Hudson Soft Sample NES carts

[dsheinem]

While we have knowledgeable folks here, I don't know that anyone has ever demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge of NES protoypes, unreleased games, etc. Your best bet might be to ask questions at some dedicated NES forums...

[fastbilly1]

Is there no label on the front of the cart? Is it possible to open these carts and get pics of the PCB inside?

Seconded - a shot of the insides, compared with a shot of a stock carts innards would be interesting.

Also, what do they look like when they power on? Anything different? Is it a partial game or the full game?

[noiseredux]

I really think you should bring this up on the NintendoAge forums. Those dudes are hardcore about this shit.

[Para]

As stated before; get a picture of the front, and the PCBs, and/or footage demonstrating the differences from retail versions.

Any jackass can tear the stickers off a game and write "sample" on the cartridge but there are ways to prove whether something is legit or just a fake.

If you don't know a lot about prototypes, I would reccomend going to NESplayer.com and reading Mike's dedicated prototype section. I've been going to that site for years and he still updates it once in a while. Hell, maybe even he will be able to help you out with this.

http://nesplayer.com/protos/index.htm

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[Ziggy]

Yeah, you can usually tell right away from just looking at the PCB if its an official cart or a pirate/bootleg or a prototype. As far as the game data goes, if there's something noticeably different that could be easy to spot, then it'd be easy enough to compare it. Otherwise you could dump the carts and compare them bit by bit to the official ROM for differences.

[SpaceBooger]

I did look up the phone number and address on the cart and found nothing.
The phone number is for someone located in the local court system and the address is for a small block of offices full of lawyers and construction offices. That specific address seems to be for some concrete related company now. I also could not find anything about the company listed on the label either.

[Ziggy]

What about the screws, are they security screw?

[SpaceMonkeyX]

Thanks for all the help, folks! I'll send the owner an email to see if he can provide some more details as to their origin, as well as send me photos of the other side of the carts. If he's comfortable taking them apart, I'll have him do that as well.

My guess is that these were pre-sale demo copies, not beta version prototypes. He was employed as a purchaser for Sears, so he probably got demo copies from the various software publishers in order to play a new game, maybe have his kids play it, and then decide how many copies to buy for the store or the region he covered. That would explain the label with such clear company contact information on the sticker anyway. I'll find out for sure, but that's my guess.

I'm not surprised that the address and phone number don't make much sense anymore. This would have been the mid-1980s, and, based upon Hudson Soft's Wikipedia entry, it looks like they've moved around quite a bit in North America.

Thanks again, guys. I'll send the owner an email and let you know what he says.