Is there in-game differences between 3 and 5 screws NES games?
I noticed this weekend that there are two different "screw-versions" of the old NES games. As we can read on Nintendo Age, most of games have both version with 5 and 3 screws.
Here is a great example :
Do the games are 100% identical in-game? For some titles, there is a huge price difference between the 3 screws version and the 5 screws one and I want to be sure. Is the only factor the rarity of each version? Or there are in-game differences between those versions ? What is the reason there are 3 and 5 screws NES games?
Best Answer
The problem is there's no way of being sure when the program was actually updated, before, during, or after the change in case/screw design. But yes, some are different.
For instance, I have a 5 screw Zelda and it lacks the "press reset" warnings present in most battery backed up games. I've seen other Zelda carts that do have the warnings (in game, I mean, not just printed on the cart labels). When did the change happen? Beats me, but most 3 screws seem to have it, and 5 screws not.
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What does a 5 screw NES game mean?
Yes, there are those of us who get excited by the number of screws in a Nintendo cart. Official cartridges for the NES come in two flavors, the common 3-screw and the uncommon 5-screw. This refers to the number of screws used on the bottom to hold the cartridge together.What screws does the NES use?
You will need a #3 or 2.5 Flat head screw driver to remove these. Two of them will have metal springs underneath them. These are the screws that hold the door on the NES on.How many pins does an NES cartridge have?
The adapter is needed because the NES cartridges use 72 pins, while Famicom games use only 60, so they're not directly compatible with each other, even though they are the same games software-wise.Classic Game Collecting #13 | Three Screw and Five Screw Nintendo Game Cartridges w/GameTime
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Answer 2
Although not related to 3-screw vs. 5-screw games, there is a way to see if there is a different rom on a game between two copies. According to this answer, all you have to do is check the revision number that is stamped on the caution label on the back of the cart. Each cart is stamped with 2 digits that represent an assembly line where the cart was assembled. IF nothing follows the numbers, then this is the first version of the game rom. If there is an "A", then it is the second version of the rom released to production, if there is a "B", it's the third, and so on.
Regarding 5 screws, yes this was a cost savings modification. By eliminating 2 screws, Nintendo eliminated the future-need to buy literally millions of screws. Also, this would have saved time on assembly and would have allowed for more cartridges to be assembled per day. This would have meant fewer facilities and assembly lines would be needed to crank out just as many carts.
Answer 3
In a lot of cases I've found so far, there are actual ROM differences between the 5-Screw and the 3-Screw cartridges. In some cases, there are even differences between some 5-Screw and other 5-Screw cartridges (e.g. Popeye - NES-PP-0 vs. NES-PP-1), and between some 3-Screw and 3-Screw cartridges (e.g. Dragon Warrior - NES-DQ-0 and NES-DQ-1), so yes, SOMETHING changed between them, even if's as minor as the difference between "Thy hits have been reduced by" (for the "Trademark To Nintendo" start screen message) and "Thy hit points have been reduced by" (on the Trademark Of Nintendo" start screen message) on the Dragon Warrior ROMs.
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