the_wizard_666

Yeah, but that hack also changes some of the basics of gameplay. It's not bad, but the core mechanics changed in a way that I find detrimental to the game as a whole.

Yeah, I have a funny feeling it may do the trick. It worked for my 2600, and I've got a funny feeling that AGCI would've probably used the same sort of cheap solder that Atari did to save a few pennies

True, but then you have to deal with it being on the 2600 Play the SMS version instead.

They didn't manufacture their own boards, they also bought them from Color Dreams. Find me an AGCI release with a non-Color Dreams board and we can go from there. My guess is that they sourced a few shells from Color Dreams, but ended up finding a different supplier for shells, but kept ordering the boards from CD. A purely financial decision most likely - go with what costs the least. They may also have wanted to distinguish their product from Color Dreams in a way that using recognizable blue shells would have not allowed. So there are two real possibilities here: A: Sharedata, prior to the formation of AGCI, placed ads in at least four months of GamePro, and made Color Dreams carts to fulfill the orders, switching mid-production after the incorporation of AGCI in February 1990. With the first advert being in the February issue (so publicly released in January), this would account for the low production numbers of the Sharedata version. B: The Sharedata carts were manufactured as a "proof of concept" to send to various distributors and were never actually sold to the public. I think however, the truth may be somewhere between. Because it's a mail-away budget title, Sharedata likely didn't even bother making a box for it (a manual is more likely but could potentially have been skipped as well). The game sold poorly via mail order, so AGCI was created to focus on NES distribution, getting their games on store shelves. AGCI would have made the call to switch from Color Dreams shells to one unique to them, as well as printing boxes and manuals and upping the price from $19.99 to $29.99 on store shelves. This would mean that the Sharedata carts WERE sold to the public, but only a small number of them were ever sold before AGCI was created and took over. I would be curious to see when an AGCI Chiller ad might have begun making the rounds, if anyone has a lead on that, that'd be great, as I have a bunch of homework and a late class and won't have time to do the digging today

It's hard to tell, but some of the solder points look a bit messy. If you have a soldering iron, maybe just touch each of them to remelt the solder, especially on the CHR chip (that's the one storing the graphical data).

The list was formed under the assumption that there were gonna be no assumptions on the contents. Even on Stadium Events, where the sole exception was made, there's a disclaimer that the information may not be accurate, but due to the unlikeliness of someone opening a copy even back when that addition was made (only two sealed copies were known to exist at the time), the judgement call was made. Even then, the person who submitted the information was able to verify that the copy had not changed hands more than the one time (he bought it from the original owner), and the contents checked out when compared to other contemporary Bandai releases. Not to mention that we actually had the data about the inserts and everything...the only thing lacking was the unwrapping. With this copy of Friday the 13th, the only thing we can verify is that it was a sealed copy. I've rejected prior submissions on that basis, because if we're going to start guessing at what the contents are, then the integrity of the list is completely voided.

That question has more or less been answered. They were never marketed toward a specific region, rather they were sold to anyone worldwide who desired to sell them. There is no difference between regions, thus the "worldwide" designation is entirely fair in their case. That said, being "worldwide" releases should put them as requirements for every region, but then that's just semantics really. Nobody doubts that they exist, nor that they were sold in the US. They just refuse to add 70+ rare and expensive titles to their sacred lists. It's the ghost of Etler's list again. That said, I also count them separately, although that's more for clarity's sake. I've got one already, and would love to get the set, but the feasibility of it is just not there. And I think that's what holds most people back from adding the Sachens to the list. Much like Sharedata Chiller, it's the feasibility of collecting the full set if it's included that has many people balking at it.

That video is unusable, as the codes are neither mentioned nor shown. We need hard data for the list.

Or you could just go two guns, one dude and play it solo...

https://www.bizapedia.com/az/american-game-cartridges-inc.html It would appear they started to exist, at least on paper, in February of 1990. However, they may not have had anything ready aside from the brand. I'm guessing AGCI as we know it probably didn't exist until a couple months after that, but anything is possible. Anyway, I'm not taking sides on this at this point, as either side is equally logical. I'm just interested in figuring out this mystery once and for all.

