iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Same, although it would be a very me move to start cooking more adventurous meals for the family only for it to secretly be motivated by Nintendo stuff 😂

A copy of "1000 cooking recipes from Elle a table" for Nintendo DS. It is effectively unplayed.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Random game or secretly on the hunt for Totaka's Tune? Presumably it unlocks when you've made all the recipes with every cheese and wine pairing...

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Great video, top stuff from John as usual. One thing though, isn't his name John Rairdin? The youtube AI video summary refers to the narrator as John Riggs too, but I assumed that was standard AI barf.

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Reposted by Bufo Bufo

MrTalida @mrtalida.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Project Dream, the SNES prototype that eventually turned into Banjo-Kazooie, had just been uploaded to the Internet Archive: archive.org/details/proj...

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

If you have a look at the no-intro link i shared for that 8714 PRG it has images of the box and front of the cart as well as the PCB. It's from a short box "European Version", so i think it's an SCN / Bergsala release.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I can understand the logic of wanting consistency of behaviour across all SMB carts produced for the UK / PAL A launch. If the PAL timing fix only became available after some carts had already been produced then I can see why Mattel pushed ahead with just using HVC PRG ROMs for PAL A.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

So manufacturing may have begun for UK copies of SMB before the PAL timing fixed version was available, but they continued to have additional copies manufactured afterwards, prior to the UK launch to build up stocks, but did not update those later printings to the timing fixed version.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

So the current timeline is: 87/08 - Earliest known manufacturing date of UK SMB PRG ROMs 87/14 - Earliest known manufacturing date of PAL timing fixed SMB PRG ROMs 87/34 - Manufacturing date of our personal copies of UK SMB PRG ROMs (non timing fixed)

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

So I found a 5-screw Mattel copy of SMB on ebay (I didn't save the link) with the PRG chip serial 7B3, which converts to around 8708 for comparison with our 5 screw cart dates (there's also one listed on no-intro with the comment "#4 dump": datomatic.no-intro.org/index.php?pa...)

A PAL-A GBR Mattel 5-screw copy of Super Mario Bros. opened to show the PCB which has a PRG ROM chip displaying the datecode 7B3 which converts to a standard format datecode of 8708 or the 9th week of 1987.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Sounds like a plan, it would be good to have releases nailed down to at least a 6 month window. Getting references for these things is graft, but it'll be nice to be able to point to a source when a date is given.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Looked into 50Hz SMB and there is a PAL B release (European Version) on No-Intro (2nd dump down) with the chip serial PAL-SM-0 PRG (8714). So 20 weeks prior to the dates on the initial UK release. (MY 5-screw SMB is also dated 8734) datomatic.no-intro.org/index.php?pa...

datomatic.no-intro.org

DAT-o-MATIC

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Looked up how to read the PRG chip date, it's the 7A5 part. The Format is YMW: 1-digit Year, 1-digit Month A-M (skipping I), 1-digit Week within that month. 7A5 should be Week 5 of January 1987.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Let me share my NES PAL A spreadsheet with you (unless you want the fun of collecting those numbers yourself...)

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Images of the above variants.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

That is a nice collection! I only have: Super Mario Bros. (5) Duck Hunt (5) From trawling ebay I've found evidence of these different Mattel GBR black box versions too: 10-Yard Fight (3) Ice Climber (5) Soccer (3) Tennis (3) Urban Champion (3) Pinball (5) So there maybe have been reprints.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

It's all the same I think? US / CAN NES region releases of SMB use the same PRG & CHR as the Japanese HVC region releases. US SMB releases carry the same codes:

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I've no idea who the PAL yards display version was for then, if it wasn't for the UK! Maybe Hong Kong? Did they move to thinner card stock for the later reissues then?

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

So does that mean we can conclude there are 5 screw UK versions of all black box games (except the exclusions you mentioned)? There are a bunch of black box games I've only ever seen in 3 screw versions, which I assumed meant that there were multiple UK Mattel printings.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Good spot, I must have mislabelled that, guess it may be a slightly later ITA (possibly also AUS) reprint, although they usually have updated codes on the cart front label in the NES-??-GBR format, could really use a nice complete PAL A collection to confirm things!

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

As soon as I win the lottery (any day now) I plan to do exactly the same. Until then I'm limiting myself to scouring ebay for images and the occasional purchase when the price is right.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

So the revision did get released in the UK, no idea if HVC-JR-0 did too (maybe if there was a 5 screw JR?) or perhaps just in other PAL regions which saw release before the UK. Yet another case where regional release dates would come in handy!

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Yeah, I've never seen anything other than the Mattel GBR AUS ITA 3 screws for DK & JR here in the UK, but I just looked through one of my spreadsheets and found photos I'd saved from ebay of a Mattel GBR Donkey Kong Jr. showing the PCB with the PRG serial HVC-JR-1.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I don't know how to read the PRG chip date, but the CHR is dated 8709, which I think is week 9 (end of Feb / start of March) 1987, so the cart must have been put together in Q1 1987 at the earliest.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

But based purely on the lotcheck, it doesn't look like there were retimed versions for DK/JR/PP as the revisions are identical across all regions.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Yeah, the complexity of the PAL region makes research into these things a lot harder as we've discussed! It could be that the Donkey Kong / Jr. / Popeye revisions got released in PAL B or only in specific countries as/when reprints were needed. Release info on NES PAL region as a whole is spotty!

