| Caltron 6 in 1 | |
| Developer: | Caltron Industries |
| Programmer: | Shao Hwa Chiou |
| Composer: | "Martino", "Ruth" |
| Platforms: | NES |
| Released: | 1992 |
| Genre: | Various |
| Modes: | Single-player |
Caltron 6 in 1 is a multicart developed and published in 1992 for the NES in North America[1] by Caltron Industries, Inc. (credited as Caltron Ind. Inc.), a Taiwan-based video game company which was either closely related to, or simply a pseudonym for, NTDEC.[2] In Australia, it was published under the title Real Player‘s Pak by HES.[3] Dynacom released the cartridge as Multi Ação 6-in-1 for the Brazilian market.[4] All the featured games, except Porter, were released as single game cartridges in Spain by Gluk Video.
As its title suggests, 6 in 1 consists of six different games in various genres, which mostly are popular clones of the era. It is composed of: Cosmos Cop, Adam & Eve, Magic Carpet 1001, Balloon Monster, Porter, and Bookyman. These titles were all previously released as stand-alone Famicom format by NTDEC, often under their U.S. brand Mega Soft.
The compilation has received poor reviews, with one reviewer claiming that all six games on the multicart are "uniformly awful [and] barely first-generation NES quality", even though they are more playable and are of "much higher quality" than other unlicensed video game compilations, specifically citing Active Enterprises' infamous Action 52 as the comparative example.
When Caltron Industries, Inc. was going out of business, a company based in Kingwood, Texas named Myriad Games, Inc., bought all of their existing inventory of tan cartridges. Myriad then took the carts and added a very generic (no graphic art) label. They were then packaged in custom boxes with a folded manual. Each Myriad cart and box were numbered individually.
Myriad's only change to Caltron's product was to replace the label with their own. In fact, the edges of the Caltron label are still visible, as the Myriad label is slightly too small to cover it. No programming changes were done, hence the game is exactly the same, including the title screen which still reads "Caltron". The six games on the cart are identical to Caltron's release.
Shortly after the release of 6 in 1, Myriad went out of business for unknown reasons. The game has become one of the rarest unlicensed games made for the NES. Collectors speculate that fewer than 100 copies of this game still exist, and even fewer are complete. The most valuable copies of the game are those with the box, instructions and cartridge with matching serial numbers. The lowest known serial number is 000003 and the highest is 000888. At least two sealed versions are known to exist.[5] [6]
