NES The Black Bass Proto

[Ryaan1234]

I bought this for $14 off of eBay. I think it's a proto.

http://ryaan1234.googlepages.com/Proto1.jpg

The seller made no mention of what it actually was. They only thing that they said was that it has a "company label". I was shocked when I saw the auction picture and I knew that this game had to be a proto (or at least a review copy or something). I've been really excited for the past few days waiting for it to come in the mail. The Label, obviously, says "HOT-B" and the smaller text reads "HOT-B USA Inc." and it has the company's address, telephone number, and telecopy(?) number.

http://ryaan1234.googlepages.com/Proto2.jpg
I still wasn't sure that I'd bought a proto, but when I opened it my feelings were confirmed. The board reads 1988 Nintendo NES - UNEPROM
I don't think I've ever seen a chip like the one on the right. I assume it's an EPROM? I'm really excited about finding this because I thought I'd never own a proto. I'm still not all that sure it's a proto even though everything looks right. I'm hoping someone can comfirm my assumptions.

What should I do with it now? I'm about to play it on my NES to see if there are any differences. (I'm not selling this either.)

(/me waits for DreamTR's advice.)

[hellfire]

I would make a copy of it just incase the first one breaks

[jb143]

The chip with the window is an EPROM. You erase them by shining UV light onto it...so keep it out of sunlight.

[Ryaan1234]

The chip with the window is an EPROM. You erase them by shining UV light onto it...so keep it out of sunlight.
I took out the board, took some pictures (without the flash) and put it right back into the game. I'm trying to take every precaution with this game, so thanks for the advice.

[eugenek]

The chip with the window is an EPROM. You erase them by shining UV light onto it...so keep it out of sunlight.

Or alternatively, most people I know cover the EPROM window with black electrical tape.

[jb143]

Or alternatively, most people I know cover the EPROM window with black electrical tape.

That's how I've usually seen it done as well but I'd imagine a NES case would do the trick just as well...and not leave a sticky black resedue.

[DreamTR]

That is a genuine proto. I have a Black Bass proto in a makeshift box that I am trying to remember if the label is similar....

[nesworld]

Got yourself a cheap prototype, congrats! :-)

[Ryaan1234]

Thanks for the advice. I've played with this game a bit and I haven't found any noticeable differences between it and the final release version. I even typed in a password to go to the end of the game to see if anything was different. If there are any differences at all, they must be minor since the game seems complete. I think that any differences that this game has might only be found if it's dumped and compared to an actual ROM of the final version. Is there any other way for me to tell if there's some differences? Does the EPROM size matter? I'll probably be playing this one some more to see if there's anything drastically different, but from what I've seen so far I doubt it.

This game drives me insane btw. I seriously can't play it for more than maybe 30 minutes or a hour at a time. The music is nice and the graphics aren't to bad but I'd say this game is too much like actual fishing to hold my attention for long. Something happen dammit!

[TheRedEye]

Is there any other way for me to tell if there's some differences? Does the EPROM size matter?

No, I'm sure the EPROM size is equal to retail if the game is as comparable as you're describing, ROM sizes only differ for something dramatic like a complete change in ROM size mid-development that would force the developer to cut content. If you'd like to dig deep to see differences, you'd have to compare a dumped binary to one from the retail game first of all to see if they're exactly the same (I'm guessing they are). If they're not, more than likely you'd have to pass the ROM on to somebody who knows how to dig deep and look for that sort of thing.

All that said, I would not anticipate anything of major historical interest being different in your cart. I'd say this is way more valuable as a collectible than as data.

[Ryaan1234]

No, I'm sure the EPROM size is equal to retail if the game is as comparable as you're describing, ROM sizes only differ for something dramatic like a complete change in ROM size mid-development that would force the developer to cut content. If you'd like to dig deep to see differences, you'd have to compare a dumped binary to one from the retail game first of all to see if they're exactly the same (I'm guessing they are). If they're not, more than likely you'd have to pass the ROM on to somebody who knows how to dig deep and look for that sort of thing.

All that said, I would not anticipate anything of major historical interest being different in your cart. I'd say this is way more valuable as a collectible than as data.

Ah okay. I wasn't expecting for this game to be a big discovery or anything. I was just hoping there'd be something interesting about it. When you find something like this you can always hope it's something really cool.


Just fyi the EPROM reads:

MBM 27C1000 - 20Z

If my research is right, then it's size is 1 MBit, or 128 KB.

The Black Bass ROM is 62 KB. The game would fit nicely on a 64 KB EPROM. I don't think or know if this means anything, but why would a game be put on an EPROM twice it's size? I think that they may have just had a 128 KB EPROM laying around where ever the game was made and it just ended up on that size EPROM. The fact that the chip's window is uncovered makes me think that the game was just put on a chip that was avaliable and since it's a final build my guess is that this certain copy of the game was to be shown somewhere, like a electronics show or something. Still, I don't know and that's just my theory.

I also noticed that the board has a Nintendo CIC chip and a few other smaller ones, but I think they might be something that's on every Nintendo circuit board (I don't open many games).

[SparTonberry]

62KB? Either you must be looking at zipped size, or it's a bad dump if that is the unzipped size.
(though the dumped ROMs I see are all 128KB)

[Ryaan1234]

62KB? Either you must be looking at zipped size, or it's a bad dump if that is the unzipped size.
(though the dumped ROMs I see are all 128KB)

Oohh, I just looked at the size labeled next to the ROM on a website. I didn't actually download it and see. Sorry, I just downloaded it and saw that it's 128 KB. Nevermind :embarrassed: