Guide
NES black box variants
How to tell a first print from a later one across the 30 NES black box games, feature by feature.
What a black box game is
The NES launched in New York test markets in October 1985 with seventeen games that all looked the same: a black background, a screenshot, and the game's name. Collectors call them black box games. Nintendo added thirteen more through 1987, which gives the set its thirty titles.
They were in print for nine years. Over that time Nintendo changed how the box was sealed, dropped the cardboard hangtab, added codes to the back, revised the trademark symbols, and swapped the Seal of Quality from round to oval. None of these changes were announced, and none of them appear on the front cover in any obvious way. The result is that two copies of the same game can look identical on a shelf and sit nine years apart in production.
That is why the prints matter. A launch copy of Super Mario Bros. and a 1993 copy are the same game, the same artwork and the same cartridge, but they are not the same object. Working out which one you have takes about thirty seconds once you know where to look.
A warning before the details: a hangtab does not mean a first print. It is the single most common mistake in listings. Hangtabs were used for the first six printings and for nearly two years, so "hangtab" narrows a copy down to a range, not to a date.
The features, and how to check yours
Each of these is independent. Check them in order and you will land on exactly one print.
How the box was sealed
Until early 1986 Nintendo did not shrink wrap games at all. The box was closed with a small round sticker printed "Nintendo". There were two kinds, and then the stickers stopped:
- Matte sticker — flat paper finish. Used from launch through the winter of 1985/86.
- Gloss sticker — a metallic sticker that reads "VOID" once peeled. Used through early 1986.
- Shrink wrap — from mid-1986 onward.
How to check your copy: look at the top flap. A sealed copy shows the wrap. An opened copy may still carry the sticker or its torn remains; if there is no sticker and no residue, it was shrink wrapped.
Photo needed: a matte sticker seal and a gloss sticker seal side by side, close enough to show the finish difference.
Photo needed: the top flap of a shrink-wrapped copy next to a sticker-sealed one.
The hangtab
Early boxes had a die-cut cardboard tab perforated into the top of the back panel, so shops could hang them on peg hooks. The cardboard could not take the weight, which led to torn boxes and theft, and Nintendo cut it from the box die in September 1987. Later boxes used a glued-on plastic hangtab instead.
How to check your copy: turn the box over and look at the top edge. A perforated cardboard tab, whether still attached or torn away, means a print from October 1985 to September 1987.
Photo needed: the back top edge of a hangtab box, with the perforation visible, and the same area on a no-hangtab box.
Rev-A
Nintendo added a "Rev-A" marking in January 1988 to flag the cartridge redesign from five screws to three. The box, the cartridge label and the paperwork all changed together.
How to check your copy: look for "Rev-A" printed on the box. If it is there, the copy is from 1988 or later. There is no copy with an oval Seal of Quality and no Rev-A — the marking arrived about fifteen months before the oval seal, so Rev-A came first.
Photo needed: the Rev-A marking on the box, with enough surrounding area to show where it sits.
The Seal of Quality
There are exactly two shapes, and the shape is what matters:
- Round — from launch until March 1989.
- Oval — March 1989 onward, and on Nintendo's products ever since.
The oval version then splits again: early ovals carry a ™ beside them, later ones carry an ®, after Nintendo's trademark registration came through.
Ignore any listing that describes the seal by colour. Round seals exist in black, white, gold, cyan, orange and magenta, and some games have a round and an oval seal in the same colour. Colour tells you nothing.
How to check your copy: find the seal on the front of the box and note whether its outline is a circle or an oval. If it is an oval, look for the small ™ or ® next to it.
Photo needed: a round Seal of Quality and an oval one, same game if possible.
Photo needed: an oval seal with ™ and an oval seal with ®, cropped tightly on the symbol.
The codes
Two different codes appear on the back of the box, added at different times:
- NES-GP — a generic code reading "Game Pak (NES-GP)", added in late 1986. It sits bottom right on the back, above the Nintendo logo.
- The game code — a code unique to each title, added during 1987, in the top left corner of the back. It follows the pattern NES P XX, where XX abbreviates the game. Super Mario Bros. is NES P SM, Urban Champion is NES P UC, Slalom is NES P SL.
How to check your copy: turn the box over. Check the bottom right above the Nintendo logo for NES-GP, then the top left corner for the game code. Neither, one or both may be present, and that is enough to place the copy within a year.
Photo needed: the back of a box with the NES-GP code, cropped on the bottom right corner.
Photo needed: the top left corner of a back panel showing a game code.
The NES trademark symbol
Separately from the Seal of Quality, the words "Nintendo Entertainment System" on the front of the box gained a ™ in mid-1987, below the title and to the centre right. It later became an ®, at the same time as the switch to the oval seal.
This only helps on hangtab boxes. Once the ™ was added, every print up to April 1989 had it, so it stops distinguishing anything. And because the ® and the oval seal arrived together, the oval seal is the easier tell for late copies — no copy exists with an ® and a round seal.
How to check your copy: on the front, read the end of "Nintendo Entertainment System" and look for a ™ or ®.
Photo needed: the front of a box with no symbol after "Nintendo Entertainment System", and one with the ™, cropped on that text.
The star flap
The last print carries a star printed below the code on the inner box flaps, marking a promotional copy. It is only visible on a box that has been opened, so a sealed copy cannot be separated from the ordinary oval ® print without breaking the seal.
Photo needed: the inner box flap with the star below the code.
The print chronology
Twelve prints are tracked, in four groups. Not every game exists in every print — a 1986 release never had a 1985 launch print, and the matrix below shows which combinations are confirmed.
- Confirmed — links to the variant
- Likely, unconfirmed
- Unlikely, unconfirmed
- Can't exist
* Pro Wrestling and Volleyball are highlighted in WATA's spreadsheet without explanation. Volleyball is the only black box game whose trademark symbol sits beside the game title rather than after “Nintendo Entertainment System”, which may be why — but the source does not say.
Common mistakes
"Hangtab means first print." It does not. Hangtabs ran for roughly two years and cover the first six prints. A hangtab copy could be the launch print or it could be from mid-1987.
"White seal" or "black seal." Seal colour is not a variant. The same seal shape exists in many colours, and some games have both shapes in one colour. Use the shape.
"Rev-A is the last version." Rev-A arrived in January 1988, more than a year before the oval seal, so there are Rev-A copies with round seals and Rev-A copies with oval seals. It marks the cartridge change, not the end of the run.
Counting a resealed box as an early print. Nintendo appears to have taken returned stock back and resealed it with whatever sticker was current. Copies exist with two matte stickers, and with a gloss sticker applied over a matte one. A doubled sticker says something about the box's history, not its print.
Trusting the gloss sticker plus NES-GP combination. Only Gumshoe and Balloon Fight are known with a gloss sticker seal and an NES-GP code together, and only among 1986 releases. On any other title, treat that pairing as a reason to look harder.
About this guide
Every entry here is unverified on First Print Collecting until one of our moderators has checked a physical copy. WATA confirmed that these prints exist; that is not the same as us having seen one. If you own a copy, the variant pages take photographs and corrections.
Sources
- WATA Games, "The Definitive NES Black Box Variant Guide" (2019, archived) — https://web.archive.org/web/20251114042507/https://blog.watagames.com/2019/01/08/the-definitive-nes-black-box-variant-guide/
- WATA Games, "Guide to All Confirmed Black Box Variants" (spreadsheet)
The photographs in the WATA article are theirs and are not reproduced here. Follow the link above to see them.