Super Mario Bros PCB date code

[smesgr]

I got my hands on an japanese super mario bros boxed game cartridge. I then opened the cartridge to verify if it is original.
To my shock the cart does not have a (C) Nintendo written.

After consulting the NesCartDB could find another PCB with the same layout
https://nescartdb.com/profile/view/3406 ... mario-bros

except mine has 5Z058 (production / date code line?) - see also attached picture

1) is this an official original PCB?
2) Could somebody explain or point me to the documentation of the date code NesCartDB uses?

[TakuikaNinja]

To my shock the cart does not have a (C) Nintendo written.

Famicom cart boards weren't all manufactured by Nintendo, thus they generally don't contain copyright information until much later in the Famicom's commercial life (once the licensing scheme was brought over from the west). Some third party developers also manufactured their own Famicom carts.

You might just be more used to NES cart boards which were all manufactured by Nintendo as part of the licensing scheme.

[Ben Boldt]

The cartridge with epoxy blobs instead of normal ROM chips is not likely to be a pirate cart. Because the epoxy blob is a sign of a very large mass production of the exact same cart. Pirate carts may have a blob for the mapper chip, since they can start all of their PCBs with the same mapper chip. But then you will find that their smaller quantities have limited their ability to use mask ROM. So they will almost always have some sort of normal programmable ROM chip, like EPROM or Flash and almost never a blob for the ROM.

Super Mario Bros. is an example of a very highly mass-produced game, so this is why it made the achievement where you can find it in fully blobbed form like this.

[TakuikaNinja]

2) Could somebody explain or point me to the documentation of the date code NesCartDB uses?

There's a section explaining the datecode formats: https://nescartdb.com/guides/view/chips
The database converts the datecode into YYWW format ("Std"). That's the final 2 digits of the year followed by the week number.

If I had to guess, this board is probably using:

YMXYZ: This format only specifies the last digit of the year and the month. M = (1-9,X-Z) where 1 = January -> 9 = September and X = October -> Z = December.

So the similar board you linked has 64064 -> Y=x6 M=4 -> April '86 -> 8614 (since week 14 is the earliest to include April)
Your board has 5Z058 -> Y=x5 M=Z -> December '85 -> 8548 (since week 48 is the earliest to include December)

[smesgr]

thanks for the replies. I was aware that non-Nintendo games were produced by other manufacturer. But this is a Nintendo self published game thus I was confused.

So they will almost always have some sort of normal programmable ROM chip, like EPROM or Flash and almost never a blob for the ROM.

at least for Atari 2600 pirate games that is not that unusual. Of course you don't know if they put an EPROM directly on the board, programmed it and than does the epoxy step. Here is an example of pirated Chopper Command called Wuestenschlacht.

Wuestenschlacht_pcb_alt.jpg

So the similar board you linked has 64064 -> Y=x6 M=4 -> April '86 -> 8614 (since week 14 is the earliest to include April)
Your board has 5Z058 -> Y=x5 M=Z -> December '85 -> 8548 (since week 48 is the earliest to include December)

Thanks for some reason I didn't see that.