THE 1987 VARIANT DILEMMA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is where a lot of collectors throw in the towel. The endless overlapping subvariants covered on this page seem like a bottomless pit for anyone trying to "complete" their collection. What most people don't realize however is that a majority of these variants such as REV-A and MiJ only occurred on a small percentage of the games in the NES catalog, all appeared and then resolved themselves between 1987 and early 1989, and are all in some way connected to each other. I like to refer to this period as the 1987 Variant Dilemma. This is the most complicated NES subject to conquer. Here's what we're dealing with:
​
1. 5-Screw and 3-Screw cartridges
2. Non-REV-A and REV-A back labels
3. The addition of Made in Japan (MiJ) to the games' labels
4. Nintendo logo trademarks
5. The addition of ID Codes to the games' labels
​
By the end of 1987 there were 89 licensed NES games released in the USA. In order to keep track of all of the variants that occurred during this time period it is necessary to divide these games into two groups: Games published by Nintendo (1st-party), and games by licensed 3rd-party publishers such as Capcom and Bandai. The reason for this is that some variants occurred across the entire catalog, and some only occurred on the Nintendo-published games. Below is the list of the games in each group.
Variants
vs.
Collector
GROUP 1 - 35 Titles
Games published by Nintendo through 1987
10-Yard Fight
Balloon Fight
Baseball
Clu Clu Land
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong 3
Donkey Kong Jr.
Donkey Kong Jr. Math
Duck Hunt
Excitebike
Golf
Gumshoe
Gyromite
Hogan's Alley
Ice Climber
Kid Icarus
Kung Fu
The Legend of Zelda
Mach Rider
Mario Bros.
Metroid
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Pinball
Popeye
Pro Wrestling
Rad Racer
Slalom
Soccer
Stack-Up
Super Mario Bros.
Tennis
Urban Champion
Volleyball
Wild Gunman
Wrecking Crew
GROUP 2 - 54 Titles
Games by 3rd-Party Publishers through 1987
1942
3-D WorldRunner
Alpha Mission
Arkanoid
Athena
Athletic World
BreakThru
Burger Time
Castelvania
Chubby Cherub
Commando
Deadly Towers
Double Dribble
Elevator Action
Ghosts 'N Goblins
The Goonies II
Gotcha! The Sport
Gradius
Ikari Warriors
Jaws
Karate Champ
The Karate Kid
Kid Niki: Radical Ninja
The Legend of Kage
Lode Runner
Lunar Pool
M.U.S.C.L.E.
Mega Man
Mighty Bomb Jack
Ninja Kid
Raid on Bungeling Bay
Ring King
Rush'n Attack
Rygar
Section Z
Side Pocket
Sky Kid
Solomon's Key
Spelunker
Spy Hunter
Sqoon
Stadium Events
Star Force
Star Voyager
Stinger
Super Pitfall
Tag Team Wrestling
Tiger-Heli
Top Gun
Track & Field
Trojan
Winter Games
Wizards & Warriors
Zanac
REV-A -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We'll start by covering the variants that impact all 89 games - REV-A and 5/3-Screw cartridges. One of the more well-known terms in the NES collecting vernacular is "REV-A". REV is short for Revision, and the REV-A designation was added to the games' back labels and packaging starting around September 1987. By early 1988 all new games produced had a REV-A back label and were in a 3-Screw cartridge. Games without the REV-A code printed on them are typically referred to as Non-REV-A.
​
So what is REV-A, anyway? The truth is that nobody really knows for sure. A long time ago the NES collecting community decided that it was most likely an indicator for the new 3-Screw cartridge design since REV-A and 3-Screw carts both showed up around the exact same time and, in most cases, 5-Screw carts have Non-REV-A back labels and 3-Screw carts have REV-A back labels. Any variants that exist that went against this system were simply written off as factory anomalies that occurred while old stock was being used up. This isn't a bad theory, and it also provides a pretty good way to help sort out all the variants that occurred during this time, however some good reasons exist why the "REV-A = 3-Screw" theory probably isn't entirely correct. Below are a few of these reasons. I'm working on solving this mystery so check back for updates. If you have researched this yourself I'd love to hear your thoughts.​​
-
​The Karate Kid, Side Pocket, and Stadium Events were all released in 1987 with Non-REV-A back labels, in 3-Screw cartridges only. (There are a few 5-Screw SE carts out there but their legitimacy is a matter of debate).
-
REV-A only exists on NTSC (USA and Canada) carts. It was not used anywhere else in the world even though 5-Screw and 3-Screw cartridges were.
-
There are an excessive amount of variants, spanning too long of a time, with Non-REV-A labels on 3-Screw carts and REV-A labels on 5-Screw carts for these two things to have been directly and exclusively related.
