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Contra prototypes from over the years


prototector

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Contra/Probotector (NES/FC):

confamsam

 

confamsam2.jpg

 

d8h2kjh

 

m57960202.jpg

 

rc8262017.jpg?w=150&h=150

 

Super Contra/Super C/Probotector II (NES/FC):

superctop_zpsbd4d89e1

image.png.4f67b703188759e9d9d689a6ddb0cbe5.png

sdf987u3

(I have this one below)

probiiprotsampgerm

 

probIIprot

 

Contra/Operation C/Probotector (GB) :

H0GCgvB

(I have the one below)

probgbproto.jpg?w=450&h=600

probgbspl00.jpg?w=300&h=300

 

Contra Spirits/Contra III/Super Probotector (SNES/SFC) :

contraivsnesprot

con3sample.png

conspirdem

d93hjls

sprobntscu2

(The one above does not actually have the same version as the one below)

supprobntsc8.png?w=300&h=222

coniiprot

9vyg

osuc7

2013newstuffAugust27013_LRG

supprobprot.png?w=300&h=218

con3protsegeur.png?w=228&h=300

coniiisnesproto.png

 

Contra Spirits/Contra: The Alien Wars/Probotector 2 (GB) :

p53.png IMAG0259.jpg.949d428911e3b98ed22f8ff7fbb68b6a.jpg

Contra: Hard Spirits/Contra Advance (GBA) :

ljt7v

 

Contra Force (NES) :

conforcesample.jpg?w=450&h=263

image.png.d3813fe8995116d5cbe1bc87cde163ce.png

image.png.87cc368824035f6f298d52927387a889.png

 

Contra 4/Contra: Dual Spirits (DS):

9h324k

con4prot2ery

 

Contra: The Hard Corps/Contra: Hard Corps/Probotector (Genesis/MD) :

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

probomdsample.png?w=450

(I have the one below)
i3270768735.jpg?quality=lossless

 

Contra: Legacy of War (PS1) :

clowps1nearfin

con109.jpeg?w=300&h=300

Contra: Legacy of War (Saturn):

(I have the one below)

sdf098

clowsatjan2.jpeg?w=300&h=300

 

C : The Contra Adventure (PS1) :

cadv08.jpeg?w=300&h=300

cadvrev.jpeg?w=300&h=300

Contra: Shattered Soldier (PS2) :

ps2_-_contra_shattered_soldier_e3_v.1.00.jpeg?w=300&h=300

conss-7-01-02.jpeg?w=300&h=300

(I have the one below)
conss89.jpg?w=300&h=286

conss89copy2.png?w=300&h=296

Neo Contra (PS2) :

(I have the one below)

20200510_192918.jpg?w=300&h=292

ncone3-2.jpeg?w=300&h=300

ncone3.jpeg?w=300&h=300

(I have the one below)
neo-contra-preview.jpg?w=298&h=300
(bottom right in the below pic)

banconrev

nconrev3

nconrevalt.jpeg?w=300&h=300

nconrev45.jpg?w=225&h=300

image.png.1b63d3d1d4e3784049a072ccc93a58a9.png

(I have this one below)

neoconpalprev.jpg

 

FAKES AND QUESTIONABLES (VARIOUS SYSTEMS):
And now, for the fake or highly suspicious prototypes that surfaced over the years. Fake prototypes in general have been a really prominent issue in recent years. So due to that, in addition to completeness, I figured to include them as well. Beware of these.

Contra III and Contra Spirits (SNES & SFC). Most likely fakes:

putativeprotos-e1449105780794.jpeg

Contra III (SNES). Highly suspicious:

178404084920453.jpg

Contra Advance (GBA). Highly suspicious:

ciiigbaprotfk.jpg

 

Ok

TrueContra.png

Edited by prototector
Forgot a SNES prototype
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  • 6 months later...
On 8/13/2022 at 9:23 AM, prototector said:

Another 2 more, the latest in my collection. A Contra: Shattered Soldier preview and a Neo Contra preview. If anyone has any photos of others, please post them.

Wow, that is an awesome Contra collection! Has any of it been dumped, or backed up? I'd love to check out some of it!

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Posted (edited)
On 3/9/2023 at 11:53 PM, Armageddon Potato said:

Wow, that is an awesome Contra collection! Has any of it been dumped, or backed up? I'd love to check out some of it!

Thanks. I don't have most of the cartridge prototypes shown there (I actually used to have many of those, in the past), but I do have quite a few of the disc protos currently.

