Rainbow Island and Kiwi Kraze prototype carts (NES)

[phiIIips]

I was directed here from reddit. Trying to find some information on these:

http://imgur.com/a/ruRBD#DPjd0

I can get more photos of the guts if you guys need them. Both will play, but Kiwi Kraze is like 1/3 black screen. I haven't had a chance yet to compare them to the retail versions.

I would love to know the rarity/value/story of these things if anyone knows anything about this type of collectible.

[portnoyd]

They're both legit and prototypes are always a rare find. You could probably sell them for anywhere from $150 to $300, more if the games are different. I'm guessing the CHR on the Rainbow Islands is a ROM because it was a straight port of the Famicom version. They were likely review copies as is the case with a lot of protos.

[phiIIips]

Thanks for the reply. I noticed start+select advances to the next level in Kiwi Kraze, but like you said, Rainbow Island seems to be identical to the retail version. What was the purpose of review copies? Sent out to magazine staff or something?

[Kitsune Sniper]

Thanks for the reply. I noticed start+select advances to the next level in Kiwi Kraze, but like you said, Rainbow Island seems to be identical to the retail version. What was the purpose of review copies? Sent out to magazine staff or something?

Pretty much. They're usually final, or very close to final, versions, used by magazines to write their reviews or preview articles.

Edit: Wait a sec.


Both will play, but Kiwi Kraze is like 1/3 black screen.

... could that be a PAL version?

[phiIIips]

I had someone else ask if it's a PAL version. I was testing it on an NES2, so there's no lockout chip, right?

[mrmark0673]

I'm guessing the CHR on the Rainbow Islands is a ROM because it was a straight port of the Famicom version.

Naw, it's CHR RAM on a dev UNEPROM board, it doesn't have a CHR ROM.

I asked about it being a possible PAL proto as well, though with the location they were found in it doesn't seem likely.

$125-$300 seems about right, likely closer to the lower end. Large differences or not, I have a hard time seeing these pass $300.

Super cool finds for sure, I love Taito protos.

[phiIIips]

Here's an album of gameplay images if it helps diagnose PAL/NTSC on Kiwi Kraze. The two carts were found together in Oklahoma City.

http://imgur.com/a/WoCg7#ZtOcr

[Atamos]

Here's an album of gameplay images if it helps diagnose PAL/NTSC on Kiwi Kraze. The two carts were found together in Oklahoma City.

http://imgur.com/a/WoCg7#ZtOcr

I immediately see a difference in the first screen with ''1990 Taito of America''
In the retail version this is ''1991 Taito of America'' this is a very minimal difference but it is !

Same thing for the screen with the pink animal.

It's probably a NTSC because of ''Licensed by Nintendo of America'' the PAL version have only ''Licensed by Nintendo'' if i'm not wrong.

[SparTonberry]

What's going on with the glitch screens?
Is it dirty or bitrot?
If it's the later, that would probably drop the value a lot.

[phiIIips]

It's very clean, other than one sort of corroded pin. I don't know how to tell if it's bit rot, graphic chip glitching, or just unfinished graphics.

[ccovell]

It's not CHR bitrot, because it's showing graphics banks for the stages in that garbled screen. It probably wouldn't be PRG bitrot, since that would most likely crash the game.

My guess is it either has dirty contacts inside or out, or it's an earlier development version, and the programmers cut off the bottom of the screen earlier than normal during development to get more CPU & PPU time for the program. Perhaps being developed in PAL-land exacerbates the effect.