Mysterious Sachen TC-031...the mystery solved?

[fcgamer]

Today I cracked open an original copy of Rocman X for Famicom.  Besides a set of eproms, I noticed that the game was on board TC-31.  There was also a top label on my cart, reading "No. 527", but I have no idea what that meant.

That leads me to wonder something though. I noticed that Thunder Blast Man was game number TC-030 in a Sachen online catalogue, though as far as I can tell, this part number was completely arbitrary since the nowhere on the box, manual or cart itself did it list a part number.  So here are some thoughts running around in my head.

Maybe TC-30 is Thunder Blast Man, and TC-31 was reserved for the Mega Man rebranding of the game. I wouldn't be surprised if Sachen would do something like this.

Maybe the Rocman X cart I have is on the wrong circuit board.  Okay, so that could be possible too, but this was an original release, so that would be a bit odd.

On another note, I know that there are some small differences between Rocman X and Thunder Blast Man on Game Boy...are there any differences between the NES games of the same name, or are those two merely just label art difference?  (NES vs Famicom version).

Just some interesting thoughts and ramblings, feel free to comment.

[Pepper-98]

I don't think it's a rebranding of Rocman X; Sachen has released Street Heroes and Samurai Spirits under the name numbering iirc, and as far as I know they've never done that previously.  It's possible that they just took the board for the unreleased game and stuffed a different game onto it like they do with some of their carts.  And to my knowledge, the TBM-labeled NES game is the same as Rocman X; the NES games and FC game are all the same.

[fcgamer]

Star-Spangled Shazam

Oct 21 2013, 09:03:41 AM

I don't think it's a rebranding of Rocman X; Sachen has released Street Heroes and Samurai Spirits under the name numbering iirc, and as far as I know they've never done that previously.  It's possible that they just took the board for the unreleased game and stuffed a different game onto it like they do with some of their carts.  And to my knowledge, the TBM-labeled NES game is the same as Rocman X; the NES games and FC game are all the same.[/quote]It is possible that they took the mysterious unreleased TC-031 and stuck Rocman X onto that board; however (as I mentioned earlier), my latest copy seems to be an original release, definitely not one of the later releases.  Because TC-030 (TBM)'s game comes before TC-031, it seems a bit illogical that they would stick an original RMX cart onto a later circuit board, as opposed to sticking it onto an extra circuit board from an earlier game.

If TC-031 was close enough to finished to be receiving imprinted circuit boards with its part number on it, it probably would have seen the light of day; if it was not far along in development, then they would have never been printing special circuit boards for it so far in advance...

[taizou]

Do other Sachen FC games have a similar number on the PCB? I don't have any to check but it's possible "TC-31" might just have been the PCB code & every game using that board revision has it.also -Mei Shao Nu Meng Gong Chang (Princess Maker) was never officially assigned a number as far as I know, that could be a likely candidate for 31.

[Pepper-98]

fcgamer

Oct 21 2013, 10:04:05 AM

It is possible that they took the mysterious unreleased TC-031 and stuck Rocman X onto that board; however (as I mentioned earlier), my latest copy seems to be an original release, definitely not one of the later releases.  Because TC-030 (TBM)'s game comes before TC-031, it seems a bit illogical that they would stick an original RMX cart onto a later circuit board, as opposed to sticking it onto an extra circuit board from an earlier game.

If TC-031 was close enough to finished to be receiving imprinted circuit boards with its part number on it, it probably would have seen the light of day; if it was not far along in development, then they would have never been printing special circuit boards for it so far in advance...

[/quote]I've noticed several companies including Sachen that have had several games made/released within the same year, and it might've been that way for the later TC/SA-### games; for example a lot of the original ten Joy Van games have had a 1989 copyright on them (and some companies have had separate teams to work on all the new planned games for that year.)  It may have been canceled later in development then to save on manufacturing costs had the other new (at the time) games like Rocman X put on the boards.

It's just a hunch on my part though.  I have a bunch of FC Sachen stuff I should take a look at and see what's on their boards.Checking my games, they have these on the board:

(NES games)
-Reprint NES Jurassic Boy has "TC-26" (Q-Boy)
-Both of my Q-Boy games (NES reprint and FC carts) have "TC-2M-RAM-COB"
-Rockball NES has "TC-A003-72P" on it, and has an odd NES board(!) with a port and converter switch on it, pictured below:

Spoiler: click to toggle

(FC games)
-Reprint of Rocman X has "SA-005" (Colorful Dragon's number) on the board.
-Boxed Poker II (original print I believe) has "SA-015" (Chess Academy)
-Hidden Chinese Chess original has "NE-001A" on both sides.
-Mahjong Companion (Hacker Copyright) with a "Padillon Gais" (Papillon Gals) label has "TC-32" (Millionaire 2/Chuugoku Taitei)
-Super Pang 2 has "TC-21A" on it, though I dunno if the "A" is part of the numbering or meant to be part of the solder points.
-Taiwan Mahjong II has

"(C) 1991 SACHEN
Model. SA-015
MADE IN TAIWAN"

on the board.  Again, SA-015 is Chess Academy.

