Golf (Game Boy, Japanese Import) - Authentic Nintendo Cartridge with Battery Save, Tested
Nintendo's 1989 golf-on-the-train game: 36 holes across a Japan course and a USA course, with a battery save. Same worldwide game as the US cart. Japanese needed: none.
$25.00
How I grade condition: every grade is tested and plays; grades differ only in looks.
Want to see the exact copy you'd get, inside and out? Ask me for photos, board included.
Golf for the train
Nintendo’s pitch for Golf in November 1989, seven months into the Game Boy’s life, was plain: a game you pick up on the train, in the car, on a trip, easy to play and deeper than it looks. Its Japanese page filed that under “surprisingly serious”: the full club set from driver to putter, bunkers, rough, water hazards, wind, hooks and slices.
You get 36 holes on two courses: an easier JAPAN course and a harder U.S.A. course. It builds on Nintendo’s Famicom Disk System golf games rather than porting the NES Golf, and it has a battery save, which in 1989 meant a round you could actually put down. I test that battery and replace it if it reads under 3.0 V.
Same game, Japanese cart
The ROM was shared worldwide, so the game on screen is exactly the one sold in the US; nothing needs Japanese. The difference is the Japanese-market cart and label in your hand.
It comes from the same family as the 1984 NES Golf that Satoru Iwata programmed and that later turned up in Wii Sports; this Game Boy game was made by Nintendo’s R&D2 team.
Find it a Game Boy to live in on the Game Boy shelf.
Specifications
| Authenticity | Authentic original Nintendo cartridge (DMG-GOA) - not a reproduction |
|---|---|
| Condition | Graded on my condition scale - every copy is opened, cleaned, and tested by playing before it ships. |
| Gameplay | Golf, 1 player; 2-player match play over a link cable, one cart per Game Boy |
| Includes | Loose cartridge only (no box or manual) |
| Language | None: the game uses the same worldwide ROM as the US release |
| Region | Japanese-market release. Region-free: plays on any Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance or Super Game Boy |
| Save | Battery save. Tested, and replaced if it reads under 3.0 V |
| Title Full | Golf / ゴルフ (Game Boy, Nintendo, Japan, 1989) |
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