Armageddon Potato

I'm surprised some of the "badderhacks" is what made the news clip. I'm guessing the bootleggers just dump whatever on there without checking so that's how this even happened, lol. "An electronics dealer" - Shows random street side tables filled with bootleg merchandise. The poor dude's wife shaming him on national TV, cause he tried to save some money online. Oh man, hahaha!

Hahahahahhahahahahaha

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!

I had originally posted many of them in my Discord, but eventually they will all be here. I just need to find some free time to get to work here! Let me know if there's anything you wanted to go through first!

That's definitely good news! The "Tengen rule" is based on all currently known copies of all known Tengen protos which there is a good established number of. The ratio for differences being present according to my documentation is very close to about 1 out of 20 land up being different and when they are it's often later in development. Early Tengen protos are quite rare! I actually don't have a definitive ratio for early Tengen protos because so few exist among them all. The reason I call it the Tengen Rule is that Tengen protos are about 1 in 20 where as licensed protos for example are about 1 in 3 for there to be a chance of differences. Licensed protos have about a somewhat equal chance of being mid/late development across the board as well. Any early proto is quite rare regardless of being licensed or unlicensed. The earlier the rarer actually. Technically there is more early licensed protos than unlicensed, but it's super slim and not enough even exist to say for certain(it could easily flip the other way if a few suddenly show up.) In general unlicensed protos tend to be close to final or final version very often comparatively and honestly I have no idea why. You'd think they would of been more loosey-goosey with them rather than say Capcom, or Nintendo or something! As more Tengen protos with differences show up, I can add that to my excel which will increase or decrease the ratio(which also sits alongside unlicensed stuff since all Tengen protos effect those numbers too.) I'll post up a personal proto-info type guide at some point explaining all this. I originally left this info off of NintendoAge because of what happened to it. At the time I was also worried once my documentation got to be what I felt was "accurate enough" I didn't want it to effect the cartridge prototype market in any adverse way. It'd be weird if all licensed protos were suddenly inside slabs because of the higher difference chance, etc. As it sits right now though they are already quite pricey, and I think it's better to get that information out there. Protos don't really seem to garner much of a premium in a slab(at least that I've seen anyways.)

From what I know based on all my notes I can tell you: Ultimate Stuntman - Unknown, but unlicensed games tend to heavily lean final version. Sky Kid - Unknown, those labels tend to lean final build but it's still up in the air. Spy Hunter - Same. Mega Man 2 - All known prototypes are final build, except for Mark Nolan's "Clash Man" converter copy. Mega Man 3 - Already dumped and examined, which is how more of these should be! Crackout (likely fake) - I heard about these. =( Banana (likely fake) - I have a proto of this one on the Famicom. Many have been dumped on Hidden Palace, and tcrf.net Kitty's Catch - Is this a proto of Kitty's Catch? I have the LE version and a prototype big box(It was box only.) Championship Bowling - Unknown, no related info on this. Iron Tank - Unknown, would have to see the label/board but could have changes. Skull 'N Crossbones - I have this one, and I've confirmed some differences. I managed to either activate a code for 99 weapons, or bug it out somehow. Never figured out how I did it. I'm actually very familiar with this game. Rolling Thunder - Tengen prototypes have a very high chance to be final version(Almost 95% chance or one in twenty I'd say.) I'll refer to this as the "Tengen rule." Road Runner - Tengen rule. Ms. Pac-Man - Likely final based on notes, most NES Pac-Man related prototypes are final versions unless they are PAL, still however unknown. Pac-Man - Same. Alien Syndrome - Tengen rule. Afterburner - Tengen rule. Gauntlet - Is it a Tengen cart or a licensed cart? A licensed cart would be very interesting! RBI Baseball - Tengen rule, unless it's the licensed cart. RBI Baseball 2 - Tengen rule. RBI Baseball 3 - Tengen rule. Fantasy Zone - Tengen rule. In my opinion for any cartridge prototype no matter how bizarre looking or how early a version sticker on it says the max chance of differences is 50/50. It only tends to go down from there. The good news is sometimes something that looks totally standard lands up being super crazy different(G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor prototype for example.) If I had to take a shot at what would be a good candidate looking for differences first it would be Championship Bowling, Iron Tank, Sky Kid, and Spy Hunter. If Gauntlet/RBI Baseball are the licensed versions those would also be very good candidates. We could take a look at whatever you'd like though! I also have a huge list I need to curate and post. We could go over one of yours first, or one of mine. Who shall toss the first prototype into the FIRE?! The fire of... examination and documentation? ATOP MOUNT VGS! lol As a side note I'm going to make a list of every NES game and whether a prototype of it exists/allegedly exists/never been found along with how many copies are floating around out there of each. What list is going to take a while though, haha!

