Some possible prototypes?

[NaturalChemical]

It seems that my other thread was slightly derailed, so I'm going to post any future protos I find here. I have a couple right now I'd like to learn a bit about.

First are two Game Boy games that appear to be protos. The first, Chase HQ II, I would presume is the same as Super Chase HQ, save for the title. If there's other differences, I can't spot them.

Front: http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/6...ehqiifront.jpg
Back: http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/8...sehqiiback.jpg

And the second is Sports Illustrated for Kids. I really don't know anything about this one, beyond how bad the game is.

Front: http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/1...atedforkid.jpg
Back: http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/1...atedforkid.jpg

I've also got a copy of Rainbow Islands Extra (Genesis) that I'm wondering about. It's got generic labels, rather than the cart's normal sticker. More interestingly, it has a copyright of 1994 on the title screen. Anyone know why that might be?

Front: http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/851...sextrafron.jpg
Back: http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/665...sextraback.jpg
Title Screen: http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/7...sextratitl.jpg

[ShovelThumb]

On first glance I'd say the gameboy carts were proto/beta... Not sure about the bottom one could be a review copy given to press... But could also be a proto.. You'd have to ask one of the protoboffins

[lkermel]

Yeah, the game boy carts are protos. About the other one it's hard to tell - could be a shop demo or something, I wonder how easy it'd be to open it and see if it comes with EPROMS... nice finds !

[BeaglePuss]

All three (including the last cart) are indeed prototypes. RI Extra was only released in Japan thus making your copy "unreleased." I know that Dream has a Copy of RI Extra, but I don't know how many others are out there. If you look at this video, you can see that your title screen is slightly different than it's MD counterpart:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84b_lDy812E

It's a shame that the game was already released in English, and it's a generally English-friendly release. Had it been in Japanese and your copy was a translated version, you'd likely be looking as some big bucks.

I would value them as follows:
- Chase HQ will bring some cash due to the name change alone. I would guess $60 or so.
- SI Kids will be lucky to bring in $35. GB prototypes tend to sell on the cheap, and terrible titles like SI kids are often hard to give away.
- RI Extra could bring in $300 or so to the right buyer. The allure of owning an "unreleased game" is enough to drive the price up. Genesis prototypes fluctuate a bit though, so it's hard to put a solid number on it.

Of course this is all speculation, but from what I've experienced over the past few years I would think these would sell in and around what I've estimated.

[NaturalChemical]

Yeah, I don't expect to get much for the GB games. Especially ones as bad as these. And here's a pic of the RI board, for anyone who cares.

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/250...sextraepro.jpg

[hellfire]

Is their a story behind all the prototypes you have? how did you obtain them?

[NaturalChemical]

My father wrote software reviews for the paper, from the late 80's through the 90's, so we ended up with a ton of software from that. And it seems that some companies would send out proto copies to be reviewed. Some of them have return addresses stuck to the cart, but I guess they didn't care that much about retrieving them.

I still have some Genesis and SNES games to take pics of that I'm wondering about. I'll try to have pics of them tomorrow.

[NaturalChemical]

Got out a few others and took some pics. Hopefully I can learn more about them.

Let's see here... I've got several terrible sports games for the Genesis, like this one. I couldn't tell you anything about them, but here's a pic. The label is starting to peel off, and the cart apparently used to hold a beta for another game.

Front: http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/62/teamusafront.jpg
Back: http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1237/teamusaback.jpg

This one is called International Tennis Tour, for the SNES. I checked SNES Central and this PCB was apparently used on a couple of protos. Is this a proto as well?

Front: http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/3...tennistour.jpg
PCB: http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3...tennistour.jpg

Here's two that I, unfortunately, was unable to open up. The first pic is of The Flintstones: The Treasure of Sierra Madrock, while the second is The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates. There's a black thing where the screws should be, presumably to keep people from opening it up.

Flintstones: http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/4...tonesfront.jpg
Jetsons: http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6...tsonsfront.jpg

Next, Super Nova. I checked SNES Central, and there was no listing for this PCB. Strange.

Front: http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/8...rnovafront.jpg
PCB: http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1...rnovaeprom.jpg

I also found one more thing, apparently a beta of Road Avenger for the Sega CD. I don't have a way to test it at the moment (unless there's an emulator that could boot from it?).

Front: http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2...engerfront.jpg
Disc: http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/5...vengerdisc.jpg

*EDIT*: I tried out the SNES games for a couple minutes each, looking for obvious differences. Only thing that jumped out at me was in The Jetsons, where the opening screen looks a bit unfinished. Note the underscores in place of blank space. There's other small things in the intro similar to this.: http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/2...ningscreen.jpg

[hellfire]

Those are all protos or review copys

[bitrate]

Have you come across any 3DO related proto's / samples?

[hellfire]

If you have the time, I would reccomend taking pictures of all your games

[NaturalChemical]

Haven't got any 3DO betas, though I do have a decent collection of games. I have a couple of other Genesis and SNES games around here still that could be protos or review copies. I'll try to find them soon.

Hellfire, why do you suggest that? I wouldn't mind, but it will be a good time sink.

[hellfire]

Its more of me being interested in what you have

[hellfire]

If you were to post pictures I could point out the protos for you

[NaturalChemical]

I'll see what I can do. I could probably get a few group pictures of my collection up if you're interested.

It also occurs to me that I haven't touched my copy of Lufia yet, which also has that sort of label. Perhaps it would be worth checking out, if these were.

[hellfire]

Anything that looks unusual is worth a picture

[NaturalChemical]

True enough. I'll take pics of the last few games I know are unusual a little later today.

[hellfire]

Here are pics of my protos


http://s879.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/My%20protos/

[NaturalChemical]

Those are some cool protos. Are you a collector?

[NaturalChemical]

Here's a few more games I just got pics of. I honestly don't know if some of these are unusual or not.

First are a few Genesis games. Nothing interesting, but I may as well post some pics.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4...stourfront.jpg
http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/2310/mig29front.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/7183/93front.jpg

I found the SNES version of The Adventures of Dr. Franken, minus the cart. Not sure if this one is an unusual game or not.

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/5...ofdrfranke.jpg

Here's pics of my two Game Gear protos, Soccer (?) and Paperboy 2. If I still had a working GG, I'd test them. As it stands, they're just nice to look at.

Paperboy 2: http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/3...rboy2eprom.jpg
Soccer: http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/5193/soccerj.jpg
Back: http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/8...occerbacks.jpg

Finally, I got out my old Lufia cart to check it out. Board looks just like most of the others I've posted.

Cart: http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/6184/lufiafront.jpg
PCB: http://img806.imageshack.us/img806/9964/lufiaeprom.jpg