Skip navigation
NintendoAge
Welcome, Guest! Please Login or Join
Loading...

Just found a Joust Prototype? Can someone confirm? I am new to prototypes, and I guess this would be my first one.

Nov 19, 2011 at 11:34:59 PM
divingninja (48)
avatar
(Kirkland Sweeney) < Meka Chicken >
Posts: 597 - Joined: 03/09/2010
United States
Profile
So...does that mean it appears more or less legit? Or is that something that doesn't matter

-------------------------

Know any NES cartridge variants that I don't have on this list?
http://www.nintendoage.com/index....
Let me know if you have confirmed any that I need to add! Thanks!


Nov 19, 2011 at 11:45:39 PM
MrMark0673 (455)
avatar
(Mark Nolan) < Master Higgins >
Posts: 8021 - Joined: 02/20/2007
Massachusetts
Profile
Still too early to say, hopefully the data will shed some light on the origin.

-------------------------
Hi, my name is Mark, and I collect (and now sell!) Prototypes.
 
Photobucket

The Largest Comprehensive List of NES Protos for Sale Available on the Web!
http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/...
 

Nov 20, 2011 at 12:07:08 AM
divingninja (48)
avatar
(Kirkland Sweeney) < Meka Chicken >
Posts: 597 - Joined: 03/09/2010
United States
Profile
Cool. Thanks so much for looking into this!

-------------------------

Know any NES cartridge variants that I don't have on this list?
http://www.nintendoage.com/index....
Let me know if you have confirmed any that I need to add! Thanks!


Nov 20, 2011 at 8:40:35 AM
647 (1)
This user has been banned -- click for more information.
(Peter klax) < Crack Trooper >
Posts: 123 - Joined: 11/19/2011
United States
Profile
Originally posted by: 3GenGames

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.


it doens't look limke a flash cart...

Nov 20, 2011 at 9:43:31 AM
removed04092017 (0)
This user has been banned -- click for more information.
< Bowser >
Posts: 7316 - Joined: 12/04/2010
Other
Profile
Originally posted by: 647

Originally posted by: 3GenGames

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.


it doens't look limke a flash cart...

Yes it does. 

Nov 20, 2011 at 11:09:06 AM
divingninja (48)
avatar
(Kirkland Sweeney) < Meka Chicken >
Posts: 597 - Joined: 03/09/2010
United States
Profile
Is it possible that the people that made protos used flash carts if it is one?

-------------------------

Know any NES cartridge variants that I don't have on this list?
http://www.nintendoage.com/index....
Let me know if you have confirmed any that I need to add! Thanks!


Nov 20, 2011 at 11:16:45 AM
removed04092017 (0)
This user has been banned -- click for more information.
< Bowser >
Posts: 7316 - Joined: 12/04/2010
Other
Profile
Originally posted by: divingninja

Is it possible that the people that made protos used flash carts if it is one?


Yeah, although the thing that irks me is the switch. You wouldn't need one because you wouldn't need to switch the mirroring during a project because that'd be a big change to the program if you had to anyway. And the programmers would have unsoldered it and soldered the other pad if they had to. Putting a switch means you switch it often, which means you put a lot of different programs on it.

Nov 20, 2011 at 12:47:27 PM
MrMark0673 (455)
avatar
(Mark Nolan) < Master Higgins >
Posts: 8021 - Joined: 02/20/2007
Massachusetts
Profile
Originally posted by: 3GenGames

Originally posted by: divingninja

Is it possible that the people that made protos used flash carts if it is one?


Yeah, although the thing that irks me is the switch. You wouldn't need one because you wouldn't need to switch the mirroring during a project because that'd be a big change to the program if you had to anyway. And the programmers would have unsoldered it and soldered the other pad if they had to. Putting a switch means you switch it often, which means you put a lot of different programs on it.

But that's not entirely uncommon in the development process.  You'll see protos with one games name crossed out replaced with another, or other situations where a board was used multiple times.


-------------------------
Hi, my name is Mark, and I collect (and now sell!) Prototypes.
 
Photobucket

The Largest Comprehensive List of NES Protos for Sale Available on the Web!
http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/...
 

Nov 20, 2011 at 1:04:47 PM
removed04092017 (0)
This user has been banned -- click for more information.
< Bowser >
Posts: 7316 - Joined: 12/04/2010
Other
Profile
But in those cases they'd just desolder and solder the other pad, you'd only need a switch if you're doing it frequently.

Nov 20, 2011 at 2:26:36 PM
marvelus10 (46)

( . ) Boobies ( . ) < King Solomon >
Posts: 3282 - Joined: 06/05/2007
British Columbia
Profile
Originally posted by: 3GenGames

But in those cases they'd just desolder and solder the other pad, you'd only need a switch if you're doing it frequently.


Yes I would agree with you but this board is socketed, so maybe its soul purpose was for testing ROMs and the tester doesn't need to solder anything. Said tester has a handful of different chips, pops them in sets the mirroring and plays the game, done testing that game pops the chips in for next game changes the mirroring if needed and plays. Not everyone is good with a soldering iron.

