Star Fox cartridge

[adsfgk]

I've just purchased a copy of Star Fox off of ebay and I noticed that the front of the cartridge is in the same shape as the earlier snes games (with the horizontal groove in the middle). There are other copies out there which have the newer (model 'A' I think they were officially called) cartridge fronts (with the sloped area in the center).

Given that Star Fox was released in the US on 3/1/93, wasn't this a little late for the original cartridge to ship with the earlier design? I figured it was phased out by late '92.

So, this leads me to my question: is this copy legit or not? If it is, would that mean that Star Fox was one of the last snes games to ship with the original cartridge design?

[Oldskool]

I don't think it's much cause for concern. My Super Mario World cart has no slit in it, yet my F-Zero and Star Fox does. Unless my Super Mario World was a late build or something. Also, my Gradius III has a slit in it too. As you know Gradius III and Super Mario world were one of the 4 or 5 games released at launch. So there is an inconcistancy there.

Best way to tell is open her up and take a look. See if you can locate the FX chip.

[Urzu402]

Just checked my StarFox it also has the old style front.

[adsfgk]

Just checked my StarFox it also has the old style front.

Were you the original owner (and so can confirm that it's official)?

[Urzu402]

Were you the original owner (and so can confirm that it's official)?

No sorry, but the only thing I can confirm is that it didn't come from the internet, I bought it at a store that closed a while ago. Also it is highly unlikely that someone would make a fake StarFox, due to the chip being expensive to reproduce and Starfox not being an Expensive cart at all.

EDIT A store that sold used games.

[Leo_A]

As far as I knew until just now, all Star Fox cartridges used the original style of cartridge.

My copy and my SuperNes console were both bought brand new in late 1995 from a Ames department store. Until now, I've never even heard of a Star Fox cartridge with the later cartridge casing, although a Google image search shows some that did use it.

I'd lean towards saying the older style is more common. It's what myself and several other friends that owned the game had and what I've seen in lots on Ebay and places like here.

[adsfgk]

I've been doing just a bit of research and I came across this thread here:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58836

The 2nd to last post says that one of the first cartridges to have the new style was Alien 3. Wikipedia tells me that this game was released in the US in May 1993, which would put it at two months after the release date of Star Fox.

So, yeah, I think that Star Fox was probably one of the last games to carry the original cartridge design.

Interesting!

[betamax001]

I would imagine that all earlier games such as Super Mario World or Star Fox would also come in both cart designs depending on when they were made.

[Eyedunno]

Star Fox must have sold like crazy then. My U.S. copy has the newer-style cartridge, and I got it in July of 1993.

[retroman]

my starfox has the old style cartridge too....your all good..

[Dr. Dib]

My Starfox copy has the older style cartridge format as well. My dad purchased it probably around the time it came out and I doubt he would have purchased a pirated cart. If he did I would wonder where he would have gotten it.

[badinsults]

StarFox was one of the biggest game launches Nintendo did up to that point, and I imagine they were making copies of that using any and all cart shells they had left in their inventory.

BTW, both my StarFox and Super StarFox Weekend carts have the new style shells. My StarFox PCB has a date stamp of 9324 (Early June) and my Super StarFox Weekend has a stamp of 9312 (late March).

Also, the Super FX coprocessor has never been pirated, so the chance of the game being pirated is non-existent.