the top loader NES around '95 or so. Many of the big sellers were rereleased during this time to coincide with the new model NES and not all of the cartridges got new artwork but I remember those specifically because my brother and I bought several of them and I thought they looked weird.
I remember all of those games being bargain bin games. Oh the folly of my youth to buy Kirbys adventure over that Christian game. Who would ever want to pay $20 to buy a themed game like little Samson anyway?
I've seen two variants with the 3-in-1 Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet cart with Mario's overalls being both in white and in red. Another two obvious variants I'm surprised weren't covered are Stadium Events vs. World Class Track Meet and the Nintendo World Championship cart being in both grey and gold. I don't know if this counts, but in recent years its kind of become a fad for companies like iam8bit and Limited Run Games to get official permission to re-release classic games like NES/SNES/Genesis/N64 titles on newer unlicensed carts (often times using flash instead of masked rom). These I suppose could be considered variants now as well since the rights owners have to sign off on these retro re-releases. If that is the case we've gotten Ducktales in a promotional gold cart, Mega Man 2 in baby blue & translucent glow-in-the-dark blue, Battletoads in translucent green and translucent orange, Star Wars in translucent blue and Empire Strikes Back in translucent red just to name a few.
I think with Zelda 2, Nintendo wanted it to simply be referred to as The Adventure of Link. I notice that the title design is similar to the Zelda 1. But Zelda 2 was probably originally slapped on to inform that it was a sequel to Zelda
Great video. I didn't know about a couple of these. Metroid I know for sure was, like the Zeldas and Punch Out!, part of the NES Classics re-releases that came out along the launch of the top-loader NES. Nintendo Power did a spread on them back in the day. I know Wisdom Tree/Color Dreams games have a bunch of variants such as King of Kings with different art, but I know you mostly focus on the standard set. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom also has a re-release published by Mindscape to go along with the Tengen original. I know I'm forgetting moren but that's life I suppose
That makes sense as far as the Top Loader, thanks for that! Didn't know about the Wisdom Tree variants. I don't really mess with the bootlegs too much as they tend to open up every NES discussion a little too wide, but that's still cool to know. I do show the Temple of Doom with the Tengen variant in the video, but are you saying there were two official Temple releases?
There was a cool Untouchables TV show in the early 1990s. I bet the Ocean game is based on that rather than the Robert Stack show or the Kevin Costner movie.
Impossible Mission II has 3 different variants, one color, one black and white and one with an end label. King of Kings has two completely different labels, Super Mario 3 has the "Bros." either on the left or right, Athletic World a big green box that series 1 on the bottom of one label ..... uhhh that's all the ones in my collection I can think of that you missed but I am sure there are more.
Speaking of Pac-man, I firmly believe Lock ‘n Chase is the superior game but that may be due to me beating it while waiting for my dad when he was returning from a tour of duty.
My guesses as why some changes: Untouchables, I’m gonna guess the movie likenesses we’re maybe the movie license run out? Gun.smoke, I’m with you with the word “bar”. That’s the best I can guess Adventure of Link, I’m gonna guess they dropped ‘Zelda 2’ maybe because they’re were a couple more Zelda’s that weren’t numbered by that time. That and the Zelda series timeline is a mess Metroid, I’m gonna say they just dropped the game sprites wasn’t their style anyone Gretzky hockey, the white jersey is probably wasn’t allowed to use the LA logo, but it is bizarre that the helmeted version isn’t the last one. Knowing Nintendo, they would’ve found a problem with no helmet/playing unsafe as part of their censorship Again, those are my guesses. Does it matter? Not really, just my guess
The only one I think I know now is Metroid which was rereleased with new artwork when the gameboy sequel came out. The others? Your guesses make sense!
Canadian hockey fans are quite passionate. The nhl commissioner received death threats over moving the jets from Winnipeg to phoenix. So by that logic. Maybe the “non LA Kings” cover was maybe a Canadian print? Don’t need to upset us Canadians, we were quite sore when the great one left the oilers dynasty to LA. So that’s could be lol
How is Tyson a POS? Genuine question, no idea what he did. Nice video btw! Personally I really like the ugly but accurate US box arts they did early on as if to say "see, we're not bullshitting you like those bastards at ATARI."
