NES Super Mario Brothers. = Goonies II? WTF?

[Troglodyte]

Hello all,
I just recently received a bunch of old NES games in an eBay auction lot.
One game that came in the lot was Super Mario Bros... or so I thought. When I plugged it in, it turned out to be The Goonies II instead!

Any idea how this could have happened?
Do you think someone just swapped out the PCB
and placed the Goonies II PCB into the Super Mario Bros.?
Perhaps it is a prototype?

I am guessing it is the former. But I will probably be purchasing
a NES ROM dumping device in the near future just to make sure.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?

[gokugohandave]

Some one probably just swapped it out. It happens, I dont know how often, but especially with former rentals. It's happened to me before.

[kupomogli]

I think someone switched the games out. Super Mario Bros being one of the most least rare games, the person probably rented or borrowed Goonies 2 and switched the cartridge.

[Sonicwolf]

It's most likely a swapout situation.

Why would someone swap out an SMB board though? Thats wierd.

[Rickstilwell1]

I have heard of similar things in other threads on this site before. People would sometimes open up games and put them in cases of common games to still be able to play it, but get more money for a trade-in at a game store that didn't test games for selling what looked like a more expensive game. Those swindlers...

[jb143]

Aparetly this is somewhat common. What happens is someone would rent a game they like (Goonies II) swap out the board with a common game (Super Mario Bros.) and returning the case with wrong game keeping the one they like for cheaper than buying it. I've seen it myself with a Legend of Kage being a Legend of Zelda instead. I know it's happened to others on here as well.

[BetaWolf47]

I have heard of similar things in other threads on this site before. People would sometimes open up games and put them in cases of common games to still be able to play it, but get more money for a trade-in at a game store that didn't test games for selling what looked like a more expensive game. Those swindlers...

That would annoy me, having a good game with the wrong case...

[savageone]

Yup it's not at all uncommon, the most commonly switched games are naturally going to be Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt. It was almost impossible to have a NES and not have one of those games.

I remember some years ago I bought Mega Man 4 off ebgames.com and it turns out the game inside was actually SMB/DH. Oh the horror. :P Problem was I didn't actually get around to testing it until many months after I bought it, so I got screwed there.

[Sonicwolf]

Yup it's not at all uncommon, the most commonly switched games are naturally going to be Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt. It was almost impossible to have a NES and not have one of those games.

I wasnt alive at that point but I can sure tell there was a hell of a lot of those SMB/DH games around. My value village had 6 recently side by side.

[MissingNo_1231]

I bet that would mess with your brain big time. You buy a ticket to the Mushroom Kingdom and wake up somewhere completely different.

Hm, makes you wonder though if perhaps it's worth buying some of those Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridges if you can find them cheap, in hopes of finding super rare games inside of them.

[LAGO]

I bet that would mess with your brain big time. You buy a ticket to the Mushroom Kingdom and wake up somewhere completely different.

Hm, makes you wonder though if perhaps it's worth buying some of those Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridges if you can find them cheap, in hopes of finding super rare games inside of them.

If I tried this I would buy a bunch of SMB/DH carts and end up with only SMB or only DH.

[Rickstilwell1]

I bet that would mess with your brain big time. You buy a ticket to the Mushroom Kingdom and wake up somewhere completely different.

Hm, makes you wonder though if perhaps it's worth buying some of those Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridges if you can find them cheap, in hopes of finding super rare games inside of them.

At that point it would be more worth it to get a rom cart where you can burn any game onto it. If you have a game with the wrong label I would assume it's not worth nearly as much because its face value has been completely lost. There's no proof the game isn't counterfeit.

[MissingNo_1231]

exactly. Still, it would be a nice surprise.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

A long time ago video game stores used to clean bunches of games at the same time. They would unscrew 20 or NES games, clean the connectors, then screw the cases back on. Sometimes they would accidently switch some of the boards during the process. I only know this stuff because someone else was talking about it on the boards a while back.

[gdement]

The places where I rented games always had security stickers to prevent opening the shell - but I'm sure they weren't always checked.

It never occurred to me that people would still do this in the modern era, for trading in to places like Funcoland. That actually sounds like it would be easier to get away with, if you knew a particular store wasn't checking the games at time of trade-in.

[jb143]

It never occurred to me that people would still do this in the modern era, for trading in to places like Funcoland. That actually sounds like it would be easier to get away with, if you knew a particular store wasn't checking the games at time of trade-in.

The only problem with trying this nowadays(other than ethical reasons) is that, yes, they would end up with a cheaper game that they think is worth more, but you'd also end up with a cartridge that is worth less in the process.

[SamuraiSmurfette]

I bought a copy of bust a move pocket for ngpc a few years back, and i couldn't get it to work. I cleaned it and cleaned it to no avail. So i opened it up....and turns out someone had just put a piece of random circuitry in it. They had cut it to the shape of the cart.
Thankfully, I was able to return it.

So uh yeah, no point in buying a rom dumper people do screwy things with carts all the time

[PentiumMMX]

I've heard of this happening, but haven't had it happen to me yet.

[nhojy1]

I purchased Super Mario World at a Game Crazy once and it was Super Mario RPG! I was thrilled. What a great 2 dollar buy.

[Ed Oscuro]

I don't think any of the games I've gotten have been like this, though I also haven't tried them all out (especially on the NES side). Oh, imagine if my minty fresh Wall Street Kid is another Dash Galaxy, or Clash at Demonhead

NO! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO WALL STREET KID?!