Its in my opinion that the sockets and switch are of great convenience when testing.

For my repros I have my set of socketed test boards, I program the chips pop them in play or well verify, then solder them in to their permanent boards.

-------------------------




 

Nov 20, 2011 at 2:31:02 PM
removed04092017 (0)
This user has been banned -- click for more information.
< Bowser >
Posts: 7316 - Joined: 12/04/2010
Other
Profile
But you don't test anything that needs to switch mirroring. And any cart that isn't permanently one piece of code would be socketed. And it seems that with the data that's been posted it's just Joust and there's nothing different than the release and that'd pretty much mean this is guaranteed to be a flash cart. It's not useful for testing, what would need to be tested ion which the switch would help? None. If your game needs mirroring changes you program it to use a mapper that allows that. You'd never add that to your board, especially if you wanted to get the game done fast which was needed on a time line like they were when developing these games.

And does the "prototype" joust have the extra character on the title screen?


Edited: 11/20/2011 at 02:34 PM by removed04092017

Nov 20, 2011 at 2:53:13 PM
divingninja (48)
avatar
(Kirkland Sweeney) < Meka Chicken >
Posts: 597 - Joined: 03/09/2010
United States
Profile
Originally posted by: marvelus10

Originally posted by: 3GenGames

But in those cases they'd just desolder and solder the other pad, you'd only need a switch if you're doing it frequently.


Yes I would agree with you but this board is socketed, so maybe its soul purpose was for testing ROMs and the tester doesn't need to solder anything. Said tester has a handful of different chips, pops them in sets the mirroring and plays the game, done testing that game pops the chips in for next game changes the mirroring if needed and plays. Not everyone is good with a soldering iron.

Its in my opinion that the sockets and switch are of great convenience when testing.

For my repros I have my set of socketed test boards, I program the chips pop them in play or well verify, then solder them in to their permanent boards.




-------------------------

Know any NES cartridge variants that I don't have on this list?
http://www.nintendoage.com/index....
Let me know if you have confirmed any that I need to add! Thanks!


Nov 20, 2011 at 2:57:09 PM
divingninja (48)
avatar
(Kirkland Sweeney) < Meka Chicken >
Posts: 597 - Joined: 03/09/2010
United States
Profile
Stupid iPad. Sometimes I can't type when quoting or replying a certain way. Anyway, so if this is the case above maybe his guy had a bunch of other chips just hanging around of perhaps previous versions or other games? My wife and I are planning on going to the game store again today and I really want to get as many more details as I possibly can about this guy and perhaps he can relay a message on to those girls and maybe I can try and acquire a bunch of other cool stuff. I'll let you know what I can find out.

-------------------------

Know any NES cartridge variants that I don't have on this list?
http://www.nintendoage.com/index....
Let me know if you have confirmed any that I need to add! Thanks!


Nov 20, 2011 at 3:15:10 PM
removed04092017 (0)
This user has been banned -- click for more information.
< Bowser >
Posts: 7316 - Joined: 12/04/2010
Other
Profile
You don't need a bunch of chips, you need 2 eproms and you can rewrite over those all you want Why they labeled them I'm not sure. But I'd do that, that'd be pretty cool to see what else they have.

Nov 20, 2011 at 7:59:16 PM
divingninja (48)
avatar
(Kirkland Sweeney) < Meka Chicken >
Posts: 597 - Joined: 03/09/2010
United States
Profile
Well no luck today finding out more about the donor. The manager of the store was off today so I'll have to come back during the week or hit him up on a Saturday.

-------------------------

Know any NES cartridge variants that I don't have on this list?
http://www.nintendoage.com/index....
Let me know if you have confirmed any that I need to add! Thanks!


Nov 20, 2011 at 11:39:06 PM
marvelus10 (46)

( . ) Boobies ( . ) < King Solomon >
Posts: 3282 - Joined: 06/05/2007
British Columbia
Profile
Originally posted by: 3GenGames

You don't need a bunch of chips, you need 2 eproms and you can rewrite over those all you want Why they labeled them I'm not sure. But I'd do that, that'd be pretty cool to see what else they have.


Sometimes Genny you just don't see the light man. I apologize for my patronizing in advance.

Hypothetically speaking:

 Jeff works at game programmer studio as a tester, Bill programmed these three new exciting games, Bill gives Jeff 6 chips tells him these are the PRG and CHR for the three games and this game has Vertical mirroring and these two have Horizontal you will need to use the switch on the this test board I am giving you, here is a test board PRG goes here and CHR goes there this is the switch, please go home tonight and play the three games and come back tomorrow and let me know.
Jeff doesn't have a soldering station at home so, out of convenience Bill has given him socketed board with switch. That board sat in a drawer for 21 years somewhere until it was sold, it just so happened to have the chips from the last game Jeff tested that night still in it.

