I think that's pretty much it. It didn't sell well, which is why so few are out there. Athletic World would've been left alone, and reissued with the new label and packaging, but Stadium Events would've languished on store shelves until being returned/sold off. I think the whole recall theory is nothing more than an urban legend, because there is no real reason to believe it WAS recalled in the first place.
That's a great point. As I'm reading through the last few posts I'm thinking that they all seem well-reasoned, but our reasoning is only as good as our initial assumptions. For instance, the info DreamTR provided is pretty solid since he at least heard it first-hand from Bandai, but whether there was actually a "recall" or whether Nintendo just let the very limited SE stock sell off is probably an unknown until we get better "intell."
However, it seems to me that there is something we could do to estimate the number of SE carts that went into circulation. I'm sure there's a way statistically (get ready for some pretty nerdy shit) to correlate the number of carts sold for a given game (say something like Metroid that is know to have sold 1 million copies based on reported sales) to the probability of finding it in a typical ebay lot. So for instance, if you know that there are ~170 Metroid listings on ebay out of 23,000 total Nintendo NES listings today, and test out this relationship on several more titles, you can get a loose formula going (1 million sold = .75% likelihood of ebay listing). Using this approximation, work backwards and take the likelihood of seeing SE on ebay (what, once a year maybe?) and we get:
1/52 chance of seeing it on ebay (assumes the auction is up for 7 days) divided by 25,000 (presumed average daily ebay listings in Nintendo NES category) = .000000769 Proportionally... .000000769 / .0075 = x / 1,000,000 x = ~102
Assuming you aren't rolling your eyes at me by now... we have shown that the number of SE carts in circulation was somewhere within the power of magnitude of 100. So the "200" figure purported to have sold could be legit. Now, who wants to check my math? I'm positive I screwed up a decimal place or two in there. Also, my little theory could be totally bunko but I'd like to hear what you guys think anyways.
Well, considering Nintendo's minimum print run on any new game, and Bandai being the biggest 3rd party publisher at the time, I think the first run may have had more than the bare minimum, but still not a huge amount. Maybe 50K. Let's say that of that print run, maybe half made it to stores (the other half ended up in Bandai's warehouse and likely recycled). Of that, around half were sold, and the other half returned to Bandai for various reasons (defects, credit toward other Bandai titles, ect...again, these ultimately ended up recycled). That still leaves 12,500 copies sold to the public. Of these, half ended up in the dump, still leaving 6,250 copies out there. Obviously it's not an accurate breakdown, and we have no idea how many were initially made or shipped to retailers, but you get the idea. Not disputing it's status as the rarest licensed NES game or anything, but I find it hard to believe it's actually as rare as people think.
That's a great point. As I'm reading through the last few posts I'm thinking that they all seem well-reasoned, but our reasoning is only as good as our initial assumptions. For instance, the info DreamTR provided is pretty solid since he at least heard it first-hand from Bandai, but whether there was actually a "recall" or whether Nintendo just let the very limited SE stock sell off is probably an unknown until we get better "intell."
However, it seems to me that there is something we could do to estimate the number of SE carts that went into circulation. I'm sure there's a way statistically (get ready for some pretty nerdy shit) to correlate the number of carts sold for a given game (say something like Metroid that is know to have sold 1 million copies based on reported sales) to the probability of finding it in a typical ebay lot. So for instance, if you know that there are ~170 Metroid listings on ebay out of 23,000 total Nintendo NES listings today, and test out this relationship on several more titles, you can get a loose formula going (1 million sold = .75% likelihood of ebay listing). Using this approximation, work backwards and take the likelihood of seeing SE on ebay (what, once a year maybe?) and we get:
1/52 chance of seeing it on ebay (assumes the auction is up for 7 days) divided by 25,000 (presumed average daily ebay listings in Nintendo NES category) = .000000769 Proportionally... .000000769 / .0075 = x / 1,000,000 x = ~102
Assuming you aren't rolling your eyes at me by now... we have shown that the number of SE carts in circulation was somewhere within the power of magnitude of 100. So the "200" figure purported to have sold could be legit. Now, who wants to check my math? I'm positive I screwed up a decimal place or two in there. Also, my little theory could be totally bunko but I'd like to hear what you guys think anyways.
I think there's a flaw in your theory - the greater the demand and value of the game, the more likely it will be listed on ebay. And game demand/value doesn't necessarily correlate with rarity.
