The Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link Variants. Anyone have the answers?

Hey guys, being a manager of a game shop I always get a slight spark of excitement when I see a grey Zelda or Link cart, although they are not considered that collectable anymore they are still pretty scarce compared to the regular gold carts. One day by chance I actually had 2 grey Legend of Zelda carts at the same time when I went to file them away I was shocked to discover that they were completely different! Looking at one of these carts alone you probably would not pay it any mind, but seeing them together is all together odd. This anomaly interested me so much that I decided to keep both carts to show my friends and inquire about the differences. Today The same thing happened again, But this time with Adventure of Link! So now I just need to know, why are there variants of the grey carts? and which is more obscure? Does anyone know? Below is a picture of my variants. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

I think the ones in the middle used leftover labels from original gold cart run while those on the right is the official "Classic" edition reissue.

There is one more difference with original gold Zelda that I know of. My copy does not have a warning to hold reset when powering down the system. Other gold cart I've checked before I eBayed them always had the warning.

 

The first gold carts did not have the "hold reset" warning, while later runs of the game did get the warning (possibly because of people complaining about their data getting erased).

 

I suspect this to be the case as well and don't think any of the variants are hard to find, as I managed to collect them all years ago with little effort/money. I don't have them all CIB, so I wonder if there are differences in the printed materials when the gold carts were being phased out.

 

I remember 15 years ago the greys were branded as rare and there was a big price hike.
I would assume the 5 screw gold (not pictured) with the circular Nintendo seal is probably the hardest to find of the retail releases. It would also be considered the first print.

 

I still want all the greys for sure , the golds are cool but the greys will jump in price again.

 

From what I've read before, the first ones were gray. They contain the original PRG0 version of the software with no "hold reset" warning. Then came the special Gold cartridges. They first used the same software version but later PRG1 came out. Then some time later, they made more carts again, but this time they were just gray but contained PRG1.

So anyway, the Gold carts look the same for both PRG0 and PRG1. The Gray carts, PRG0 has the title at the bottom. PRG1 has the title moved up above the logo.

Zelda 2 I don't think was ever revised. The cartridge that has ZELDA II and "Another journey of ultimate challenge in the fantasy world of hyrule" is the first run. The one without those texts is a reissue after the gold cartridge run.

ROM date codes support this pattern. The rarest versions would likely be the original gray cartridges. The next would be the reprint gray carts. The Gold cartridges are probably the most common.

 

This can not be true: all of the grey carts are 3 screw, as you should well know all early NES carts are 5 screw. I have seen a 5 screw gold cart in my time and that is probably the first run you are talking about. The 5 screw gold cart also has a circular Nintendo seal as opposed to a oval seal. They are quite hard to come by I have only seen one in person ever.

 

We can solve this if you have all the cartridges in the pictures above. Or atleast we can more properly date them. Open the gray cartridge that has the Title Text under the logo. Find the NES-ZL-# PRG chip. Take a picture of it. Then do the same for the other gray cartridge, and then your gold cartridge. Don't get them mixed up though.

By doing this we will have rough manufacture dates on each. The Gold cartridges were made from 1987 to early 1990. The gray cartridge with the title text on the top of the label was made in 1992. I have no date on the gray cartridge with the text below the logo (bottom of the label). However by looking at what I know about Zelda 2, the similar label design (title on top) was also produced in 1992. The Gold Zelda 2 was made in 89 and 90 I know. Again, no known date on the title on the bottom style label for the gray zelda 2.

So if you can take pictures of the PRG chips in the gray title on bottom carts, that would help us know more. I explained my theory and what supports it. If you can provide those pictures we can help support or disprove the theory. The issue of 5 screw and 3 screw carts doesn't really prove much. The 5 screw Zelda Gold was made in 87. But so were 3 screw Zelda Gold carts. 5 screw ones may indeed be earlier, but by very little, and they have the same software revision.

Edit: I was thinking, there is a possibility that the gray carts that have the same label as the gold carts could just be the factory using up remaining labels from the gold production but still be from the 92 / classic series rerelease. That might account for how rare those gray carts seem to be. So far I actually haven't found anything to suggest that the gray carts came first. But again, you have a gray cart with the same label as the gold carts, so checking the pcb would certainly help.

Edit: Actually looking at your picture again, the gray cartridge label doesn't appear to have the mark that it is PRG1.