is this just a jap cart? its not mutant virus http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=110544576868
is this just a jap cart? its not mutant virus http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=110544576868
If my memory serves me correct, wasn't the original title of Dr. Mario really Virus?
If that's not the case, I'd say pirate.
Hmm, looks like either a pirate or Nintendo had plans to make the game look nicer, with patients and a weirder Mario (God, that picture scares me) and then promptly found out that it left players distracted from the gameplay, which meant early cuts.
Also, the copyright date of 1989 furthers the prototype suspicion, which makes it even cooler, considering there hasn't really been any recent major Nintendo prototypes, which has mostly been late Zelda OoT/MM testing carts.
So, it's a tie to me.
Well, the board has 2 EPROMS, and the actual number on the board (NROM-256-O2?) is the number that's used for retail copies of some first party games (10-Yard Fight and some others). Either this is a prototype (which is strengthened by the fact that it's a first party board and it has EPROMs) or it's a pirate cart that was created from another donor cart. Nintendo tends to keep all their prototypes, so they are usually as rare as hen's teeth, in comparison to everyday third party ones. Perhaps Beaglepuss and MrMark* or DreamTR could shed some light on this.
*"The Super Prototypio Brothers"
Last edited by Ryaan1234; 06-10-2010 at 01:32 PM.
Check my auctions here! I am in the business of finding off-beat things, including video game stuff!
View my collection!
This the second copy found unless it's a repro of the original. First one was titled "Tetris" on the cart and sold to a Scandinavian collector if I remember correctly.
Last edited by Tootai; 06-10-2010 at 03:14 PM.
What Tootai states is true. The first copy was sold cheap as a "Tetris" prototype without being tested. It was then resold to a European proto collector.
This is at least the second copy, but I'm pretty sure it's actually the third. Dream has said:
"an internal Nintendo development studio for strategy guides which has been known to produce some pretty rare finds (Virus was found at this same studio)"
I'm assuming that he was referring to this title, although I could be wrong.
They're actually more common than you would think (at least from a prototype perspective). There are known prototypes of Zelda, Zelda 2, Mario 2, Mario 3, Yoshi, Tetris, Tetris 2, Wario's Woods, Kirby's Adventure, Pinbot, Dragon Warrior, and Dragon Warrior 3. That's just off the top of my head, and that's only including the NES (there are a ton of examples for the SNES).
Some third party companies actually kept a better lock on their stuff oddly enough.
Ok so my memory doesn't suck that much. Gotta say, the game itself sure does like piratey.
Well, consider how weird Ristar looked when it first started.
Some games do start off weird before evening out for the final product.
The idea of the patient display is pretty cool, though. It would've been a nicer status indicator than colored blobs flailing their limbs aimlessly.
it looks like whomever made the virus title screen wrote virus on the eprom, looks just as scribbled in comparison =P
Yep. The buyer posted the find here in Finders Keepers and later deleted their post. I have a feeling it was a result of being constantly shot PMs regarding the find. My bad. . . . Hahaha.
I don't know of any differences between the prototype and released version, although it's been a while.
Yeah I'd say real proto as well, just due to the fact of the others which had been found previously of Virus/Dr. Mario...
I enjoy this question the seller received so much though:
Q: Hi there, Would you take $300 for the cart off of EBay? I could send you paypal in minutes. Thanks so much, hope to hear from you soon!
A: Wow! That's a lot! I'm so sorry, someone bid on it so I can't end the auction.