The M82 demo unit was used in the following regions: Pal A, Pal B and NTSC (where it was the successor to the M8). Japan had two equivalent units called the FamicomStation (Sharp) and FamicomBox (Nintendo) – I will write about these units in a future post.
Within the Pal A region, the M82 was used in Italy and the UK. As for Australia, I have never seen any evidence of it being distributed by Mattel Pty Ltd. I do know, however, they did use a regular Mattel NES for demo use. The Pal A M82 pictured is from the UK, where NOA sent them to Bandai UK Ltd for distribution to stores.
UK PAL A M82 shipping box address.
They also had specific Bandai stickered Pal A carts for use with the M82.
The carts sent out with the M82 were customised by the account buyer. Stores were told not to change the carts in the units unless instructed to, although I believe this rule was later changed. If you put a Pal B or NTSC cart in the unit, it will just skip over it.
The M82 holds 12 games and can be cycled through with the red button on the front of the unit. Sadly, the M82 suffers from Pal slow down causing the iconic M82 theme song to run slower than its NTSC counterpart.
A timer on the back sets the play time for 30 seconds, 3 minutes, 6 minutes or 128 minutes. Due to the IRQ line not being connected in the M82 units, some games will not work or have glitched graphics. This happens mostly with games that have MMC3 chips.
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