TG16 Protos and Value

[megamindx4]

No, Evan_G makes an excellent point (sort of) : You usually need to prove actual, market value, which is something that is near impossible with these, especially due to the media they are on. Dumping them is insurance really, and the best way to protect the investment.

Hey, guys....

Thanks for the input. I 'd like to hear more. But, FYI, I'm in the insurance business, so debating whether or not a company will insure them is probably not germane. Obviously, I can get them insured. I just want to know what value to place on them.

Very definitely, the items are not replaceable. Backing them up would be the responsible thing to do. However, as a still-practicing electrical engineer, I can say that the EPROMs are still in good shape, and that the CDRs are and have been kept in a temperature controlled and humidity controlled environment.

And, another question: How would one go about valuing hardware prototypes of game unit parts that may have been developed by a thrid party vendor? Why do I ask? I worked on a project and retained the prototypes. The project is an auto-switching TG16 unit that can swap between TG and PCE mode. Sadly, it never went to market.
But I can lay claim to being a part of that great TG16/PCE development movement that is long since passed on.....

[Bojay1997]

Hey, guys....

Thanks for the input. I 'd like to hear more. But, FYI, I'm in the insurance business, so debating whether or not a company will insure them is probably not germane. Obviously, I can get them insured. I just want to know what value to place on them.

Very definitely, the items are not replaceable. Backing them up would be the responsible thing to do. However, as a still-practicing electrical engineer, I can say that the EPROMs are still in good shape, and that the CDRs are and have been kept in a temperature controlled and humidity controlled environment.

And, another question: How would one go about valuing hardware prototypes of game unit parts that may have been developed by a thrid party vendor? Why do I ask? I worked on a project and retained the prototypes. The project is an auto-switching TG16 unit that can swap between TG and PCE mode. Sadly, it never went to market.
But I can lay claim to being a part of that great TG16/PCE development movement that is long since passed on.....

I think you already have your answer. DreamTR is probably the foremost expert on protos on these boards or anywhere for that matter and his estimate was $2,300 on the high side for the four eproms and another $1,700 for the discs, so $4K total. Honestly though, I can't see the point in paying the additional premiums on items that can be backed up very easily and protected against theft and fire just by being placed in a media vault or even a fireproof safe for that matter. As has been noted, they might be valuable to the right buyer, but they aren't exactly unique and they're not exactly likely to attract the attention of thieves should you be unfortunate enough to suffer a home burglary.

[skaar]

Ok how about this one - can one prototype collector come forward here and confirm that he/she has been able to insure their prototype collection for what they see as a fair price/market value?

[DreamTR]

When you have something to be "valued" you usually have to go to an expert for that and the problem is most of the time you would need to go to someone that "owns" a video game store for appraisal for these types of items, and since it is so niche, I am almost certain you HAVE to have some type of expert on said items and past sales in order to claim this type of value for the insurance on said items.

Similar to jewelry appraisal or what have you, it is dependent on whatever the insurance company requires.

To insure my game collection, I had someone come in to my place and have to write specific pieces down and a "whole" as a separate value for the collection (and what each piece was approximately worth) but I did not need anything appraised for such. I think that might only be the case if items are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but that's a whole other story.

[hellfire]

No, hellfire is just a moron. I'm sure he was serious.



Certainly, the best way to protect the information on the prototypes is to dump them yourself. If they are of high value, the cost of something to dump them should be low in comparison. The value of prototypes plummet if the EPROMs go bad (which they eventually will), so really that is the best investment. I don't know if an insurance company will insure games with EPROMs, because they have a shelf life.

Do you have anything better to do besides insulting people all day?

[Bojay1997]

Ok how about this one - can one prototype collector come forward here and confirm that he/she has been able to insure their prototype collection for what they see as a fair price/market value?

I have my collection insured, but I selected a total value and pay a premium based on that amount. Collectibles don't work like a car or a home where objective outside values can always be determined. I suppose for items over a certain value like a unique painting worth millions or something like that where a market clearly exists, an appraisal would be required, but for an entire collection, my experience has been that it is up to the collector to determine the value, inform the insurance company and then they set a premium.

[skaar]

Do you have anything better to do besides insulting people all day?

I'm sure he's got over 50 THOUSAND better things to do.

Seriously man. Why did you just throw in a high random arbitrary figure? How did that contribute?

Back on topic... yeah I figured the only way things would be insured was with a declared value and premiums based on that... much pricier than something with a determined value. I wonder how it works with comics...

[Tempest]

For CDRs with sharpie on them?

Sorry, must have missed that part. I thought they had some sort of official label on them. If they just look like CDR copies then they'll obviously go for much less (unless it's an unreleased game). Then again you never know, people throw crazy money at the darnedest things.

Tempest

[Vectorman0]

In 1993, CD-R recorders were still extremely expensive. Considering the cost involved in actually buying the equipment and blank media, it doesn't surprise me that they would not use an official label considering it would take extra time and money and wouldn't yield much of any benefit. What's the earliest CD game prototype with an "official label" or printed disc art?

[Bojay1997]

In 1993, CD-R recorders were still extremely expensive. Considering the cost involved in actually buying the equipment and blank media, it doesn't surprise me that they would not use an official label considering it would take extra time and money and wouldn't yield much of any benefit. What's the earliest CD game prototype with an "official label" or printed disc art?

I have a bunch of Commodore CDTV prototypes and Philips CDi protos from that era and they all use either custom prototype discs (in the case of the CDTV, they have a printed red pattern with the Commodore logo on the front with a box for writing info about the name and date of the proto, as well as jewel cases with specifically formatted information printed on the inserts) or more formal silk screened labels to indicate they are in fact prototype or testing copies. While CD-Rs and recorders were more expensive in that era, I do recall visiting a couple of game QC companies in the early 90s and they literally had stacks of hand written protoype discs for PC games piled everywhere, so it's not like they were being rationed or something. I would agree that there probably wasn't much benefit to doing formal labels, but it also raises some red flags because there is really no way to tell if something is authentic, a reproduction or one of hundreds of copies made at the time.

[DreamTR]

I've seen very few official protos of these unless they came from Japan, official meaning company label and such, but there are a bunch of the CDR betas running around of the same games that much I know.

I don't collect CD protos myself, I sell them as fast as I can get them because they don't mean as much to me as cart stuff...