Opinion : For the new members : We owe you nothing

The only thing that's ever irked me about some collectors is the (thankfully waning) mindset that dumping protos at all, even for private backup, devalues the authentic disc. I understand (and disagree with the reasoning, but accept the reality) that public distribution of a prototype devalues the authentic media. I've seen auctions for prototype games where the seller boasted that the game had never, ever, been dumped (and even saw a few that demanded that the potential buyer never dump it either, not even for private backup, which is completely ludicrous to even ask).

It's thanks to the generosity of people like Borman, drx, and DreamTR (just to name three off the top of my head, apologies to anyone I missed) as well as the generosity of people who have donated towards prototype releases that things are as good as they are with regards to public availability of protos in general. I say this as someone who helped the community acquire the early Sonic 2 alpha seen on Nick Arcade (and if I had more money, I'd be helping to get more protos released).

 

I'm not even in the same league as those guys hah. Yeah, the lack of a personal backup means that if the disk is gone, that is it. At least a personal backup gives you, well, a backup. Ive had things that I cannot share before, but if I am buying something, I make sure it is clear up front what I can or cannot do with it.

 

I totally agree! What I think has to be said is that what does devalue the price of the original prototype is leaving it in a display cabinet or cupboard to rot without ever retrieving the software stored inside. If one day the prototype does get lost to time it's worth very much nothing as while the original media it's self is a nice part of the item and great for historical nostalgia it's the data stored inside that gives it it's value. If a collector said to me that they had the original media but it was broken however they managed to retrieve a working dump of the software before it was lost, I would still buy it from them as they managed to preserve what's truely important. However if a collector said to me they had a prototype but the original media is broken and the software was lost forever I'd have no interest in buying the item at a price what so ever.

 

I agree. To me, the value of an authentic prototype lies as much, if not more so, in the media it originally came from than in the data on the disc. I currently own a Sonic 3 review cartridge (common short board) that holds a final binary. It's still valuable to me because it's authentic, as best I can tell, even though I dumped it and found the binary to be 100% bit-identical to the US Sonic 3 ROM.

 

I can appreciate that. For me it deffinately depends on what the item is, there's a difference between wanting an item for the media or wanting the item for the software, or both. If for example it was a really early prototype stored on a CD that was riddled with surface scratches, rot and other types of corrosion to the point where it was unreadable in modern drives I would still pay a high price for the item presuming the software was previously dumped in a working state and came with the item. It would still hold sentimental value knowing that I had the original media and a working copy of the software because I could enjoy both, albeit not as were intended but as I intended. However loss of data to the point where the software is either damaged beyond use or lost all together is nothing but coaster value to me, I'd pay a low price knowing what the item once was but the fact that I'd have to risk wait for technology to develop to the point where I might have a chance of getting the data back doesn't do it for me. In the end not dumping the prototype is severely ruining the value of your item and you're gambling with your money and prized possessions by not doing do.