Let’s talk NGPC in 2018!

[Vectorman0]

Does the top SamSho in your picture have the ELSPA rating printed on the rear insert?

No, just going for alternate covers as and when. I have the Tennis variant, just looking for the Baseball Stars Color without the Color, and that’ll be it.

The black and white Baseball Stars, or is there a NEOP0025 that doesn't have "Color" in the name?

 

[-SD-]

I finally got the strange and seemingly very rare Baseball Stars Color variant... this is the only one I’ve ever seen.

New one is on bottom left/middle, and it’s definitely a NEOP0025. Different font on spine. Has a completely different rear cover too... the B&W and common one share the same rear art other than the logo swap.

So that’s now all 5 B&W games and all 39 Color titles, as well as the cover variants of Pocket Tennis Color and Baseball Stars Color, and the two cover variants of SamSho!2 ��

Now I think that’s pretty damn complete as far as I’m concerned! And no, I’m not even nearly going to start on rear cover variants... I have other plans.

@Vectorman0

 

[[OCEAN]]

Thanks for sharing SD! Since I collect the Japanese versions, I didn't know so many cover/back variants were released in western markets.
In fact, I thought the B&W titles were never released out of Japan. Is that Baseball Stars an Asian version?

 

[Vectorman0]

Thanks for sharing SD! Since I collect the Japanese versions, I didn't know so many cover/back variants were released in western markets.
In fact, I thought the B&W titles were never released out of Japan. Is that Baseball Stars an Asian version?

The five English black and white releases are basically for every region outside Japan - Asia, Europe, and even USA (you could order them directly from SNK USA).

 

[[OCEAN]]

The five English black and white releases are basically for every region outside Japan - Asia, Europe, and even USA (you could order them directly from SNK USA).

So, just out of curiosity, the B&W English titles could be directly ordered to SNK once the NGP Color was officially released in the west? The B&W console itself never hit the stores out of Japan, right?

 

[-SD-]

The B&W was released in Brazil, along with about 3 or 4 games in blister packs.

 

[Vectorman0]

So, just out of curiosity, the B&W English titles could be directly ordered to SNK once the NGP Color was officially released in the west? The B&W console itself never hit the stores out of Japan, right?

The English black & white stuff was available from SNK USA pre-NGPC. I don't really know how the transition went, but I imagine they stopped selling/advertising b&w as soon as NGPC was on the horizon. I'm also not sure if you could get NGPC games from SNK USA directly before etoys.com sold them(or for how long). I don't think any retail store franchises carried black & white NGP items in the US. I'm sure a handful of independent shops imported black & white games, and in theory could have sourced games from SNK to sell. I can't really speak for the details of the distribution in Europe/Asia, but that is where most English black & white games have appeared on the secondary market over the years. Hopefully other forum members can speak to what they might have seen in stores.

I don't know the history of the Brazil NGP systems, but it seems like an aftermarket repackaging of discount bulk/leftovers - similar to the blister packs of NGPC items that were available in the US a couple years after the system died. The Brazilian black & white systems were sold in blister packs bundled with loose color games, which have lower quality labels not seen anywhere else. I'm guessing this was offered as a cheap alternative to GBC/GBA, but I don't know the full story.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

So today I found out that the play time counter stops at 255:59 in Cardfighters Clash. You can still keep playing etc, the counter just stops counting.

 

[pixeljunkie]

So today I found out that the play time counter stops at 255:59 in Cardfighters Clash. You can still keep playing etc, the counter just stops counting.

as in 255 HOURS?! Jesus!

 

[The_Chosen_One]

as in 255 HOURS?! Jesus!

Yup, it’s my time waster game I like to play in little bursts when I’ve got 15 min to kill. I just go through the tournament mostly.

Such a brilliant game, I still get popped every now and again by Mask or one of the other top tier characters.

 

[Vectorman0]

Thanks for posting those pics -SD-. I never noticed that variant before. There are a lot of minor cover changes on games that got later prints with the ELSPA rating printed on back, but this one is much more pronounced. They must have incorrectly grabbed the black and white artwork as the basis.

 

[-SD-]

The new Baseball Stars has a Colour manual and a unique cart label... I’ll take some more pictures if people are interested? It’s definitely a strange one.

 

[Vectorman0]

That is cool! I never saw those Mexican single cartridge releases before, only the blister packs with black and white system and games.

The new Baseball Stars has a Colour manual and a unique cart label... I’ll take some more pictures if people are interested? It’s definitely a strange one.

I'd take a look, but I'm not surprised to hear that. A lot of the games had very minor label changes, sometimes so trivial it makes me wonder why. I think they usually coincided with the box being changed.

This reminds me of a thread I have been wanting to make. There is presence of colored circles with letters in them on the box art of several Japanese/European releases, and I don't know why. I assume it was a Japanese thing that leaked over to Europe when things were translated/localized and whoever used the templates left it in while not knowing the purpose. Then, later English art revisions removed it entirely. It bothers me because I have no idea what they represent.

 

[Missed]

Anyone know if they make replacement capacitors on this? The sound on mine is starting to go, but i can't for the life of me find anything that isn't screen protectors and battery holders.

 

[Vectorman0]

-SD-, I think that European Baseball Stars Color without the "color" labeling used the US box artwork and spine, and that's why it exists like that.

Anyone know if they make replacement capacitors on this? The sound on mine is starting to go, but i can't for the life of me find anything that isn't screen protectors and battery holders.

The capacitors are probably relatively standard parts. I don't think anyone sells pre-made cap kits, so you would have to find and buy the parts yourself.

 

[[OCEAN]]

The new Baseball Stars has a Colour manual and a unique cart label... I’ll take some more pictures if people are interested? It’s definitely a strange one.

Wow, that Crush Roller is a strange one. Color software advertised with B&W screenshots... is that because only the B&W system was released in Mexico?

 

[-SD-]

Wow, that Crush Roller is a strange one. Color software advertised with B&W screenshots... is that because only the B&W system was released in Mexico?

That’s what it seems like. All the other Brazilian games I’ve seen have the references to Color completely removed.

 

[opt2not]

Woozle put out a video capture from his NGPC Consolizer:



Looks like he's been making some great progress with it, and has been putting more focus into it these days.
We might see an NGPC Consolizer soon!

Here's his recent twitter post with some small details as well:
https://twitter.com/Woozle64/status/1266872921093521408

 

[NeoSneth]

The graphics seem to scale well. I don't know about the sound.

 

[opt2not]

The sound in that video is a direct connection from the headphone jack. The ngpc doesn’t have the greatest sound to begin with.

 

[opt2not]

Woozle was able to get the quality of the sound to increase by soldering in the audio ADC circuit rather than pulling it from the headphone jack:



Sounds a hellava lot better!

 

[pixeljunkie]

Wow, that sounds great

 

[lions3]

This backlight screen mode is a must. And it doesn’t require permanently modding your system. You could switch back. Picked up from Console5.com

 

[NeoSneth]

gdamn you. That screen is perfect. Ordered.

 

[lions3]

FYI. The new screen didn’t come with a tutorial. So I followed this video. https://youtu.be/QZ20YoBmVGE