SNES ROM revisions

[badinsults]

I'm thinking of doing an article documenting various ROM revisions of US SNES game releases. After looking through the No Intro list, this is what I have come up with:

• Bulls Vs. Blazers and the NBA Playoffs
• Donkey Kong Country 2
• Donkey Kong Country (two revisions)
• Family Feud
• Fighter's History (?)
• Final Fantasy II
• Final Fantasy III
• Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
• George Foreman's KO Boxing
• John Madden Football '93
• Jurassic Park
• Killer Instinct
• Krusty's Super Fun House
• Lemmings
• Mega Man X
• Monopoly
• Mortal Kombat II
• NBA Jam
• NCAA Basketball
• Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday (?)
• Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball
• Speedy Gonzales in Los Gatos Bandidos
• Star Fox
• Stunt Race FX (?)
• Super Bases Loaded 3
• Super Battletank
• Super Buster Bros.
• Super Empire Strikes Back
• Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island
• Super Pinball
• Super Return of the Jedi
• Taz-Mania
• Tetris 2

I have a few question marks. It seems that Fighters History and Stunt Race FX don't have 1.0 release (I am assuming that they might have had some sort of glitch that caused them to do a second manufacturing before commercial release). For Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, there are Sunsoft and Acclaim ROMs, but I wonder if the Sunsoft version actually came out? I looked through a bunch of Ebay auctions, and they are all Acclaim releases. With the way the ROM distribution scene was during the time of the SNES, often games would be leaked before release, and Sunsoft sold off a bunch of games they had finished when they filed for bankruptcy in early 1995.

Another question I have is if there exists a ROM revision of NHLPA Hockey 93. When EA rebranded their sports division from "EASN" to "EA Sports", they also changed the title screens in several of their games to reflect this (ie John Madden '93, Bulls Vs. Blazers). I know that NHLPA Hockey 93 has a label variant that reflects the rebranding, but I wonder if the rebranded version has the same ROM in it.

Also, if anyone has PCBs of these games (or any snes games) that are not already on my website, I would appreciate them.

[alcoatjez]

Also, if anyone has PCBs of these games (or any snes games) that are not already on my website, I would appreciate them.

Feel free to use the scans from my redump thread (will be expanded soon): viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1222&p=2824
Unfortunately I don't have any of the games from your list.

[BigFred]

It appears to me both releases of Porky are tagged with both - Sunsoft and Acclaim.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Porky-Pigs-Haunted- ... 5883f0e807

http://cgi.ebay.com/SNES-GAME-PORKY-PIG ... 5ad4ab6eb8

While it's not readable in the first link the serial is longer for sure and it does say assembled in mexico in one case below the seal of quality and made in japan in the other case.

We still need a proof and a redump for Super Bases Loaded 3.

[badinsults]

I'm guessing both games will have the same binary on them. In late 1995, Acclaim cheaped out and started manufacturing their games in Mexico to cut costs. The labels are poor quality, but I doubt it makes a difference when it comes to their dumps.

[BigFred]

Well I think in another thread it was mentioned the carts come with different serial codes. For me it looks like one of these uses the new 4-letter system while the other still has the 2-letter one. We need a better picture to verify this.

[badinsults]

I seriously doubt they changed the serial code for the game. Hell, even late re-releases like Zelda and Super Bomberman 2 didn't change serial code. Really, the only thing that could possibly change is the addition of an "M/" in front of the serial if it was a "Made in Mexico" cart, or a "-1" at the end if they made a visible change to the label.

[FitzRoy]

It seems that Fighters History and Stunt Race FX don't have 1.0 release

This is almost certainly the case for Stunt Race FX, but not necessarily Fighter's History. Fighter's History 1.1 has the "A" stamp. It's probably just like the Final Fantasy IV (Jap) situation where the first release of the game is just incredibly rare. Like 1 in 50 rare.

By the way, we're also missing Star Fox 1.1.

While it's not readable in the first link the serial is longer for sure and it does say assembled in mexico in one case below the seal of quality and made in japan in the other case.