It’s nice to see a RUclipsr doing some real “journalism” through research (and not just searching the internet for obscure info) and bringing us something new. Most channels are duplicates of each other. Same content only separated by some time in between similar reviews. I’m sure I’ve watched like 100 different retrospectives about say “Link to the past” and they just repeat the same stuff in each video. Y’all know what I’m talking about.
Thanks, and yeah I know exactly what you mean, but I think you’re giving me to much credit. I’m just surfing the web for info like everyone else. If I were ever to do this full time I’d love to interview the developers/programmers/executives behind these games to really know why they were designed or marketed a particular way. Until then I’m just speculating like everyone else. BUT, it sounds like you liked the video which is cool! This is actually the one I put the most time and research into so I appreciate it.
Gray Zelda carts were originally going to be used as a pack in game as Nintendo was expecting it to be popular. However, once it was not as accepted as the original it went into individual sales instead and they ended up making other alternatives like the action/power pad/classic/etc decks .....
@@BigOleWords before Nintendo realized it wasn't as popular, they ended up adding all other games instead Mario/duck, Mario/duck/track, smb3, gyro/stackup, track meet, smb1 tons of them.if I remember correctly I boutght Zelda 2 during the chip shortage which also may have affected the cart color change......just looked a little deeper it was release under the action series, identical game code however they are a little more rare
@@retrogamestudios7649 ... they affected the entire industry and are the reason why Nintendo went with the Famicom Disk System in Japan instead of pushing for bigger carts for the aging Famicom. ... and this has nothing to do with the gray zelda cart though
You also forgot the variants for Athletic World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game, Hollywood Squares (both blue label and black labels), and Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball (both white and black labels). Ghostbusters II blue and black variants, variants, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! GameTek red and blue/white logo variants, Bonk’s Adventure, Bonk’s Revenge, Felix the Cat and Milon’s Secret Castle Hudson Soft and Electro Brain variants, Aerostar and Daedalian Opus Vic Tokai and Sunsoft variants, Blades of Steel, Operation C, Ultra Golf and World Circuit Series Ultra and Konami variants, Bubble Bobble, Bubble Bobble Part 2, Chase H.Q., Elevator Action, Ring Rage and Super Chase H.Q. Taito and Natsume variants, Burgertime Deluxe, Lock N’ Chase, Side Pocket, Tumble Pop Data East and Sunsoft variants, Caesars Palace and Spot: The Video Game Arcade and Virgin variants, Centipede Accolade and Majesco variants, The Chessmaster Hi Tech Expressions and Mindscape variants, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit Capcom and Sunsoft variants, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, and The Lion King Virgin and THQ variants, Dragon’s Lair: The Legend and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Capcom and UBI Soft variants, The Rescue of Princess Blobette Absolute and Electro Brain variants, Revenge of the ’Gator and Trax HAL America variants, Turrican Accolade and Sunsoft variants, The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 Kemco△Seika and Nintendo variants, Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge, Mega Man II, and Star Wars Capcom and Nintendo variants, DuckTales 2, The Little Mermaid, Mickey’s Dangerous Chase Capcom and Disney Interactive/Nintendo variants for the original Game Boy.
@@BigOleWords I also forgot to mention the box variants for Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game for the NES, The Final Fantasy Legend, Final Fantasy Legend II, Final Fantasy Legend III and Final Fantasy Adventure Squaresoft and Sunsoft variants for the original Game Boy.
@@BigOleWords nothing to different. One had a purple border and the other one doesn’t. Like that other game in the video with the red border now I forget what it was.
Metroid was changed after the second game came out on Game Boy. Even used the same image as that game. It was to tie the two together so buyers would know they were the same series.
Punch out was redone because Mike Tyson won the heavyweight championship. Nintendo acquired the rights to his likeness for cheap, but after he won he was going to cost a lot more so that's when we got the Mr. Dream version.
Oh man, I'm surprised you didn't talk more about the Atari vs. Nintendo lawsuit. That suit resulted in some huge, huge changes in the gaming industry for Nintendo especially. The suit was one of the reasons why Sega was able to really get a foothold in the US market and thrive.
Story for another time!
Your channel is a love letter to NES enthusiasts, collectors and fans alike. Neat!
Hey thanks so much!
