I have a James Pond II Royal Wedding Kinen Version, how rare it really is?

Hi:
I recently won a Megadrive lot with James Pond II japanese in it, and found it has a golden obi, in threads like http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-37483.html it refers to it as the Royal Wedding Kinnen version, it seems to be a conmmemorative of the Prince Naruhito wedding in '93. It also says that there are no confirmed copies, it is still true? I'm sitting on a variant rarer than Tetris?? It seems too lucky for me

I attach photos of course, I have also a Landstalker with a serial code of G-5517-11 instead of G-5517, I couldn't find info on this or any difference

 

Nice Find! by the way i'm assuming that this particular cartridge is Region Free correct? because of the yellow tab on the side, which happen to be only on a few Sports titles like e.g NHL '94 or '95.

 

I will have to try, the tab color is normally white. The cart seems to be the same as the normal version, though

 

Post some PCB pics if you wouldn't mind! I've also never heard of this before, it's certainly a really unusual find.

 

What? Every EA game on the Mega Drive has a yellow tab on the cartridge. There's nothing odd or rare about that. As fot the game, James Pond II isn't that rare but then again it's not common either. I've never seen one with the obi though.

 

Very unique, nice score!

 

I have that game in that packaging (including the obi), it was in the throwout bin at Super Potato for 100 yen.

So either it's so goddamn rare that even Super Potato didn't know of its rarity, or they are super duper common enough that nobody talks about them.

 

Yes, you are right, most are yellow, but my copies of Killing Game Show, Mutant League Football and Wizard of the Immortal have a white tab, so I get the impresion is the "Japanese" color, even when I have many more with the yellow tab.

Hi:
I know there must be more copies out there, and rare is not always expensive. I have found references in japanese blogs like http://www.geocities.jp/yadayo8/eiga/007.html and they don't talk about it as rare, but the photos are small. In other thread os this forum http://www.assemblergames.com/forum...mp-SAN-SAN&highlight=james+pond+royal+wedding a user named Juste says he searched for this one years. I didn't see this neither on the photos people post when they got a complete collection. I suposse most people which amass a complete collection will get several duplicates of many games and they would get the obi variant naturally. Of course, being a variant it is not needed for a full collection, and it could have been out of radar range without problem until now.

 

It seems to be rare for sure, but given the fact that the software is not different from the regular JP2 I would not bet that there are many people out there who'd pay a lot more for just a paper strip. I would say it's a great collectible for MD fanatics, but it's not super sought-after except maybe by James Pond-fans (of which we have at least 1 on this board IIRC) ^^

 

I carefully opened it and took some photos of the PCB, I could do this without messing the cart since it is a EA one, I wouldn't do it with a normal one, since I would have to peel the back sticker. I tested it afterwards, and it is region-free, it works on all 3 regions without a problem. I like the EA logo on the chip, they still cared on little details then, you can see it was manufactured in the 19th week of 1993.

 

So...why did this of all games have a royal wedding version?

 

The game is a spoof on James Bond, and in the obi it says "Her Queen Majesty's 00", so it is linked to another Royal House, that may be the reason every time I search something about this I mostly get photos of Kate Middleton's wedding.

If you search in http://homepage2.nifty.com/gamedatabase/software/DB_SGC2_MD1993.html, the game was released just the day of the Royal Wedding (9 of June, 1993 - http://www.historyorb.com/date/1993/june/9), but it cites a price of 6900Y, this edition was a mark-down of 1000Y, so perhaps it was an offer only available one day. At the end of that day they could have simply removed the obis and returned to the original price. So perhaps, I'm only supossing here, only people buying this game that wednesday had the obi version.

 

Feels wrong to really call this one an edition or version of any sort since it's basically the regular JP game with that obi around it, if I'm understanding correctly. Unless there's something that signifies what ones specifically had the obi around them, you could wrap it around any and call it the Kinen edition.

 

Yes, but it is not like the obi is any easier to find than these copies, and if it was kept apart their condition would be probably much worse. This band is called and obi, but there are differences with the usual ones (like Saturn or PS1):

- Usually they cover all the spine, which is the reason they are also called "spinecards" in english. They also only cover a small vertical strip that corresponds with the console branding. In this case I guess they wanted to cover the bottom part, where the recommended price is.
- Normally the obi is only kept in place by the plastic seal, but Megadrive games are not sealed (except for some rare cardboard ones like Divine Sealing), so it has holes that attach to the inner plastic tabs.
- According to some japanese blogs, this is the only Megadrive game to have an obi, that alone makes it notewhorty.

 

I found a video in youtube in which you can see another copy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwnnds3ocjY, minute 6:40. At least some confirmed copies out there.

 

I wonder how many there are out there?

 

I just bought a copy of the one with the G-5517-11 code. I don't know how rare it is. It has a sticker on its front cover and comes with an extra manual, the same as the regular one but it's in black and white, written in chinese and has the same ID product as the cover's. The cartridge has the same ID product as the regular one.


It's not my copy but I can take a few pictures of mine if needed.

 

That would be the "Asian" version. Sometimes they just used the Japanese game but stuck a black and white manual in there too either in English or Chinese.

 

Ok, I didn't know that. I still find that weird that they bother to make another cover then add a sticker on it.

My scanner was turned on today, so here are the cover and the manuals (front and back only):

 

Mi version of G-5517-11 has the same japanese manual as the G-5517 version, and it has no stickers outside. The manual is a very snug fit, if there was another manual it would have been outside the clasp, and could have been lost. Could you make a photo of the cart? Usually asian carts had a gold Megadrive logo, my cart is the same as the japanese version.