I agree, final build protos do indeed draw less interest. Prototypes have been kind of all over the place recently. I think $400 each is pretty fair, although with the right buyer you never know. I can't see them breaking $600 each personally even at open auction(then minus fees, etc.)

Unfortunately a consensus around rarity and what constitutes a "complete basic set of NES games" for example is actually all still kind of a gray area. Honestly I think rarity could be felt out and be somewhat accurate nowadays; however, what constitutes a complete basic set of NES games, or a complete set of NES games and all variants, etc is going to be very tricky. We do have a TON more information nowadays than we've ever had for before at least. For example I don't consider Stadium Events as part of a basic set of NES games since it was never given a full release, and my standard per each console is the games included needed to receive a full standard release as per related to how each other game would of been released at the time. Magical Chase despite it's price for example would still be mandatory for a basic set of TG16 games since it was fully released, but simply no one bought it. Despite my personal reasonings others may feel differently about what constitutes a "complete set" of something.

That is a sizable list! Everything I have is physical/hard copy. I have a small handful of roms that friends have allowed me to have to examine or release. One of them for example was a 5-screw Snow Bros. found at a local convention that was posted to a local Facebook game group I am in. Upon seeing his post I immediately told him that a 5-screw Snow Bros. doesn't exist and told him to open it - boom prototype. I swung by the hotel the convention was at that day and used a back up laptop to dump it! I should still have the rom file, but a game like that is very hard to examine for differences since it's filled with so much RNG(It did appear to have differences according to a quick code comparison to the released version.) Is there any particular game on your list or one that is out there on the NES that you'd like to start with as the first one we make a thread for and examine?

I'm one of those guy who collects everything, but I'm really in in for the obscure stuff like "Snail Against Squirrel" or that Russian romhack of RoboCop vs Terminator that has Chip & Dale sprites, lol. I have actually at some point played literally everything in my collection with some of my close friends. Making sure you have a game night and friends to enjoy it with is paramount - even if you need to use Parsec to play it over the internet with a Retrode! Part of the fun is just grabbing random stuff and throwing it in, or showing someone an obscure title you know they'll love. I'm in the hyper end game, and there is very little left that I need. Mostly a bunch of middling SNES boxes, and some sky-high finishers on various obscure systems. I do have limits however. Gamecube was the last system generation I went for full complete in box sets. After that it's just key games that I'd like, or things worthy of being played. So PS2 and XBOX only have all the Silents Hills, Metal Slugs, etc. Same for PSP, DS, 3DS, etc. Also Gameboy/GBC/GBA is just loose, but anything I'd really like is CIB. Anything Gamecube and before is worthy of a full set since they are usually much smaller, and games were much more a representation of the time they were around. The madness of it all is part the fun for me, and an oversized display of walls full of gaming carnage is how I roll! Content? Yes, but the journey never really ends!

You just opened my personal pandora's box, lol. I have way too many of these stories and they are really, really insane stuff lol. I travel a lot to hunt for game collections and oddities. I'll post up some stories once I find some free time!

