Did I find a rare version of a boxed NES game?

[DaddyLongLegs]

Hey guys! I just moved and perused some local garage sales in the new neighborhood, and found a guy who had some N64 stuff (nothing great) but had one NES game to sell. It was a boxed copy of Golf for the NES; but it's a bit different than all the other copies I can find.

http://i.imgur.com/Y3Zki.jpg

I *think* it might actually be brand new even though there's no cellophane, and let me explain why. I took the game out of the box and you can tell it has literally never been played. The label is brand new. Not so much as a fingerprint or scuff or anything. The manual and ROB the Robot poster are mint.

Then the back of the box looks like this:

http://i.imgur.com/j6avh.jpg

See on the top there? It's actually a perforated spot you are supposed to tear in the cardboard to make a "hang tag" out of (pretty clever!). I have never seen this before. Also, the very few pictures I can find of a sealed Golf has a plastic hang tag like this:

http://i.imgur.com/lnqxv.jpg

And one "mint in box" I found looks like this:

http://i.imgur.com/D48eQ.jpg

As you see, no perforation lines to rip a hang tag into it. What the did I find here? Thanks guys! :D

[Duke.Togo]

There are both hangtag and no hangtag versions of many of the black box NES games. You can find more details over at Nintendo Age.

[DaddyLongLegs]

There are both hangtag and no hangtag versions of many of the black box NES games. You can find more details over at Nintendo Age.

Thanks mate! :)

[dgdgagdae]

My black box copy of Golf would be just like yours, but the hang tag is long since torn off. You can see the back of the box where it's perforated for the hang tag, though.

My black box copies of Super Mario Bros., 10-Yard Fight, Duck Hunt, Gyromite, and Hogan's Alley are like that, too. The hang tag is part of the cardboard box, and you can punch it out to hang the box.

[Tanooki]

I'm not thinking it's new. Well not entirely. It may be a case where someone opened it up and didn't play it possibly. Old old early NES games weren't sealed, they had these little black circle stickers with print saying Nintendo on them and those had the attached hang tab your box there has. After that then you had the sealed up games and they had the plastic hang tab stuck onto the cellophane. Either way at least it looks to be in pretty decent shape as far as 25 year old boxes go. May be the lighting but it looks a little faded in front compared to the back and I think it's torn up there on the top.

I'm not some CIB nut though, I just like having a good quality condition game, and if I can get the manual tossed in as it should be, or with little added cost I'm happy.

[DaddyLongLegs]

I'm not thinking it's new. Well not entirely. It may be a case where someone opened it up and didn't play it possibly. Old old early NES games weren't sealed, they had these little black circle stickers with print saying Nintendo on them and those had the attached hang tab your box there has. After that then you had the sealed up games and they had the plastic hang tab stuck onto the cellophane. Either way at least it looks to be in pretty decent shape as far as 25 year old boxes go. May be the lighting but it looks a little faded in front compared to the back and I think it's torn up there on the top.

I'm not some CIB nut though, I just like having a good quality condition game, and if I can get the manual tossed in as it should be, or with little added cost I'm happy.

Ah so I was correct; this game I found was never sealed with cellophane even when it was brand new. Interesting! Only thing more interesting is there is no sign of a black circle sticker. There's no indication that there ever was one on there and was removed.

[BlastProcessing402]

All of the carboard hang tag games I had still had cellophane (and the stores just stuck another, plastic hangtag to the cellophane instead of using the cardboard ones).

Never seen them sealed with just a sticker, so they must've phased those out pretty early. Even my friend who had one in late 85/early 86, long before any of the rest of us in the neighborhood, none of his games came that way.

Any pictures around of these sticker sealed games? I'd like to see them, see a little bit of history I missed.

[Gameguy]

There was a whole thread on this years ago, there's a lot of games that came like this.

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?49588-NES-hangtab-box-variants-Split-from-factory-WRECKING-CREW

I remember having a copy of Faxanadu with a cardboard hangtab, it had to be a Canadian version but I remember it being like that. I think I sold it awhile ago though as the box was too beat up for me, it was falling apart around the hangtab.

I do remember seeing some boxes that were sealed with stickers but I'm not sure if I have any with them at the moment. Most of my boxed games are packed away for storage.

[Blitzwing256]

The black sticker versions were exclusive to Canada (though a few here and there made it to the US. I bought many of the black box releases, and all the hangtag ones i bought new were not sealed with cellaphane, in fact my mario bros has a hand written price on it (29.99)

[Tanooki]

I'm not Canadian and my first four games had a sticker that came in the 1985 test launch. Duck Hunt and Gyromite in the box with ol ROB had it, and then my mom also snagged and hit until Christmas with that setup Super Mario Bros and Hogan's Alley. I remember the following year everything was either flipped up hang tabs, but it wasn't often and it went away fast. Stores if not Nintendo themselves just started shrink wrapping the stuff and having those plastic sticky tabs stuck on the back. The cardboard was a rotten idea as it was so thin and flimsy it couldn't hold the weight of the game for long, little really if you had dumb employees yanking at them to remove from cases for customers to look at/buy.

[BeaglePuss]

The black sticker versions were exclusive to Canada (though a few here and there made it to the US. I bought many of the black box releases, and all the hangtag ones i bought new were not sealed with cellaphane, in fact my mario bros has a hand written price on it (29.99)
Sticker sealed games were not exclusive to Canada.