Almost a game...almost...
Protoypes are the early development versions of the video games you know and love. To the right, for instance, you see a prototype of Adventure Island IV. The terrible quality of the photographs in this section is the result of prototype collecting being an elitist enterprise — the only photos we can get are the ones we see in auctions.
The Famicom had a number of very usual prototypes. While all NES prototypes were produced using the standard Nintendo carts, for the Famicom, prototypes ranged from the large cart to the right, to the use of the RAM adaptor casing, and for the Famicom Disk System, special white development disks. In addition to prototypes, many companies also released sample cartridges that were used to test the games and provided to video game journalists who reviewed the games.
Prototypes and sample carts continue to pop up on auction sites. While protos and samples sell near $100 for the NES, for the Famicom in Japan they sell much more reasonably.
