I am assuming this is a Joust Prototype. I tried doing a search for one, but didnt see it listed. Can someone confirm for me? I have no idea what to do for upkeep or play of one either and dont want to mess it up. If it is confirmed I guess this will be my first prototype.

The screws were the old style that you could unscrew with a small flat head screwdriver and they were not the security screws. That also leads me to believe it is more legit. I posted some pictures in my picture gallery area as well.

Also, what is up with the switch on the inside on the Board? I havent moved it, again, in fear I might be breaking something.

Let me know if you need any more info. Thanks!

I am no proto expert but all the NES protos I've seen have had full sized boards. This does have the little stickers like others though. I think the Nolan bros or someone with more experience on protos will be able to tell you what you have for sure.

Before it was opened up, it looked like this, which I think I had seen some prototype games look like this too. .

edit- oh and the date on the Board is 1986 and I think I saw a list somewhere where this game was released OCT of 1988, so that would also make sense.

Looks legit to me. Congrats man

Have you played it? Do you have a normal Joust? Are there any differences?

I'd say no, not a prototype. Just somebodys home made flash cart. You can confirm this by dumping the EPROMS and seeing if they match the released ROM's. Here's a picture of one of my NROM development carts, nearly the same thing.

I would agree.  I've never seen the prototypes with added soldered wires.  I wonder what that thing is they are connected to.  Also, I noticed that the left chip looks like it's in one of those things you can shove chips into so you don't have to keep resoldering the chip in.  I think this was a cart someone used to flash different roms onto the chip and play.  He/she may have just ended it with joust in the end and stuck stickers on it.  I have no idea, I could be completely wrong.  Where's Dream TR and the Nolan Bros to verify?

Lots of boards say 1986, that is when the board was made, not the game.


What does the outside of the game look like??

Well there's plent of protos with sockets and probably extra wires some times, but this I don't believe is one. I'm trying find a program to generate CRC16's to compare the checksums on the labels to the released ROMs. That's a no go right now but I'll get one soon.

Plenty of protos have identical code to the final version, some protos even have mask ROMs.  This wouldn't prove anything.

Where did you obtain this?  With the age of the EPROM stickers, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if this were a proto,

Do you have any other info you could share with us about the game?  Don't worry about damaging it, pop it in and see how it plays.

But usually there's a difference in code from the final version to the released version still. It doesn't matter if the code is identical, you're looking at the data to see if it's exact. They could have used the proto with the release code as a review copy something like the Trog proto, but still, very unlikely. It COULD be a proto, but probably is not.

Having owned hundreds of protos many platforms, I disagree entirely with your opening statement.

Your closing sentence is founded in pretty much nothing as well.  We don't know what data is on the chips or the origin of the game.  Couple that with the stickers that clearly weren't produced yesterday, and you're really jumping to conclusions.

Looks as legit as many things that have come through my hands, I'd like to hear more about it.

Mr. Mark, I did post a breif how obtained in that list of members with protos just in case it is determined one. It was obtained in the Dallas area. When I opened it up it had a very old piece of tape (with a black hair i might add) that wasnt really holding that switch in place anymore probably because of the lack of adhesion from age I assume. I might have to pay the local gameshop a visit again and write down any info he might have on it. If the girls got store credit that traded it in, the store credit would have been put on their driver's license, so I wonder if he would be able to release their info to me or not to see if we can get anymore info on it. The store manager did tell me the girls grew up seeing that kind of stuff around and he was a programmer back in the day, so I'd imagine it probably is legit. I'd really like to try and get in contact with them to see if they maybe had anymore info or that stuff laying around. It is a shame the original creator/ownerof this passed away and cant fill us in on more.

marks word is law awesome find

Haven't played it. Didnt want to potentially mess it up. Do I need a top loader because the chips stick out a little? I dont have one of those yet. I do have a regular copy of the game though, so I probably could compare limitedly.

I dont think I have the equipment or knowledge needed to dump the eproms and/or compare the released roms? Is there someone local Dallas area that could do this? I am all for preserving it if it is one of those types.

haha dang, I see your point. You can see how new I am to prototypes. haha.

Take out the bar in your NES. You can put it back later if you're OCD. And I think mark would dump and compare them for you. There's some other on AA that do that too.

Im pretty sure this would be a prototype, the age of the stickers, the screws for easy opening, and the fact it has a switch to change the mirroring. Obviously made to be compatible with both mirroring functions. Besides is there a CN-ROM long board?

Correct.  Mark and I have dumped prototypes for numerous members of the community with an extremely high success rate.  If you feel comfortable sending it off, Mark and I will dump the rom for you to investigate.   We never keep the rom files (unless the other party request that we release it), and we shipped quickly.  It's something we would do for free of course.

Being that I know very little of the process and what all is involved, I'm going to PM you guys to fill me in. It sounds like something I would be interested in doing. I just want to know what all is involved. Thanks!

-Kirk

Game hopefully in Nolan brothers hands as of 10:36 this morning. Eagerly awaiting what we find out.

Yup, arrived safe and sound!

Update tomorrow with what we find.

it's like your wife is in the delivery room and you're waiting for the confirmation

So just a quick heads up, and an already interesting find:

- The game works and is indeed Joust. I know it seems like common sense, but I've common across mislabled protos before.
- At first glance, it appeared as though the proto title screen differed from the release version. I looked at a video on youtube of joust emulated and there was an extra small character found on the title screen. I found the same character when I fired up the game on my powerpak. Just for shits and giggles, I fired up the retail version, and it too is missing the character. This leads me to believe that the ROM floating around is a bad dump.

I'll dump it and send it along to divingninja tomorrow and we'll see if anything else comes of it.