In Japan, the Barcode Battler released in Europe, America, and a few other places, is known as the Barcode Battler II.
A connector was available for hooking the BCBII to a Super Nintendo Entertainment System for playing such games as "Conveni Wars: Barcode Battler: Senki" and a selection of others.
Unfortunately, these Famicom and Super Famicom games were never released outside of Japan.
If you wish to understand the differences between the original white Barcode Battler and the black Barcode Battler II, please click on the links in this sentence.
Epoch's affiliation with Nintendo led to more than cross-console compatibility. Nintendo appears to have licensed Epoch to publish various sets of barcode cards based on The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario World for the Barcode Battler II, both of which can be played on the world-wide release of the Barcode Battler.
A company called Falcom also commissioned a Dragon Slayer card set.
Xensyria has found the following information on the Japanese Barcode Battler range:
Barcode Battler refers to a series of games released from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, and related products, based around barcodes.
The main products were the hand held games - Barcode Battler and Barcode Battler II - released as Barcode Battler outside of Japan.
Barcode Battler
This hand held games console was released around 1991/2, and such was its popularity that it had a sequel: Barcode Battler II
Barcode Battler II
Released as Barcode Battler outside of Japan, this console was very similar to the original Barcode Battler, except that it included extra play modes and linked to the Famicom and Super Famicom.
Barcode World
A Famicom game based around Barcode Battler, it involved a very similar combat method to the hand held games. The box included a cable to link the Barcode Battler to the Famicom to scan barcodes in.
Barcode Battler Senki Coveni Wars
A Super Famicom game based around Barcode Battler, it required the BBII Interface to connect to the second Super Faicom controller port to allow barcodes to be scanned in. The game's combat included a hexagonal based map to move characters around and fight with, with the actual combat engine being still very similar to the original Barcode Battler hand held consoles.
BBII Interface
A device that connected the Barcode Battler II to the second controller port of the Super Famicom. This appears to allow the scanning of barcodes for the game Barcode battler Senki Coveni Wars.
Legend of Zelda Barcode Battler II Cards
These cards were sold as a pack with various monsters and items from the Super Famicom game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It also included Link and Link(Magic) as a warrior and wizard respectively.
Noodle Barcode Battler Cards
Bell Foods Ltd., a subsidiary of Kanebo Ltd., a leading cosmetics company, used the games to help launch their instant noodles. Each pack of noodles came with a set of cards that could be used in barcode games. Meanwhile Myojo Foods gave away a custom-made battler to a lucky 3,000 who bought their noodles. "We reckon this upped our sales by 10%," said a Myojo spokesman.
Barcode Fighter Comic
This Manga, comic book, ended in 2004, after controvtial issues were raised, and its popularity failed.
Barcode Battler Barcode Books
In Japan books were reportedly released listing which products had good barcodes.
While quite extensive, it seems Xensyria's search was conducted quite early on in our site's life-time. For a more complete list of everything we have found please visit our cards and games pages.
The whole Barcode Battler craze in Japan is bigger than anybody here at site management can comprehend. Maybe one day we'll find everything, but for now, we'll have to admit we're beaten. Unless somebody who can read Japanese and type English can contact us with more information.
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