Difference between revisions of "Super Mario Bros. multicarts"

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Revision as of 16:14, 23 November 2018

US cartridge.

Nintendo released several Super Mario Bros. multicarts for the Nintendo Entertainment System including:

Even though multicarts required larger ROM chips to hold the additional games, Nintendo was able to save money by combining them because it didn't need all the extra packaging and circuitry of both carts. These games were not boxed, but they did come with a single booklet containing the manuals of each game.

The SMB / Duck Hunt multicart was the first NES cartridge my family owned because we bought the Action Set in the late 1980s. My brother and I played it religiously. Since most of my friends who had a NES also got the Action Set, for a long time I didn't even know that Nintendo sold Super Mario Bros. or Duck Hunt as individual titles.

Status

I own the Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt multicart and can beat Super Mario Bros. and can play Duck Hunt indefinitely when allowed extreme close range.

Review

In each multicart, the combined games are essentially unchanged, so you can see my review for the individual games on their respective pages.

Media

Box Art

Although these games were not released in boxes, they did have media stickers on the cartridges which combined the various games. The SMB / Duck Hunt multicart started with the original US box art, but later releases slightly altered the layout with the Nintendo logo squeezed between the game icons. Some European countries used the superior Japanese box art. The multicart with World Class Track Meet used all-new new drawings. The SMB / Tetris / Nintendo World Cup cart used the original European box art for each game.

Documentation

Screenshots

One thing I like about the multicarts is how they present their game menus. The SMB / Duck Hunt multicart shows both title graphics and uses an animated cursor from the game to select the game. The SMB / DH / World Class Track Meet uses a hand cursor with the game's title graphics below, however the colors of the title graphics don't match the game's graphics properly. The SMB / Tetris / Nintendo World Cup uses a hand cursor with a smaller form of each game's title graphic and highlights and expands them when they're selected.

Links