Besides, 200 isn't even a blip on the radar. A minimum production run on the NES was probably in the 50k copies range. 200 is like less than 3 cases of games. I don't think any recall in history has ever been that efficient, let alone one conducted by Woolworths. For a non-safety issue to boot.
Originally posted by: Dommie A minimum production run on the NES was probably in the 50k copies range.
I call bs on this
How ya figure? I've seen production runs of Atari 2600 and 7800 carts. The leftovers that were to be destroyed were in the neighborhood of 50k+ copies per title.
Originally posted by: Dommie A minimum production run on the NES was probably in the 50k copies range.
I call bs on this
How ya figure? I've seen production runs of Atari 2600 and 7800 carts. The leftovers that were to be destroyed were in the neighborhood of 50k+ copies per title.
That is why they crashed.
I doubt anyone was producing 50,000 copies in one shot, 10-20 thousand max back in 89
Originally posted by: Dommie A minimum production run on the NES was probably in the 50k copies range.
I call bs on this
How ya figure? I've seen production runs of Atari 2600 and 7800 carts. The leftovers that were to be destroyed were in the neighborhood of 50k+ copies per title.
That is why they crashed.
I doubt anyone was producing 50,000 copies in one shot, 10-20 thousand max back in 89
Keep in mind that they were producing 50K copies when there was almost no demand. Video games were stagnating and nobody told Atari. Nintendo breathed new life into the entire industry. While 10K would've been a realistic number in '85, 50K wouldn't be unrealistic in '89, four years after Nintendo reinvigorated the market.
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units and at that level there would be no fee for non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units and at that level there would be no fee for non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
Maybe, but I still doubt it that is the FCS in Japan
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
And we are talking MINIMUM production runs. If you think about it - how many NESs were produced? Millions. 100k copies of a title is pretty small (almost non-existent in marketplace terms) compared to how many consoles were out there in North America.
that's ok, I'll just multiply my result for SE by its Demand Coefficient, er... yeah totally flawed. Plus there's way more than one a year on ebay, there are at least two legit (based on pics) NTSC copies on ebay right now actually. Does anyone know how an item's rarity is determined? For instance, the rarity scale here at NA? Searched around but couldn't find a description...
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units and at that level there would be no fee for non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
Maybe, but I still doubt it that is the FCS in Japan
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
And we are talking MINIMUM production runs. If you think about it - how many NESs were produced? Millions. 100k copies of a title is pretty small (almost non-existent in marketplace terms) compared to how many consoles were out there in North America.
I will concede defeat, but if they were not recalled where the frick did a 100,000 copies go
I did read most of it. I just don't think every game had a cut and dry 50,000 or 100,000 production run, that just doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense to run less than 100k copies when Nintendo produced and sold millions of consoles. You have to also consider that the bulk of the expense is in gearing up the factory to do a production run of a game.
that's ok, I'll just multiply my result for SE by its Demand Coefficient, er... yeah totally flawed. Plus there's way more than one a year on ebay, there are at least two legit (based on pics) NTSC copies on ebay right now actually. Does anyone know how an item's rarity is determined? For instance, the rarity scale here at NA? Searched around but couldn't find a description...
If you can figure that out easily you can make millions in the stock market, screw rare games!
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units and at that level there would be no fee for non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
Maybe, but I still doubt it that is the FCS in Japan
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
And we are talking MINIMUM production runs. If you think about it - how many NESs were produced? Millions. 100k copies of a title is pretty small (almost non-existent in marketplace terms) compared to how many consoles were out there in North America.
I will concede defeat, but if they were not recalled where the frick did a 100,000 copies go
Remember, not all 100,000 had to hit stores on the first order, they just had to have enough to make multiple shipments if it sold well. I'm guessing it didn't, and at least half got recycled (whatever was in Bandai's warehouse after filling their initial sales orders, I doubt many stores reordered it before they discontinued it). I'm guessing only around 20K saw store shelves, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less.
I did read most of it. I just don't think every game had a cut and dry 50,000 or 100,000 production run, that just doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense to run less than 100k copies when Nintendo produced and sold millions of consoles. You have to also consider that the bulk of the expense is in gearing up the factory to do a production run of a game.
It makes sense when I think about it, but still seems crazy all at the same time.
