Nintendo 64 Prototypes

[Scott84]

Any known unreleased N64 protos that people have? I know some made it to review copies, some were actually finished...

Examples: Twelve Tales, Dinosaur Planet, 40 Winks, Taz Express, etc etc.

[Doonzmore]

I have been curious about a few of these for a while myself. You might find the following email to be of great interest. A while ago I contacted former Nintendo Power Editor-in-Chief, Alan Averill, in regards to some of the protos you mentioned: Taz Express, 40 Winks, Airboardin USA and the numerous GBC games that they reviewed and were never released. Here's what he had to say:

So i don't know how much I'm going to be able to help you here, but I'll give it my best shot. When we reviewed games for NP, we'd get them in a pre-production form, which involved burning the code onto a dummy ROM and then playing that on a special N64 (or GBC, or GameCube, or whatever.) Once we were done reviewing the game, the ROM would go back into the pile and eventually be overwritten by something else. So 90% of the games we reviewed never existed in anything more than electronic form.

Occasionally we'd get a hard copy of a game from a publisher, but those usually had to be sent back after a set amount of time. If it was a small publisher (or a particularly sloppy one) they would sometimes forget and we'd stumble across the title in the bottom of a desk drawer years later, but that didn't happen too often. We also rarely got manuals, and never boxes.

There could be review copies of the games you mentioned floating around somewhere, but they won't be something you can track down with any sort of normal search. It was a little unusual to review a game that didn't come out, but not completely unheard of. Companies would sometimes change their mind at the last minute (or go out of business altogether), and by the time we heard about it, the review was already out the door. I imagine that's what occurred with the games you're speaking of, although honestly, i can't remember specifically what happened with them.

Hope that helps, or at least saves you from trying to track down review copies that likely don't exist. Also, good luck with the collecting. I've got a little collection myself, and i'm always happy to help a fellow game nerd.

[Scott84]

i am sure someone somewhere had some of these and might not even know it!

[Superman]

It looks like the reviewing system evolved a little from previous systems. There are likely some around, but it looks like it might be less (which wasn't that many to begin with) than other previous generations.

[Scott84]

Looks like it has.

I am sure these games are somewhere. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this.

[UnknownArchive]

Any known unreleased N64 protos that people have? I know some made it to review copies, some were actually finished...

Examples: Twelve Tales, Dinosaur Planet, 40 Winks, Taz Express, etc etc.

Not 100% prototypes in my archive, but this is my n64 directory:


40 Winks (Unreleased).7z
California Speed (PAL)(Unreleased).7z
Sydney 2000 Olympics (Unreleased).7z
Taz Express (U) (Unreleased).7z
Tommy Thunder (Unreleased).7z
Toon Panic (JP) (Proto)(Unreleased).7z
Clay Fighter 63 1-3 (USA) (Prototype).rar
Derby Stallion 64 (Japan) (Prototype).rar
Donkey Kong 64 (USA) (Kiosk Demo).rar
Dragon Sword 64 (Unreleased).rar
Excitebike 64 (USA) (Kiosk Demo).rar
6 Frogger 2 (U) (Alpha) (v1.1).rar
Legend of Zele - Majora's Mask - Preview Demo (U) [!].rar
Legend of Zele - Majora's Mask (Debug).rar
Legend of Zele - Ocarina of Time - Master Quest (U) (Debug Version) [f1].rar
Legend of Zele - Ocarina of Time - Master Quest (U) (Debug Version) [f2].rar
Legend of Zele - Ocarina of Time - Master Quest (U) (Debug Version).rar
Lt. Duck Dodgers (Prototype).rar
O.D.T. (Europe) (It) (Unreleased).rar
O.D.T. (USA) (Es) (Unreleased).rar
Pokemon Snap Station (USA) (Promo).rar
Pokemon Stadium (USA) (Kiosk Demo) (Rev A).rar
Robotech Crystal Dreams (Unreleased Prototype).rar
SpaceStation Silicon Valley (J) (Prototype).rar
Starcraft 64 (G)(Unreleased German Version).rar
StarCraft 64 (USA) (Prototype).rar
Top Gear Hyper Bike (Prototype).rar
Top Gear Rally 2 (Prototype).rar
Turok 2 - Seeds of Evil (Europe) (Kiosk Demo).rar
Turok 2 - Seeds of Evil (U) (Kiosk Demo) (Gore On Hack).rar
Turok 2 - Seeds of Evil (USA) (Kiosk Demo).rar
Turok 3 - Shadow of Oblivion (U) (Prototype-WIP).rar
Turok 3 - Shadow of Oblivion (USA) (Prototype).rar
Wideboy64 (98-09-10)(BIOS).rar
Wideboy64 (98-09-14)(BIOS).rar
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 6 V1.2 (Unreleased).zip

[Guy Bramsworth]

As far as Nintendo 64 prototypes go, Martin of NES World is the guy I know with the most, if not the only publically known collector. Right now the only unreleased prototype he has I know of is Glover 2.

There's a Twelve Tales prototype that changed hands last year privately for a supposed sum of $10,000 or so. Whoever has it now has never come forward, I could only hope they will some day but you know how it is with some prototype collectors, they like to remain in hiding and not reveal anything about what they own. I'm still amazed when I hear about these type of trades since I can't figure out how they get their connections when you never even see them in public talking about their collection or anything..

[Scott84]

Thanks for all the info guys! very interesting stuff!!

[Devhackr]

As far as Nintendo 64 prototypes go, Martin of NES World is the guy I know with the most, if not the only publically known collector. Right now the only unreleased prototype he has I know of is Glover 2.

There's a Twelve Tales prototype that changed hands last year privately for a supposed sum of $10,000 or so. Whoever has it now has never come forward, I could only hope they will some day but you know how it is with some prototype collectors, they like to remain in hiding and not reveal anything about what they own. I'm still amazed when I hear about these type of trades since I can't figure out how they get their connections when you never even see them in public talking about their collection or anything..

Glover 2? I'd like to see that!

[Scott84]

Would be pretty awesome if Mario Kart R prototype leaked...

Anyone seen a working Ultra 64 prototype in the wild? I bet Nintendo has these in the vaults in Japan....

[DreamTR]

I probably have around 30 left but had 60-65 at one time (N64 protos) ; they are very high in demand these days...