There is a label variant for Mario 3. One has the word bros to left and the other it's on the right. Also Mario/Duckhunt has at least two slightly different labels. They are both very subtle variations but different nonetheless. Great video!
Thanks for those! They are a bit more subtle than some of the ones I covered here, but they're still cool! I gotta look through my duplicate marios and see if I've got any variants...
@@BigOleWords and do ya have any ? i know there's 2 different ones of the mario/duckhunt kart with the nintendo entertainment system on the bottom of the label on the one and on the other the nes is cut off from the bottom
The boards on those Mario/Duck Hunt are different too. One has the traditional rom chips and the other is the black epoxy glop over silicon chips.
I love this kind of stuff. And I have a hypothesis to offer for Gunsmoke and Metroid:
-I think the painted version of the Gunsmoke cover is definitely a continuation of the covers that as you mentioned used to be painted for the Atari cartridges. My guess is the original Japanese hand-drawn art was yet another casualty in the great cartridge art wars of the NES and SNES.
As for Metroid, maybe that reissue lined up with the release of either the Game Boy or Super Nintendo Metroid games? Because I remember that really slick, updated illustration of Samus being pushed hard in Nintendo Power magazine when whichever one of those came out first.
Damn dude! I think you may be correct on both, especially Metroid which makes sense to update as new games were released.
Hollywood Squares has a blue box and a black box variant. The cartridges and manuals are the same but there are two different color boxes.
Also I have two copies of NES Play Action Football that are nearly identical except for the 4 player logos. One logo is a number 4 with 4 face silhouettes next to it while the other is just a big number 4. The logo difference is on the cartridge, box and manual.
Dude thanks! Those are two I did not know about!
Really cool to see the variants of these carts from your collection. I wasn't aware of some these variations!
Hey thanks! I didn't know about a few til I started working on this video :)
I rented Gun.Smoke often as a little feller'. Since we moved a couple times, I got to see both arts. I remember the cartoon one first, as I thought there would be something different with the nicer art. Don't know which technically came first, but that's the order I recognize.
Whoa neat!
The Pac-Man on the Tengen cover is part of one of the western arcade version and his appearnce in the old cartoon from HB.
Roger Clemens Baseball has a black label version and a white label version.
Awesome video! Thanks for helping me find other label variants I wasn’t aware of.
Oh word?! I didn’t know that thanks!
I survived the Mandela Effect and all I have are these alternate Nes Cartridges 😂
Knew this was a great concept for a video and confirmed when you said that finding information for the reasons for alternates was pretty much NIL.
Great content as always and this is indeed my new favorite underrated channel on RUclips.
Damn that’s awesome! It took me a long time to find this info and honestly would’ve never even started if not for the variant Untouchables and Gun.Smoke which I got on accident :)
Gun.smoke in Australia also had different cartridge art. Great game.
There are also 5 screw and 3 screw variants. I have an interest in Famicom games because I see them as variants when compared to NES carts. One interesting fact is that there are 8 variants of Super Mario that I'm aware of.
5 screws
3 screws
Famicom cart
Mario/Duck Hunt (Nintendo oval at bottom)
Mario/Duck Hunt (Nintendo oval in middle)
Mario/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet (Mario in red)
Mario/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet (Mario in white)
Mario/Tetris/Nintendo World Cup.
You can go further and include Mario PAL carts if you see them as variants.
Yeah I kinda skipped over all the screw variants as the labels aren't too different. The Mario Bros Classic Serie you mentioned is a rad cover and one I'll get to at some point in my PAL series.
Gun.Smoke seemed to have two different covers since one was seen exclusively in the US (the painted one) and the drawing was was seen in both Canada and the US.
Hmm I did not know that!
Even if the Gun.smoke license thing wasn't a problem I wonder if the realistic cover caused some confusion with the TV show Gunsmoke... so they were like "no look it's an anime!"
Haha maybe!
Very cool collection, and really digging this type of video.Great idea. Cheers and rock on!
Hey thanks! It took a long time to put this one together so I appreciate it!
@@BigOleWords I can appreciate the effort for sure, it shows in the video. Cheers!
Always love your videos. Great work! I love the Metroid Re-release artwork more than the original as well.I wish Kid Icarus got a re-release too :(
A lot of things happened for Metroid that didn’t happen for poor Kid Icarus :(. And thanks!
