Discovered some rare Nintendo Carts.....i guess?? Can you guys help me out?

Yes but i heared that the Retrode cant dump N64 Protos :-/

 

Very nice findings!
I did a little investigation on the N64 stuffs.

らくがきっず(Rakugakids) PAL ver
1998/9/16(EU release date:1998/11/4)

Castelvania ~Legacy of Darkness~ PAL ver
1999/11/17(EU release date:2000/3/3)

MYSTICAL NINJA ~STARRING GOEMON~(営業用サンプル) (Sample)

InternationalSuperstar Soccer 2000

International Superstar Soccer 98'(営業用サンプル) (Expunged original sticker)
Add-on magic sticker:
HAC(Or HMC?) Eng. Ver EUR-4 9/21
According to geluda,it might be "Holy Magic Century".
(EU release date:1998/9/30)

AREO FIGHTERS ASSAULT rom. Bfa.Oct. 21.97.2 (What does "Bfa.Oct." mean?)
(NA release date:97/11/1,JP release date 98/3/19,EU release date 98/4/15)
If the date was correct,then this game was flashed on 1997/2/21,8 months approx before the NA release date.

One mystery cartridge with labels......

And a Wide-Boy 64
Used to display Gameboy(Not sure whether this model plays CGB or not.) gameplay on TV through your N64 so that your eyes won't have to stare at the 2.45" screen all day.

Forgive me if some of the data was wrong,not an expert at samples/prototypes or release dates.

 

Thanks for the Info! I cant test Aero Fighter and the Other one that might be Holy Magic Century - they are not PAL versions :-(

i received the Cart opening tool today and checked about 20 of the Carts so far. They are all Original Nintendo Boards, all Eprom they seem very legit. Made a lot of Photos uploading all would be very much work, so i will upload a few later.
The Starwing Comeptition Boards says " Mario Chip 1 " and they have 4 black dots on the Board. They look very real!

 

Like badinsults said, the ones with the typewritten labels are almost certainly all final builds on EPROMs (in fact, I'd imagine most of the labels actually SAY "final" right on them). These carts, I imagine, have a European origin? We've found many (SNES and NES, actually) over the years with these labels out of Europe, but almost never out of the U.S. I think Nintendo of Europe was just a little more lax with this stuff.

Being final doesn't make them any less valuable though! The people who actually pay money for protos don't seem to be doing it to find differences, they seem happy to just own an incredibly rare variant of games that they love. And hell, I can understand that, I'm eyeing your Pac-Man 2 proto just because of my weird obsession with that game even though I don't collect this stuff at all...

 

Incidentally, someone ought to point out how interesting it is to have found two Earthbound sample carts in Europe. Was Nintendo planning a PAL version? Did they can it when sales were disappointing in the US?

 

Just noticed the Taito Corp Prototypes like this one and Space Invaders are security locked. Funny!
Maybe there is some cash hidden inside ?

View attachment 6856

 

No doubt they glued it shut as an anti-piracy measure. If you look at old BBS scene releases, some of the games definitely came out before their commercial release, no doubt leaked by people who worked at game magazines and other places that would have received these sample carts. Of course, if you had a proper SNES dumper, you didn't have to open the cart to get the ROM image.

 

Well those Taito Corp Games have just a small file ( 2kb ) on them. Cant play them with the Retrode either...
So is that somehow secured or are these carts blank or broken. But that would not make much sense because thats just with the Taito Corp Carts - would be very much coinsidence if they are all broken... But yes, maybe blank?

 

Clean the pins with isopropyl alcohol and a cotton swab. The Retrode doesn't like dirty carts.

 

Yeah, I have to say after dumping hundreds of SNES carts, some of them can be a real pain to dump. It seems the SNES console is far more forgiving at reading carts than the Retrode. Since you can't open it, my usual suggestion of getting a soft white eraser to clean the contacts won't be of much use. The suggestion by MasterOfPuppets is the way to go. Just note that it sometimes takes dozens of attempts to dump some carts. If it works on your SNES, it should be dumpable with some effort.

 

Take goof off and put some on a qtip then go at those glued in screws its just that simple.

 

I cant test the Carts on the Super Nes because they are NTSC and wont fit, dont have an adapter either.
Thanks for the advice. Didnt came in my mind that the Problem might be dirty Contacts. Ill give it a try!

 

any updates on this? always exciting for me to see snes stuff

 

If the top cover of the SNES is removed can the carts be installed?
I'd guess the SNES has some lockouts in place given it was post-Mega Drive but that's a possible way to bypass the physical barrier.
I really need to get some SNES and PC Engine units... and an Xbox 360... and a PS3 - all broken of course!
Where's the challenge if everything works from the get-go! :wink-new:

 

If the carts are NTSC, you need an NTSC (US) SNES or a Super Famicom to play them. He stated he didn't have either of them.

 

Can the PAL units be modded to do NTSC like Mega Drives though?

 

You can, but I hardly see the point. It is likely easier to buy a NTSC SNES. I've tried to mod a SNES before, and even with the help of experienced electronics engineers, we couldn't get it to work, mainly because of how small the pinouts for the chips are.

 

You're misreading that. It says rom.afa.oct.21.99.2 - it's a file name. AFA obviously stands for Aero Fighters Assault. October 21 1999 is the date. The 2 probably indicates a second revision of the day.

 

They cant be that experienced then, the mod isnt all that hard at all and I dont do this professionally.

 

Agreed. Although an electronics engineer could be the best at designing hardware, but no good with a soldering iron.