1 (edited by Egen 2023-03-30 04:54:13)

They were all Rev 2 XD

Here's what confuses me. I'm gonna share my findings about collecting Japanese Wii games and paying attention to the many different things that can come with them.

Included with every game is an operation card of some sort. These cards had many revisions over the lifespan of the Wii, and I've cataloged what games come with them, as well as when those games were released. Here's a detailed list of findings for my entire collection.

T-RVL-JPN(A)-1  Yellow card
 - 2007-02-22 Fire Emblem: Akatsuki no Megami
T-RVL-JPN(B)    Red card
 - 2007-07-26 Mario Party 8
T-RVL-JPN(D)    Green card
 - 2007-07-26 Mario Party 8
T-RVL-JPN(E)    Blue card
 ! 2007-11-22 Mario & Sonic at Beijing Olympic
T-RVL-JPN(F)    Orange card (single-sided)
 - 2007-11-15 Biohazard: Umbrella Chronicles
 - 2007-12-06 Minna de Asobou! Namco Carnival
 - 2007-12-13 Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki Wasure no Meikyuu
 - 2007-12-13 NiGHTS: Hoshi Furu Yoru no Monogatari
 - 2007-12-13 Shikigami no Shiro III: Shikigami no Shiro Episode-3
 - 2007-12-13 SoulCalibur Legends
T-RVL-JPN(H)    Yellow card
 - 2008-01-31 Dairantou Smash Brothers X
 - 2008-02-07 Oneechanbara Revolution
T-RVL-JPN(H)-1  Red card
 - 2008-04-10 Mario Kart Wii
 - 2008-06-26 Tales of Symphonia: Ratatosk no Kishi
T-RVL-JPN(H)-3  Green card
 - 2008-12-11 Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes
 - 2008-12-18 Sonic World Adventure
 - 2009-01-29 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
 - 2009-03-12 Phantom Brave Wii
T-RVL-JPN(H)-4  Blue card
 - 2009-08-01 Monster Hunter 3 (Tri)
 - 2009-11-05 Mario & Sonic at Vancouver Olympic
 - 2009-11-26 Puyo Puyo 7
 - 2009-12-03 New Super Mario Bros. Wii
 - 2009-12-03 Sengoku Musou 3
 - 2009-12-10 Tales of Graces
 - 2010-07-29 Sengoku Basara 3
 - 2010-08-26 Twinkle Queen
T-RVL-JPN(H)-5  Orange card
 - 2010-09-02 Metroid: Other M
 - 2010-10-14 Keito no Kirby
 - 2011-02-10 Sengoku Musou 3 Moushouden
T-RVL-JPN(H)-6  Yellow card
 - 2011-10-27 Hoshi no Kirby Wii
 - 2011-11-10 Sengoku Basara 3 Utage
 - 2011-11-23 Zelda no Densetsu: Skyward Sword
 - 2011-12-01 Itadaki Street Wii
 - 2012-04-26 Mario Party 9

As you can see, other than one little oddity, which is Mario & Sonic at Beijing Olympic, the chronology makes absolute perfect sense with every single game. I don't have the biggest collection, but even for this sample size, I think that's pretty incredible. These dates are for the original releases. For example, my Rev 1 copy of Dairantou Smash Brothers X comes with the (H)-6 yellow card.

As well, every single one of these games comes with a Club Nintendo card with a product code on it, as well as a date, presumably indicating when the code expires. I've checked my Club Nintendo cards for all of these games, and the date for every single code expires exactly 2 years from the release date of the game, and to the end of the month (so for example, the code for Itadaki Street Wii, which was released on 2011-12-01, expires on 2013-12-31). For posterity's sake, the Club Nintendo code for my Rev 1 copy of Dairantou Smash Brothers X expires on 2013-01-31, rather than 2010-01-31, so later releases of games do get updated Club Nintendo cards.

When I decided to buy Mario Party 8, I looked at the Wiki and saw it's likely that we're missing Rev 0 and Rev 1. Having this information at my disposal, I looked at every copy available on YJA and bookmarked the ones that had various different colors of cards. You may have noticed that the first two entries of the list above are both Mario Party 8. Before these copies arrived, I had no idea those two cards even existed. The oldest cards I'd found at the time were T-RVL-JPN(E) and T-RVL-JPN(F) since I hadn't yet purchased Fire Emblem.

This is the part that blows my mind: every copy, like I said, was a Rev 2. Not a single copy, even the ones with old cards whose release dates conceivably check out in the timeline, was a Rev 0 or a Rev 1. As well, 3 of the 5 copies included Club Nintendo cards, and 2 of the cards (one of which was included with the copy containing the red T-RVL-JPN(B) operation card) had the correct dates on them! 2009-07-31, which is two years after the 2007-07-26 release date of the game. I've been unlucky before trying to find other versions of games, but I was honestly a bit blown away.

Anyway, what am I saying with all of this? Not much, I guess. Maybe it seems a little unlikely to me that these revisions of the game are actually out there, but hey, all of these people could have replaced their discs with Rev 2 discs, right? But that's the little adventure I went on recently, as well as some information about identifying Wii games... not that it helped me here, I guess :')

This is some good analysis. Based on the manufacturing date and lotcheck, it certainly is possible that there were no retail releases of Rev 0/1, or that they were released to retail in very limited numbers.

From a quick look on online at a handful of pics with visible ringcodes, I also only found Rev 2. I have in the past looked at ringcodes when purchasing in-person, which may be the way forward when searching for these in order to prevent owning the biggest Mario Kart 8 collection smile

Anyone who wants the biggest Mario Party 8 collection is gonna have to compete with me :')

Nice analysis. It might be possible to discount some other early revisions like this. Also, for discs you have on hand, you can check the manufacturing date of the disc in the mastering code.

5 (edited by Egen 2023-03-31 09:55:23)

That is awesome! Thank you so much. Here are the discs in my possession.

IFPI LQ11   107F1601   RVL-RM8J-0A-2 JPN   S0
 - 2007-07-16 (original release date is 2007-07-26)
IFPI LQ11   107F1601   RVL-RM8J-0A-2 JPN   S0
 - 2007-07-16
IFPI LL38   307F2008   RVL-RM8J-0A-2 JPN   S0
 - 2007-07-20
IFPI LQ11   108A0608   RVL-RM8J-0A-2 JPN   S0
 - 2008-01-06
IFPI LL38   309I0403   RVL-RM8J-0A-2 JPN   S0
 - 2009-09-04

So maybe it is actually safe to say that only Rev 2 was ever released?

The ringcodes are useful, thanks!

It's safe to say that if Rev 0/1 were released to retail, they were manufactured before 2007-07-16 and likely released in limited quantities. Still can't rule it out, and there's also the chance that they still exist as preprod discs but didn't sell at retail smile

Ah yeah, true, that might be the case. I'm glad I posted this though, didn't expect to get some peace of mind from it. I'm happy with stopping my search here, as I don't think I'll ever realistically identify a copy of Rev 0/1 Mario Party 8 (and further searches on YJA only support that expectation).

Thanks to both of you for the responses!