@@BigOleWords #JusticeforPit :)
I always thought the ref in Punchout looked kinda like Chevy Chase.
Hahaha
This was a very interesting watch.
I had no idea that there were all these variants, Apart from punch out obviously.
I didn’t either until Untouchables which I got by pure chance.
Awesome, funny, and insightful, thank you for the great look at some cartridge variants!
Thanks for watching :)
I've been collecting games for 15 years now. Recently I've been interested and focused on variants. I've been listing variants as I learn about them.
Recently I've purchased the Untouchables games, Lock n Chase Data East and Sunsoft variants for Gameboy and I just purchased all 3 Wayne Gretzky Hockey variants for NES. The white blank jersey is really hard to find. I'm glad I own it now, value is going up.
Oh snap! White Jersey Gretzky? Nice!
Yeah they’re really interesting and there’s not a lot out there about them. Definitely would love to discover more.
@@BigOleWords I bought a compete copy of the blank white jersey from the original owner. The box art and manual art have the white uniform with Kings logo but the cartridge is the white blank. I thought that was odd. I've even looked for any box or manual art with blank jersey but none exist that I know of.
@@MegaBg1982 Whoa! Weird!
The Tengen Pac Man looks as though it was based off the Saturday morning cartoon series from the '80s.
It would be cool to explore the differences between regions. Mega Man comes to mind (it even has differences between different PAL releases)
For sure. That and the guardian legend covers are all really different and interesting.
I know three more. Mike Tyson’s punch out has a variant with white bullets/dots instead of red. Mario/Duck Hunt has a variant, one with the seal at bottom left and a white line separating the artwork of the two, and the other does not have either.
Mario/Duck Hunt/Track meet, one with Mario in red overalls and one with him in white overalls. Great video as always!
Nice dude those are good ones! Guess I will need to do a follow up :)
@@BigOleWords those are only minor variants, not the major art changes you covered. I didn’t know there were 3 versions of the Wayne Gretzky game!
@@oldschoolgamesstories I didn't know either til I started working on this. I couldn't remember which one I had at all.
@@oldschoolgamesstories Me either!
Tyson also has white bullet and orange bullet variants. And cant forget 5 screw version also
Bullet? Yeah I didn’t really get into the 5 scree thing since that’s only on the back of the cartridge as doesn’t change the cover art.
@@BigOleWords yeah on the cover is 3 bullet points 1 set is all white bullet points the other is orange
@@whitey9666 Ohhhh I see. That is subtle!
Also another one is referred to as left hand super mario bros 3 and right hand super mario bros 3. Pretty interesting
@@whitey9666 Ohhhh yeah, I remember seeing something about that!
That was a really fun video my friend, thoroughly enjoyed it 😎👍
Thanks bud!
@@BigOleWords It was my pleasure 😎
Get that lady ghost to a nunnery.
The gunsmoke cover is probably the most anime looking cover to get localised in the NES era probably without being mutilated that much.
Huh, yeah you’re probably right about that!
The PAL version of Mike Tyson's Punch-out!! has the same picture as the American one, but with solid grey under the title. You can only see the upper half of the referee's body and it looks like he's in the foreground like he's the game's mascot.
Ms Pacman too. Well done.
Ms Pac-Man had variant covers?
Yes, Namco & Tengen. I just found your videos. I like your content. They are intelligent and informative. & you don't sound annoying when you talk. The Tengen version was far superior & it has a 2 player co-op mode.
The Tom of Finland alternate cover to Super C was dope!
Haha I keep that variant framed in my bathroom!
I seen the gray The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link carts, Punch-Out!! "Classic Series", and yellow Metroid released around the same time as the original front loader NES around the early 1990’s, likely 1992. And not all the cartridges got new artwork. I like the Metroid re-release yellow artwork more than the original. I wish Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, Hogan's Alley, Wild Gunman, Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, Golf, Pinball, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Mario Bros., Baseball, Tennis, Golf, Balloon Fight, Wrecking Crew, Soccer, Volleyball, Pro Wrestling, Rad Racer, R.C. Pro-Am, Ice Hockey, and World Class Track Meet could’ve got a “Classic Series” re-release with different artwork, 1992-1994, during the NES' lifespan when the Super NES was released.
