N64 PAL region - what does the black frame on the box indicate?

[blurks]

I am currently collecting N64 PAL games in box with the black frame. I was always under the impression that the black frame indicate the game is published by Nintendo but I am not quite sure on that.



Does anyone has more information about what exactly the frame indicates or what the difference is between those with black frames and those without? Was that a method to distinguish a Nintendo game from a 3rd-party game on the first sight?

[indenton]

I've just looked up a bunch of Rareware games, that looks like it could be the case.  Banjo-Kazooie, Blast Corps, GoldenEye 007, Killer Instinct Gold are published by Nintendo and are in a black frame

Meanwhile, Conker (Published by THQ) & Perfect Dark (published by Rareware)

But if this were true, then something's wrong with Banjo-Tooie: https://vgcollect.com/item/24708 Banjo-Tooie came out a lot later that these other games right? Maybe Nintendo changed their packaging regulations / branding policies, maybe they just got more lax about the whole process. 

Pokémon Stadium & Pokémon Stadium 2 (supposedly published by Nintendo) also do not use the black frame.  These Pokémon games also came out 2000 / 2001 respectively. 

[blurks]

This is my observation as well. But it seems the full cover artwork of the later games were only applied beginning with the year 2000 on very highly anticipated games like Banjo-Tooie, Perfect Dark and Pokémon Puzzle League.

The black frames were applied on games until the very end of the N64 lifecycle with games such as Excitebike 64 and Paper Mario which leads to the conclusion that the decision whether to apply a black frame or a full cover artwork was felt very arbitrarily.

Meanwhile, Conker (Published by THQ) & Perfect Dark (published by Rareware)

It is my understanding, that games from Rare were published through Nintendo as Nintendo was the major shareholder of Rare by the time but I might be wrong.

[sworddude]

i think it is not done on purpose. other publishers just wanted to have a bit more freedom to differentiate there packaging to attract buyers to buy their game

[badATchaos]

I always figured they just wanted a consistent styling across their boxes.