If you're a Nintendo Famicom collector, you may be familiar with the inconsistent top labels found on the system's many carts. Unlike the NES (where every game has them), the Famicom's publishers were free to experiment with cart colors, designs, and labels. It's fun as a collector to look closely at how each company approached these concepts, and I want to focus specifically on Namco's early games today.
Namco (aka Namcot) was the biggest Famicom publisher with 84 games released in Japan, way more than Konami's second-place total of 59. One of the neat things that they did, which seemed to be a trend at the time, was to number their games. How long each company kept up this numbering system varies, but Namco eventually ended up abandoning it after 18 titles. This is kind of like Namco's version of the black box NES games, a fun mini-set that represents the early days of the system.
An example of the first nine games and their top labels:
They look great, but what I want to focus on is the application of the top label stickers themselves. Because you see, only the first eight games had the stickers pre-applied. Starting with game #9 Battle City, Namco included stickers in the box for gamers to apply themselves.
A bent example of the stickers, found on Yahoo Auctions:
Each game came with three stickers: one that continued the colorful, horizontal pattern of games 1-8, and two others which were vertically aligned. Of course, this change means that if you're one of those people who just has to have consistency, then it becomes annoying to find 9-18 with the right label facing the right way.
It's been a fun sub-goal of mine to get all of the first 18 with the correct label and correct placement (I'm still working on it). But first, I need to explain exactly what "correct" means in this case. Unintuitively, in order for the later games to match the earlier ones, the label needs to be placed backwards. I know, this is the opposite of what you normally see on say, Konami's carts. But in the world of early Namco FC carts, it's correct.
An example of a correct Namco top label, from Ebay seller Japan4you:
How many kids would put the label on that way, unless they had some of the earlier games already? I've noticed in years of Famicom collecting that it seems to be uncommon, so it was time for some research.
First, I examined Japan4you's Namco carts on Ebay. They're one of the biggest Famicom sellers, they sell every game individually, and most crucially, they also have a clear photo which shows the tops of the carts. This was done in Spring or Summer of 2018, and included both for sale and sold games:
J4U Ebay - Namco top label data:
| Wrong | Correct | ||||||
| None | Vertical | Horizontal | Horizontal | Carts | |||
| 9 | Battle City | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 16 | |
| 10 | Pac-Land | 9 | 8 | 30 | 16 | 63 | |
| 11 | BurgerTime | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | |
| 12 | Star Luster | 25 | 9 | 33 | 14 | 81 | |
| 13 | Tag-Team Pro Wrestling | 31 | 6 | 48 | 20 | 105 | |
| 14 | Dig Dug II | 5 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 13 | |
| 15 | Super Chinese | 21 | 10 | 27 | 6 | 64 | |
| 16 | Babel no Tou | 9 | 2 | 12 | 3 | 26 | |
| 17 | Valkyrie no Bouken | 17 | 11 | 35 | 12 | 75 | |
| 18 | Sky Kid | 6 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 13 | |
| Totals | 133 | 54 | 200 | 77 | 464 | ||
| 28.7% | 11.6% | 43.1% | 16.6% |
Only about 1/6 carts have the correct label and placement.
I then decided to do a similar study this Summer on Yahoo Auctions, using any seller who had these games listed or sold:
Yahoo Auctions - Namco top label data:
| Wrong | Correct | ||||||
| None | Vertical | Horizontal | Horizontal | Carts | |||
| 9 | Battle City | 12 | 2 | 13 | 14 | 41 | |
| 10 | Pac-Land | 8 | 15 | 24 | 4 | 51 | |
| 11 | BurgerTime | 3 | 8 | 16 | 5 | 32 | |
| 12 | Star Luster | 14 | 3 | 38 | 8 | 63 | |
| 13 | Tag-Team Pro Wrestling | 8 | 6 | 29 | 4 | 47 | |
| 14 | Dig Dug II | 13 | 3 | 20 | 4 | 40 | |
| 15 | Super Chinese | 5 | 5 | 26 | 5 | 41 | |
| 16 | Babel no Tou | 4 | 5 | 13 | 5 | 27 | |
| 17 | Valkyrie no Bouken | 8 | 6 | 29 | 7 | 50 | |
| 18 | Sky Kid | 10 | 2 | 21 | 2 | 35 | |
| Totals | 85 | 55 | 229 | 58 | 427 | ||
| 19.9% | 12.9% | 53.6% | 13.6% |
This data shows even fewer correct labels. However, unlike the J4U study, many of the games didn't have photos of the top label, so those weren't included in the data. It's very likely that's the reason for the lower number of no label carts, (19.9% vs 28.7%), as I imagine sellers are less likely to take a photo of the top if there's no label. Overall, the two studies were pretty similar.
Looking at both these data sets combined:
| PCT | Correct | Carts | |||
| 9 | Battle City | 31.6% | 18 | 57 | |
| 10 | Pac-Land | 17.5% | 20 | 114 | |
| 11 | BurgerTime | 12.5% | 5 | 40 | |
| 12 | Star Luster | 15.3% | 22 | 144 | |
| 13 | Tag-Team Pro Wrestling | 15.8% | 24 | 152 | |
| 14 | Dig Dug II | 7.5% | 4 | 53 | |
| 15 | Super Chinese | 10.5% | 11 | 105 | |
| 16 | Babel no Tou | 15.1% | 8 | 53 | |
| 17 | Valkyrie no Bouken | 15.2% | 19 | 125 | |
| 18 | Sky Kid | 8.3% | 4 | 48 |
One thing that stands out is how Battle City seems to have more correct labels, which makes perfect sense considering it was the first game to allow the choice.
TLDR: About one out of every six or seven.