The yellow artwork is super rad!
Metroid is the classic series(box says classic in red)
Zelda gray is to distinguish the rerelease
Punch out is cuz of copyright lost. 50grand didn't get u much back then plus he lost title right before renewal not to mention prison lol
The black pacman is missing 4 rows of code at the end of it hex stack. No game changing though. I believe it was to allow higher scoring
I could swear the Adventure of Link cartridge was chrome silver, not gold. I have a vivid memory of renting it and noticed right away how cool it looked, like silver.
I have seen kinda sun worn copies that appear silver, but they only used silver cartridges for the unlicensed games. Would’ve been cool to have Zelda 1 in gold and Zelda 2 in silver!
@@BigOleWords wasnt the official cart gold though?. i remember it grey when it was reissued
My local burger joint had games for rent in the '80s (didn't every business?) and I concur. His brand new copy of The Adventure of Link was pure silver, not gold. I've never been able to confirm my memory of this with any documentation, but I will swear to my dying day that it's true. The game was silver.
Yellow Metroid was the classic series release.
Damn no love for Tyson. His redemption arc has come a long way lol
I remember the grey Zelda carts and yellow Metroid being released around the same time as the top loader NES around '95 or so. Many of the big sellers were rereleased during this time to coincide with the new model NES and not all of the cartridges got new artwork but I remember those specifically because my brother and I bought several of them and I thought they looked weird.
I remember all of those games being bargain bin games. Oh the folly of my youth to buy Kirbys adventure over that Christian game. Who would ever want to pay $20 to buy a themed game like little Samson anyway?
Wow I've thought my whole life that the Punch Out change was 100% because of the rape charge, my mind is blown that it's urban legend.
That’s what I thought forever!
I've seen two variants with the 3-in-1 Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet cart with Mario's overalls being both in white and in red. Another two obvious variants I'm surprised weren't covered are Stadium Events vs. World Class Track Meet and the Nintendo World Championship cart being in both grey and gold.
I don't know if this counts, but in recent years its kind of become a fad for companies like iam8bit and Limited Run Games to get official permission to re-release classic games like NES/SNES/Genesis/N64 titles on newer unlicensed carts (often times using flash instead of masked rom). These I suppose could be considered variants now as well since the rights owners have to sign off on these retro re-releases. If that is the case we've gotten Ducktales in a promotional gold cart, Mega Man 2 in baby blue & translucent glow-in-the-dark blue, Battletoads in translucent green and translucent orange, Star Wars in translucent blue and Empire Strikes Back in translucent red just to name a few.
Did not know about the 3 in 1 variants. Neat! As for recent releases yeah that’s not really in my scope…yet.
Oh come on... now I need that copy of the untouchables with Sean Connery to go with The Hunt For The Red October.
I think with Zelda 2, Nintendo wanted it to simply be referred to as The Adventure of Link. I notice that the title design is similar to the Zelda 1. But Zelda 2 was probably originally slapped on to inform that it was a sequel to Zelda
Interesting…
i love the crochet blanket, love to see more of it.
Hell yeah, I'll tell my Aunt!
@@BigOleWords you should do a video on just the blanket :)
@@demonprincess5634 Some day soon I'll have Betsy on for a video :)
Don't forget about the Super Mario 3 label variant...left and right 'Bros.' Subtle, but real. :-)
That’s a good one! I remember seeing it recently and somehow didn’t connect the dots when making this video. Whoops!
Great video. I didn't know about a couple of these. Metroid I know for sure was, like the Zeldas and Punch Out!, part of the NES Classics re-releases that came out along the launch of the top-loader NES. Nintendo Power did a spread on them back in the day.
I know Wisdom Tree/Color Dreams games have a bunch of variants such as King of Kings with different art, but I know you mostly focus on the standard set. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom also has a re-release published by Mindscape to go along with the Tengen original. I know I'm forgetting moren but that's life I suppose
That makes sense as far as the Top Loader, thanks for that! Didn't know about the Wisdom Tree variants. I don't really mess with the bootlegs too much as they tend to open up every NES discussion a little too wide, but that's still cool to know. I do show the Temple of Doom with the Tengen variant in the video, but are you saying there were two official Temple releases?