For dumps, most of them are, yeah. And if I ever acquired any, dumping the data is a huge priority. Also, most of the dumped and released ones, I either did it myself or was at least involved in their release. I would have loved to acquire and preserve more, but that has proven to be as unpleasant of an experience as ever.

You can see the dumped prototypes here:
https://hiddenpalace.org/Contra_(Sample_Prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Probotector_2_(Sample_Prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Super_Probotector:_The_Alien_Rebels_(Sample_Prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Contra_III:_The_Alien_Wars_(Review_Prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Contra_IV:_The_Alien_Wars_(Regional_Intermediate_Prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Contra_Spirits_(Sample_Prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Contra:_Legacy_of_War_(Aug_23,_1996_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Contra:_Legacy_of_War_(Oct_3,_1996_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Contra:_Legacy_of_War_(January_28,_1997_Prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/C:_The_Contra_Adventure_(Apr_22,_1998_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/C:_The_Contra_Adventure_(Jun_12,_1998_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Contra:_Shattered_Soldier_(May_8,_2002_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Contra:_Shattered_Soldier_(Jul_1,_2002_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Neo_Contra_(Apr_23,_2004_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Neo_Contra_(Aug_11,_2004_Prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Neo_Contra_(Aug_17,_2004_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Contra_4_(June_27,_2007_Prototype)
https://hiddenpalace.org/Hard_Corps:_Uprising_(E3_2010_Preview_Prototype)

On 3/10/2023 at 12:17 AM, CMR said:

Awesome.  Has anyone ever seen a Contra III proto where  the player's characters had their colors changed to green?  VG&CE did a review of the game back in the 90's that had this color difference.

 

https://archive.org/details/vgce_92-03/page/n35/mode/2up

I've seen those screenshots. AFAIK, no prototype with those differences ever surfaced to date. A copy of it might be in private hands, but it seems that's far as it'll go. Either that, or they were taken by Konami in Japan and just the screenshots were sent out to various print publications.

Edited by prototector
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Posted (edited)

I love when a graded copy of that superp robotector was listed for sale, with that misspelling used repeatedly in the listing title and description. The included authenticity doc even mentions the label being a typo, and what the correct spelling of the title is. Shows how many times the seller read the document.

Edited by prototector
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Holy shit.

This is incredible.

You should make it a bit more clear in the OP that these are all your pictures, though. I wasn't sure if you had just collected pictures of all the different ones over the years.... but a good humble brag of "Hey, check out my awesome collection!" never hurts. You're just TOO humble, right? 😆

Also, having one picture of the collection together would be crazy impressive. 

....errrrr.... wait... I just re-read the thread a bit closer.... SOME of the prototypes are yours? 

Okay... well, in that case thanks for compiling all the pictures! 

In that case... Having a picture of all YOURS together would be impressive, haha. 

Really neat stuff, either way. Thanks for sharing.

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Posted (edited)

Yeah I thought of arranging them based on game title, in the order of releases for the most part. I could have put the ones I currently own into their own separate sequential list, but just decided to add the text that indicates when I have that particular item.

I used to have quite a few more protos, and those are in the pictures above, too. Those are cartridge-based; now I have more of the discs.

Also I kind of suspect the DS ones aren't "legitimate". The cartridges are authentic dev carts, and the data they contain is authentic, too. But the dev carts are flash, rewritable; meaning anyone with the tech can write data to them (ROMs, in this case). Those 2 DS prototypes photographed above didn't come from developers or other industry members in the form of those physical items. The prototype build of Contra 4 leaked via a scene release around the US retail release date. So it first appeared publicly as a downloadable ROM. Years later, that exact Contra 4 prototype build surfaced on ebay listings and collectors/sellers on forums, on those rewritable/flash carts.

Edited by prototector
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16 hours ago, prototector said:

Yeah I thought of arranging them based on game title, in the order of releases for the most part. I could have put the ones I currently own into their own separate sequential list, but just decided to add the text that indicates when I have that particular item.

I used to have quite a few more protos, and those are in the pictures above, too. Those are cartridge-based; now I have more of the discs.

Also I kind of suspect the DS ones aren't "legitimate". The cartridges are authentic dev carts, and the data they contain is authentic, too. But the dev carts are flash, rewritable. Also, those 2 prototypes photographed above didn't come from developers or other industry members in the form of those physical items. The prototype build of Contra 4 leaked via a scene release around the US release date. So it first appeared publicly as a downloadable ROM. Years later, that exact Contra 4 prototype build surfaced on ebay listings and collectors/sellers on forums, on those rewritable blank carts.

Gotcha.

Still really cool.

Thanks for the info. 

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