A Prototype Cartridge For an Unreleased N64 Shmup Recently Sold for $3,000

Looks like it would have been a decent rental from the video shop for the weekend. But obviously $3000 is a bit much

It doesn't look bad to be honest, but 3000... yeah, no.

Looks good for that era.
N64 carts can fetch lots of money now days.....definitely worth keeping for a little investment.

I hope that a rom of this goes online sometime soon. It is awesome seeing random bits of video game history getting uncovered.

It looks rather ace! But I do wonder if released, would it ever get out of Japan...

it is a lost piece of video game history that actually is a working, complete game we wouldn't be able to even see in motion. How is this not worth 3000 dollar? We all should thank the buyer, without him our knowledge of this simply wouldn't exist. And knowledge is always good.

That's an expensive gaming blind date!!!

$3000!? Who has money to throw away on old games like that?! Crazy. Absolutely insane.

@Fuz Yeah, thought it strange the article didn't mention it - but the writer is 18 so...

Oh, and Viewpoint was beautiful.

I can understand why they paid 3000, it must be great to own a game which literally no one else has. This looks fun but back in the day this type of game didn't really appeal to me. Also I wonder if it would have had a pal release.

Looks pretty good. I remember the original Viewpoint so it had a lot to live up to, but this seems like it should have been made.

@Fuz Thanks for that video. I remembered the game but had forgotten that I'd played it until I watched that first stage. Was creative and amazing what they did with pre-rendered stuff and quite a stand out for it's time. Doing away with the 3D movement from Zaxxon actually opened it up for more fun situations.

I hope the peeps at TCRF can get in touch with this person! What a treasure trove!

Looks like a fun space shooter, would had been a good competitor to Star Fox 64 had it got a release.

Awesome! Gives me hope Dinosaur Planet will be found one day

It's a valid price to pay if the buyer is confident that the item will increase in value at an acceptable rate, versus what he would have done with the $3,000.

@aaronsullivan Zaxxon was the first thing that popped into mind when watching the first video. Fuz's link solidified the thought. Glad to know somebody else remembers this classic..... Now I want to dig out my old Coleco to play it.

Wish I had known about this when it came up on Ebay. I would have seriously considered it.

That snot-suck at 1:57. If you have $3,000 to drop on a video game, surely you can afford some video capture equipment instead of filming your TV.

Looks interesting. It doesn't look like something I would have purchased back in 1999 (I was playing Smash Bros, GoldenEye, and Rogue Squadron), but it's an interesting piece of history nonetheless.

Score Ranking:
THE---GRE---ATE---STR---ECO---RDH---OLD---ERS---AND---YOU
THE GREATEST RECORD HOLDERS AND YOU

Nice to see the N64 get some unearthed treasure for a change.

Too bad it was cancelled, that looked fun.

If he's looking for a return on his investment then surely dumping it on a ROM would be a lousy idea.

Hopefully he knows a rom dumper so someone can dump it. Like it or not, rare games like this need to be preserved on a usb or a rom site (not nesseccary for privacy alone) and stored in a seal case where it won't collect any dust. The game honestly looks like a very good shoot'em up for the N64 although the ship could have been speeded up a little. It's definitely a game that would have been my reason to get an N64 as a kid.

@TeeJay

$3000!? Who has money to throw away on old games like that?!

The answer is quite obvious. Jax, DUH!

@Spideron Haha, I had no idea there was one prior to this! Was it a very similar game?

@MitchVogel
It was similar but with a different 'viewpoint!'
https://youtu.be/xzCEKqdF8Mw
Less 3D and more traditional but with an isometric, diagonal graphical style. The music on the neo geo game sounds much better, but overall not that different

This looks fun, but in '99/'00 this would have been widely overlooked. RARE and Nintendo really kicked it into high gear those 2 years.

It certainly doesn't look worth $3000 to me but I am glad someone bought it and is showing it to the world if I had money to burn I would probably want it in my collection too

@Mr-DNA "If you have $3,000 to drop on a video game, surely you can afford some video capture equipment instead of filming your TV."

If I spent $3,000 on a game I'd be living on ramen noodles for a few months. We are lucky we got anything, even if it was filmed with a toaster.

You fly inside a cylindrical space colony, that proceeds to blow up, and you keep flying through the debris?

That's some pretty elaborate environment design!

@TeeJay Technically I do but I choose not to.

Given how much I still do (and then very much) loved Star Solider. I would have been all over this as it came out. Given it would have showed up in 1999 it was a hot year for third party quality releases oddly enough for the N64 (check the wiki it's busy) so I'm surprised they tanked it. The stage design from what you can make out from the video was pretty good and it looked like it has some sold game play mechanics for that shooter as well kind of a mix of Sin & Punishment and Afteburner2's missile lock-on formula rolled into one.

@Fuz I still play Viewpoint on NeoRAGEx on PC and it's still a lot of fun. But Viewpoint was also inspired by another game, namely Zaxxon, as some people before me have already mentioned. Ah, Zaxxon, good memories indeed... (and some bloody frustrating levels too, but still... )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toSxQ3QHaTc