Manufacturing date stamped on HuCARDs pre-1991?

[sunteam_paul]

There's a discussion going on over at one of the Facebook groups I'm in - take a look at any HuCARD or Turbo game released before 1991 and many of them have a code stamped on the back. It has been suggested that these are the actual manufacturing dates of that particular batch of cards.

For example:
Power Drift has A00329 = 90 / 03 / 29 = 29th March 1990 (15 days before release)
Gunhed has A00120 = 20th January 1990 (Later than release, assume a reprint)
Doraemon has A91003 = 3rd October 1989 (it was released on 21st)

These differ from card to card so yours may vary. However, none go beyond 1990.

[Tatsujin]

Funny. Giving the JPN time format Y/M/D this sure is true. Probably Mitsubishi didn't print the date on Hueys before 1990.

[TheClash603]

Someone needs to find the first card ever made and we can start this whole thing over again.

AHU and BHU.  This whole BC and AD thing seems counter to modern cultural bliefs.

[cabbage]

Cool! I have always been curious about these stamps. Thanks for explaining their meaning!

Looking through the few hucards I have with me at the moment and I have seven with the stamped date: (Edit- they are all japanese version)
The Kung Fu = A71203 = 1987.12.03
Kato & Ken = A80125 = 1988.1.25
Bikkuriman World = A80126 = 1988.1.26
Fantasy Zone = A80926 = 1988.9.26
Mr. Heli = A91018 = 1989.10.18
PC Genjin = A91130 = 1989.11.30
Formation Armed F = A00306 = 1990.3.06

Now, where can I get a list of hucard release dates??  :-"

[SuperPlay]

There's a discussion going on over at one of the Facebook groups I'm in - take a look at any HuCARD or Turbo game released before 1991 and many of them have a code stamped on the back. It has been suggested that these are the actual manufacturing dates of that particular batch of cards.

For example:
Power Drift has A00329 = 90 / 03 / 29 = 29th March 1990 (15 days before release)
Gunhed has A00120 = 20th January 1990 (Later than release, assume a reprint)
Doraemon has A91003 = 3rd October 1989 (it was released on 21st)

These differ from card to card so yours may vary. However, none go beyond 1990.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing this :-)

[esteban]

There's a discussion going on over at one of the Facebook groups I'm in - take a look at any HuCARD or Turbo game released before 1991 and many of them have a code stamped on the back. It has been suggested that these are the actual manufacturing dates of that particular batch of cards.

For example:
Power Drift has A00329 = 90 / 03 / 29 = 29th March 1990 (15 days before release)
Gunhed has A00120 = 20th January 1990 (Later than release, assume a reprint)
Doraemon has A91003 = 3rd October 1989 (it was released on 21st)

These differ from card to card so yours may vary. However, none go beyond 1990.

Has anyone created a big old table documenting the findings?

I don't do Facebook, so I won't be looking, myself...

[sunteam_paul]

There's a discussion going on over at one of the Facebook groups I'm in - take a look at any HuCARD or Turbo game released before 1991 and many of them have a code stamped on the back. It has been suggested that these are the actual manufacturing dates of that particular batch of cards.

For example:
Power Drift has A00329 = 90 / 03 / 29 = 29th March 1990 (15 days before release)
Gunhed has A00120 = 20th January 1990 (Later than release, assume a reprint)
Doraemon has A91003 = 3rd October 1989 (it was released on 21st)

These differ from card to card so yours may vary. However, none go beyond 1990.

Has anyone created a big old table documenting the findings?

I don't do Facebook, so I won't be looking, myself...

No but we can start posting our numbers if you're handy with a spreadsheet...

[turboswimbz]

A couple of thoughts on this:

1) Esty and perhaps others  Can you  use the dates on the back of the hu cards to help with the list of release dates on Tg-16.com and the list you made in one of the threads.  I can't recall when this was.  It's be neat to see how close we could get to actual release dates. 

2) How well does the time that the numbers stop being printed match up to the US releases that lost thier Jewel cases?

[esteban]

A couple of thoughts on this:

1) Esty and perhaps others  Can you  use the dates on the back of the hu cards to help with the list of release dates on Tg-16.com and the list you made in one of the threads.  I can't recall when this was.  It's be neat to see how close we could get to actual release dates. 

2) How well does the time that the numbers stop being printed match up to the US releases that lost thier Jewel cases?

