SNES protos on eBay

[kiljo | 5]

While rocking my daughter to sleep I was scrolling through eBay listings. This one seems interesting:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/116062756086?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=2kNx2F7IRr-&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=eia1brd8qss&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I'm not a prototype collector, but is that how most of them are? Just some EPROMs with an Avery label on them? I've seen one or two translated repros using donor carts that look pretty similar... Is there anything on the board itself that clues someone in to it being authentic?

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

Yes. I'm curious what you thought they would look like.

[kiljo | 5]

22 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

Yes. I'm curious what you thought they would look like.

I guess I had never really thought about it before, but it makes sense.

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

1 hour ago, kiljo said:

I guess I had never really thought about it before, but it makes sense.

The process of making a game would involve burning the code to a chip, then pushing the chipinto the slot on the board and trying it out. Remove the chip, reburn a new program, try again. Then you may have different builds on your desk, each one labelled with masking tape or a sticker to tell you which build it is. Eventually the board and chips get left in whichever state they were last used and thrown into a drawer, to be found by someone 20 years later.

I have many prototypes that are literally  just chips, no board.