How to tell if NES game contents is "complete"

McFly130

Hi guys,  I'm new to the site.  I attended Midwest Gaming Classic  last week and it restored my retro hoarding.  In the past I've collected carts, but now I'm more interested in collecting my favorite games complete in good (ungraded) condition.



my question is how do I know if a game being sold is complete? What resource do you use to find out what adverts, warranty, maps, etc came with various revisions of each game to ensure what you are buying is truely "complete"?

bootload

www.nestalgia.ca has a lot for NES, if you create an account it will also track your collection. Creating an account is a bit weird, the screen just flashes without any feedback after you submit your details but it does work.

Trevor

Some users open sealed games and share what came in the box.



http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?StartRow=1&catid=5&threadid=773



Other than that you can just look through eBay listings and see how each listing compares and see what inserts may have been included, but due to people Frankensteining their stuff you can't be 100% sure.

Bort License Plate

Without opening a sealed game, or checking if someone else opened a sealed game, it's hard to say with 100% certainty.



I pay attention to condition, and what kind of stuff is included. If I see a mint game and it still has the plastic bag, along with a bunch of other crap, I can be pretty darn sure it's complete. Of course it doesn't have to be mint to be complete, but in general if it's kept in good shape it makes sense that all the stuff is still there from when it was opened. Some things are exclusive to certain games(posters/maps) or certain publishers (ads for other games they're releasing)



Also pay attention to variants, for example having a rev a Castlevania match a rev a box. There's people who even care about the back of the cart matching properly, bootgod has a database for making sure the number stamped on the back is correct.


Just look around and see what each copy includes, you can usually piece it together and it will be pretty close. There's no rule of thumb that I'm aware of.

Edit: It's also worth noting, for NES games, there's slightly different styrofoam blocks, slightly different sleeves, and slightly different baggies. If you're going for 100% absolute complete it can get pretty insane.
http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=152418

GCrites80s

And then over time the contents would change. Like how some copies of Ninja Turtles 2 had the coupon for a free Personal Pan Pizza from Pizza Hut while others didn't.

Philosoraptor

I've been using the_wizard_666's guide as a guideline:



https://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/916386-nes/faqs/49943