Howard Phillip's Nintendo Memorabilia

Howard Phillips from the early Nintendo of America days has a facebook account now, and has been sharing some of his memorabilia from his time with the company. He posted this photo today of just one of his boxes of memorabilia:

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Gray NWC cart and Final Fantasy Legends prototypes in there, along with over a dozen others...

 

<Drool> :love-struck:

 

wish he had a NES simcity cart

 

How do we know he doesn't? Did someone ask?

 

He says he played it, but he doesn't think he owns it.

Howard left Nintendo in '91, so in addition to cool NES and Gameboy stuff, he's sure to have some cool early SNES stuff, as can be seen in the photo. Maybe even early SMW or LTTP stuff

Edit: Yep, he just posted an image of a Super Mario World prototype. (Bottom image is SMW. Top image is a proto he's still trying to identify due to its faded label)

 

I hope he does. I've always been curious about the NES SimCity game.

Woah woah woah, he has a SMW prototype? Seriously, an actual SMW prototype? Not a review build, but an actual SMW proto cart straight from Nintendo Japan? I see it, but I can hardly believe it. Oh what I'd give to see that proto released...

Speaking of which, did he says what he intends to do with the carts? Does he plan on dumping any of it or selling it? I'm curious to see what else he may have.

 

The console there suggest it's a PAL proto.

 

Huh, your right. I didn't pay attention to that, guess I got too excited.

Aw, then it probably won't be as early as I thought it would be. Now I feel stupid AND sad.

Wait a minute. If he worked for Nintendo of America, why would he have a PAL prototype?

EDIT: Just checked the release date of SMW. JPN: 11/21/90 US: 8/13/91 EU: 4/11/92

If it's PAL, then it probably won't have any differences from the final version. It was out in the US for 8 months, and Japan for 17 months. Poor Europe always got shafted back in the day.

 

it's a rule that proto/betas/unreleased games i have some interest in won't surface

 

Just liked his Facebook page. Impressive history this guy has though.

 

Nice stuff. I just hope if he does somehow let any of it go(he seems nice enough that you never know how far his generosity goes), it doesn't go to people who will then go silent and never be heard of again :/

Or anybody that sells it for ridiculous amounts of money. I certainly can't imagine him himself selling them, but I have a feeling he doesn't feel like not sharing somehow in someway or another. Any further info he gives on all those prototypes will be sweet.

 

his comment on super mario bros release date was interesting given the ongoing debate on a solid date



Gamemaster Howard My recollection is that it was a late arrival to the party so FrankC's summary conjecture of November 17 is likely accurate...

 

It's interesting to see specific people posting on his threads. I've seen Dan Owsen, Florent Georges, and even Jason Wilson. I think part of what attracts people is that this is a true NOA veteran who's actually willing to share anecdotes, photos, etc.

As cool as it is to see these prototypes, I kind of doubt he'd be dumping or selling anything. He has a lot of ties to many people at Nintendo and other places in the industry, and I'm sure he doesn't want to burn any bridges.

Edit: Too bad, looks like the SMW cart is the same as release.

 

I love the way he talks. Sounds like someone that would fit in on a messageboard that isn't totally clueless as to what they have or anything. He seems more informed and helpful than a lot of other people from then might be, especially stories I've heard of some saying they're surprised anyone cares about obsolete technology.

Hopefully all the big wig proto collectors aren't pestering him to give them his stuff XD

 

Oh I'm sure they already are, probably sending him ridiculous lowball offers too so they can resell later at 8x the price

 

I asked about roms and he responded. He says that Nintendo most likely doesn't care about 20 year old stuff like this and that they have bigger fish to fry

 

the SNES cart with the hard to read label is Reactor he also has Mer Wars which looks almost 3D ?? maybe a mode 7 or SFX game

 

It's rather obvious they don't as StarFox 2 was dumped been floating around the interwebs for a while. Protoypes of games on eBay etc etc.

 

Howard is doing an AMA on Reddit. He's stated that he is actively playing the prototypes and is going to provide more information. He also said he is NOT succumbing to the people who are bugging him to sell his prototypes :victorious:

also fuck you if you're one of the people bugging him about buying them