The two serials are SNS-KX-USA and SNS-APPE-USA. I've only dumped the SNS-KX-USA label, which strangely enough, contains an SNS-APPE-0 rom serial and APPE internal code. Both roms have APPE internal codes. It's unusual for the internal code to not match the label, but probably the result of a lazy handoff between two publishers.

[Vigi]

http://mnrogar.gopherbork.net/phpBB3/vi ... ?f=2&t=454

I came across this thread. Apparently there's a stamp on the back of the cartridge which will indicate the version?

If this is true, then this could make searching for other versions easier (no need to open up cartridge or look ingame)..

Would be cool if anyone here could check this. I don't have any 1.1 or 1.2 cartridges here atm.

Also, from looking at my cartridges, it seems that only the 'MADE IN JAPAN' labels have stamps.. the (differently colored, more greenish) 'ASSEMBLED IN MEXICO' labeled one that I have here doesn't have any stamps.

[badinsults]

The stamps are usually a good indicator, but it isn't 100% foolproof (for example, the player's choice version of Super Mario Kart has an "A" stamp, though it is a 1.0 version of the ROM).

[coolnation]

I have a few question marks. It seems that Fighters History and Stunt Race FX don't have 1.0 release (I am assuming that they might have had some sort of glitch that caused them to do a second manufacturing before commercial release). For Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, there are Sunsoft and Acclaim ROMs, but I wonder if the Sunsoft version actually came out? I looked through a bunch of Ebay auctions, and they are all Acclaim releases. With the way the ROM distribution scene was during the time of the SNES, often games would be leaked before release, and Sunsoft sold off a bunch of games they had finished when they filed for bankruptcy in early 1995.

Good question. Regarding the Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, it also plague me
I think the one done by Sunsoft is the Beta version.. but correct me if I am wrong
I have pictures of the screenshots somewhere to compare the differences between Sunsoft and Acclaims versions, as I noticed there are a few differences both during gameplay and intro screens.

[BigFred]

This is almost certainly the case for Stunt Race FX

It does not have a letter in the stamp? The weird thing is that Wild Trax also just has an 1.1 version dumped. But in both cases a Sample cart is known to exist. Maybe this is the lost 1.0?

http://retrogamer72.nintendoage.com/stuntrace.html

There is a similar case on the N64 where Aero Gauge v1.0 is only available on a Kiosk Demo cart.

[badinsults]

Most of those NFR carts are identical to the final release. I think the only exception is Street Fighter II?

[badinsults]

I have a few question marks. It seems that Fighters History and Stunt Race FX don't have 1.0 release (I am assuming that they might have had some sort of glitch that caused them to do a second manufacturing before commercial release). For Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, there are Sunsoft and Acclaim ROMs, but I wonder if the Sunsoft version actually came out? I looked through a bunch of Ebay auctions, and they are all Acclaim releases. With the way the ROM distribution scene was during the time of the SNES, often games would be leaked before release, and Sunsoft sold off a bunch of games they had finished when they filed for bankruptcy in early 1995.

Good question. Regarding the Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, it also plague me
I think the one done by Sunsoft is the Beta version.. but correct me if I am wrong
I have pictures of the screenshots somewhere to compare the differences between Sunsoft and Acclaims versions, as I noticed there are a few differences both during gameplay and intro screens.

I wouldn't be surprised if it is actually a beta. We have no way to know unless we can find it, though.

[BigFred]

Most of those NFR carts are identical to the final release. I think the only exception is Street Fighter II?

So did anyone definitely dump Stunt Race?

[badinsults]

While looking through my PCB list, I found out something. The globby StarFox PCBs have different revisions for each run. Perhaps we can use this information to find the elusive version 1.1 of the US release of StarFox.


- LR0G180 was for the first run of the Japanese version
- LR0G1801 was the first run of the US version
- LR0G1802 was Super Starfox Weekend
- LR0G1807 was for another US run (ROM revision 1.2)

we need to find 3-6