-
REV-A is computer lingo, usually referring to a software version of some kind. For example, see the REV-A/B variant of Action 52. In addition to all of the cartridge and label variants that were happening in 1987, the USA version of the NES motherboard and CIC lockout chips were also getting lots of upgrades. The change from the 3193A to the 6113 software code on the CIC chips in game cartridges also happened very abruptly in September 1987. Unlike the switch from Non-REV-A to REV-A back labels, there is no overlap of this CIC software at all, not even by a single month. Also all PAL region carts (which never got REV-A) stayed with their 3195, 3196, or 3197 CIC codes. They never got a 6113 software variation.
Mega Man
REV-A Box
The REV-A code always appears in the upper-right corner of the back label, except on the REV-A 7 and REV-A 11 labels, where it is in the upper-left corner. During the 1987-1989 era there were 6 unique back label variants, 3 with Non-REV-A and 3 with REV-A, which are covered in detail below.
Most Carts
5-Screw Non-REV-A
3-Screw REV-A
1987 Changeover Carts
5-Screw REV-A
3-Screw Non-Rev-A
Regardless of what REV-A actually is, the 5-Screw Non-REV-A and 3-Screw REV-A design holds true for probably about 99% of all games that were manufactured. The two games pictured above that are mismatched are examples of the other 1%. There are two key things to know before digging into each game's REV-A variants:
1. All new games with an official release date from January 1988 forward only exist in a 3-Screw cartridge with one or more of the REV-A back labels.
2. REV-A label variants are limited to games released between the NES launch in October 1985 and the end of 1987, that were still in production at the time of the changeover.
Every single variant covered on this page is for a Circle SOQ cartridge only. All Non-REV-A games only will have the Circle SOQ. The Oval SOQ wasn't launched until April 1989, and the Non-REV-A labels were long gone by then. Learn all about SOQ's here.
​
​
It should be noted that since the games can be taken apart, it is possible to switch out the back half of the cartridge and create a fake REV-A variant game. However this is harder to pull off than it sounds because you would need a back label format that is an exact match to a genuine copy, and the date codes on the game's IC chips indicate pretty accurately which back label should be on that copy of the game.
Matching up 6 different back labels to 89 different games that mostly exist in 2 different cartridge form factors sounds like it would produce a huge number of variants, and it does. However there are some easy-to-follow rules when it comes to REV-A that not only reduce the number of potential variants that might exist, they actually allow us to know (for the most part) what exists and what doesn't.
1. Non-REV-A 3 and REV-A 3 both only exist on The Legend of Zelda. So Zelda only has 2 label options, and the other 88 games only have 4 (actually it's only 3, see next rule).
2. Non-REV-A 1 only exists on the remaining 34 Nintendo-published games, and Non-REV-A 2 only exists on the 54 games by 3rd-party publishers. If a game has a Non-REV-A 1 label, it will not have a Non-REV-A 2 label, and vice versa.
3. REV-A 1 and REV-A 2 can appear on all 88 games (but not Zelda), they are not publisher-specific.
4. REV-A 1 does not get skipped. If one of these 88 games has a REV-A 2 label (with Circle SOQ), it also has a version with a REV-A 1 label.
5. If a game has a REV-A 1 label, it usually also has a REV-A 2 label version. I estimate about 75% of the time.
6. There are no REV-A 2 labels on 5-Screw cartridges. By the time the REV-A 2 label went into use, the 5-Screw
cartridges were long gone.
​
Taking all the REV-A rules into consideration, the maximum number of possible REV-A & cartridge variant combinations per game for the 54 3rd-party titles is 5, each pictured below. Click on the images to get a magnified view of each.
5-Screw
Non-REV-A 2
5-Screw
REV-A 1
3-Screw
Non-REV-A 2
3-Screw
REV-A 1
3-Screw
REV-A 2
MADE IN JAPAN -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Throughout 1987 the front labels for just about all of the games in production, 1st-party and 3rd-party, got an update where "Made in Japan" was added. This is commonly referred to by collectors as "MiJ". In most cases it was placed near the ID Code, using the same sized font. As a result several games will have a 5-screw variant with and without MiJ on the label, and in some cases a 3-screw MiJ variant as well. By the time the Circle SOQ & REV-A 2 back label combo went into use all of the games that were going to get MiJ already had it. So any cart that exists from that variant combo forward (which includes all Oval SOQ variants) will not have an overlapping MiJ variant.
