Remember when the original "Super Mario Bros. 2" or the NES version of "Earthbound" that were never released in the United States?
You may have even had the opportunity to give these games a go, either on the Wii's Virtual Console, or even on your PC using an emulator -- but that isn't how they were originally intended to be played.
What if there was a way you could play these games the way they were supposed to be -- on your NES. If you are a video game traditionalist like I am, then Leon Kiriliuk from NES Reproductions may be your savior.
Leon, an avid collector of NES games, helps retro gamers by selling games that were never released (either because they never came out Stateside, or they because are homebrew games) in their original form -- the classic NES cartridge. As an NES collector myself, I have to admit I was more than intrigued, so I reached out to Leon via e-mail last week to find out a little bit more about what he does, how he does it and helpful tips on how to avoid "bit rot"...
Multiplayer: Who are you? Where are you from? And what you do for a living?
Leon Kiriliuk: I'm a 30-something year old software developer living in Toronto, Canada. I work for IBM developing the IBM C/C++ compiler for mainframes.
Multiplayer: How did you get started making NES game reproductions?
Kiriliuk: I began collecting original Nintendo Entertainment System games back in the late 90's. I've heard of prototype games before, but due to their rarity and extraordinary cost, I've never considered owning one. It was around 2003 then that I discovered the NES homebrew scene, and I put two and two together. I realized that with the help of the NES homebrew scene I would be able to offer other collectors and gamers such as myself the ability to play unreleased titles on their NES system at an affordable price. And so, nesreproductions.com was born. I've spent a few months learning how to create these games, tried many different techniques to create them, and eventually mastered the perfect formula to create them.
Multiplayer: On average, about how many games do you send out per month?
Kiriliuk: It really depends on the month. Some months, like November and December, it would be a few dozen. Other months (like June, July), it would be close to none. It's very much seasonal.
Multiplayer: What are your best-sellers?
Kiriliuk: Overall, "Earthbound" and "Super Mario Bros 2 Japan" are my top two sellers. But around the beginning of the year, "Tecmo Super Bowl" gets a lot of orders as well.
Multiplayer: Why do you think people gravitate towards those titles?
Kiriliuk: Nintendo underestimated its audiences back in the day. They released these two titles only in Japan believing that sales would be too poor in North America.
"Earthbound" over the years has gotten a cult following and with the Internet, it only added more fuel to the fire. "SMB2j" is Mario. The same game almost every person has played at some point in their life, but only harder. Everyone wants to know how the original quest really continued (I don't consider the American version of "SMB2" to be a true Mario game; it's a hack of a Famicom Disk System game which Nintendo acquired and changed the character sprites to look like Mario).
Multiplayer: What is the process of creating a reproduction?
Kiriliuk: It all starts with a donor cartridge [cart]. Different NES games have different compatible carts. The only difference between two compatible carts is the memory chips inside holding the game data. The actual circuit boards holding the memory chips and making the game function correctly are identical. (Two incompatible games have vastly different circuit boards). What I do is the following:
- remove the old memory chips (ROM's)
- write new memory chips (EPROM's)
- solder the EPROM's to where the ROM's were (they are mostly not pin compatible, so I need to rewire the location of the EPROM pins to match the ROM pins)
- clean the donor circuit board connector back to new condition (years of usage tends to get the connector so dirty, that the game stops functioning)
- remove the old label from the shell
- print/laminate new label and stick it on shell
- make sure the game functions and ship the game back to the customer
Multiplayer: What are the technical limitations of an NES cartridge?
Kiriliuk: The two major technical limitations are the compatible donor carts and ROM to EPROM mappings. For example, "Super Mario Bros 1" is a very simple game. "Super Mario Bros 3" is a much more complex game in comparison. The major reason for that is the circuit board used inside the cart. "SMB3" is much more complex, and as such "SMB1"'s circuit board can never be used as a donor cart for "SMB3."
Multiplayer: Have you played all of the games that you offer?
Kiriliuk: Yes. I've played every single one. I would never sell a game I haven't tested out myself first.
Multiplayer: Can you explain the legality of being able to sell these games?
Kiriliuk: This is a very gray area which I tend to leave other members of the community. A majority of the games that I sell have never been available to the general public. Many of these games are made by companies that don't exist, and in a way can be considered abandon ware.
Personally, I believe that owning a reproductions is as legal as owning the original prototype of the game.
As far as reproductions of homebrew games (e.g. "Tecmo Super Bowl 2007"). Most of my customers send me the original "Tecmo Super Bowl" to be updated to 2007.
You have to remember, this is an issue that effects other hobbies as well (MAME arcade emulation comes to mind).
Multiplayer: Do you go through any kind of quality control for some of the homebrew/hacked games that you sell?
Kiriliuk: Yes. I test all the games I create. If the game doesn't play cleanly on my system, I do not offer it.
Multiplayer: Do you share any of the profits with the creators of those homebrew games?
Kiriliuk: What profits? 
After the cost of shipping, printing, memory chips, and material to put the game together, very little is left. I've estimated that I make less than minimum wage making these games.
So why do I make them? Because it's my hobby! Some people like to collect baseball cards, other like to collect stamps, I love to collect NES games and make them. Making these NES games at close to cost is one way I give back to the community that I've been a member of for over 10 years now.
I've always considered nesreproductions.com more of a hobby than a business. If it was a business, I would be out of business a long time ago.
As far as the creators of these games are concerned, I had creators that contacted me in the past, and I have offered reproductions of their games to them free of charge.
Multiplayer: Has the Wii's Virtual Console helped or hurt your business?
Kiriliuk: I don't own a Wii, so I know very little about its virtual console. As far as sales are concerned, they've been pretty consistent before the Wii's availability as well as after its launch.
Multiplayer: Does the availability of "Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels" have an influence on your business at all since once unavailable game is has now been released in the U.S.?
Kiriliuk: I wasn't aware of its release. In what format was it released? I assume on the Wii Virtual Console. In any case, sales have remained consistent.
Multiplayer: Do you think that making certain games available for purchase as a reproduction lessens the value of the original cartridges?
Kiriliuk: I strongly doubt that. You have to remember, the "original cartridge" itself is a reproduction. It's a snapshot of the game during its development cycle, its what we developers call a build. It just happens that these builds somehow got out to the public (be it in one of the developer's hands, or sent as a "please return" demo to a magazine for an early beta review).
I would also like to add an important point here. All prototypes (including reproductions) are created using EPROM memory chips. These memory chips can hold their data on average 20-25 years before "bit rot" starts to settle in. For a lot of these games, they're hitting this milestone. Without these reproductions, many of these games would be lost forever if they were to remain in their original carts.
Multiplayer: Does this mean my 400+ NES collection is in jeopardy of not being able to be played 5 or 10 years down the road?
Kiriliuk: You shouldn't worry about your 400+ NES collection going bad on you. Regular NES games were made using ROM chips. Unlike EPROM's that can be erased and reprogrammed, ROM chips are permanent and don't suffer from bit rot. The problem with ROM chips though is that it's very expensive to produce. That's why you'll find most unlicensed NES games (and even the NWC cart) all use EPROM's and not ROM's.
Multiplayer: Are there any kinds of precautions that collectors can take to stave off "bit rot"?
Kiriliuk: Keep the game out of sunlight. Any EPROM chips are erased using UV light. There's lots of great information about bit rot on the internet.
Multiplayer: Do you have any plans to expand to different consoles? Is that even technically feasible?
Kiriliuk: There's already other companies on the Internet that sell reproductions for other systems (Atari, Genesis, etc). At this time, I'll stick to my one true love. The NES.
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