@@BigOleWords ah, I missed that during the brief sweep across the Tengen games. That's what I get for blinking!
@@bananonymouslastname5693 Hahahaha my wife gets on me for the same thing. Says I need to slow down my panning shots and she's absolutely right!
There was a cool Untouchables TV show in the early 1990s. I bet the Ocean game is based on that rather than the Robert Stack show or the Kevin Costner movie.
Maybe? I think the game predates the show by a couple years though.
@@BigOleWords Neat show. Jonathan Rhys-Davies as Malone is fun. William Forsythe as Al Capone is also fun. 1993.
I know Mega Man 6 has three label variants. Two in North America and another in South America.
It does?!? No way!
This is a bit late but the Tengen black variant of pac-man looks inspired by the cartoon from the early 80s.
Something I was not aware of at the time!
Great video! Reminds me how many NES games I don't have....
That’s what I’m here for!
Plus one for Tim Follin
Oh yeah!
Impossible Mission II has 3 different variants, one color, one black and white and one with an end label. King of Kings has two completely different labels, Super Mario 3 has the "Bros." either on the left or right, Athletic World a big green box that series 1 on the bottom of one label ..... uhhh that's all the ones in my collection I can think of that you missed but I am sure there are more.
Didn’t know about Athletic World or the unlicensed titles. Very cool.
This was Fantastic 💪💪
Thanks bud, hope all's well with ya!
I swear there was two different carts for simons quest
Hmmm not that I know of, but I’d love to be proven wrong!
Tengen Pac-Man is the Saturday morning cartoon Pac-Man
Yeah I can see the resemblance!
Cool variants 👍
Is Mario still a referee in the updated Mr dream punch out never noticed but I think so
Yes he is!
Speaking of Pac-man, I firmly believe Lock ‘n Chase is the superior game but that may be due to me beating it while waiting for my dad when he was returning from a tour of duty.
Hmm I’m not familiar with Lock n Chase!
Heh I never noticed there were so many games with multiple labels.
I didn’t either til I accidentally got two copies of Untouchables. Then it led me down the rabbit hole….
I take it your not a fan of iron Mike
What gave it away? :)
My guesses as why some changes:
Untouchables, I’m gonna guess the movie likenesses we’re maybe the movie license run out?
Gun.smoke, I’m with you with the word “bar”. That’s the best I can guess
Adventure of Link, I’m gonna guess they dropped ‘Zelda 2’ maybe because they’re were a couple more Zelda’s that weren’t numbered by that time. That and the Zelda series timeline is a mess
Metroid, I’m gonna say they just dropped the game sprites wasn’t their style anyone
Gretzky hockey, the white jersey is probably wasn’t allowed to use the LA logo, but it is bizarre that the helmeted version isn’t the last one. Knowing Nintendo, they would’ve found a problem with no helmet/playing unsafe as part of their censorship
Again, those are my guesses. Does it matter? Not really, just my guess
The only one I think I know now is Metroid which was rereleased with new artwork when the gameboy sequel came out. The others? Your guesses make sense!
Canadian hockey fans are quite passionate. The nhl commissioner received death threats over moving the jets from Winnipeg to phoenix. So by that logic. Maybe the “non LA Kings” cover was maybe a Canadian print? Don’t need to upset us Canadians, we were quite sore when the great one left the oilers dynasty to LA. So that’s could be lol
The worse Indiana Jones Last Crusade game is actually a port of a Gameboy version
Yeah it is!
How is Tyson a POS? Genuine question, no idea what he did.
Nice video btw! Personally I really like the ugly but accurate US box arts they did early on as if to say "see, we're not bullshitting you like those bastards at ATARI."
Gonna have to direct ya to his Wikipedia page…
It’s nice to see a RUclipsr doing some real “journalism” through research (and not just searching the internet for obscure info) and bringing us something new. Most channels are duplicates of each other. Same content only separated by some time in between similar reviews. I’m sure I’ve watched like 100 different retrospectives about say “Link to the past” and they just repeat the same stuff in each video. Y’all know what I’m talking about.
Thanks, and yeah I know exactly what you mean, but I think you’re giving me to much credit. I’m just surfing the web for info like everyone else. If I were ever to do this full time I’d love to interview the developers/programmers/executives behind these games to really know why they were designed or marketed a particular way. Until then I’m just speculating like everyone else.
