SOQ - THE NINTENDO SEAL OF QUALITY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prior to the release of the NES in 1985, the video game market in the United States suffered a significant collapse due to a large number of terrible games flooding the market for the Atari system, and other home video game consoles.
The most famous example of this was E.T., which was full of programming bugs that caused the game to either crash or hit dead-ends where the player could not continue. In order to help restore consumer confidence, all licensed NES games that were released for sale carried the Nintendo Seal of Quality (SOQ). This seal was basically a guarantee from Nintendo that the game was going to actually work. It is reported that Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo during the NES era, personally inspected every licensed game in order for it to receive the Nintendo SOQ (not sure if this is really true). The SOQ appears on almost all licensed game labels (see below for more on that). It obviously does not appear on any unlicensed games.
Nintendo of America Employee SOQ Pin
CIRCLE SOQ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first version was the round "Circle SOQ" which was used from October 1985 - March 1989. Different color schemes of the Circle SOQ's exist for different games, depending on what was chosen to match the label artwork. There are no same-game variants with different versions of the Circle SOQ design. All 5-Screw cartridges, which stopped production by 1988, will only have the Circle SOQ.
Jaws
Kid Icarus
BurgerTime
The Legend
of Zelda
Xevious
Lode Runner
OVAL SOQ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The oblong "Oval SOQ" was used form March 1989 - 1995. The Oval SOQ's all feature the white & gold color design. All games with an initial release date from April 1989 - 1995 will only have the Oval SOQ. The oval shape of the new SOQ design was not used as frequently or consistently on PAL games. While the switch to the white & gold design was universal, the shape remained a circle for a majority of games made for PAL regions.
Adventure
Island
Toki
Rad Racer
The Legend
of Zelda
Ghostbusters
Double
Dragon
SOQ VARIANTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Games that were initially released from October 1985 - March 1989, and continued to be manufactured after March 1989, likely exist with both versions of the SOQ.
Bubble Bobble
Circle SOQ
Bubble Bobble
Oval SOQ
Additionally, a few licensed 3-Screw games from the Circle SOQ era do not have the SOQ on the label, although it did appear on the games' packaging. None of these games have a USA variant that features the Circle SOQ. For the games that continued to be produced after March 1989, the Oval SOQ was added to the labels later on. There is no explanation as to why these games were released without the SOQ.
The 6 licensed games that do not have the Circle SOQ (but should) are:
Anticipation, Donkey Kong Classics, Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet, Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Team Games. All of these games were published by Nintendo.
Donkey Kong Classics
No SOQ
Super Mario Bros. 2
No SOQ
Super Team Games
No SOQ
There is only one game from the Oval SOQ era that was produced without the SOQ on the label: Wario's Woods. As with the games above, there is no explanation for this. What makes this one even stranger is that the Super Nintendo version of the game, which was released at the same time, has the Oval SOQ on the label.
Wario's Woods
No SOQ
SOQ TRADEMARKS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next layer of SOQ variants involves trademark symbols. The Circle SOQ did not feature the ™ symbol or the ® symbol. The Oval SOQ however first featured the ™ and later featured the ®. This change took place for all titles actively in production in March 1990, and resulted in multiple games that were first produced with the ™ also having a variant with the ®. As you might have guessed, there are a few random games where the Oval SOQ does not have the ™ or the ®. Several games ended up having 3 SOQ variants - Circle, Oval TM, and Oval R.
Oval TM SOQ
Q*Bert
Tecmo Bowl
Circle SOQ
Oval R SOQ
Contra Force
Tecmo Bowl
Oval TM SOQ
Oval no TM SOQ
Back To The Future Part II & III
Tecmo Bowl
Oval R SOQ
The only true exception to the March 1990 trademark update timeline is Batman: Return of The Joker. Released in December 1991, there is only one version of this game and it features the Oval TM SOQ.
Batman: Return of The Joker
Oval TM SOQ
One other game seems to defy the March 1990 trademark update, but actually does not. Nintendo Power magazine once reported the release date of Bad Dudes as July 1989, but the actual release date was May 1990, 2 months after the Oval R SOQ went into use. Bad Dudes however only features the Oval TM SOQ. There are several instances where Nintendo Power listed what turned out to be an incorrect release date for a game, and this is most likely due to what the planned date was supposed to be vs. what actually ended up happening. Some PCB date codes on copies of Bad Dudes go back into 1989 so there is sufficient evidence that this game was in fact manufactured in 1989, but its release was apparently delayed for several months. Hence the Oval TM SOQ appearing after it was discontinued.
Bad Dudes 7/89 release date
as shown in the Pak Source directory insert of Nintendo Power Volume 11
All copies of World Games with the Oval no TM SOQ have a unique design with all the writing in Spanish.
World Games with Spanish Oval no TM SOQ
INTERNATIONAL SOQ'S -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I mentioned above that many Non-USA games continued to use a circle-shaped SOQ even after the release of the Oval SOQ in the USA. I also said that the Circle SOQ never featured the ™ or the ® symbols. That is true - for USA games. International games did add the ™ symbol to the new white & gold Circle SOQ in a lot of cases, and the ® symbol on some games as well. As mentioned before, the Circle SOQ's with trademark symbols are actually counterparts of the Oval SOQ, rather than a holdover of the original Circle SOQ's. They both have the same white & gold color scheme on every game, and are virtually identical other than the shape and the word "Official" being replaced with "Original".
Hammerin' Harry
Circle TM SOQ
Shadow Warriors
Circle R SOQ
Some international games feature dual-SOQ's, one in English and one in whatever language was native to the region the game was manufactured for.
Soccer
Dual Circle SOQ
English & Italian
Rad Racer
Dual Oval TM SOQ
English & Italian
A few late-model games released in Canada will feature the dual-language Oval SOQ in English and French-Canadian. This unique SOQ also has the TM/MC trademark, where MC stands for "Marque de Commerce".
Super Mario Bros. 3
Oval TM/MC SOQ
SOQ VARIANT LIST -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Below is a chart of all the USA games and which SOQ variants are known to exist for each.
SEMANTICS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One last note on SOQ's that doesn't really contribute anything to NES collecting, it's just a pet peeve of mine. You'll notice that I use the word "Circle" to describe the SOQ's as opposed to "Round". A lot of collectors, and even some professional grading services, use "Round". The choice between Circle and Round comes down to whether you're naming the shape, or describing the shape. I vote for naming the shape and here's why. It's a little confusing, but hear me out.
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Oval can be either, it's a noun and an adjective. Something can be an oval, or described as being oval. If you were describing an object that looked like an oval you would most likely say it was "an oval" or "oval-shaped". It would be less common to say "it's oval", although that would technically be proper English too.
Circle is a shape, it's a noun. If you were describing an object that looked like a circle you would say "it's round". Round is an adjective. You would not say "it's circle". You could say "it's a circle", the same way it would be correct to say that something is "an oval", but if I asked you what shape a vinyl record is you wouldn't say "it's circle", unless you wanted to sound like a caveman or something.
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When identifying an object it's better to be able to say what it is, as opposed to what it looks like. If you can say what something is, you have a fact. You only describe what something looks like if you aren't exactly sure what it is. When you apply this logic to the task of identifying characteristics of NES cartridges, I think Circle is the more appropriate choice.