The thing is, why not? You're releasing a new accessory (the FFF pad), and it comes with a game. It makes sense to release it with another game designed for it (Stadium Events). Think about it - ROB was released with the system, and had Gyromite packed in. Nintendo made sure there was another game on the market that utilized it (Stack Up) pretty quickly after it was released. The difference is, ROB flopped, while the FFF/Power Pad ended up doing well enough to have multiple games released after the fact. Same as the Zapper - Duck Hunt was available, but the Zapper likely would've died fast if nothing else was available pretty much right away for those that liked it.
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units and at that level there would be no fee for non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
Maybe, but I still doubt it that is the FCS in Japan
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
And we are talking MINIMUM production runs. If you think about it - how many NESs were produced? Millions. 100k copies of a title is pretty small (almost non-existent in marketplace terms) compared to how many consoles were out there in North America.
I will concede defeat, but if they were not recalled where the frick did a 100,000 copies go
I don't think there's any way 100k were made. a) there weren't all that many NES's out yet, this was pre xmas 87. the nes had really only been out nationwide for one xmas season (86).
and you needed a completely separate and pricey peripheral to play the game at all. And those that bought the peripheral in the first place got a game packed in with it in the first place.
if you're the factory are you going to spend the money to make 100,000 all at once? you'd have to be an idiot. you make and ship in smaller chunks as demand warranted. 100k total? sure if the game had lived that long, but it didn't.
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units and at that level there would be no fee for non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
Maybe, but I still doubt it that is the FCS in Japan
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
And we are talking MINIMUM production runs. If you think about it - how many NESs were produced? Millions. 100k copies of a title is pretty small (almost non-existent in marketplace terms) compared to how many consoles were out there in North America.
I will concede defeat, but if they were not recalled where the frick did a 100,000 copies go
I don't think there's any way 100k were made. a) there weren't all that many NES's out yet, this was pre xmas 87. the nes had really only been out nationwide for one xmas season (86).
and you needed a completely separate and pricey peripheral to play the game at all. And those that bought the peripheral in the first place got a game packed in with it in the first place.
Nobody said 100K were shipped to retailers, they likely had some ready to go to fill future orders as well. The ones that didn't go to the retailers would've been resold to Nintendo when they bought the rights to the game. As for needing a pricey peripheral to play it, what about shit like Stack Up? The game would need to be readily available for those that want it (I tried to think of a better example, but mainstream accessories for the NES that had to be bought separately and were required for various games are eluding me...).
but I find it hard to believe it's actually as rare as people think.
I agree but just think about how common most other titles are then. and that is pretty much why I collect sealed. opened stuff there is just an inexhaustible supply on most games it feels more special to me if its a little harder to get. kind of like the super hot girl in school
Comments
However, it seems to me that there is something we could do to estimate the number of SE carts that went into circulation. I'm sure there's a way statistically (get ready for some pretty nerdy shit) to correlate the number of carts sold for a given game (say something like Metroid that is know to have sold 1 million copies based on reported sales) to the probability of finding it in a typical ebay lot. So for instance, if you know that there are ~170 Metroid listings on ebay out of 23,000 total Nintendo NES listings today, and test out this relationship on several more titles, you can get a loose formula going (1 million sold = .75% likelihood of ebay listing). Using this approximation, work backwards and take the likelihood of seeing SE on ebay (what, once a year maybe?) and we get:
1/52 chance of seeing it on ebay (assumes the auction is up for 7 days) divided by 25,000 (presumed average daily ebay listings in Nintendo NES category) = .000000769
Proportionally...
.000000769 / .0075 = x / 1,000,000
x = ~102
Assuming you aren't rolling your eyes at me by now... we have shown that the number of SE carts in circulation was somewhere within the power of magnitude of 100. So the "200" figure purported to have sold could be legit.
Now, who wants to check my math? I'm positive I screwed up a decimal place or two in there. Also, my little theory could be totally bunko but I'd like to hear what you guys think anyways.
That's a great point. As I'm reading through the last few posts I'm thinking that they all seem well-reasoned, but our reasoning is only as good as our initial assumptions. For instance, the info DreamTR provided is pretty solid since he at least heard it first-hand from Bandai, but whether there was actually a "recall" or whether Nintendo just let the very limited SE stock sell off is probably an unknown until we get better "intell."
