I'm curious, besides the widely known SMB2 Prototype, have prototypes of any other Mario games been found, on any console?

I was just reading up on a really interesting Sonic proto (Sonic Crackers) and it piqued my curiousity about how many Mario protos are floating around.

I don't know if this counts but there was one for Super Mario Kart on the SNES.

There was a very cool Dr. Mario proto with the working title "Virus" that was found a few years ago.\\

Edit:  This would a great thread for the proto forum

Whoops, I meant to put this into Protoculture. Could a mod please move this?

Thanks for the info guys, any others? By Mario games I meant anything with Mario in it, so Mario Kart definitely counts, snesmaster.

I dont know of any. :\

I know of a collector that owns a SMB3 prototype. They actual post here from time to time. The prototype was bought in a lot that included other great protos (Final Fantasy, Ninja Gaiden, and Strider).

There are a TON of SNES Mario protos out there though. . .

Mario 3 would be more common......?

Any interesting WIPs of Super Mario World 1 or 2?

Man, bet those are worth a pretty penny. It would be interesting just to see how much a prototype of the #1 NES game would fetch. I wouldn't even know a ballpark, but I would assume it would attract quite a few different types of individuals and collectors.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to say?  More common than what exactly?

@Wickedcolumbus:  Not that I know of.  I know that there is a Mario Kart prototype that has some differences.  It has some fairly notable ones in fact.  I believe Evan did a write up on his site, and I know that there was a good thread over on DP about it.  The cart was purchased from Dream and sold to a collector named Van Halen I believe.  I don't know if there's a public dump available though.

@Dr. Robbie:  I would think that SMB3 and Final Fantasy could pull $1K+ each honestly.  I know that there's at least one other FF prototype out there, and both protos have some easily recognizable differences (mostly translation related).  I don't know of any other SMB3 prototypes out there, but I haven't been in the game as long as some others that might have more knowledge of such things.

Somebody on digital press found some protos on craigslist a few months back, including a mario 3 proto. I know their is a mario all stars proto floating around

I would like to see a Super Mario Bros. 1 proto. Has one ever been uncovered?

I have a Mario 1 proto, a Mario is Missing Proto, a Mario Paint proto, and a Super Mario Kart proto (different from the one I sold to Nicola that Van_halen ended up with)

The Mario 1 proto is somewhat questionable. While it came from the same source as a lot of interesting Nintendo stuff I obtained (this came from the Mario Kart lot which eventually went to van_halen) the date on one of chips on the PCB reads Nintendo 1986. The EPROMS are the real deal from way before the release of the "test" version in 4 markets in late 1985, so I think this was just from a secondary batch that may or may not have had some type of bug fix but I'm guessing at this point....

The other clicker is that NIntendo knowing most of the stuff they were going to have released was in 1986, it is possible the copyright on the small chip (not an EPROM, it's on a small chip to the far left) was manufactured with 1986 but produced in 1985 because of the validity of the EPROMS. I've worked at video game companies where we copyright something later even though the year has still not arrived and even produced them like that.

I know from the source, it's real, but that always was a slight mystery to me..just one of the many random protos I don't have listed...

I know there are at least 2 SMB2 protos, 1 SMB3, a few Super Mario All Stars, 2-3 Mario Karts, Mario Paint, Mario is Missing, not sure about anything else

I would guess that the Mario 1 prototype is more likely to be a factory fix than an actual prototype. I pulled these three pcbs from other Black Box titles while making Kitty's Catch:


While these would appear like prototypes due to their EPROMS from Nintendo, I know they're not because I pulled them from carts myself. Had I found them loose with other prototype material I could easily have been fooled into thinking they're legitimate prototypes.

I also found a number of Nintendo first party games that were burnt on EPROMs when I bought my KC lot. Had I not known they came from an Atari programmer I would have assumed them legit as well.

The one I have has 2 EPROMS and the case was completely blank when I received it (the outer shell) so it's really tough for me to go either way on it just because of where I got it from but I always thought it was questionable because I knew some older games had EPROMS but I never saw one with 2 EPROMS unless it was unlicensed...that's why the Mario 1 was always kind of whatever to me...

The two EPROMs and the source from which you got it does make me scratch my head, but I just can't imagine a legit SMB prototype having 1986 on it. That just seems like too much of a reach to me. Stranger things have happened I suppose. . .

I'm stumped too...I'll see if I can get a pic of it....

EDIT:

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i217/DreamTR/023.jpg

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i217/DreamTR/024.jpg

I don't really think it is anything special unless it was like the Super Mario Bros Famicom Disk game...that would be pretty neat  if the PCB looked like the Zelda one but it's an NROM game, so I should not be expecting much:

http://www.neswarpzone.com/x113.html

I'm confused, why does 1986 make Super Mario Bros. invalid? I was not under the impression that it was a 1985 launch game, I thought it was released during the second major run in early '86?

was it not released in September of 85 on the famicom though?

It came out in September on the Famicom but this is a US game and US release we are talking about...

According to Wikipedia, the game must have "trickled out" for release because there is no official US release date for it...

JP September 13, 1985
NA by March 1986

North American release "by" March 1986...so that makes a lot more sense to me and actually answers my questions about this game I have...

What confuses me is the disk system version being a launch title February 1986...that game has the capabilities of passing minus world and going to -3 and -4....the cart versions never had that and the arcade version takes out the blocks and other things so you can't do any "glitches"

Oh I know I was just saying that the famicom version was from 85 they got it before us then we got it in 86 prooving that that could be a real deal proto if they did any changes to the game although I have no idea on that to get it ready for the North american release....

I don't think there were any changes cart to cart from those two...I'm pretty sure it's the real deal just because I got it with a group of 8 protos that came with the Mario Kart proto from the same source....but that date thing always got me a little...I just don't think there would be any differences...

Wow, that board really is odd.

The first thing that crossed my mind was a repair job, especially with the printing on the EPROM stickers. But then again, what are the odds of having TWO chips factory repaired, and then that board ending up in the hands of someone with a ton of dev stuff?

Another indication that it would be something other than a repair job is the sticker residue found on the CHR chip. Of all the repair job PCB's that have come through my hands, I don't think I've ever seen one that had a used EPROM. It's extremely common to see a reused EPROM on a prototype though, so that has me thinking this could be something different.

Very cool piece regardless, glad we had a chance to take a peak at it.

It's definitely an unusual piece...but I always end up with weird stuff from this guy...

I wish I could have more pictures of stuff to show people, but I need PSerge or NGD to come in and take pics (HINT HINT) of all the stuff, and we really need the old Warp Zone website that NGD now has access to so the protos you guys have obtained and the whole prototype database can be updated. It really needs an overhaul, definitely had a lot of useful startup information on where stuff came from...

Yeah, I still get a lot of my info from The Warp Zone. Many of the picture links are disappearing at an alarming rate though, I worry about some of the stuff there that hasn't been touched in a while.

I would love to add pics and screen caps of all of our recent stuff to the database over there. I'd upload them there, but I feel like they'd more than likely get passed over.