-------------------------




 

Nov 20, 2011 at 11:47:13 PM
removed04092017 (0)
This user has been banned -- click for more information.
< Bowser >
Posts: 7316 - Joined: 12/04/2010
Other
Profile
Games back then were not developed like they are today where they do that and they can't screw up, they worked on it in house, probably had some people working on the idea, one the mechanics, one the actual game engine, one on sound. What you got is what you got. They didn't give out ROM's to people to go test and make sure they worked, they tested as they went and made sure it was right first time. The best you got from there was prototype carts made for people or that were abandoned. I mean think about it, you don't have a group of people working on 3 games at once back then. 3 group of ROM's for a tester? Yeah right. I think you can't see it that this is such a shot in the dark of what you just said and wouldn't be common at all back then if it ever even happened a single time. And besides, 3 games that all use the same mapper too? Yeah, sureeee.

So what's the results of the dump and compare of the binaries?

Nov 22, 2011 at 1:02:17 AM
divingninja (48)
avatar
(Kirkland Sweeney) < Meka Chicken >
Posts: 597 - Joined: 03/09/2010
United States
Profile
Yeah, I'm eager to hear about the dump? Anything good?

-------------------------

Know any NES cartridge variants that I don't have on this list?
http://www.nintendoage.com/index....
Let me know if you have confirmed any that I need to add! Thanks!


Nov 22, 2011 at 12:59:11 PM
MrMark0673 (455)
avatar
(Mark Nolan) < Master Higgins >
Posts: 8021 - Joined: 02/20/2007
Massachusetts
Profile
Originally posted by: divingninja

Yeah, I'm eager to hear about the dump? Anything good?


Haven't had the chance yet, but I'll definitely get to it tonight.  Super busy half week at school here, but I'm pretty well done by this afternoon.

-------------------------
Hi, my name is Mark, and I collect (and now sell!) Prototypes.
 
Photobucket

The Largest Comprehensive List of NES Protos for Sale Available on the Web!
http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/...
 

Nov 22, 2011 at 7:42:17 PM
dra600n (300)
avatar
(Adym \m/) < Bonk >
Posts: 16975 - Joined: 09/16/2010
Connecticut
Profile
I've seen a lot of proto's look like this one, but I can't wait for Marks results.

-------------------------
Proud owner of post #1800 in Inner Circle HQ thread

Nov 23, 2011 at 12:07:37 AM
Tai (40)
avatar
(Tyler Patron) < Eggplant Wizard >
Posts: 491 - Joined: 09/09/2010
Saskatchewan
Profile
Yeah, i'd like to see what mark says too, looks neat.

-------------------------
 

Nov 23, 2011 at 8:13:26 AM
thefox (0)
avatar
(Kalle Immonen) < Meka Chicken >
Posts: 533 - Joined: 07/08/2008
Finland
Profile
I think there's a decent chance it's legit. Flat head screws, EPROMs from 1983, the stickers look pretty old... With this info it's impossible to know if it was just used for development/testing though, or if it was passed on as a prototype.

-------------------------
Download STREEMERZ for NES from fauxgame.com! — Some other stuff I've done: kkfos.aspekt.fi

Nov 23, 2011 at 10:26:38 AM
Xerxes (20)
avatar
(Xerxes Dole) < El Ripper >
Posts: 1019 - Joined: 01/25/2011
Ohio
Profile
Very cool find. I hope it works out for you divingninja. The switch is such a curve ball. I have never seen a prototype with one before. I have seen several cases with some jumper wires but never a switch. Has anyone with more experience ever seen one like that?

-------------------------
 

Nov 23, 2011 at 1:20:48 PM
divingninja (48)
avatar
(Kirkland Sweeney) < Meka Chicken >
Posts: 597 - Joined: 03/09/2010
United States
Profile
Thanks dude. So last night I stopped back by the game store and the manager didn't have much else to fill me in on. Other than the two girls that brought it in were larger girls, and not very attractive. Haha. But he told me they did have a couple stacks of nes games. (probably from their father's collection) but none of them were rarer or hard to find or even more playable titles. He assumes they sold what they could at like a garage sale and then took the rest to the him at the game store. He did say they grew up with that development type equipment stuff around all the time when they were really little and what seems to make it more legit to me is when they asked what they could get for it and the owner said he doesn't normally take those type of items, the girls were like ok whatever you can just have it.

-------------------------

Know any NES cartridge variants that I don't have on this list?
http://www.nintendoage.com/index....
Let me know if you have confirmed any that I need to add! Thanks!


Nov 25, 2011 at 6:21:44 PM
Lincoln (138)
avatar
(Frank W. Doom) < Bowser >
Posts: 5976 - Joined: 12/19/2008
California
Profile
That's pretty interesting. I think you can make a convincing argument either way about it being a development piece or a homemade pirate device. My first thought was that this looked exactly like what I'm planning for testing nrom repros, except I was going to try to mount the mirroring switch where I could flip it without opening the shell.

Does anyone assign any meaning to the various numbers/codes on the stickers?

-------------------------
ebay auctions / running FS thread / famiROM thread for .nes info and splitting / rom hacks link/discussion