I would love to create a table with all of this info...if someone can post the raw data (list) I'd be happy to start 

[Aggie Tsubi]

Wow, that's really handy for people who document this kind of stuff. NEC seemed so much better about preserving this kind of info than most other hardware companies. Like with some of the PC-FX demos I have, I was surprised to discover that they contain huge databases of basic info on PC Engine and PC-FX releases, including release dates. With a lot of older games on other systems, you're lucky if you can pinpoint the month for certain, let alone the exact day.

[wildfruit]

i wanted to join in
but none of my games have this

[Necromancer]

From the last time these numbers were brought up:

Air Zonk Alien Crush Andre Panza Kick Boxing Aoi Blink Arcade Card Duo Arcade Card Pro Ballistix Battle Royale Bloody Wolf Bomberman '93 Bomberman '94 Bonk 3 Bonk's Adventure Bravoman Cadash China Warrior Cratermaze Cyber-Core Darkwing Duck Dead Moon Deep Blue Dodge Danpei Double Dungeons Double Dungeons (J) Dragon Spirit Drop Off Dungeon Explorer Falcon Fantasy Zone Galaga '90 Gunboat Hatris Hit the Ice Impossamole JJ & Jeff Keith Courage King of Casino Klax Legendary Axe Military Madness Momotarou Densetsu II Momotarou Katsugeki Neutopia Ninja Spirit Order of the Griffon Ordyne Pac Land Populous Power Golf Racing Spirits R-Type Sidearms Silent Debuggers Skweek Soldier Blade Sommer Assault Sonic Spike Space Harrier Splatterhouse Street Fighter II' Super Star Soldier Takin' It To The Hoop Talespin Tennokoe Bank TG-CD System Card Time Cruise Tricky Kick TV Sports Baseball TV Sports Basketball TV Sports Football TV Sports Hockey Victory Run Vigilante World Class Baseball World Court Tennis World Sports Competition Yo Bro

A90805 A00412 A90930 A00131 A00124 A90912 A91110 A90922 A91019 A91124 A00219 A90801 A90725 A00118 A00314 A00119 A91120 A90922 A91020 A91118 A00122 A00116 A00205 A90715 A90930 A91106 A91121

1992 1989 1991 (December) 1990 (April 27th) 1994 (March 12th) 1994 (March 12th) 1991 (May) 1990 1990 1993 1993 (December 10th) 1993 1990 1990 1991 (November) 1989 1990 1990 1992 (May) 1991 1989 1992 (September 25th) 1990 1989 (September 29th) 1989 1990 1989 1992 (June) 1989 1989 1992 (May) 1991 (May 24th) 1992 1991 (October) 1990 1989 1990 1990 1989 1989 1990 (December 22nd) 1990 (September 21st) 1990 1990 1992 1989 1989 1991 (April 5th) 1989 1991 (July 19th) 1989 1989 1991 (October) 1991 (August 2nd) 1992 1992 1990 1989 1990 1993 (June 12th) 1991 1989 1991 1991 (September 6th) 1992 1990   1991 1990 1991 (September) 1989 1989 1989 1989 1992 1991 (September)

(all TG-16 versions unless noted otherwise or PCE only, and release dates culled from pcedaisakusen)

I see a few where the release date is before the date stamp, indicating reprints and/or inaccurate release dates.

[turboswimbz]

I've noticed that  on the PCE games, the earlist "manufacture date" printed on the card seems to be about 2 weeks before the actual release date.  I wonder if this hold trues for US versions as well.  It seems several of the TG-16 games have dates abpout a year later than the release date listed.   

Also thanks Necro.

[esteban]

Necro, that table is formatted beautifully!

QUESTION: Have multiple manufacturing dates been discovered for any titles yet? If so, I'd like to put an extra column or two in my table to document all codes associated with a title.

Of course, I intend to look at my HuCARDs to verify this info. 

[sunteam_paul]

These are all Japanese cards:

PC Genjin A91205
Shinobi A91101
Yu Yu Jinsei A80406
New Zealand Story A00206
Bloody Wolf A90622
Wataru A90123
Galaga 88 A80624
Yokai Dochuki A80229
Dungeon Explorer A90209
Vigilante A81220
Sonson2 A90111
Kato & Ken A80122
Genpei Toma Den A00207
Doraemon 1 A91003
Fantasy Zone A80929
Schbibin Man A90313
RType 1 A80413
Bikkuriman World A80106
Victory Run A80209
Space Harrier A81212
Power Drift A00329
Naxat Open A90420
Kung Fu A71216
Blue Blink A00414
Dragon Spirit A80920
City Hunter A00209
Kyukyoku Tiger A90930
Gunhed A00120
Atomic Robo-kid A91225