1942 no MiJ
1942 MiJ
NINTENDO LABEL VARIANTS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The very first variant to occur on any NES game (other than the Famicom Adapter carts) was the addition of the ™ symbol to the "Nintendo Entertainment System" logo on the front labels of the original 30 black box games. This happened sometime between 1986-1987 and lasted until the ™ was replaced by the ® toward the end of 1987.
NES no TM
Hogan's Alley
NES TM
Hogan's Alley
NES R
Hogan's Alley
Right around the time that the NES R logo appeared, Nintendo also started adding "Made in Japan" to the front labels. Not long after MiJ showed up, Nintendo also started printing the games' ID Codes on the front label (the 3rd-party publishers always have the ID Code on their games). The end result of all of this, in addition to the cartridge and REV-A variants already covered above, is that in order to properly identify which game you're actually holding in your hand you need to look for all 5 variants listed at the top of this page. Some quick math will tell you that the potential number of variants just between these 35 games number in the thousands, but as with REV-A there a several rules for these variants that reduce their numbers exponentially.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
1. Again, Non-REV-A 3 and REV-A 3 only exist on The Legend of Zelda, and Non-REV-A 2 only exists on the other 54 3rd-party games. This drops the potential number of back-label variants for the remaining 34 Nintendo-published games down from 6 to 3. They can have Non-REV-A 1, REV-A 1, and REV-A 2.
2. Five of these games only exist in a 5-Screw cartridge - Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Gumshoe, Soccer, and Stack-Up.
3. ID Codes do not appear on the labels unless MiJ also appears. There are no labels with only the ID Code on them. They also only appear when the game has a REV-A back label. There are no Non-REV-A games with the ID Code.
4. NES TM with MiJ is the rarest label, and only appears on a few games (and on several really bad reproduction labels). You typically will not find MiJ without NES R, and you will never see an ID Code without NES R.
​
Another important thing to remember is that not all of the games were in constant production during this time, so some of them got fewer unique label updates and therefore have fewer variants. For example, Super Mario Bros. has a lot more variants than Volleyball. The reality is that there are somewhere around 150 total confirmed variants (and counting) between these 35 games. That averages out to just over 4 variants per game, not too bad after all.
​
Here's some more good news: There are only 6 unique front label variant combinations that came out of this era. Below is an example of each.
no MiJ and no ID Code
Kung Fu
MiJ and no ID Code
Kung Fu
MiJ and ID Code
Kung Fu
-NESnoTM-noMiJ-noCode.jpg)
NES no TM
no MiJ
no ID Code
(Pinball)
-NESTM-noMiJ-noCode.jpg)
NES TM
no MiJ
no ID Code
(Donkey Kong)
-NESTM-MiJ-NoCode.jpg)
NES TM
MiJ
no ID Code
(Baseball)
-NESR-noMiJ-noCode.jpg)
NES R
no MiJ
no ID Code
(The Legend of Zelda)
-NESR-MiJ-noCode.jpg)
NES R
MiJ
no ID Code
(Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!)
-NESR-MiJ-Code.jpg)
NES R
MiJ
ID Code
(10-Yard Fight)
CONCLUSION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As stated at the very top of this page, there are 5 things that need to be identified and sorted out in order to conquer the 89 games in 1987 Variant Dilemma. The first 3 apply to all 89 games. The last 2 apply only to the 35 games published by Nintendo:
1. Cartridge Type - 5-Screw or 3-Screw
2. Back Label - Non-REV-A 1, Non-REV-A 2, Non-REV-A 3, REV-A 1, REV-A 2, or REV-A 3
3. MiJ (front label) - no MiJ, or MiJ
4. Trademark (front label) - NES no TM, NES TM, or NES R
5. ID Code (front label) - no ID Code, or ID Code
Remember, all of these games have the Circle SOQ. All Oval SOQ variants of the 35 Nintendo-published titles that exist will always be in a 3-Screw cartridge with a REV-A 2 or later back label, and have NES R, MiJ, and ID Code on the front label. Oval SOQ variants of the other 54 3rd-party games will also only be in a 3-Screw cartridge, and have a REV-A 2 or later back label.
The two charts below provide a roadmap to the 1987 Variant Dilemma for the 35 Nintendo-published games. You can use the ID Tool to match the cartridge type, front label, and back label of your game to properly identify the full-variant version. The Variant Grid is a visual reference of which combinations of carts & labels exist, and which ones don't. If you have a copy of a game with a combination that the grid says shouldn't exist please contact me. It's either a new variant, or the back plate has been switched out and it's not original.
Think the existence of the first two 3-Screw REV-A 2 carts with older label variants looks out of place? Good eye, you're right. A few of the black box games apparently got a print run in early 1989 that resulted in variants with old front labels paired with the new REV-A 2 back label and GameBit screws in the cartridge.