However, it seems to me that there is something we could do to estimate the number of SE carts that went into circulation. I'm sure there's a way statistically (get ready for some pretty nerdy shit) to correlate the number of carts sold for a given game (say something like Metroid that is know to have sold 1 million copies based on reported sales) to the probability of finding it in a typical ebay lot. So for instance, if you know that there are ~170 Metroid listings on ebay out of 23,000 total Nintendo NES listings today, and test out this relationship on several more titles, you can get a loose formula going (1 million sold = .75% likelihood of ebay listing). Using this approximation, work backwards and take the likelihood of seeing SE on ebay (what, once a year maybe?) and we get:
1/52 chance of seeing it on ebay (assumes the auction is up for 7 days) divided by 25,000 (presumed average daily ebay listings in Nintendo NES category) = .000000769
Proportionally...
.000000769 / .0075 = x / 1,000,000
x = ~102
Assuming you aren't rolling your eyes at me by now... we have shown that the number of SE carts in circulation was somewhere within the power of magnitude of 100. So the "200" figure purported to have sold could be legit.
Now, who wants to check my math? I'm positive I screwed up a decimal place or two in there. Also, my little theory could be totally bunko but I'd like to hear what you guys think anyways.
I think there's a flaw in your theory - the greater the demand and value of the game, the more likely it will be listed on ebay. And game demand/value doesn't necessarily correlate with rarity.
A minimum production run on the NES was probably in the 50k copies range.
A minimum production run on the NES was probably in the 50k copies range.
How ya figure? I've seen production runs of Atari 2600 and 7800 carts. The leftovers that were to be destroyed were in the neighborhood of 50k+ copies per title.
A minimum production run on the NES was probably in the 50k copies range.
How ya figure? I've seen production runs of Atari 2600 and 7800 carts. The leftovers that were to be destroyed were in the neighborhood of 50k+ copies per title.
That is why they crashed.
I doubt anyone was producing 50,000 copies in one shot, 10-20 thousand max back in 89
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for
the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and
tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB
Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity
required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units
and at that level there would be no fee for
non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
source: http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/atari-nintendo-deal.htm
So my 50k minimum estimate was off by half!
A minimum production run on the NES was probably in the 50k copies range.
How ya figure? I've seen production runs of Atari 2600 and 7800 carts. The leftovers that were to be destroyed were in the neighborhood of 50k+ copies per title.
That is why they crashed.
I doubt anyone was producing 50,000 copies in one shot, 10-20 thousand max back in 89
Keep in mind that they were producing 50K copies when there was almost no demand. Video games were stagnating and nobody told Atari. Nintendo breathed new life into the entire industry. While 10K would've been a realistic number in '85, 50K wouldn't be unrealistic in '89, four years after Nintendo reinvigorated the market.
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for
the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and
tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB
Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity
required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units
and at that level there would be no fee for
non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
source: http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/atari-nintendo-deal.htm
So my 50k minimum estimate was off by half!
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for
the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and
tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB
Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity
required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units
and at that level there would be no fee for
non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
source: http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/atari-nintendo-deal.htm
So my 50k minimum estimate was off by half!
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for
the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and
tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB
Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity
required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units
and at that level there would be no fee for
non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
source: http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/atari-nintendo-deal.htm
So my 50k minimum estimate was off by half!
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for
the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and
tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB
Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity
required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units
and at that level there would be no fee for
non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
source: http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/atari-nintendo-deal.htm
So my 50k minimum estimate was off by half!
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
And we are talking MINIMUM production runs. If you think about it - how many NESs were produced? Millions. 100k copies of a title is pretty small (almost non-existent in marketplace terms) compared to how many consoles were out there in North America.
Plus there's way more than one a year on ebay, there are at least two legit (based on pics) NTSC copies on ebay right now actually.
Does anyone know how an item's rarity is determined? For instance, the rarity scale here at NA? Searched around but couldn't find a description...
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for
the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and
tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB
Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity
required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units
and at that level there would be no fee for
non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
source: http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/atari-nintendo-deal.htm
So my 50k minimum estimate was off by half!
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
And we are talking MINIMUM production runs. If you think about it - how many NESs were produced? Millions. 100k copies of a title is pretty small (almost non-existent in marketplace terms) compared to how many consoles were out there in North America.
I will concede defeat, but if they were not recalled where the frick did a 100,000 copies go
I did read most of it. I just don't think every game had a cut and dry 50,000 or 100,000 production run, that just doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense to run less than 100k copies when Nintendo produced and sold millions of consoles. You have to also consider that the bulk of the expense is in gearing up the factory to do a production run of a game.
that's ok, I'll just multiply my result for SE by its Demand Coefficient, er... yeah totally flawed.
Plus there's way more than one a year on ebay, there are at least two legit (based on pics) NTSC copies on ebay right now actually.
