I just found my first prototype cart.

neist · Post by **neist** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 7:35 pm

Just for the lack of somewhere to ramble, I just found my first proto cart. After dropping my wife off at work, I thought I'd visit a local retro gaming store to see what they had.

After poking around, I found a proto cart in one of their displays. Apparently they didn't know what it was as it was priced at $2.99.

This is by far the best thing I've ever found. Seems to be real, too, as I'm pretty sure this isn't the whole game. I remember there being more.

Yay!

Udderdude · Post by **Udderdude** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 7:54 pm

What game is it? :O

neist · Post by **neist** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 8:01 pm

Death Duel for the Sega Genesis.

I've been digging up some info about it, and why it might be in Oklahoma, and it's actually quite interesting. The game was published by a company called RazorSoft, a company that was based out of Oklahoma City.

Now, there's two dates on the cartridge. 8-16-91 and 11-27-91, with the former being marked out. The game wasn't released until 5-4-92, so this is a pretty early cart, all things considering.

Other interesting tidbits, the game was developed by Punk Development, a development studio based out of California. Now, they only made 2 games ever. This game and Stormlord. What makes this slightly interesting is that Punk Development was headed by Jeff Spangenberg, the man who founded Retro Studios (of Metroid Prime fame).

I guess whoever had access to the prototype carts back in the early 90's from the new defunct RazorSoft company sold it to this used game store.

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 8:46 pm

Amazing. So unless there's multiple prototype cartridges out there, you have something really rare on your hands? I bet you could get a nice profit if you sold it.

robthebanks · Post by **robthebanks** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 8:56 pm

Wow, there's so much loot out in the wild.

neist · Post by **neist** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:32 pm

Elixir wrote:Amazing. So unless there's multiple prototype cartridges out there, you have something really rare on your hands? I bet you could get a nice profit if you sold it.

I bet I could!

It's also very heavy. At least twice as heavy as a normal genesis cart. Not sure what the difference is.

themachinist · Post by **themachinist** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:35 pm

It's got drugs inside!

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:57 pm

Pics?

kemical · Post by **kemical** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 10:10 pm

wow cool, Death Duel was a favorite rental of mine, from what I remember RazorSoft struck me as an odd company, compared to other games I was trying at the time theirs felt very low budget / homebrew, also pretty mature themed. I think there was actually some legal issue between them and Sega back in the day.

Udderdude · Post by **Udderdude** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 10:21 pm

neist wrote:It's also very heavy. At least twice as heavy as a normal genesis cart. Not sure what the difference is.

It's full of candy .. >_>

neist · Post by **neist** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 10:32 pm

Lordstar wrote:Pics?

My wife has my only digital camera, and it's with her at work at the moment. Pics will have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest.

kemical wrote:wow cool, Death Duel was a favorite rental of mine, from what I remember RazorSoft struck me as an odd company, compared to other games I was trying at the time theirs felt very low budget / homebrew, also pretty mature themed. I think there was actually some legal issue between them and Sega back in the day.

You know, after looking up some of their games, they are very mature. Those are the types of games that Nintendo definitely would have never allowed on their systems.

As per the legal issues, I wouldn't be surprised. They only published 4 games ever. Part of me wants to try to research it. If the company was based out of Oklahoma then it's possible that some of the employees may be floating around somewhere.

It'd be fun to do a big write up a big feature about it. Not sure where I'd publish it, but it'd be fun. I even found the address of their offices. I may go up there and see what it is now.

BIL · Post by **BIL** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 2:51 am

I didn't know Death Duel and Stormlord were from the same developers. I remember Death Duel's print ad displaying a notice regarding its violent content... looked like a cigarette ad disclaimer, lol.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:58 am

neist wrote: Now, there's two dates on the cartridge. 8-16-91 and 11-27-91, with the former being marked out. The game wasn't released until 5-4-92, so this is a pretty early cart, all things considering.

Did you happen to know that before you bought it? And for the sake of knowledge (since I personally never liked the game), any differences from the retail version?

moonblood · Post by **moonblood** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 7:19 am

neist wrote:Not sure where I'd publish it

http://sega-16.com/

They would love it I'm sure

neist · Post by **neist** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:40 am

Moonblood: I never thought of that! Thanks for the heads up.

Ganelon wrote:
neist wrote: Now, there's two dates on the cartridge. 8-16-91 and 11-27-91, with the former being marked out. The game wasn't released until 5-4-92, so this is a pretty early cart, all things considering.
Did you happen to know that before you bought it? And for the sake of knowledge (since I personally never liked the game), any differences from the retail version?

I actually did not know that about the cart before I bought it. Once I found it, I spent several hours digging up info.

As far as gameplay, of the 5 minutes or so that I played, it seems that I was only playing the bonus stages. I never hit any of the normal levels. I'm pretty horrible at the game so I could never get the qualifying points.

There may have been something after that. Something else I found odd is that the crosshairs are different. I didn't remember this specifically from back in the day, but the retail game has crosshairs with two little arrows on either side.

The crosshairs in this version was of the typical variety.

Pictures will hopefully be forthcoming this evening.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 12:41 pm

its been 24 hours and still no pic! Come on you cock tease i want to see these pics

EDIT: ok more like 14hours but still i want to see some pics

Khan · Post by **Khan** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:40 pm

^lol

somone in the thread mentioned their could be drugs inside the cart....that was funny man because my brother actually would do something like that when we were younger he'd hide his marujiana in the boxes of my games!

neist · Post by **neist** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 7:32 pm

Lordstar wrote:its been 24 hours and still no pic! Come on you cock tease i want to see these pics

EDIT: ok more like 14hours but still i want to see some pics

It has to wait, because I'm at work.

But as soon as I'm out I'll start snapping some pics. I can't get any quick pictures of the actual gameplay because my Genesis is buried somewhere that'll take longer than an evening to find. I think I may just go pick up another one. They don't run too much.

szycag · Post by **szycag** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:25 pm

Why does this game smell like the lawnmower?

neist · Post by **neist** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:07 am

szycag wrote:Why does this game smell like the lawnmower?

Wuh?

Anywho, pictures. Not the best in the world, but I had to make do with the crappy camera I had.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:23 am

The proto will probably have more sockets + EEPROM chips than a production cart, probably some other junk as well that'd be stripped out for retail cost-effectiveness.

The usual way to go with these things is to dump the image. Some folks don't do that because of some belief that making it available will lessen the value of their l337 ROMz...

I'm not convinced but you'll have to consider it anyway.

It'll be interesting to see what/any differences there are over retail. This could be an old Atari "lab loaner" style cartridge, just made to slack '90s spec - a one off for a reviewer - or it could be something that slipped out the front door, or somebody's testing copy, or...definitely the product of that unique time with slack controls on where code went around, but that makes you all the merrier now

Surely somebody will pay big $$$($?) for it either here or somewhere else. Depends on how good the original game is - I've heard of Stormlord but not even played it, let alone this one which I'm not even sure rings a bell.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:08 am

looks like they went cheap and used a floppy label for the cart

. Good find!

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:31 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G78tRzVw7so
4:47 production title screen (i.e. same)

Should post this over @ Digital Press Retro Roundtable and watch the sparks fly.

MOSQUITO FIGHTER · Post by **MOSQUITO FIGHTER** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:52 am

Death Duel kind of looks like Battle Clash.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:06 pm

Ed Oscuro wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G78tRzVw7so
4:47 production title screen (i.e. same)

Should post this over @ Digital Press Retro Roundtable and watch the sparks fly.

Sparks will, indeed, fly at that site regarding a newfound & lost prototype cart. Cool find you got there, neist. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~