One of my recent Yahoo Auction purchases was the above little footnote in the Famicom`s history, the Sharp Donkey Kong Jr/ Donkey Kong Math multicart.This is a pretty hard cart to find but it has an interesting place in Famicom cart history. This was never sold individually but came as the pack-in cart with the Sharp Famicom TV, a TV that came with a Famicom built into it (in other words the most amazing TV ever made).
Since I already have both of the games I mainly just wanted this for its interest value. Its a real conversation piece. Well, actually no I suppose it isn`t. I don`t think I`ve ever had a conversation about Famicom collecting with anyone before, save online.
There weren`t a huge number of Sharp Famicom TVs made so these carts are among the harder to find ones out there and usually retail for about 3,000 yen (40$) or so.
I suspect that the creation of this multicart may have been the result of Sharp getting the license for Donkey Kong Math, then suddenly realizing that nobody would ever buy the TV if it only came with Donkey Kong Math. They then entered some marathon all night negotiations with the folks at Nintendo, begging them to let them include a real game - ANY real game - alongside the crappy one that no kid ever wanted to play. Nintendo eventually gave way and let them add Donkey Kong Jr to the cart.
I've been looking for this one all over lately. The fact it's the only official Famicom multicart pretty much makes me wanna buy it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way Sean, I attended a game collector meeting this last saturday and got to share my Famicom games with a few people. It was pretty awesome.
Well... there's Final Fantasy I+II. Both a multicart and official. Most people seem to forget that one.
DeleteBut hey, that's great! Back in high school, my anime club would have lock-ins, and I'd bring my Famicom collection. It's really cool being able to show it off.
Yeah, its a bit of a tough one to find. In Mandarake here they have one copy for 3000 yen, but other than that I haven`t seen it in any shops.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds cool about the collectors meeting, is that something where you trade games?
Well, it was a meeting for retro game collecting enthusiasts. I got to play on a PC Engine, LCD handhelds, an Atari 2600 and even a dedicated arcade setup some guy built. I had a great day.
ReplyDeleteI didn't trade anything, but got to buy a few boxed Famicom games. They were interested in my copies of Lagrange Point and Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World, but they didn't have anything that caught my attention in return.
Sounds cool! I wonder if we have anything like that in my neighborhood:)
ReplyDeletehttp://mikestir.tumblr.com/post/25259260651/sharp-packaged-with-the-c1-with-the-only-licensed
ReplyDeletei got one on ebay this year.... that is a link to the picture, it looks a little different.
Looks like it got sun faded. The red ink on famicom carts can turn white if left in the sun too long, I've seen it happen to Donkey Kong carts.
DeleteCool. Yeah, the coloring on yours is a little different, looks silver instead of red. Interesting.
ReplyDelete