NES/SNES beta ROMs

[c0ldb33r]

I love how every time this type of conversation comes up people invariably bitch and moan about someone not dumping their proto rom. It's not rocket science people, if someone pays money for an unreleased rom and then releases it, the value of their asset decreases greatly. It makes no sense to buy an unreleased proto and then dump it.

The only possible scenario would be for a large group of people to pool their money so that everyone paid only about a buck and then dump it, but otherwise forget it.

[marktuson]

I'm not bitching about people not dumping their cartridges; I'm bitching about the way people are bitching at each other, and at me. Where I came from, we just had a four-year-long war, so I'm very used to people telling me it isn't going to happen - actually to the point where I've all but lost interest in collecting beta software. So I came here because I was interested in seeing beta/prototype versions of some of the games I like to play. Seems like that was a mistake too, eh?

Yes: at BETAArchive we have people who paid for stuff, but they generally leak it to the other members after a period (about 2 months or so) of time. The software doesn't get to be worth significantly less, because the number of original copies hasn't increased. And unless I'm very much mistaken, it's much more difficult to make up a NES cartridge than it is to bang off a CD and print "Microsoft Windows 'Chicago' version 4.00.56" onto it, so there wouldn't be any great risk of people faking copies of the games.

So, I'm sorry for asking about a couple of things and for being a bit sensitive to Internet bitching. Nobody's been any help with anything I've asked about, anyway. I only wanted to ask; if someone had just said "if you look hard enough, you'll find it" to me then I would have gone off and looked for it, and probably found it. But as it is, I'll just have to resume my searches on the Internet until I find something.

Wow.

[mrmark0673]

The software doesn't get to be worth significantly less, because the number of original copies hasn't increased. And unless I'm very much mistaken, it's much more difficult to make up a NES cartridge than it is to bang off a CD and print "Microsoft Windows 'Chicago' version 4.00.56" onto it, so there wouldn't be any great risk of people faking copies of the games.

If you looked at Castlevania4ever's recent proto sales, you would see evidence of protos being extremely devalued as result of a game being dumped. I would have paid $1,500+ easily for Sunman, Hit the Ice, or Cross Fire. Each one of those titles topped out at roughly $300-$350 as a result of being dumped.

The one record instance of a proto selling for more AFTER it was dumped that I am aware of was when Earth Bound sold, and that was purchased my a non-collector as a gift for her husband.

I'm a big fan of proto owners dumping their protos, but I'm also a much bigger fan of the owners doing whatever they please with what they spent their hard earned money on.

[van_halen]

I never get upset when people ask for ROMs, as long as they ask in a good manner. I just use to explain that I, even if it’s legal to begin with, can’t afford releasing them in the long run in case I would need money for something else in the near or far future. And I hope people respect that. I mean, just because I’m a loser who spends most of my hard-earned cash on protos, doesn’t mean I’m never ever going to sell them. And just because I prefer the real things over ROMs, doesn’t mean that everyone else does. I respect that.

I do get upset, however, when ‘some’ people frivolously start talking about how someone CAN and SHOULD release their stuff for free, because they claim that everything belongs to everyone and that prototype collectors are the richest bitches on the planet. Something that Mark didn't do at all.

[PACHUKA]

I'm not bitching about people not dumping their cartridges; I'm bitching about the way people are bitching at each other, and at me. Where I came from, we just had a four-year-long war, so I'm very used to people telling me it isn't going to happen - actually to the point where I've all but lost interest in collecting beta software. So I came here because I was interested in seeing beta/prototype versions of some of the games I like to play. Seems like that was a mistake too, eh?

Yes: at BETAArchive we have people who paid for stuff, but they generally leak it to the other members after a period (about 2 months or so) of time. The software doesn't get to be worth significantly less, because the number of original copies hasn't increased. And unless I'm very much mistaken, it's much more difficult to make up a NES cartridge than it is to bang off a CD and print "Microsoft Windows 'Chicago' version 4.00.56" onto it, so there wouldn't be any great risk of people faking copies of the games.

So, I'm sorry for asking about a couple of things and for being a bit sensitive to Internet bitching. Nobody's been any help with anything I've asked about, anyway. I only wanted to ask; if someone had just said "if you look hard enough, you'll find it" to me then I would have gone off and looked for it, and probably found it. But as it is, I'll just have to resume my searches on the Internet until I find something.

Wow.

It simply comes down to a matter of opinion. I'm in the bracket of "DUMP IT YOU HORDING FUCKERS" but most people round these parts aren't. I've learned to respect it with time, even if I strongly disagree with it. And that's what it comes down to is respect. In the long run, the people who own these things have no obligation to give up, because it IS their property. It's like if someone had a rare, last of it's kind car, and refused to let anyone take pictures of it. It seems lame and selfish, but that's their right.

It's like politics. There's always two very strong, very different opinions. Niether is more right then the other, just different. And if you start pushing your opinion by telling the other person they are wrong, most times they'll get irritated and fight back. Shit happens, but Life goes on. If you're interested in playing some prototypes, I have a bit of a hidden mass archive online. Hit me up via pm.

[TheRedEye]

If you looked at Castlevania4ever's recent proto sales, you would see evidence of protos being extremely devalued as result of a game being dumped. I would have paid $1,500+ easily for Sunman, Hit the Ice, or Cross Fire. Each one of those titles topped out at roughly $300-$350 as a result of being dumped.

Sorry for the necromancy, but to be fair, $300-350 is around the same price I originally paid for those games before I dumped them and devalued their magical invisible worth, and is also around the same price I sold them for after the fact. It's kind of neat to see that they've basically remained the exact same price, assuming Castlevania4ever didn't pay something stupid (he's not the one I sold them to).

Totally anecdotal and a bit off topic, but I thought someone might be interested. Also, in case this hasn't been publicly said before, Cross Fire is byte for byte identical to the Famicom game.