I think it's on an eprom too.  I forget.  Gotta open it later when I get home to check. US version wasn't available yet and not released when NOA was using SFCs in house. In any case, games like this whose content is the released versions are generally called protos, historically.   But no ones is gonna stop ya from calling it what you want. :-)

-Rob

No they aren't, no prototype collector calls it that. It's only referred to as a prototype if it has a specific type of board inside, the label and shell are irrelevant. I just don't want this to be historical proof of a Super Mario World prototype existing if it's just a retail board inside, I want to be sure future links to this thread are accurate.

The term prototype has almost become a fetishized word that gets people halfway erect upon reading it. I've seen a lot of people clumsily try to force it to apply to something they own.

Hey, just going by a million other released version roms that were on in-house/loaner/review-only carts that I've seen. I mean, I've never seen a rule saying such a cart, that is for lack of a better wordor term an "in-house-only cart, that is the released US version, but only fits in a Japanese console because the game wasn't released yet in US," which is a helluva mouthful, is called anything other than a proto for short. I've been collecting since the 80s and people often just called em protos, though definitely a subset of them. But, I'm up front with whatever it is. There's ample precedent.

-Rob

Not baiting at all. But I am curious if you've looked at the board? I'd be objectively interested in seeing if it's a retail board or not.  

I don't know why you guys are making this complicated. A prototype is a non final version of the game. it doesn't matter what hardware is used all that matters is that the software is pre retail and non-final. This is very easily verified by checking the md5 of the ROM to see if it matches retail sources.

This is the ONLY way to determine if a game is a prototype other than playing it and seeing if there are in Game differences. This could very well be the final version of the game distributed in a non-retail shell or it could be a prototype.

The only confusion is when there is a final retail build inside a non final shell or non final pcb. These are referred to as protos and is kind of a half truth. It's basically a retail game inside a non retail shell. It could still technically be called a prototype since it is pre retail and the shell is non-final.

I understand that people call things terms that they shouldn't but that has no impact on a discussion of etymology or nomenclature. also of note here is that there are standardized terms used in the industry for various stages of builds. so what we might call things as a collector doesn't align with what the developers are formally and/or professionally referring to when they distribute internally.

Retail boards with incomplete builds don't exist so you can still tell from the hardware if it's a prototype.

Get outta here! He was gonna throw this stuff away??? How do people come to these conclusions? This stuff is priceless!