Price Check: Dreamcast Prototypes

[the.golden.ax]

I just got some dreamcast prototypes, Street Fighter III Third Strike, Bang! Gunship Elite, Suzuki, and Worms Armageddon, amongst them, marked year of 1999. What would I generally expect to value these at?

Thanks,
AX

[BeaglePuss]

There are a TON of these on eBay right now, so I would wait to see what those end at to get an idea of what you might expect. Titles like Third Strike should catch a descent amount ($60-$100), while some of the other titles will bring maybe half that. It seems as though there's a lot smaller demand for CD based protos compared to their cartridge based counterpart. I'm not totally sure why that is.

[Bojay1997]

There are a TON of these on eBay right now, so I would wait to see what those end at to get an idea of what you might expect. Titles like Third Strike should catch a descent amount ($60-$100), while some of the other titles will bring maybe half that. It seems as though there's a lot smaller demand for CD based protos compared to their cartridge based counterpart. I'm not totally sure why that is.

Because there are many, many more copies of CD protos pressed because they are easy and cheap to do and most CD-Rs can only be written to once. Cart protos were limited by the cost of the components and the fact that it was often cheaper to erase and rewrite to the cart rather than doing a whole new cart for each iteration of the game.

[BeaglePuss]

Ah, that makes sense.

[the.golden.ax]

I'm not finding anything on eBay, what are some key words?

AX

[ottojello]

I once bought a Dreamcast prototype at a thrift store (some mech game), the great thing was that it was in the same case as the official Dreamcast enabler disc that allowed burned games to be loaded onto any Dreamcast.

[BeaglePuss]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=140318221990
The seller has a ton for sale. Check his other auctions.

[the.golden.ax]

Mine don't look like those... I think they are beta or review copies, check the thread with pics at AA:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=143575&hl=

Thanks,
AX

[ProgrammingAce]

there's a 99% chance that those are all final builds of the game. They're not exactly prototypes, at least not in the sense that they were used in development. Basically it's final code given to reviewers. The only difference between those and the retail discs is that these aren't silk-screened.

I guess if you find someone who's really into dreamcast collecting and wants something unique, you might be looking at $10-15 over the cost of the retail releases. I can't imagine there's a huge market for them though.

[Steve W]

Did Worms Armageddon come out in 1999? I thought it came out late in the Dreamcast's life, at least by the time they switched over to black jewel case labels.

[Bojay1997]

Mine don't look like those... I think they are beta or review copies, check the thread with pics at AA:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=143575&hl=

Thanks,
AX

Actually, yours look a lot like replication facility or quality assurance copies. Those versions would be duplicated and given to the replication facility to do test pressings or check for any errors which could interfere with replication. Beta or review copies would typically be on an official Sega GD-Rom with a handwritten label like the ones linked in the Ebay auctions. Not sure how this would impact value, but typically a replication facility will keep these on-file for some period of time after the pressing and then either return them or destroy them depending on the client's request.

[tubeway]

Actually, yours look a lot like replication facility or quality assurance copies. Those versions would be duplicated and given to the replication facility to do test pressings or check for any errors which could interfere with replication. Beta or review copies would typically be on an official Sega GD-Rom with a handwritten label like the ones linked in the Ebay auctions. Not sure how this would impact value, but typically a replication facility will keep these on-file for some period of time after the pressing and then either return them or destroy them depending on the client's request.

I agree with Bojay. I've actually worked in the engineering services department of a couple game companies, and those aren't really prototypes. They're just a small sample of discs from the CD-pressing plant. They'll usually press a spindle worth of discs to see how the discs turn out, send a chunk of those discs back to the game company, and the game company will run a few tests on the discs to determine the actual quality of the media and how many read errors they get on them out of like 30 discs. They're the final code for the game (these are intended to be copies sold at stores, they just haven't been silkscreened yet), and the maximum they should conceivably go for would be the price of a disc-only copy of the same game. Unless you get some other collectors to think they're special and they pay a premium.