prototype Super Famicom and Famicom system, circa 1989

[airraid]

on the right is one of the first, if not THE first, Super Famicom prototypes. on the left is an unreleased(?) version of the 8-bit Famicom. this most likely unreleased redesign of the 8-bit Famicom is called the
'Famicom Adaptor' according to Chris Covell on his website disgruntleddesigner.com. Although clearly it is a stand-alone Famicom console, and a very good looking one IMO. much better than the later re-designed A/V Famicom of the early 1990s, which was just horrible looking.
again, just IMO.

Chris Covell writes:

And below is a really amazing find! This comes from an announcement of the Super Famicom hardware, in February 1989. The article discusses some of the features of the new system (stereo sound, scaling, ROM size, etc...) But the system pictures are intriguing, to say the least! The system on the left side of the page is a redesigned Famicom, called a "Famicom adaptor". Who knows if it connected with the SFC as an adaptor, or if it was just a fancy name for a redesigned Famicom to complement the SFC design. This new FC design wasn't produced.

BUT! That picture on the right side of the page shows an early design of the SFC, as above. This time, the labels of the switches are clearly visible: Power Switch; FAMICOM Switch, and Reset Switch! Is this the fabled Super Famicom prototype that was backwards-compatible with Famicom games? It looks possible...

another pic of the 8-bit Famicom redesign (upper right)



a b&w photo of the early 16-bit Super Famicom prototype


another b&w photo of the redesigned 8-bit Famicom


found here: http://disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/secrets3.html



another color photo of the early 16-bit Super Famicom design



a much better picture



and another really nice picture because of the angle, showing the headphone jack and volume control not found in the SFC that came out!



now this is another Super Famicom prototype that came later. it is much closer to the Super Famicom that Nintendo released

[MegaDrive20XX]

Well at least they stuck with the original SFC cart prototype all the way.

Other then that, these strike a resemblence to many Famiclones you see on the market these days.

[smokehouse]

Man, just think of getting your hands on that bad boy……what a collector’s piece it would make!

Oh, and I notice the prototype also has what appears to be a A/V out on the front…..hmmm.

Thanks for the pics!

[jajaja]

Interessting Im glad they changed the design, the prototype is ugly hehe.

[rbudrick]

I wonder what that FDS/AV shaped port on the front of the unit is for.

-Rob

[CosmicMonkey]

The big red button on the first SFami proto is for Famicom mode, apparently. Cool. Would have added too much to the production cost, so it was removed.

[LocalH]

No, I think that's the power switch. On this picture, it's much easier to tell that the middle switch does say "FAMICOM" on it.

Also notice from that picture that the controller buttons were originally labeled A-D, and I'd almost bet money that the controller also had no shoulder buttons.

[Ed Oscuro]

LocalH: You can see the shoulder button on the last image. Where the controller intersects with the bottom of the image, you can see a big gray bit sticking out a ways. You can also see it at the bottom of the B&W scan, the top view of the controller with the black cord leading out the bottom of the photo.

There's a good picture of this controller design at that evolution of controllers page, too.

[Push Upstairs]

And their still better looking than the US SNES.

[airraid]

Interessting Im glad they changed the design, the prototype is ugly hehe.

heh, the American SNES was ugly. I'd take any of the SFC prototypes over it.

[NESaholic]

My pick would be the last one,it looks like our own PAL SNES consoles.

[airraid]

And their still better looking than the US SNES.

agreed!

[rbudrick]

No, I think that's the power switch. On this picture, it's much easier to tell that the middle switch does say "FAMICOM" on it.

x_x It is? Looks like crap to me, even zoomed in.

-Rob

[The Manimal]

I love the design of the U.S. SNES..

[jajaja]

Interessting Im glad they changed the design, the prototype is ugly hehe.

heh, the American SNES was ugly. I'd take any of the SFC prototypes over it.

Indeed, but this prototype looks so fat and big hehe. Too tall.

[CosmicMonkey]

You have to wonder though... After all this time, and with all the people in Japan (and worldwide) still playing Fami/Super Fami, why Nintendo never did eventually release an all-in-one unit?

Nintendo aren't making anymore Famis, so why the hell not just include Fami backwards compatability in some new model of SF Jr?

[donkeykong1]

Those are some nice pics you put up. That just made me happier about collecting video games.

[poloplayr]

AWESOME photos.

[Ed Oscuro]

You have to wonder though... After all this time, and with all the people in Japan (and worldwide) still playing Fami/Super Fami, why Nintendo never did eventually release an all-in-one unit?

The official Nintendo Power answer was that NES compatibility would've raised the price of the SNES by $70.

[airraid]

AWESOME photos.

thanks. I thought the first prototype that I saw for the first time in EGM was completely awesome. I wish that that had been the final or near-final design.

Also, I wish that the full original specifications (not 100% known) for the Super Famicom had made it into the final system. some of those included a 68000 CPU like the Genesis, only faster, and more extensive scaling & rotation and special effects hardware--a lot of that hardware was gutted from the Super Famicom and was put back in only in specific games with the various DSP chips.

The first batch of games for the Super Famicom were developed around 1988 and 1989. Popular Super Famicom titles, like F-Zero and Super Mario World, were the most difficult for several reasons--if nothing else, the Super Famicom hardware specifications changed in small ways at least twice during the development project, requiring changes to existing code. (Trivia tidbit: the original Super Famicom plans called for much more extensive onboard 3D hardware--PilotWings was developed assuming that this hardware would be present, and since this chip was scrapped from the Super Famicom at the last minute, Nintendo was forced to include this 3D chip on the PilotWings board in order to keep the game on schedule.)

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.g...e=source&hl=en

naturally when he says 3D hardware he doesn't mean 3D polygon hardware like SuperFX chip, he meant pesudo 3D hardware for sprite scaling & rotation, and other 2D graphics manipulations.