Pocket Reversi for NGPC... US version?

[izret101]

I saw a loose copy of Pocket Reversi for 10$ in a local game store.
I don't know much about NGPC so i wanted too look up a bit of info on the game.
It was not in the DO database as a US release and under the Euro releases it is an R9.

Is there a possibility that this shop is sitting on a uber rare import and doesn't know it or was their a US release that is just mysteriously absent from the DP database?

[Kroogah]

You saw the UK release, it's an R9 only if it's complete. Otherwise, you can find it pretty easily on Ebay like damn near any other loose cart. I was also fooled by this, after picking the cart up at last CGE for like $10. It's an OK game.

[izret101]

So the game isn't an R9 the packaging is an R9?

LOL that strikes my as funny but does make sense.
I was debating picking it up for myself after seeing it was an R9 but i guess if it is so common i will put it up as for sale like i originally was going to do.

Thanks for the info :)

[RetroYoungen]

Well damn. I was pretty excited about it when I picked it up and looked for it too.

Oh well, I still like playing it. And if anybody finds the packaging for it... you'll be my bestestest buddy in the whole wide world. ;)

[sharp]

I got it one and a half year back from eBay for 20$ new with box and manual with buy it now. Still I consider it as a R8 as I owned multiple copies of the game and I think there are at least 500to 1000 complete copies in existance. It was just realy hyped as little copies made it to the stores.

[izret101]

Thanks for the heads up sharp i was going to search for you to find out some more info. :)

Thanks again everyone for the info.
I am going to have to check thru the extra games to see if i can find a box or manual for this.

[Mayhem]

Easiest way to check which version of an NGPC game you have is to look at the product number:

NEOP0xxx = Europe
NEOP0xxx0 = Japan
NEOP0xxx1 = US

Also all US versions will have an ESRB on them.

I highly doubt you got a complete European version for $20 Sharp, unless someone was being a complete idiot. I've seen the Japanese version sold as a BIN for that price in the past however. And the Japanese version is not rare at all.

There are plenty of loose copies... there are not that many complete ones about. I'd say around 100 were still out there, but it's nowhere near 500 to 1000 in my opinion; I highly doubt more than 1000 were made in the first place!

(it was a very late Europe title, one that never made the US etc, like Faselei, Evolution and Picture Puzzle)

[sharp]

I highly doubt you got a complete European version for $20 Sharp, unless someone was being a complete idiot. I've seen the Japanese version sold as a BIN for that price in the past however. And the Japanese version is not rare at all.

I bought it in December 2004 from loongsfj. There was even a topic about it on n-g.com http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75759&highlight=pocket+reversi


There are plenty of loose copies... there are not that many complete ones about. I'd say around 100 were still out there, but it's nowhere near 500 to 1000 in my opinion; I highly doubt more than 1000 were made in the first place!

(it was a very late Europe title, one that never made the US etc, like Faselei, Evolution and Picture Puzzle)

I think there are really a lot more copies floating around, especially in Asia and they got exactly the same versions (except the early euro releases with 3 manuals) as Europe . I know multiple other people who got their copies from Hong Kong. Point is that it is that w don't know in which numbers it was sold their, but Reversi is much more popular in Souteast Asia then in Europe.

[junglehunter]

Another way you can tell Euro from US is that the US copies have these ugly cardboard packaging and the Euro copies have snap-lock cases (as do the JP, I believe).

[Mayhem]

As I said... unless someone was being an idiot ;)

I remember that post now... didn't realise it was you who was the lucky recipient :P

As for the number of copies, are you saying the people in Asia and Hong Kong and so forth were being sold the European version? Strange... when it came to the NGPC, many of the HK I know were being sold the Japanese versions of games.

It's hard to tell because PR was a late release, and as one of those that never made it to the US. Did these people get PR at the time, or after SNK had pulled out? If the latter, it would partially explain something as some stock would have been sent back to Japan and possibly resold or held over.

@Junglehunter - a few Japanese NGPC titles are in snaplock, but most are in cardboard cases.

[fishsandwich]

I've seen the Euro version being sold by a variety of sellers form Hong Kong. I think that someone has been making a mint with pirated inserts and covers, personally. I'd never buy a complete one now.

[Mayhem]

Returned stock most likely there... of course if you're gonna pirate a cover, you still need to get a manual from somewhere...

[D-Lite]

As I said... unless someone was being an idiot ;)

I remember that post now... didn't realise it was you who was the lucky recipient :P

As for the number of copies, are you saying the people in Asia and Hong Kong and so forth were being sold the European version? Strange... when it came to the NGPC, many of the HK I know were being sold the Japanese versions of games.

It's hard to tell because PR was a late release, and as one of those that never made it to the US. Did these people get PR at the time, or after SNK had pulled out? If the latter, it would partially explain something as some stock would have been sent back to Japan and possibly resold or held over.

@Junglehunter - a few Japanese NGPC titles are in snaplock, but most are in cardboard cases.
Pretty common for english game versions to turn up in HK. Remember, it was a British province and still has many english speakers, probably much much more so than Japanese speakers.

It's a pretty roundly accepted fact that the unsold titles were sent back to SNK for either destruction or repackaging. Pocket Reversi was a likely target since it's not a very popular game. Realize that it was very common for SNK to reprocess a game for a different one. They did this routinely with the AES and MVS carts and there is evidence to be found with overlabelling of those. I've even seen overlabelled NGPC carts too.

Also there are a couple of US releases that were available as hard cases. Notably Bust-a-Move and Metal Slug. These were bought direct from SNK back in the day.