Spica

[mmsc123]

So I have been going through my Spica NES carts, and found this:



This is not a "Hi-Q Spica" or "NEW SPICA" cart. Just plain "Spica." The cartridge doesn't have any SPICA markings on it, other than the label -- I only have one other cart that doesn't have spica markings, and it's yellow and actually has Nintendo printed on the back (similar to this http://www.ebay.com/itm/NES-DUCK-TALES-2-RARE-SPICA-NINTENDO-GAME-CARTRIDGE-FAMICOM-ONLY-1-N-EBAY-/302373089530?hash=item4666d730fa:g:wAIAAOSwBahU96Re) It has the same ribbed-design as the Hi-Q Spicas do ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hi-Q-Spica-Starwar-Top-Gun-NESA-008-260-in-1-Boxed-Asian-Nes-Famicom-Nintendo-/272740654576?hash=item3f809c1df0%3Ag%3A688AAOSwjvJZVK9f&nma=true&si=PmbA9sQwluYCTtbB%252BmJQbbFD05k%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 like this cart)


So, ok, looks like a normal Spica pirate except for the lack of Spica branding.
The only problem is, looking up the PCB, it's actually a licensed cart? -- http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=1696

So it's basically just a licensed Bomber King PCB attached to a Famicom->NES converter, and packaged in a Spica cart.

I also have a Spica Hi-Q version of Dragon Spirit which is retail too, that's just attached to a Famicom converter. It even comes with a manual(although it's water damaged / glued together and I can't open it): https://imgur.com/a/8uLDk


I also have a NEW SPICA box with a Supervision cart in it, which has a little sticker "TRJ" on the back over one of the screw holes, the same as another 'official' NEW SPICA cart:
https://i.imgur.com/rKaiN9W.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/L3EO8FO.jpg


Anyways, fcgamer goes into this a little bit here: https://fcgamer.wordpress.com/2015/07/03/the-konami-computer/


I suspect Spica, Supervision, Video Deon, .... are all the same company.
We know that Spica distributed a Spica-branded IQ-701 ( http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/FCA/1992/584.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=title(nintendo%20) ) which the dealings were by "Keyman Electronics Co Ltd"(I can't find anything about them, but I welcome others to try -- I found https://company.gongchang.com/p-210000/18656342_6795/ but I'm not 100% it's the same thing)

Anyways, I thought it was worth writing this due to the licensed thing.

[MLX]

Hahaha oh wow. Add to that the Zelda II cart and that eventual Tetsuwan cart and we've got some very shady stuff going on there.
High quality photo of the tetsuwan courtesy of mopimi (thanks to him!).

While I can totally see Namco doing that since they were always manufacturing their own PCB (so they could do whatever they wanted with their leftovers) I'm having some hard time thinking how Bomber King made its way there since it was manufactured by Nintendo?

EDIT: I just noticed that the Tetsuwan shown here is different from the one featured on fcg's blog. That one is a pretty close match while the other one is really different.

[taizou]

huh, I guess they were buying surplus/cheap original Famicom stock from Japan and repackaging it with an adapter for 72-pin markets. The Dragon Spirit manual looks like an original Namco one too.

Supposedly the Hong Kong Game Cartridge Company did something similar, but I haven't seen any of their PCBs so can't confirm either way.oh yeah and on the subject of Supervision, I don't think they were the same company as Spica but they may have been dealing with them at some point.. (Supervision was a brand of Dar Yar who are known to have exported NTDEC products for example)

I kinda suspect the "New Spica"-era stuff was pretty far removed from the original companies, since the boxart dates it to 1998-2000 when their other known activity was early 90s, it might have just been some 3rd party repackaging old cartridges or copying shells maybe.

Quote:

 

We know that Spica distributed a Spica-branded IQ-701 ( http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/FCA/1992/584.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=title(nintendo%20) ) which the dealings were by "Keyman Electronics Co Ltd"(I can't find anything about them, but I welcome others to try -- I found https://company.gongchang.com/p-210000/18656342_6795/ but I'm not 100% it's the same thing)
[/quote]
hey that's pretty interesting, I noticed this quote here

Quote:

 

2. We have some other game cartridges which is designed
by a USA company named 'TENSEN' and compatible with
 Nintendo . We could get the licence from them very
soon, but the price will be a little high, as we have
to pay the licence costs. [/quote]
so I guess Spica was in contact with Tengen and willing to license their stuff for sale alongside their consoles.. I don't think that deal ever went through but there was definitely some Sachen stuff released by Spica in Famicom format.

[fcgamer]

Tengen's Tetris was shown on the package of some NES clones, from Sachen and other companies.