-Hell Fighter's weird; it has

"(C) 1991 SACHEN
MODEL: SA-017-VERSION B
MADE IN TAIWAN"

The released SA-017 is Locksmith, which neither that or Hell Fighter have numerous revisions (to my knowledge.)  I kinda wanna say that they meant for it to be Auto Upturn (TC-017) and that Auto Upturn was meant to have one game with and without nudity in it (the nudity is certainly out of left field with that game.)  Just a hunch though.
-Millionaire and Metal Fighter English reprint has

"(C) 1991 SACHEN
MODEL: SA-016-1M
MADE IN TAIWAN"

The back has "SA-016-256" The game's numbers are actually bigger on that side.  SA-016 is Hell Fighter btw.
-Pyramid original (red cart) has "TC-012 SACHEN" on it.  TC-012 is World of Card Games.
-Penguin and Seal original has its proper numbering on the front (SA-002) and "3013 SACHEN" on the back.
-Taiwan 16 Mahjong reprint has "REV-A" on the front and "*Sachen logo* SA-001-1" on the back.
-Locksmith has...Uh..."SA-0036" on it.  Seriously.  The TC series only goes up to 32 and the SA series only go up to 27.  Speculate away, I guess.
-Poker III has

"(C) 1991 SACHEN
Model. SA-15
MADE IN TAIWAN"

SA-015 is...Chess Academy again (did that thing sell that badly?)  Also it has a tiny glob-top board soldered to the actual game's board.  Dunno what that's about, but here it is:

Spoiler: click to toggle

-Mahjong Trap original and Incantation (Galactic Crusader) original have "SACHEN SA-002" on it.  SA-002 is Penguin & Seal.
-World of Card Games' board has "TC-012 SACHEN" on it.  One of the few boards that matches the game's numbering.

(Hacker releases)
-Metal Fighter Mu by Kinema Music has "聖謙 TC-04" with "聖謙" being the Chinese name for Sachen.
-Pyramid (Hacker Version, which has a cart mold similar to the original ten TC releases...Hmm.) has "SA-004" which is Lucky 777's number.
-AV Pachi Slot isn't a Sachen game, but for the hell of it I wanted to check my Hacker stuff.  Like the traditional Famicom molded carts used by Sachen, the cart mold with the "wings" are held together by pegs that pop together (the square cart molds by Joy Van and certain Hacker games use tabs like the other carts.)  I say all of this because the game only has "2209" on its board.
-Idol Shisen Mahjong just has "2208" on it.

(Etc.)
-Jovial Race NES reprint, and both Little Red Hood FC original prints have no numbering on their boards.

That's all I've got.  The NES stuff published in the U.S. use 72-pin boards and they had nothing special on them from what I remember.

Edit: Forgot to add the images.  Derp.

[fcgamer]

Interesting information regarding the Sachen circuit boards.  There are two things that I think need clarified though.

1)  For the Thin Chen/Joy Van releases, please specify which of these the games are.  For some (i.e. Mahjong Trap) you do not mention whether it is the Joy Van version or the Sachen version, and there is a big difference.

2)  What are you using to determine whether a game is an original print or not?  I have many CIB small box Sachen games, but some of them I am sure are not from the original run.  Are we basing that the games are from the original print run off of back labels, cart design, cardboard versus plastic box, etc?

Here are my results (thus far).  They will be in the following format (title, real number, circuit board number)

Great Wall - SA19, SA19
Hell FIghter - SA16, SA17 version B (interesting to note that the case was modified to fit this board...)
Poker II - TC-13, SA-15
Cosmo Cop - SA-23, SA-15
Padillon Gais - n/a, TC-32
Silent Assault (NOT Raid) - forget real number, SA-016-1M
World of Card Game - TC-12, TC-12
Jurassic Boy - TC-28, SA-706
Mahjong Trap (JV version) - TC-10, SA-002
4 in 1 - n/a, TC-30-3
4 in 1 version 8 - n/a, TC-30 - 3
Jovial Race - TC01, no number on CB, only their name printed in Chinese
Poker II (error cart) - TC-13, SA-15
Strategist - TC-014, SA-15
Happy Pairs - TC-016, SA-15
Magic Cube - TC-018, SA- 15
Penguin and Seal (label version 2) - SA-002, SA-0036 (this cart also has a wire on the circuitboard's back)
Princess Maker - n/a, SA-9602B
Q Boy - TC-26, TC-2m-ram-cob

And I have a lot of other Sachen carts that I didn't check thus far, because I am lazy and want to go to bed.

Obviously the recent samplings we both took show that Sachen reused circuit boards wherever possible, which comes as no surprise especially considering their tricks at the end.  On the other hand, I do have to wonder how many (or if all?) of the original run of games appeared on their appropriate circuit boards or not, as some definitely do appear that way.

[Pepper-98]

The games I'm assuming are original prints are the ones that don't have the custom Sachen cart case (like their later games), at least for the earlier SA/TC games.  There's some with the square cart like my boxed Little Red Hood game and some with a typical Famicom shell like my Hidden Chinese Chess game (I assumed this was before they properly established a unique cart of their own.)  The only Joy Van game I have that doesn't come in a case like that is the English Metal Fighter cart, which uses the traditional Sachen mold.

All the "original" games (save for Poker II which is in a Sachen mold and my boxed Little Red Hood game that has a square cart) have the traditional Famicom case design; the "reprints" and non-labeled ones have a Sachen mold.  I only have four boxed Famicom Sachen games (excluding Rocman X which uses a generic orange reprint box) so I'm going with what I've seen/have.

Mahjong Trap is the Joy Van version of the game, Metal Fighter is the 1990 English version of the game, Penguin & Seal is the Chinese version using a simpler sound driver/engine, Incantation's the Chinese version of the game, and both Little Red Hood games are the Chinese versions.  I forgot about the different revisions when I posted them, probably should've clarified.

[fcgamer]

As far as I am aware, Sachen / Joy Van had maybe four different cart casings, before the "final" case design that they settled upon, well actually five cases if you include the large cases for Princess Maker and Gaiopolis.

[taizou]

honestly I think the numbers on the PCB are just a code for the PCB & not necessarily anything to do with the game. designing & printing up a whole new PCB for each game just doesnt seem like something Sachen would have bothered to do.