The difference is that it says "Coming Soon" VERY clearly on the advert. Neither version of the Chiller advert states anything about it being a forthcoming release - in fact, it notes forthcoming releases in the later version of the ad. That doesn't in and of itself prove anything, but it does imply that at least some copies were ready to distribute. Basically, we need to find concrete evidence of when AGCI became a thing. And so far I'm having zero luck, mostly cuz I have absolutely no idea how to find the evidence. But I'm still searching...

Apparently Sharedata was listed as a creditor when AGCI went bankrupt. That's telling in a way, as it suggests that they were financing AGCI, but not really owning them, but who knows. Finding the corporate data is pretty much the only conclusive way to determine it. Also, AVE has nothing to do with Sharedata and AGCI other than Richard Frick being with them until February, when he formed AVE and bought the rights to Wally Bear from AGCI. So we can more or less leave them out of this.

Actually I'm balls deep in Arizona State business records searches, looking for any kind of legal documents. Nothing so far. Starting there because, well, AGCI had an Arizona address

SHAREDATA HADN'T CREATED AGCI YET. Actually, I don't know that for sure...TO THE ARCHIVES!

More fun shit: Issue 17 (December 1990) has an ad from Color Dreams for Hellraiser, along with Happy Camper and a couple other games that I can't seem to make out (but are definitely unreleased). This may have been the death throes of Color Dreams...

So I have confirmed the ad from Gamepro #8 also appears in Gamepro #7, and in Gamepro #9 the ad showed the "Two New Titles" bubble for the first time. So this is far from a one-shot, they were advertising Sharedata Chiller for at least three months. EDIT: GamePro #7 is confirmed as the first appearance. Going through later issues to see when/if it changed to AGCI, or if it just stopped existing. EDIT 2: I have confirmed that the ad also appears in issue 10, but then stopped for at least two months after. Fun note though - the 12th issue contains an article about Hellraiser by Color Dreams. So in conclusion, Sharedata had ads in FOUR ISSUES of Gamepro advertising Chiller for sale via their phone number. That's potentially huge, as if they had stopped production they likely wouldn't have kept paying for the ads. Also, being that the issues were on shelves as much as a month prior to the print date, we can safely assume January through April 1990 as when the copies were sold. Now to find when/if AGCI put out ads...

March of 1990 was issue #8. I wouldn't call that a "leading" magazine. EGM was already around for a few months longer (they started bimonthly, whereas Gamepro seems to have been monthly right off the hop, hence why both were on issue 8 at that time), and Nintendo Power was on issue 11. Sure Gamepro was my pick for the best of the bunch (nostalgia goggles), but I wouldn't say they were "leading" anything. I scanned through EGM and found no ads in any of the issues surrounding that time frame, and I haven't been able to find scans of Gamepro to leaf through to see if it was a one-issue ad or a multi-issue one. My guess is that Sharedata just chose whichever mag would be cheapest to run the ad in, as aside from NP there was no clear winner in terms of distribution.

Why do I feel this turned into a trolling? Pics of the cart? Assuming it's not a troll...

Hooters has wings?

30660 Love the game, but I suck at it. I'm happy with breaking the default score. Yay participation!

I understand that. I'm just saying it doesn't hurt the inside of the cart to have a bit of dust in it. Honestly, I've only encountered a handful of carts in 25 years of collecting that didn't look pretty damn good on the inside.

Interesting...does it work with eBay to avoid the GSP? Might make me start looking at US sellers again...

Yeah, there's definitely one under the label. That's why so many have punched holes in the back label. If you're just cleaning the cart, there's really no need to open the case. The connector is the only thing that cleaning is really necessary for...the rest is overkill for the OCD.

@Code Monkey One just needs to look at the mail-order PC game market for evidence that games were often published without any sort of box or manual, just a disc or cassette tape in a baggie. Why would carts be any different? ESPECIALLY when the game is being sold at budget pricing.

What was on the cover of that issue? I might actually have a copy and never paid attention to it...also, with it being early in the year (the March issue would've been on shelves in early February), it adds up with a late 1990 AGCI release...haven't seen anything about an actual street date for either version however... I'm actually curious if there's any clues in the ROM data itself. Anyone know if there's a Sharedata ROM out there somewhere to compare?