The Cover Project
General Category => The Photo Gallery => Topic started by: marioxb on July 31, 2023, 02:33:22 PM
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Only released in parts of Europe (PAL B region, I believe), I've only found out about these recently and they are awesome! Pretty much all of the USA pixel art black box/ Famicom small box/ pulse line, plus a few other early Nintendo-published games are represented in this 40 title small box collection. They look to be the same size as the PAL/ USA NES carts themselves, i.e. how the carts would fit if they didn't have that styrofoam at the bottom normally. Most (all?) of these games were also released in other parts of Europe in standard size boxes. Many of them were also released in small boxes in Hong Kong, though the "black box" games were "blue box" over there. They use the Famicom art (or a slight variation of) for the most part, except where noted below.
The games are (in the order pictured below):
Black box series:
1. *Mario Bros.
2. *Donkey Kong
3. *Donkey Kong Jr.
4. *Donkey Kong 3
5. *Donkey Kong Jr. Math
6. Soccer
7. *Pinball
8. Ice Climber
9. Devil World (PAL/ Japan only)
10. Balloon Fight
11. Gumshoe (new art, not released in Japan)
12. *Tennis
13. Super Mario Bros.
14. *Duck Hunt
15. Kung Fu
16. *Hogan's Alley
17. Excitebike
18. Clu Clu Land
19. Wrecking Crew
20. Slalom (new art, not released in Japan)
21. Volleyball (new art, not FDS art)
22. *Golf
23. Mach Rider
24. *Wild Gunman
25. Pro Wrestling (new art, not FDS art)
26. Urban Champion
27. *Popeye
Silver box:
28. Metroid (new art, not FDS art)
29. Kid Icarus
30. Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! (USA/ Japan art)
Other:
31. Ice Hockey (USA art, not FDS art)
32. Donkey Kong Classics (USA art, not released in Japan)
33. Super Mario Bros 2 (USA art, not Famicom art)
34. To the Earth (USA art, not released in Japan)
35. Cobra Triangle (USA art, not released in Japan)
36. Tetris (USA art, not released in Japan)
37. RC Pro-Am (USA art, not released in Japan)
38. The Legend of Zelda (USA art, not FDS art)
39. Zelda II- The Adventure of Link (USA art, not FDS art)
40. Anticipation (USA art, not released in Japan)
The images below are taken from a former Nintendoage user (from Europe, I presume) Hipsilon_2b's complete collection. I've mirrored his photobucket images on imgbb below.
(https://i.ibb.co/tmbMF2x/SNC00349.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/PjxkkKd/SNC00341.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/M2Fdfw5/SNC00343.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/7n8XYdr/SNC00339.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/Lkk9G94/SNC00338.jpg)
Here's the Nintendo Age post, backed up on archive.org (since Nintendo Age is gone :( ):
https://web.archive.org/web/20191025065118/http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=40606
And another post about them:
https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?66215-NES-European-Small-boxes
Here's some info about the Hong Kong small boxes:
https://www.videogamesage.com/forums/topic/11626-hong-kong-hkg-nes-games/
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamecollecting/comments/7tn6wf/first_complete_nes_game_added_to_my_collection/
I can't seem to find a complete list of the HK boxes, but I think they mostly overlap with the PAL-B black small box games, but they did have at least one exclusive (outside of Japan), Mahjong:
(https://www.retroplace.com/pics/nes/packshots/2160--mah-jong.png)
(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/85/47/90/854790b320374d20e9edc5ebc2f3596a--video-game-console-nintendo.jpg)
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamecollecting/comments/y9cku3/got_my_first_authentic_nes_game_and_nes_today/
I live in the USA so they'd be almost impossible for me to find in the wild, and I don't want to spend a lot acquiring them. For my recreations, I am sizing them for CGC cases, if the CGC cases were shorter (in other words, I have no idea what size cases these may fit, I haven't printed any). But they are sized at 3431 x 1613. I'm making the recreations using scans from nintandbox.com, this site, and high quality Famicom and PAL box scans I've found via Google. My set will be expanded from 40 to 50 titles with the following that mostly are either, A- part of the US pixel box series, and/or B- early Famicom titles. I'm trying to represent every early Nintendo-published cartridge game (released thru 1987 in Japan, except Family Basic and the 2nd Mahjong game).
41. 10-Yard Fight (released by Irem in Japan)
42. *Baseball
43. Gyromite (USA/ Japan only, never had a box in Japan, can someone draw artwork in the style of early Famicom art?)
44. Stack-Up (USA/ Japan only, never had a box in Japan, can someone draw artwork in the style of early Famicom art?)
45. Rad Racer (pixel art in USA, new art for PAL)
46. Punch-Out!! (can be either the gold Famicom version or the NES re-release without Tyson)
47. F1 Race (early Famicom game)
48. *Gomoku (early Famicom game)
49. *Mahjong (early Famicom game)
50. *Popeye's Lingo Game (early Famicom game)
* = Also a small box Famicom game, which, just like the PAL small boxes, are the same size as the cartridge. All of these were also pulse line games, except the gun games (Duck Hunt, Wild Gunman, Hogan's Alley), which used box art on the labels. Devil World was the only pulse line game that didn't come in a small box. Most of the pulse line games were later released with box art on the cart labels. See:
https://famicomworld.com/workshop/articles/pulse-line-cartridges/
https://nintendosegajapan.com/2018/10/31/complete-nintendo-small-box-famicom-game-set/
My recreation collection will come in many variations. Japan art, pixel art, PAL art (if different), HK style, PAL style, USA style and Famicom-ish style.