BUT, it sounds like you liked the video which is cool! This is actually the one I put the most time and research into so I appreciate it.
Gray Zelda carts were originally going to be used as a pack in game as Nintendo was expecting it to be popular. However, once it was not as accepted as the original it went into individual sales instead and they ended up making other alternatives like the action/power pad/classic/etc decks .....
Zelda 2 was going to be a pack in?
@@BigOleWords before Nintendo realized it wasn't as popular, they ended up adding all other games instead Mario/duck, Mario/duck/track, smb3, gyro/stackup, track meet, smb1 tons of them.if I remember correctly I boutght Zelda 2 during the chip shortage which also may have affected the cart color change......just looked a little deeper it was release under the action series, identical game code however they are a little more rare
@@retrogamestudios7649 The Gray Zelda carts came out WAY after the chip shortage era though.
@@OmegaDez the chip shortage only affected Zelda 2 and smb2.....
@@retrogamestudios7649 ... they affected the entire industry and are the reason why Nintendo went with the Famicom Disk System in Japan instead of pushing for bigger carts for the aging Famicom.
... and this has nothing to do with the gray zelda cart though
Science
Clear and objective ;)
tecmo bowl ! seal variant
Gunsmoke has one more cover.. same with Metroid
No way! What do they look like?
Those are European versions that I grew up with
@@casualgamerdads3840 Ah, I see! If we rope in the PAL library there are hundreds more variants to discuss. Maybe one day!
You also forgot the variants for Athletic World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game, Hollywood Squares (both blue label and black labels), and Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball (both white and black labels).
Ghostbusters II blue and black variants, variants, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! GameTek red and blue/white logo variants, Bonk’s Adventure, Bonk’s Revenge, Felix the Cat and Milon’s Secret Castle Hudson Soft and Electro Brain variants, Aerostar and Daedalian Opus Vic Tokai and Sunsoft variants, Blades of Steel, Operation C, Ultra Golf and World Circuit Series Ultra and Konami variants, Bubble Bobble, Bubble Bobble Part 2, Chase H.Q., Elevator Action, Ring Rage and Super Chase H.Q. Taito and Natsume variants, Burgertime Deluxe, Lock N’ Chase, Side Pocket, Tumble Pop Data East and Sunsoft variants, Caesars Palace and Spot: The Video Game Arcade and Virgin variants, Centipede Accolade and Majesco variants, The Chessmaster Hi Tech Expressions and Mindscape variants, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit Capcom and Sunsoft variants, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, and The Lion King Virgin and THQ variants, Dragon’s Lair: The Legend and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Capcom and UBI Soft variants, The Rescue of Princess Blobette Absolute and Electro Brain variants, Revenge of the ’Gator and Trax HAL America variants, Turrican Accolade and Sunsoft variants, The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 Kemco△Seika and Nintendo variants, Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge, Mega Man II, and Star Wars Capcom and Nintendo variants, DuckTales 2, The Little Mermaid, Mickey’s Dangerous Chase Capcom and Disney Interactive/Nintendo variants for the original Game Boy.
Ummm I’m very confused by all of those! I’ve never even heard of most of those let alone any “Sunsoft Variants”.
@@BigOleWords I also forgot to mention the box variants for Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game for the NES, The Final Fantasy Legend, Final Fantasy Legend II, Final Fantasy Legend III and Final Fantasy Adventure Squaresoft and Sunsoft variants for the original Game Boy.
MegaMan 6 has 2 different covers.
It does?!? I hat do they look like?!
@@BigOleWords nothing to different. One had a purple border and the other one doesn’t. Like that other game in the video with the red border now I forget what it was.
Here to congratulate you for 400 subs
Oh snap, that’s cool! Thanks for that, it means a lot :)
Mike Tyson has said that He can't beat Glass Joe.
He didn’t even know Balrog existed til recently!
“You know, cuz Tyson’s a POS.” Lol wow
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
wtf? why cursing him?
Gun dot smoke
another reason is PAL regions use different covers then NTSC
Yeah I kinda mentioned that so I didn't have to go over all the regional changes. These are all just NTSC variants.
@@BigOleWords its still interesting though same game different covers. or in Zelda's case different carts