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

6½. It would be useful to know the earliest PAL release of the 50Hz Super Mario Bros., that way we could determine whether the optimised version already existed around the time of the UK launch.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

6. There is also the case you pointed out of SUPER MARIO BROS. where a PAL release with PRG & CHR identical to the HVC & NES versions exists, but isn't listed in the lotcheck. Whether this implies the 60Hz release was a mistake or simply an accidental omission from the lot check is unclear.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

5½. Here are those titles with unique PAL PRG data: PINBALL TENNIS DEVIL WORLD EXCITEBIKE BALLOON FIGHT KUNG-FU SUPER MARIO BROS. MACH RIDER PRO WRESTLING GUMSHOE SLALOM

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

5. There's also a bunch of titles which are all listed as only having PAL releases with PRG ROM differences from the HVC & NES versions. In some cases these changes are known to include PAL 50Hz timing fixes (TENNIS, SUPER MARIO BROS.), but others may be undocumented.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Yeah, it would be good to be able to map the releases on No Intro to the lot check, but No Intro only stores checksums for combined PRG & CHR, so I don't have a way to cross reference Chip serials to lot check entries.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

4. SOCCER has a PRG revision exclusive to the PAL region in addition to a version identical to the HVC / NES region versions. Could this be later revision to fix PAL 50Hz timing for a title which was presumably pretty popular in PAL regions?

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

3. GOLF apparently has 2 special versions exclusive to PAL regions with PRG ROM changes. One for yard display and one for metres. This is in addition to a version identical to the NES region version. I wonder if the PAL-GFm0 PRG chip serials represent the metres version?

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

2. WILD GUNMAN got a PRG revision in HVC and NES regions, which PAL regions didn't get.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

1. MARIO BROS. (NOT Super) has a listed revision to the PRG ROM exclusively for the PAL region. This is a revision of the standard Black Box MARIO BROS. (Code MA), different to the (classic Series) version which Italy and German got (Code MC). Possibly a PAL 50Hz timing fix version?

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Had to look into this to see if I could see any evidence of other PAL anomalies in the NES lot check. Have pulled together a little spreadsheet of the relevant data for the Black Box titles and there's some interesting stuff in there I hadn't previously noticed. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

docs.google.com

NES Black Box Titles Lotcheck Data

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I wonder if the European marketing plans factored into this? FF VII was the first mainline title released in Europe, so there was no reason to use the US numbering. It could have caused further confusion if Europe got 7 and the US market got 4, especially since the internet was widely used by then.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

50% of the photos on my phone are of this warm-hearted summer pup 🥰

A tricolour Jack Russell Terrier relaxes on the lawn next to flowerbed full of orange marigolds on a warm summer's day.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

These images really capture the feeling of watching footy on the telly. A fast for the eyes!

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Reposted by Bufo Bufo

Stephen Maurice Graham @smgdraws.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

In celebration of Gitaroo Man re-appearing as PS2 classic please help yourself to this illustrated wallpaper I made for your computer or phone, available now for the next 3 days for free! we.tl/t-Zx3zpxa5r8...

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Aah, running the solver offline and caching the results is smart, then you're not doing extra processing at runtime and never need to worry that the player randomly rolls a bunch of unwinnable seeds and has to wait arbitrarily long for the game to deal a new game. Thanks for the insight Kenney!

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Ooh, would love to hear how you made all the games solvable! That's usually one of those features which is easy to describe, but difficult to implement. Did you do it with maths or maybe by implementing a solver that quickly plays the generated deal to see if it can be solvable?

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Is this a thing? I remember when shops briefly had them to scare off loitering youths and it was deemed a human rights violation and they were banned. Did they just rebrand as a cat deterrent for private use? Gross.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Amazing to think that Ancient Barry (or old "ab"s) was already ancient when this ancient statue was originally chiselled. Now he's Double-Ancient Barry! ("dab")

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Cheers Joe, we only got one nomination in a technical category - biggest horse in a motion picture (practical effects)

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Happy birthday! Not sure if it was appropriate or inappropriate that i DM'd with questions about Nintendo trivia on your birthiversary?

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

I bet a lot of people were involved in the sign off for the original artwork. I hope they make the effort to commission you and keep the style consistent rather than using the box art crops they have now.

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Just now noticing that the typeface used for the "Collection" text is the Capcom font. Did you have a hand in the logo design as well as the key art?

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Feel like there's multiple right answers to this one since it looks like Paul Robertson style - so I'll say Mercenary Kings!

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Bufo Bufo @bufobufo.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

The cheese-wheel training regime seems to be getting popular and it's vegan friendly (you only eat the wax)

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