Red Alarm & Wario Land store demo cartridges:
Is it true that Virtual Boy demos are identical to the copies which were sold in the stores? This is a question which Virtual Boy collectors who own both the demo and resale versions of the Red Alarm and Wario Land game cartridges make at least once in their lifetime. Most people that have tested both versions conclude that they are actually the same game with different labels, but there are some of us who want to believe that they are different in some way.
All of us know that the only clear difference between the resale and demo cartridges is the sticker on the top part of the cartridge, but what many people might not have thought about is "what about the inside: is the circuitry the same in both versions?". Well, this question passed through my head one night not long ago, and after thinking about it thoroughly (About 10 seconds, I think ;-)), I decided to get working and open all four cartridges: Red Alarm and its demo, and Wario Land and its demo, and what I discovered amazed me enormously. Now I will make a brief description of my findings:
| Red Alarm:
Resale Cart: Just after opening it, I noticed an "I" surrounded by a silver circle was drawn on one side of the mainboard. On the other, the game chip with the following inscription: VUE-VREE-O
|
Front chipset: |
Back chipset: |
|
Red Alarm Demo Cart: On this one, an "N" surrounded by a
silver circle could be seen on one side of the mainboard. On the other,
the game chip with the following inscription:
VUE-VREE-O |
Front demo chipset: |
Back demo chipset: |
As we can see, there's a slight difference between both cartridges: a number is different on both cartridges. Why is this? Well, it is a good question, and I hope our readers can help us out :-)
| Wario Land:
Resale Cart: Just after opening it, I noticed a "Y" surrounded by a silver circle was drawn on one side of the mainboard. On the other, the game chip with the following inscription: VUE-VWCJ-O As you can see, this codification seems more or less the same kind of coding as on the Red Alarm cartridges. |
Front chipset: |
Back chipset: |
| Wario Land Demo
Cart: As on the Red Alarm cart, just after opening it, an "N"
could be seen on one side of the mainboard. The amazing thing is that this
time, it was not covered on the shiny silver as the other cartridges,
but it was dim instead. On the other, the game chip with the following
inscription:
TOSHIBA |
Front demo chipset: |
Back demo chipset: |
As all of you can see, this inscription has nothing to do with the ones we saw on the Red Alarm carts nor on the Wario Land resale version, and as many of you might have noticed, the version of the chip used (TC5316200CFT) is different to the two traditionally used in the Virtual Boy cartridges (being TC5316200AFT the most similar, and the other traditionally used chip is TC538200AFT). Why is this? Another good question. Anyone want to have a guess and help us find out their meaning?
Daniel Palacios
Red Alarm DEMO cartridge:
Released in the USA, developed by Nintendo
(T&E Soft) and brought out before the game was
released, serial#: DIS-VUE-VREE-USA, genre:
simulator/action/shooter, game has no backupcapacity;
Language accessibility: Perfect, everything is in English (it is afterall an
American demo game).
Plays exactly like the original but without box and manual, and there a difference: the label on the cartridge says "Not For Resale - Demo Only" and "Not For Resale".
Virtual Boy Wario Land (aka: Wario Cruise) DEMO cartridge:
Released in the USA, developed by Nintendo
and brought out before the game was released, serial#:
DIS-VUE-VWCJ-USA, genre: platform/action, game has backupcapacity
and saves scores;
Language accessibility: Perfect, everything is in English (it is afterall an
American demo game).
Plays exactly like the original but without box and manual, and there is a difference: the label on the cartridge says "Not For Resale - Demo Only" and "Not For Resale".
