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Update, April 10: Initial community reports suggesting that the prototype cartridge sold for over $60,000 were incorrect, as the purchase price was actually $45,000. The text below has been updated to reflect the correct figure.
Original story, April 9: Every time a rare piece of video game history goes up for sale, the preservation community holds its collective breath. Will that item be made available for historians to study, or will it rot in a collector's horde forever? That was the fear when an extremely unique prototype of Nintendo classic Punch-Out was auctioned off for $45,000 earlier this year. Luckily, the anonymous collector who paid out for the likely one-of-a-kind cartridge has made the good guy move.
"An early NES prototype of Punch-Out!! was found in 2026," according to the folks at The Cutting Room Floor wiki, which documents early development versions of many games. "The prototype cartridge allegedly belonged to a former Nintendo of America employee who had sold it in a garage sale. The cartridge was auctioned off at Heritage Auctions and sold for $45,000 to an anonymous user who graciously allowed the prototype ROM to be released."
So what makes this cartridge so unique? Well, it appears to contain an early development build of Punch-Out, from long before Mike Tyson's name and likeness were licensed for the game. Starting it up as normal, you'll see only four of the final game's fighters, though some of the others are buried in the code. There's even a hidden debug menu that would allow developers to cycle through various animations.
"Usually, the data on pre-production NES cartridges like this is pretty much the final game," according to Frank Cifaldi, founder of the Video Game History Foundation, speaking in a video breaking down the contents of the cartridge. "Not only is an early look at NES development like this rare, the fact that it's a famous first-party Nintendo game is unheard of. I've been handling and studying NES prototype cartridges for over 25 years now, and I've never seen anything like this, either physically or digitally."
Nintendo is famously secretive, and the notion of a development build of one of its games, however old, going public for the world to study is extremely cool. It's doubly cool when you consider the mentality that many prototype collectors have about these sorts of cartridges, with many of them feeling that it devalues their collection if the digital contents of the cartridge are made public.
"This is a really unique piece of history," Cifaldi continues. "I struggled to think of any other beloved game from this era where a snapshot this early in its life has survived. So when this prototype was auctioned off recently, I was worried that its new owner might not allow people to access the data. But fortunately, they have, and it's now floating around for those who wish to study it."
So thank you, anonymous collector. Here's hoping you continue to outbid your less generous rivals, and keep helping preservationists do their work.
Punch-Out is absolutely one of the best NES games of all time.
