NHL'94 Sega Genesis Limited Edition 1st Round Serial Numbers

[kingraph]

16 hours ago, smozoma said:

E00023 - Located in: Orton, Ontario, Canada
 

 

 

Currently the lowest number on our records, with the exception of the 00001 Mark Lesser edition.

[smozoma]

Hard to read but I see F25030 - Drummondville QC

[smozoma]

G17277 in this NHL94 review at 4:05

 

[smozoma]

the reviewer also noticed that his box has a slot for a hanging tab? And it's the box with the EA logo on the inside. Do we need to add a box variant column into the spreadsheet??

[smozoma]

G15258 - This is the copy in the NoClip documentary

 

[kingraph]

On 4/20/2023 at 2:26 PM, kingraph said:

I am also dying to have visual proof of two sticker matches.  Right now we have two reported matches, but I don't have the visual screenshots!  These could be errors.

Behold! F01048 and L01048!  

 

 

 

[smozoma]

00344 - Located in: Lafitte, Louisiana, United States
H07136 - Located in: pictou, NS, Canada
H24460 - Located in: Bentleyville, Pennsylvania, United States
A17558 - Located in: Mankato, Minnesota, United States
A24244 - Located in: South Elgin, Illinois, United States


 

[thaMANSTA]

H17900, found in Nova Scotia, Canada

[Vlad]

On 4/13/2024 at 2:16 AM, smozoma said:

00344 - Located in: Lafitte, Louisiana, United States

I ended up picking this one up a little while back!

[smozoma]

On 7/27/2024 at 10:11 AM, Vlad said:

I ended up picking this one up a little while back!

I think that might give you the earliest version of anyone on this forum (other than Mark Lesser himself anyway!)

[IAmFleury'sHipCheck]

On 7/27/2024 at 9:11 AM, Vlad said:

I ended up picking this one up a little while back!

As one who owns quite a number of these and actively searches for lowest number, that is really impressive. Great find, Vlad!

[Whalers_NHL94]

Wow, I can't believe I stumbled upon this! I am sending along the info and pics from my 1st Round Edition that I purchased on 10/10/93 from North Attleboro, Massachusetts #K27312

 

[kingraph]

16 hours ago, Whalers_NHL94 said:

Wow, I can't believe I stumbled upon this! I am sending along the info and pics from my 1st Round Edition that I purchased on 10/10/93 from North Attleboro, Massachusetts #K27312

 

Absolutely LOVE the sales receipt!

[IAmFleury'sHipCheck]

That's awesome that you have the original receipt. Throughout some years of collecting, I always hold onto the receipts if I ever come across them. 
Also, interesting that a new copy today at that price adjusted for inflation would cost ~$133.
 

[von Ozbourne]

1 minute ago, IAmFleury'sHipCheck said:

Also, interesting that a new copy today at that price adjusted for inflation would cost ~$133.

I was going to comment on that. Not only interesting that the receipt is from a [basically] defunct store, but the price is still what is kind of considered the acceptable target price point for games 30 years later.

[accepting that the last few years have seen conditioning methods to drag that base price up to the $70-$80 range and even though inflation rates state that $80 now is still costing less than $60 then, when going by percentage of expendable income of a minimum wage earner, that's a different story]

[smozoma]

Very interesting to have a data point that the K series, and a very high number (27###) was sold ~2 weeks after the game was released. Though what it means, I don't know!

[Drezz]

7 hours ago, smozoma said:

Very interesting to have a data point that the K series, and a very high number (27###) was sold ~2 weeks after the game was released. Though what it means, I don't know!

Was it proven that the letters aren't original region codes? It isn't inconceivable that the lots would be distributed to specific regions to start, with bigger retailers sending them all over to fulfill orders in areas where they sell more? Just a thought.

[kingraph]

12 hours ago, Drezz said:

Was it proven that the letters aren't original region codes? It isn't inconceivable that the lots would be distributed to specific regions to start, with bigger retailers sending them all over to fulfill orders in areas where they sell more? Just a thought.

TBD.  It's tough to figure out since we don't have a large sample to begin with and even smaller with geographic location.  Agree that a regional distribution makes sense, but it could also be printing machine, factory, random, etc.  A little while back @McMikey asked Sean Ramjagsingh (current NHL EA Sports) if he or anyone at EA knew what the letters represented, but no dice.  

 

FYI, we have only captured afraction of the estimated first round numbers out there.  As of today, 460 copies, which is 0.13% of an estimated 350,000.  And even fewer where we captured the current location of the box.  And even then we can't determine if that was the original sale location.  

 

[smozoma]

I wonder if there is some reason E,D,I series have fewer found copies, or it's just a product of the small sample size. But the gap between 28 copies (D) to 36 copies (H) is unexpected (not very normal-distribution-y)

[Drezz]

I think it's just because of the small sample size. Once enough samples appear 10,000+ the numbers might start to mean something.

I brought up the regional codes thing because that was common practice with electronics in the 90s. It was a quick way to figure out where it came from (and how long it would take to receive if you called for fulfillment). In this case though, perhaps it was more of an internal EA thing... which wouldn't surprise me given how quirky that company is.

There's no way anyone in EA HQ would know currently. Most of those folks would have been retired by now. It's an enigma, but maybe there's someone out there noodling down a rabbit hole that may have been involved in the process that might shed some light.

There's no way Rammer would know. He was in high school when NHL94 came out lol
 

[smozoma]

Oh and something we haven't tracked at all is the different boxes and which ones may be associated with which series letter. Some boxes have the EA logo inside, others are more generic boxes. Some boxes are slightly different sizes...

[smozoma]

K22067 - North Huron, ON

The rare box with the old EA logo inside the box

[smozoma]

G18952 from @barriecuda (presumably from Barrie, ON)

[acidified]

I have K27641 logo inside

Edited August 29, 2025 by acidified
added picture

[von Ozbourne]

D21810

Picked this up on a trip through Red Deer a couple years ago when it occurred to me that I only ever borrowed the game.
Ironically have only ever played it once.

Old logo and complete inserts which I thought was nice.

Edited August 30, 2025 by von Ozbourne

[smozoma]

L02473

CIB here https://www.funlicity.com/product/genesis-nhl-94-cib/

[bend]

NHL '94 wasn't the only EASN/EA Sports game to get the "Limited Edition" treatment. After a check on eBay, here's what I could find:

John Madden Football '93: Last letter "M" going up to 25,000. Unlettered highest was 24575.

NHLPA Hockey 93: Last letter "J" going up to 25,000. Didn't find unlettered.

Madden 94: Last letter "K" going up to 55,000. Unlettered highest was 3650.

PGA Tour Golf II: Last Letter "D" going up to 21,000+. Unlettered highest was 2196.

Bulls Vs Blazers: Last letter "M" going up to 24,000. Didn't find unlettered.

NBA Showdown 94: Last letter "J" going up to 20,000. Didn't find unlettered.

Tony La Russa Baseball: Last letter "D" going up tp 23,000+. Unlettered 2156

FIFA International Soccer: Last letter "C" going up to 25,000. Didn't find unlettered.

Cartridges will also either say "Made in Taiwan" or "Assembled in the USA." From what I can tell, it has no bearing on the numbers whatsoever. I've seen USA and Taiwan carts in the same letter bundles.

EA manufactured their own Genesis carts out of two factories, Taiwan and Puerto Rico, simultaneously.

 

[smozoma]

D11925 - from twisted1978 on the discord