Does anyone know how an item's rarity is determined? For instance, the rarity scale here at NA? Searched around but couldn't find a description...
If you can figure that out easily you can make millions in the stock market, screw rare games!
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for
the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and
tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB
Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity
required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units
and at that level there would be no fee for
non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
source: http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/atari-nintendo-deal.htm
So my 50k minimum estimate was off by half!
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
And we are talking MINIMUM production runs. If you think about it - how many NESs were produced? Millions. 100k copies of a title is pretty small (almost non-existent in marketplace terms) compared to how many consoles were out there in North America.
I will concede defeat, but if they were not recalled where the frick did a 100,000 copies go
Remember, not all 100,000 had to hit stores on the first order, they just had to have enough to make multiple shipments if it sold well. I'm guessing it didn't, and at least half got recycled (whatever was in Bandai's warehouse after filling their initial sales orders, I doubt many stores reordered it before they discontinued it). I'm guessing only around 20K saw store shelves, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less.
I did read most of it. I just don't think every game had a cut and dry 50,000 or 100,000 production run, that just doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense to run less than 100k copies when Nintendo produced and sold millions of consoles. You have to also consider that the bulk of the expense is in gearing up the factory to do a production run of a game.
It makes sense when I think about it, but still seems crazy all at the same time.
$20 bucks a game?
Sold to the stores for $30 sold to the public for $40ish
What do you think it cost to run 100,000 games
$20 bucks a game?
Sold to the stores for $30 sold to the public for $40ish
In 83 it was 1,500 Yen each at 100,000 units. FOB means Nintendo paid the shipping. 1500 Yen today is about $16. Not sure what it was in 1983.
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for
the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and
tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB
Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity
required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units
and at that level there would be no fee for
non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
source: http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/atari-nintendo-deal.htm
So my 50k minimum estimate was off by half!
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
And we are talking MINIMUM production runs. If you think about it - how many NESs were produced? Millions. 100k copies of a title is pretty small (almost non-existent in marketplace terms) compared to how many consoles were out there in North America.
I will concede defeat, but if they were not recalled where the frick did a 100,000 copies go
I don't think there's any way 100k were made. a) there weren't all that many NES's out yet, this was pre xmas 87. the nes had really only been out nationwide for one xmas season (86).
and you needed a completely separate and pricey peripheral to play the game at all. And those that bought the peripheral in the first place got a game packed in with it in the first place.
if you're the factory are you going to spend the money to make 100,000 all at once? you'd have to be an idiot. you make and ship in smaller chunks as demand warranted. 100k total? sure if the game had lived that long, but it didn't.
ok, got the direct quote on number of minimum production run from Nintendo:
5. that Nintendo would program titles of our choice for
the FCS system and would sell us the assembled and
tested, unlabeled ROM carts at 1,500 Yen each FOB
Japan for retail sale by Atari. The minimum quantity
required by Nintendo per title would be 100,000 units
and at that level there would be no fee for
non-recurring engineering/programming expenses.
source: http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/atari-nintendo-deal.htm
So my 50k minimum estimate was off by half!
If you read the entire memo, it's about North America production runs for the (yet to be named) NES.
Thinking about it, Nintendo did go in pretty ballsy, going against industry analysts and releasing the system in North America in the first place.
And we are talking MINIMUM production runs. If you think about it - how many NESs were produced? Millions. 100k copies of a title is pretty small (almost non-existent in marketplace terms) compared to how many consoles were out there in North America.
I will concede defeat, but if they were not recalled where the frick did a 100,000 copies go
I don't think there's any way 100k were made. a) there weren't all that many NES's out yet, this was pre xmas 87. the nes had really only been out nationwide for one xmas season (86).
and you needed a completely separate and pricey peripheral to play the game at all. And those that bought the peripheral in the first place got a game packed in with it in the first place.
Nobody said 100K were shipped to retailers, they likely had some ready to go to fill future orders as well. The ones that didn't go to the retailers would've been resold to Nintendo when they bought the rights to the game. As for needing a pricey peripheral to play it, what about shit like Stack Up? The game would need to be readily available for those that want it (I tried to think of a better example, but mainstream accessories for the NES that had to be bought separately and were required for various games are eluding me...).
but I find it hard to believe it's actually as rare as people think.
I agree but just think about how common most other titles are then. and that is pretty much why I collect sealed. opened stuff there is just an inexhaustible supply on most games it feels more special to me if its a little harder to get. kind of like the super hot girl in school