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Sangokushi Retsuden Ransei no Eiyuutachi ... Sega's first Chinese localisation?
Note: for some reason I'm blocked from posting direct links to pics, so I'll just post the direct links ...
So there's a well known Chinese ROM of this game; San Guo Zhi Lie Zhuan: Luan Shi Qun Ying. It seems that the general opinion is that this is a Taiwanese bootleg. Indeed, this game was extremely bootlegged, but after researching Sega's early Asian releases, I'm convinced that this was originally a genuine first party release, which was later bootlegged.
My reasons for thinking this? Well, I've been researching Sega's Asian releases for a while. If we start at the beginning (1986), Sega had region codes for every console. Hong Kong SMS was 3010-11 (PAL-I), Singapore/South East Asia Was 3010-07 (PAL-B) ... the last two digits are the region code. South East Asian SMS didn't last long, so "11" became the "PAL Asia" code, for a while, at least. Later Sega would introduce region code "16" for Taiwan, and "08" for South Korea (after Samsung split), both of those "NTSC Asia". Eventually "16" would become "NTSC Asia" and "07" would become "PAL Asia", "with "40" being the general code for Asia.
Anyway, before then we have known early Sega Asian releases. About 1990/1 Sega started to include their internal product numbers on everything that they produced. We're not just talking cartridges, boxes, we're talking every single sticker, game cover, piece of paper, it all has a code. Paper, stickers etc are; 670-xxxx, boxes; 671-xxxx etc. Variants have an additional "-xx" on the end, either variant number "01", "02" etc, or region code "07", "11" etc. That's not really well documented, but we're learning it now. We know that they used these internally prior to them putting the code on the box due to service manuals where parts including boxes were available to order, along with the code.
http://segaretro.org/images/c/c9/Lan..._MD_AS_Box.jpg
So ... at first Asia just got Japanese games, but there's one example of an early Asian release ... Landstalker. It has the standard JP code (G-5517), but with the additional Asian code (G-5517-11); You can see that they also released a black and white Chinese manual alongside the Japanese manual;
http://i.imgur.com/jGRFGuM.jpg
Actually ... I think that this came after Sangokushi Retsuden Ransei no Eiyuutachi.
Because;
http://imgur.com/Stw6BPJ
Front cover ... OK, it's in Chinese instead of Japanese, nothing a bootlegger couldn't do;
http://imgur.com/gTFtVKT
But look at the code on the back;
http://imgur.com/a/dtmbI
670-1416-11 ... Chinese language with Japanese code, with Hong Kong region code, whilst nobody knew about it.
So let's look at the spine;
http://imgur.com/a/tmqE4
Wow! G-5510, one of the missing early game codes (Japanese version is G-5504 ). So let's look at the ROM header ... it's G-5510! I'm now pretty convinced that this is a legitimate first party release, but there is one final way to know. The cartridge sticker.... it's in Chinese instead of Japanese, so it can't have the same code as the Japanese sticker (which isn't widely known, and was even less well known back then, I sincerely doubt that any bootleggers would care about adding region codes when Sega had only just started using them) ...
Anyway, the cartridge sticker;
http://imgur.com/a/lkPkR
Chinese sticker with Chinese language and proper Sega code with additional Chinese Sega code! Personally I'm convinced that this was initially a legitimate first party release.
Wow! what a load of crap! I just posted a load of interesting pics hosted on imgur ... not a single one shows up on here! The only way I can get a pic to show is if I cut and paste an old picture, what a load of bullshit! I've wasted too much time trying to post something interesting (that isn't even hosted on this site), I can't really be bothered to continuously try to post pictures that are auto-blocked for no reason.
Edit: I managed to just post straight links, so it should all make sense now. Still, what a load of hassle just to make a post. If I hadn't been a long term member I would have probably gave up and posted elsewhere.