Why did Codemasters make so many version of their cartridges?

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krzysiobal
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Why did Codemasters make so many version of their cartridges?

Post by krzysiobal »

Excuse me my ignorance, but why did Codemasters make so many different versions of their cartridges? For example:

Quattro Sports
1a) Aladdin NES version:
Image Image Image
Source: https://nescartdb.com/profile/view/550

1b) Regular NES version
Image Image Image Image
Source: https://nescartdb.com/profile/view/359

2) Regular NES version in future shell:
Image Image Image Image Image
Source: https://www.jensma.de/pirates/index.php?gam=161

3) Plug-thru version (a'ka Super Sports Challenge)
Image Image Image Image Image
source: https://www.jensma.de/pirates/?gam=124)

Not even the shell differs, but also the PCB (different chips) and also the ROMs are slightly modified?
NewRisingSun
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Joined: Thu May 19, 2005 11:30 am

Re: Why did Codemasters make so many version of their cartridges?

Post by NewRisingSun »

#1 and #2 are from Camerica for North America, #3 and #4 are from Codemasters for Europe. So that's one explanation -- different versions for different regions. Within those regions:

The Aladdin Deck Enhancer was a cost-reduction measure to make their games cheaper, since the mapper and lockout defeat hardware would not have to be included in every game.

In Europe, the switch from futuristic to plug-through cartridge was prompted by the addition of resistors and diodes to new revisions of the NES Control Deck to prevent the charge pump from disabling the lockout chip. The American Control Deck had those changes as well, but most of the installed base were older revisions, unlike Europe.

I don't know about the ROM content differences.
Bag of Magic Food
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Re: Why did Codemasters make so many version of their cartridges?

Post by Bag of Magic Food »

NewRisingSun wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:08 am In Europe, the switch from futuristic to plug-through cartridge was prompted by the addition of resistors and diodes to new revisions of the NES Control Deck to prevent the charge pump from disabling the lockout chip. The American Control Deck had those changes as well, but most of the installed base were older revisions, unlike Europe.
That's interesting to me, because I had gotten the impression that the Plug-Thru design came before the smooth black design. Certainly according to the NESWorld article, the Plug-Thru cartridges of The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy only ever contained the second version of the game, the same one from the Aladdin compact cartridge, and the third version only came out sometime after the switch to the standalone black cartridges. It makes it sound as if Quattro Sports got its third version before the changeover, but unfortunately that author was unaware that there's definitely a third version of Micro Machines that corrects the color value used for black (but still doesn't delete the Camerica logo!).

Also, my last search for magazine reviews of some of the games exclusive to the black cartridges turned up issues from throughout 1993--and this Darling Brothers documentary talks of Cosmic Spacehead being made into a multiplatform release just in time for Christmas 1993. But just yesterday I learned that the Plug-Thru design was announced in the November 1992 issue of Nintendo Game Zone. That photograph they used is a real oddity, though: While it's sitting on the box for the first version of The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy, the cartridge's label carries the logo (and background color) of Dizzy the Adventurer, the Aladdin exclusive! Yet it uses different stock artwork of Dizzy than the Aladdin version, and the cartridge is black like their NES Game Genie, whereas all known Plug-Thru games are gray.

Quattro Sports is also a real mystery to me. The NESWorld article makes it sound as if "V2" was exclusive to that cartridge with all text and no logos nor "Quattro" name, but I can't find any other source online displaying a label like that, and neither can I find any corroboration that Super Adventure Quests was ever on such a Plug-thru cartridge as stated there; did Martin Nielsen come into possession of some rare prototypes or something? And I couldn't figure out what the differences between the versions are besides the title screen: No Camerica logos were removed, no copyright years were updated, black is still $0D, Germany is still West Germany, and only BMX Simulator and Pro Tennis Simulator employ a pitch/speed compensation routine for the music when any version is run on PAL systems, likely because only their soundtracks use DPCM bass. Do I really need to play all the way through these games repeatedly to find obscure rule differences like that "Always 10 innings" rumor?!

Well, I did make one interesting discovery when comparing the ROM dumps floating around in some text comparison software: Apparently two whole quarters of the ROM are swapped in V2 as compared to both V3 and the original Camerica version, meaning two of the games swapped places, and so for V2 alone you need to set an NES 2.0 header with submapper 1 of mapper 232 for emulators to run the menu correctly and not swap choices 2 and 3, just as with Super Adventure Quests and the Pegasus 4-in-1. It doesn't make much sense that Codemasters changed back to the old wiring scheme for V3, though, unless it was made before V2! And our own wiki claims that this later bank-switching arrangement was used in the Aladdin Deck Enhancer versions of Quattro Adventure and Quattro Sports, but NESCartDB gives those versions the exact same CRCs as the original gold cartridges, unless you want to believe that improper dumping was involved as cah4e3 suggested in this old emulator bugfix discussion. It's just very mysterious all around!
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