We've seen plenty of expensive Nintendo auctions taking place over the last few years, but not many items have been as interesting as this one.
This weekend, a Super Mario Bros. 3 prototype was sold at auction for a whopping $31,200. The listing was a first for Heritage Auctions, being the first time that the auctioneer had ever sold a Nintendo-developed prototype or any prototype featuring Mario.
Interestingly, the prototype was actually made from a cartridge which originally housed a copy of Kid Icarus, as you can see from the label still visible on the cart. The words 'Super 3' have been written over it, just as hastily as someone might write over an old homemade VHS tape, with various parts of the cart being cut open for EPROM replacement.
Here's some info from the Heritage Auctions listing:
"...This prototype was made from a gutted cartridge for Kid Icarus. Sections of the cartridge have been cut away to expose the EPROMs (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory). In every sense of the word, these EPROMs are the "heart" of the prototype, as they are what contain the pre-release data for Super Mario Bros. 3.
Two of these are labeled to reflect this. Both are labeled in hand by one of the developers, the top "SM-3" and the bottom reading "SMB3" with February 1990 dates on both. It can be assumed that this indicates this cartridge is from one of the final stages of the game's development, considering it was released in the US in February. "Super 3" has been scrawled in what appears to be blue marker across the front of the cartridge on the Kid Icarus label, in a seemingly hurried and casual fashion by a Nintendo employee."
Heritage Auctions says, "We have often heard from prototype collectors that developers tended to repurpose spare parts lying around the company to fashion them into prototypes."
As you might expect, this is quite the find. It's not every day that you see a NES cartridge that's been hacked into and modified by Nintendo itself, and it's definitely not every day that you see any kind of Nintendo prototype escape from the company's hallowed halls.
Further Reading:
[source comics.ha.com, via lordsofgaming.net, gonintendo.com]
Comments 17
Unless it's proven to have differences from the final release someone has likely overpaid by $31,150. In fairness I own a few carts like this including an Axelay and a Contra III. The reason I stopped buying them is there's hardly ever any major differences from the final release to make it worth it.
Still, you never know this might be full of differences and also be where that alternate World 1 map layout on the back of the SMB3 box came from. Unless it's been bought by a hoarder in which case we'll never know.
This is fascinating. And to think I just paid 200 dollars for Devil's Third and I felt like a big spender for the preservation of game history.
Interesting. Well, here's to hoping this manages to get dumped somehow.
It feels gross to see a prototype cart GRADED (insert Pat the NES Punk voice)... I just hate seeing this happen to carts in general because they were meant to be played and not sealed behind plastic to just be looked at. And when it comes to prototype carts you have to crack open the sealed shell to get to the actual cart to see if there is anything worth preserving from the prototype and can potentially damage the EPROM to just attempt preservation because of the grade... I'm so sick of seeing this and how speculators are ruining retro collecting by doing this and charging a mint just because its GRRRAAADDDDEEEEDDDDDD.... :/
Even if money wasn't an issue, and I was on a mission to build a personal videogame museum I still wouldn't be hugely interested in this item, or pay anywhere near this amount.
Leads me to believe that someone is taking a chance on an investment. If you dont need the cash for the next 15 or so years, then I guess this'll be worth more money.
Debatebale as to how its value performs versus inflation though - especially in these very uncertain times - and of course you are always heavily reliant on finding that buyer at the time you choose to sell - a needle in a hay stack once you're at these prices.
Interesting nonetheless!
If this is genuine, then the question becomes how was it "liberated" from Nintendo HQ, and considering that it was almost certainly taken from the company without authorization, how is it legal to then sell it?
But then I consider the fact that I could hack something like that together in about 20-minutes and claim that it's a rare prototype, and who would ever know the difference?
@Mountain_Man That's the risk of buying prototypes to begin with because technically you're not allowed to sell them without the company's approval because it is company property. Unless it was given to the developer/seller (like Dylan Cuthbert who has an official StarFox 2 SNES cart one of the few that even exist) is the one selling it. That and up till the end of the N64 generation they are very easy to fake. (The N64DD prototype carts were made in a special blue cart that can only be read by N64DD dev units)
Later generations it's easier to tell the authentic prototypes from the fakes. But for the NES, SNES, N64 and even Playstation and Dreamcast, it is so tricky to not get duped with a fake.
Actually if it's dated February 1990, it likely IS the final or maybe even revision.
They just don't just get the retail MaskROMs burned and the carts assembled overnight before release.
I can't wait for someone to buy this just to throw it in the garbage as a joke...
Wow that's an actual romhack made by Nintendo. Not one I'm interested in but still pretty cool
This is weird and confusing. Did they not have the ability to “print” their own cartridge from scratch for the prototype? Why would they cut open and existing cartridge for that purpose?
@ALinkttPresent it’s a prototype. Meaning it could have the chips changed out daily. They aren’t going to send it back to the factory to print new chips onto a board every time they need an update. Especially since NES games were all manufactured in Japan back then, and this was a Nintendo of America prototype. These aren’t Reflashable chips. They were soldered by hand into place. They didn’t have a facility in America that printed out a whole board.
@Averagewriter The chips mounted on there should have some kind of indication of when they were made and roughly how long they have been exposed. It would also need to play I assume and have some stuff missing, but it certainly wouldn't be easy.
This is such crap. If Nintendo wanted to create litigation I'm pretty sure they could claim this as proprietary company technology and secure it the same way as anything stolen from a company. This would be like stealing some molds from a factory and selling them. Even if the person was given the right to use the cart for their own purpose and at home the company has right to the property
@ALinkttPresent 'This is weird and confusing. Did they not have the ability to “print” their own cartridge from scratch for the prototype? Why would they cut open and existing cartridge for that purpose?'
This is a very good point. Surely Nintendo had developer cartridges around that didn't need to be hacked open to access the innards. This is something I would expect from a garage developer on a shoestring budget and not a major developer and hardware manufacture like Nintendo. It makes this "prototype" even more suspect.
Why the heck would you even pay for this? The ROM is exactly the same as the US retail release at launch. It doesn't even look cool.
@Mountain_Man yep, claim its rare, get it sealed up, and who knows what is even on there. I hate being a skeptic but i like even less what is happening to VG collecting.
So the geniuses put some lame box on it, therefore it's worth a heap more money...yeah that makes sense. Of course they'd want to line their own pockets both on assessing and selling it. Disgusitng.
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