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Back to: Fukutake Publishing - StudyBox

Not Unl

Bro3256 » 2025-02-06 23:14:15

First and most importantly, the ROMs are incorrectly identified as "(Unl)", however these ARE actual licensed releases. But to explain how its licensed, I might as well briefly go over what the Study Box even is.

Long story short in April 1986, Fukutake Publishing released an add-on for Nintendo's home console in Japan, the Famicom. It was primarily made as the name suggest, for teaching students at participating schools. The format the add-on used were audio cassettes which contained game data and audio that is passed through from the console to the TV. The initial units (the Model 1000) could not be purchased and were rental only. Later, a new model of the Study Box was released (the SBX-01) which unlike the previous model could actually be purchased and are typically the units you'll see in circulation. The SBX-01 model notably carries the Famicom Family logo which indicates products released (from 1988 onwards) are licensed by Nintendo. Not only this, but its confirmed from Nintendo themselves from a press folder for Summer CES 1987 that the Study Box was in-fact a licensed add-on for the Famicom.

So that should be plenty of explanation to dispel these ROMs from being marked as "(Unl)", and it should also be noted that the BIOS for the Study Box currently dumped is from the SBX-01, and it appears that the one for the Model 1000 is different and currently undumped. Now on to the second thing, the ROM for "Enjoy English 02 Gou" appears to be missing its audio track and there is a huge chunk of data also missing compared to the rest of the available ROMs. Now most of the Study Box library is currently undumped, but at the very least the dumps we do have should at least be functional, right? Without the audio track it is unplayable in the sense that you're practically playing as if the TV was muted. Given the rarity of these audio cassette tapes, I understand if it'll take a while for this to be resolved along with getting any remaining undumped ROMs.

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