Heya guys! First off a big thanks to Gloves for adding this subsection to the forums for me! I've been on a long time quest for prototype preservation back in the NintendoAge days. One of my main goals was to cover as many NES prototypes as possible(the whole library if possible.) I was going to post up all my documentation(and ask for help with some of it), but at that time NintendoAge decidedly went down in flames. I didn't feel safe posting it there since I didn't know who would have access to the information long term, or if it would all just be wiped so I continued my research on the side. I landed up down so many weird rabbit holes since then that I've literally went to the Moon in Bart vs the Space Mutants, kicked motorcyclists off the road as Beetlejuice for power ups, and fought 20 ft tall Simon Belmont in the purple land of cheese as Hawk from G.I. Joe. I now have a ton of examination and documentation tools and know-how at my disposal. Right after NintendoAge went down someone then decided to hit the disaster button in Sim City IRL and the pandemic happened. I got sick from some rare stomach virus and I had to take a back seat recovering. Then I got Covid, which was 3 days of pushing all the water in my body through my skin like I was stuck with some evil device straight out of Tank Girl. Once all that calmed down, I managed to make a mostly full recovery despite my stomach still being pretty messed up. Despite all this I was moving to working more from home(gotta pay dem bills and all that), and continuing to preserve prototypes. Now that VideoGameSage has settled in well I should finally have enough time to stay active here everyday and continue my work. I can finally post up all my finds and documentation! I would ideally like to have each game represented here with full documentation. People who are interested could chip in work to document each game. We can then also post all of the information to TCRF.net as well and they would have no issue hosting the roms(VideoGameSage does not want roms posted here.) I also want to note that every game that is preserved should be available to the public. There are roms that are "preserved" but not available to the public, which in my book is a big fat L. If they aren't available to everyone, they are still behind a gatekeeper(and can't be documented.) No gatekeepers. (I do understand if copyright issues come up with some games, and they can't be released right away.) With this first post I'd like to ask if anyone wants to help document these with me and maybe use the VideoGameSage Discord to do so? Should each game prototype have it's own thread to keep things more organized? One thread with every game edited into one post would get MASSIVE, so I assume each game should have it's own thread? What I was thinking is one thread could contain all "same-as-final" prototypes with pictures of the cartridges and boards, and then a thread can be created for each prototype with confirmed differences. We can also post about how many known copies of each prototype may exist or are known to exist, etc. Are you guys ready? Who's with me?! It's gunna get weird!!!

Many were skeptical and some visibly worried, but the would-be buyer popped in on a fresh account and seemed passionate and well intended at first appearance. He told us he'd leave the site as-is and was just very interested in the scene and all we do. As soon as GoCollectJim showed up that other account never posted again, and the site immediately fell into despair as the old server needed to replaced with a new one, and the transition was very slow and rocky. After the server transition nothing was very functional and the site looked like bare bones. GoCollectJim made a few empty promises as people flung insults and he promptly vanished fulfilling nothing he promised. No other GoCollect people ever posted or said anything. The database would never return. We should still make a database in my opinion, but this time make sure it isn't owned or controlled by any one person. Something that can be copied and replicated for free anywhere. I'm still down to contribute!

Beware Quickman in Mega Man II on Gameboy. He is thick boy with smol screen size, and he will slam his quickness into you with the quickness.

I just realized there was a lot of speculation in this thread of what happened with Dain and NintendoAge. I found out he did not actually get "that" much for NintendoAge and his collection. Honestly by today's value based on what I believe he had in his collection he barely got 10 to 15% of what it would be worth today, let alone speculation of the sites value. NintendoAge itself may as well of just been a freebie throw-in. Once he found out what they did to the site, and his collection he deeply regretted it. I would guess he saw himself as entering his 50s and basically thought it was time for him to personally move on or his personal interest waned. Dain never meant for any of this to happen, or for people to be mad at him for doing so since he thought the site was going to be reasonably well taken care of. I know I don't blame him for anything since he gave us so many great years and such a great site. If anything we can observe this as a lesson. Be very careful when you make big life milestone decisions.

