Zelda gb proto on eBay

Hi,
http://m.ebay.com/itm/The-Legend-of...-99-start-NO-RESERVE-/112130056536?nav=SEARCH
is it a real prototype or just a copy?

differences or not?

thanks

 

Norway = Europe
Europe = PAL
PAL is last to get dev copies usually and by the time they do the game is already finished. It looks real but I doubt it has many differences. There's only one gameplay photo and it looks the same. Who knows though, maybe the buyer will dump it and maybe there will be some differences.

 

The ad says it was used for Nintendo hot line staff, so good chance it's basically final. Wouldn't be good if the tip hot line was giving you information that doesn't match your finished version =P

 

Wait, that's supposed to be a proto? Why is it using veroboard and a hacked up cart instead of a proper Gameboy dev cart:



For reference, a proper GB dev cart looks like this:
http://www.nintendoplayer.com/prototypes/dmgvua/exposed.jpg

 

When it comes to prototypes, I don't think there is necessarily a way that they "should" look. I have no doubt it is authentic, considering the seller had many other legit prototypes.

 

Sorry, but I'm going out on a limb and saying that's straight up faked. I can't see any reason why Nintendo would bother hacking up a gameboy cart and hand soldering an EPROM onto a piece of vero board when they could of much more easily given the hotline a proper dev cart.

Seeing as the rest of the gameboy carts they sold actually were proper dev carts, I find this highly suspicious that the most highly priced cart they sold was in a format that could be very easily faked.

 

To be honest, I would be curious as to what is under that sticker. Is it possible that they (meaning Nintendo, Ill give the benefit of the doubt) just soldered a retail ROM in one of those shells?

 

No, that board is from a retail game that's had it's mask ROM removed and an EPROM attached to it. The plastic shell might be legit, but I'm highly dubious that board is.

 

Ah okay, I never opened up any of the GB prototypes when I had them

 

It's not a retail rom, it's clearly an eprom as you can see the part number.

 

Didnt see that either on my phone

 

Personally I find that cart very sus... really would have expected it to look more like this:

Spoiler: Cart

 

The seller posted about the prototypes he had over on NintendoAge:
http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=6&threadid=163581

As has been pointed out, I must say that is the jankiest looking GB prototype that I've ever seen. The shell is certainly a prototype shell, at least. As badinsults pointed out, the fact that his other sold prototypes look legit lends some credence to this being official.

 

Maybe its a bootleg, although if he really wanted to he could just use one of the other carts and swap out the EP's I belive

 

Yeah that's the most confusing part about it for me. If they wanted to fake it, why not use one of the other more 'real' looking carts? In any case, it should be fairly easy to confirm whether this is prerelease version, by comparing the game on eBay to the screenshots from Nintendo Power:
https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Link's_Awakening

 

I was keeping an eye on this one and I'm not surprised that it went over 1k. I'm curious to see if this is going to pop up on forums at one point even though I doubt it.

 

The guy got this with a heap of legit prototypes from a nintendo hotline as previously mentioned.
I dont suspect any foul play, NOE probably just Frankensteined this one up for them.

 

Still begs the question, whoever supplied it obviously had access to the dev carts (the shell is from one), so why hack up a retail cart when they could have just popped the EPROM into a dev cart?

 

Maybe they were running low on development boards so they sent out a hacked up retail cart instead? That wouldn't really explain why they decided to put it into a development shell, though, so who knows. Prototypes can definitely be varied since they were assembled for testing or promotion functionality and not for aesthetics - I know in the realm of GBC some legitimate prototypes have even been found on 3rd party flashcarts, such as Tyrannosaurus Tex (read http://www.nintendoplayer.com/unreleased/tyrannosaurus-tex/ for an interview that touches on why this was done).

I doubt we will get more proof than the seller's word about the origin. If the data is different from retail that'd certainly remove doubt, but there's definitely a decent chance that it will be retail and that the buyer will never disclose that information in the first place.

 

The value would not be the same at all. That is the thing with beta and protos most of the time it is a gamble.