Anybody know anything about these international edition NES pirates? Other than knowing that these labels and carts were mass produced pirates, I'm clueless. They seem to come with Famicom games on them, but in NES carts. What kind of games come in these carts? NES? Japanese exclusives? Are they as popular as, say, Supervision, or less so? This one is Kenshiro 2:
Wow! Look at the Atari-like fonts and artwork on this one! Excellent. No, I've never seen this kind of label (international edition) in Mexico, but there were A LOT of these NES-Size pirates. Generally speaking, they're the same as famicom-size pirates. Some are funky-shaped with weird handles, some have regular standard NES-style shapes. I used to have a 42 in 1 multicart, and TMNT 1 in this format when I was a kid. Not many of the later multicarts might have come in this format, but there were several 1 game cartridges like this.
My presumption is that this one will be 72-pins, not 60-pins. I haven't gotten it in my hands yet. But what I find strange is that it's a Famicom-exclusive game in a NES cart. I've never seen Famicom exclusives in 72-pins. Now, when it comes to multi-carts, I've seen plenty of Famicom exclusives on those; I've got several of the "in 1" carts that are 72 pins. Want to see another cool one I just found? Another Famicom-exclusive game with 72-pins:
I have a pirate "NES" cartridge of the FDS game "Ai Senshi Nicol" with one of those Video Deon labels. It's pretty good label artwork for a pirate cartridge, so that probably means it was ripped off from somewhere else.
I have that game on my Famicom. Every time you beat a level you get a piece of a picture. You constantly finish levels until you can complete the picture. I was told the title was Phoenix. I don't know though how reliable that is.
Yeah -- it's known as Hi no Tori, or Phoenix. I hope it's a good one! You seem to be pleased with yours.
What could be possible is that there's an adapter in there. I can't recall which early NES title could be used as a Famicom adapter if opened up, since it actually had a Famicom cartridge circuit inside. There may be a Famicom game in there with some imitation of that mechanism. But how expensive would THAT be, huh? Now, that pink coloured NES-Shaped pirate is just AWESOME. I'd seen white, black, and regular gray coloured ones, but never pink. Superb find.
Hey thanks. And you're right about early NES carts having a 60-to-72-pins converter inside. Those early NES carts with converters were some of the "black box" games, like Gyromite, etc. I hadn't thought about it, but it's very possible that these could be converted as opposed to having the games programmed into a legit 72-pin board. It makes me so curious I might have to open them up and find out!
` I have a '110-in-1' multicart, in an NES case. When opened it's a Famicom cart with PIN adaptor, as suggested by Xerdo.
I own 3 or 4 of these VideOdeon Carts - from memory 3 of them are multicarts and the other is a SFII hack. I found them in the "wild" here in New Zealand and also turn up in Australia. Not as common as Supervision NES Pirates however. Most of these are ex-Video Rental Stores, where the smaller stores often rented out Systems with pirate carts. (I have ex-rental 64in1/128in1 game Atari 2600 clones that were found here as well)
That's awesome that you've found them in the wild. The feds here in the U.S. clamps down hard on pirate stuff -- I'd never find anything like that here in the wild. And it's good to know that they come as Japanese-exclusives, and Japanese exclusives and hacks (16-bit down to 8-bit). Anything unique on those multi-carts, or should I avoid them? You know how those multi-carts are -- they tend to have the same arcade and early-release games on them.
Nothing unique on mine. Quite a few title-screen hacks of early NES games... all GOOD early NES/Famicom games, though. Also, a few standout hacks like speedy Mario and stuff.
Is the speedy Mario fun? Is it kind of like getting the shoe in Bubble Bobble and being able to run fast -- or does everything move faster?
Nothing really interesting on these multi's, they are very generic and normally have the same set of early release titles. Its not suprising as they were released and sold when the NES was on the market. Its the much more recent famicom pirate carts that generally have the oddball stuff on them as the pirates try to keep the game titles "up to date" with recognisable licenses. The build quality of these however is generally crap.
Nintendo in Australia did get very upset about Pirate stuff at the time. "Nintendo Co Ltd v Centronics Systems Pty Ltd 1994" was the key Australian case and its still widely referenced in most Australian Intellectual Property Caselaw. Its wasn't about pirate carts however, it was about the clone systems themselves. "Nintendo Wins Copyright Decision In Australia 01/31/92 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1992 JAN 31 (NB) -- Nintendo has won a copyright infringement case in Australia against the importer of a Taiwanese video game. The Taiwanese machine, from United Electronics Corp., was marketed as Spica, and brought into Australia by a company called Centronics Systems. An Australian law - the Circuit Layouts Act - says manufacturers are entitled to reverse engineer an electronics subsystem (create another that does the same thing, yet is not a copy). However, the law has not been tested to see how different the recreation needs to be to avoid infringing copyright. Counsel for Nintendo, David Webster said the act appeared to protect manufacturers against direct copies, but not against other manufacturers "freeloading off them." The court was told that the circuit in question was a modified copy, but still basically a copy. It was found that Centronics knew of the copying that had been done. The result of the case is that Nintendo was awarded damages, and an injunction against further imports of the copy." Pictures of SPICA brand multicarts (Starwars TopGun logo on the label) with various games on them can be found on the web.
I got the games and I can guarantee just by holding them in my hands that they do in fact have converters inside. They're quite heavy. I hestitate to open them to be sure, because they don't have the standard screws, so I'm afraid to crack or otherwise damage them.
Occasionally I find them at swap meets or in highly disorganized stores - the kind of store where everything is all over the place and you have to go digging through piles of stuff. I have two multicarts and "Street Fighter III," which actually plays pretty good for what it is.
I live in Texas and you can pretty much find foreign multi-carts and famiclones in any Ma and Pa game store. They're also sold in the malls quite often. It's kind of fun to see all the different varieties floating around out there.
