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
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/128/l_1890e994ba5d4610a2a76690d5c1c1f2.jpg

Super Mario Bros. 2 (with seal) Back label does say 1985
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/102/l_c0e5743735c14ed4ac93c9602b580fd3.jpg

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
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/111/l_8837bc47d0d04b95a2405d056791b22e.jpg

SMB2 no seal nec chip
http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/123/l_bbc4a33664f9436381c22ba4e5b1e9bc.jpg

smb2 no seal back
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/120/l_4f4b79a9f8694966aa030575e2831407.jpg

smb2 no seal board info
http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/87/l_e980f1e6f2c24d2181423988189be450.jpg

smb2 with seal board
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/147/l_4e4dea5adcaf48449f227bf5c88458cb.jpg

smb2 with seal back
http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/150/l_19279b8f3629429bbee554dea80ed279.jpg

smb2 with seal board info
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/150/l_987a7332288745ef9ba313eea92ee5b7.jpg

smb2 with seal sony chip
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/141/l_626a2b9a37bc42089aa08bdf859b369a.jpg

[buzz_n64]

I found the cart at nintendoage, but no explanation.
http://www.nintendoage.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=NES.View&pId=1&egID=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. (http://www.nesreproductions.com/)

[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.