Seal of quality variations and absence of. Is this unusual?

[buzz_n64]

Mainly I'm referring to the Nintendo Official Seal of Quality. Basically it means it's a licensed cart, weather it be the classic round seal, or the revised oval seal. However I have come across a Super Mario Bros. 2 cart with no seal! Likly a fake pirate, early misprint, or in between the transitional phase of the two seal logos? Chances are that it might not be legitimate, but I can't even get it to boot on my NES to investigate further, or find out info on the net with slight research.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (No seal) Back label doesn't say 1985


Super Mario Bros. 2 (with seal) Back label does say 1985


Sorry about the image quality, these are night shots with low lighting, shot with a cell phone camera. If needed, I can take better quality shots.

[MasterJSP]

Have you opened that sucker up to see what's inside?

[buzz_n64]

Here are pics of the inside and comparison to a regular cart.

smb2 no seal board


SMB2 no seal nec chip
http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...a4e5b1e9bc.jpg

smb2 no seal back
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...75e2831407.jpg

smb2 no seal board info
http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...88189be450.jpg

smb2 with seal board


smb2 with seal back
http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...dea80ed279.jpg

smb2 with seal board info
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...eea92ee5b7.jpg

smb2 with seal sony chip
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...df859b369a.jpg

[buzz_n64]

I found the cart at nintendoage, but no explanation.
http://www.nintendoage.com/index.cfm...=2249&lgID=981

[AlanD]

Well the no-seal version is older as you can tell from the seal version having a -1 PRG chip as opposed to the no-seal -0. Can't give you more help than that really. Is the cart label part number different as it should be since they added the seal to the second version?

Oh and I believe it is a legit cart since most pirates did not go to the effort of labeling the chips with Nintendo's style of part numbers.

[BetaWolf47]

They are just variants. The one with full pins is more valuable since it is the Final Fantasy 3 donor cart.

[gdement]

Yeah it's legit. My copy is an early cart that I was given for Christmas 1988 when the game was new. I just checked and it's the "no seal" version, with full pins. ... Granted, I don't know how my parents got it, and I've heard them joke about buying it off "some guy", but I think it's legit.

Looks like yours is also an early cart - the ROM date codes on the older cart say 8839 (manufactured in 39th week of 1988). So it was a launch cart, very short in supply at the time.
Your "with seal" cart's ROM chip is dated 9011.

So it looks like they just changed the design a bit somewhere between 1988 and 1990.

[buzz_n64]

Yeah it's legit. My copy is an early cart that I was given for Christmas 1988 when the game was new. I just checked and it's the "no seal" version, with full pins. ... Granted, I don't know how my parents got it, and I've heard them joke about buying it off "some guy", but I think it's legit.

Looks like yours is also an early cart - the ROM date codes on the older cart say 8839 (manufactured in 39th week of 1988). So it was a launch cart, very short in supply at the time.
Your "with seal" cart's ROM chip is dated 9011.

So it looks like they just changed the design a bit somewhere between 1988 and 1990.

Cool, thanks for the info, it was very helpful. Too bad thorough cleaning won't even get the cart to work, well at least I can play the other cart.