Heya guys! I've had this NES prototype of the Lone Ranger sitting for a long time undumped, and my CopyNES does not want to dump it due to the odd wiring on the back. Any ideas on how to get this dang thing dumped? I also have a Jungle Strike prototype that is chips only, but one of the legs of the 2nd chip is broken. Is there any way to repair it so it can be dumped? Can pay for help if need be! Just looking to get these dumped and freed!

That would have to have the Famicom board inside it with a converter, which I believe it is not. Mark(I think I got the right Nolan, haha) said he'd keep that Mega Man 2 Clashman proto, and didn't want to sell it so I don't think that one would be it. We'd have to get a picture of the board to verify, but my memory tells me that isn't it. He never dumped the Clashman rom as of yet, so hopefully one day we'll get that dump!

Thank you for the link bud, I'll be ordering it asap! I actually traded a Yu-Gi-Oh Sacred Cards cartridge to someone that had these stickers on them, and now I'm going to have to see if I can recover it from them after they check the board. Looks like we got a mystery on our hands gang!

Mega Man 2 protos are out there, but are quite rare. The known ones are yours, mine, and the "Clashman" Nolan Bros. We should compare dumps! If you every need anything dumped and examined I offer a free service to do so, and I've combed through 100s of prototypes, mainly NES! Personally I keep all mine in those clamshell Nintendo cases. Those work perfect, and I label the spines myself. Very easy to find what I need when I need it!

I do need a GBA dumper as I also have a Gunstar Super Heroes on the GBA I need to dump. The only issue here is when you play the game it appears to be Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith? This all came from someone who got it out of a military storage unit at auction. There are some GBA SPs with the same kinds of labels on them, one is called "Luigi". It just seemed like an ordinary GBA SP to me? I need to go find all of these now that they've been scattered around here. There was even a Golden Sun that has these same exact stickers on the back. This is getting really interesting!

What's up with this GBA game? Bootleg? Looks oddly complex, lol.

Honestly not much changed for me collecting-wise. The pandemic started off rough for me as I got brutally sick from some super rare stomach virus, and lost around 70 lbs in around 6 months. I've never been so miserable and sick in my life(and I've passed 14 uric acid kidney stones, lol!) I never really got too far with the medical system since it was so overloaded with Covid patients, but I stabilized randomly during Thanksgiving. They kind of just gambled random medications on me until some things started to appear to work(and certain ones I found out I was very allergic to, lol.) I even got Covid(Omicron) in February last year to boot. I sweated that beast out like you wouldn't believe, haha. I kind of took a break from here for a while when I was recovering even though I hopped in every once in a while. I'm doing a lot better now! I didn't ever really stop collecting even though I was stuck at home for so long. It just slowed down, and I played more as a result. Once I got better and the flea markets and such opened back up I went back to my old tricks once I could drive again. There's still some amazing finds to be had out there, but you have to put the time into it and go out and look. I'm nearing end game with most sets, and it'll be fun finding those last boxes, etc! Let's just hope the fates that be don't decide to hit the Bowser attack, or UFO button again, lol.

I have just a few of these, and they apparently were never released. The tags are also have no information except the default Pac-Man tag as does the pants tag itself. I have a couple Super Mario Bros prototype clothes in my personal collection similar to this(but earlier in print with "Sample" printed on the tags.) Also they never have the default black elastic top and bottom part. Any idea on value for something like this? I'm assuming they didn't release them since no Pac-Man style clothing has plaid on it. Could of been an accident actually since this design actually goes on another style of sleep pant. These also have a larger version that has a button up shirt that goes with it. I'd snap a picture of those, but they are sealed in factory bags(They use the same design.)

I remember wayyyyy back in the day if a bot hacked your account it would use it to spam WoW power leveling, and Russian handbags, lmao!

Not sure what something like this is worth? I have a chance to trade for it, but what kind of value does just the manual and art insert in mint condition carry? Edit: Not sure why the mobile version won't attach the pictures I'm uploading.