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One Of The First Nintendo Game Prototypes Has Been Found
Photo credit: Frank Cifaldi
Joust came out on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, five years after its first release in arcades. But now, we have physical proof it was meant to release for the console as early as 1984.
Over at Wired, Chris Kohler tells the story of how his friend, game producer, and video game archivist Frank Cifaldi stumbled upon an auction for what looked like an early prototype version of Joust for the NES, the first game the late former president of Nintendo Satoru Iwata ever programmed.
The auction was posted on the Japanese version of Yahoo Auctions, and at first looked suspicious. Then Cifaldi noticed something that made him take a gamble and buy it. "According to the serial codes on the EPROM chips that housed the game data," writes Kohler, "they were manufactured in 1984. And Joust, one of the games, wasn’t released until 1987. That meant it was very possible that the game programs differed, perhaps significantly, from the final product that was released to stores."
As it turns out, the Joust cartridge was indeed the prototype Cifaldi hoped it would be. Some of the only differences between the prototype and final version were some mispellings.
Unfortunately, though Cifaldi managed to get his hands on the Joust prototype, he may have missed out on a much bigger get. "The same seller sold a prototype of Super Mario Bros. before I noticed," writes Cifaldi on Twitter. "For like $200."
[Source: Wired]
Our Take
These kinds of artifacts are living proof of gaming's history, which is often forgotten in the deluge of new releases, patches, and server shutdowns. Every piece of it we can preserve is precious.
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