Caltron 6-in-1 | |
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Caltron 6-in-1 box art |
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Developer(s) | Caltron / Mega Soft / NTDEC |
Publisher(s) |
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Designer(s) | various |
Engine | Proprietary |
Platform(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System |
Release date(s) | 1992 |
Genre(s) | various |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Media/distribution | Cartridge (Physical) |
Caltron 6 in 1 is a multicart published in 1992 for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America,[1] and the only game known to be released by Caltron, a Taiwan-based video game company.[2] In Australia, it was published under the title Real Players Pack by Home Entertainment Suppliers (HES).[3] This version is regarded by collectors as the rarest HES game; on the 22nd January an auction of eBay had 2 bids up to US $2850. Dynacom released the cartridge as Multi Acao 6-in-1[4] for the Brazilian market.
6–in–1, as its title suggests, consists of six different games of various genres. The games included, which are mostly clones of other popular video games of the era, are Cosmos Cop, Adam and Eve, Magic Carpet 1001, Balloon Monster, Porter, and Bookyman.[2] These games were all previously released separately in Famicom format by NTDEC.
The compilation has received poor reviews, with one reviewer claiming that all six games on the multicart are "uniformly awful [and] barely first-generation NES quality," even though they are more playable and are of "much higher quality" than other unlicensed video game compilations, specifically citing Active Enterprises' Action 52 as the comparative example.[2]
The six games on Caltron 6–in–1 are:
When Caltron Industries, Inc. was going out of business, Myriad Games, Inc., a company based in Kingwood, Texas, bought all of their existing inventory of cartridges. Myriad then took the carts and added a very generic (no graphic art) label. They were then packaged in custom boxes with a folded manual. Each Myriad cart and box were numbered individually.
Myriad's only change to Caltron's product was to replace the label with their own. In fact, you can see the edges of the Caltron label visible at the edges, as the Myriad label is slightly too small to cover it. No programming changes were done, hence the game is exactly the same. To this point, the title screen still reads "Caltron." The six games on the cart are identical to Caltron's release.
Shortly after the release of 6-in-1, Myriad went out of business for unknown reasons. The game has become one of the rarest unlicensed games made for the NES. Collectors speculate that fewer than 100 copies of this game still exist, and even fewer are complete. The most valuable copies of the game are those with box, instructions, and the cartridge with matching serial numbers. The lowest known serial number is 000032 [5] and the highest is 000888. At least two sealed versions are known to exist. [6][7]