Nintendo Player – An Unofficial, Non-Profit Nintendo Fan Site

When you’re as entrenched in the Ninja Turtle hoopla as I am, you stop questioning things. You ride the killer waves, dude, until the men in white suits come to take you away.

Take this radical prop as an example of my sickeningly hardcore dedication to The Lean Mean Green Machine. This unassuming plastic rhinestone-encrusted piece of fabric actually used to make up part of Michaelangelo’s flashy outfit in the now-infamous Pizza Hut-sponsored Coming Out of Our Shells concert tour. It would have been glued onto Mikey’s bandana.

You can read more of the story behind the 1990 Ninja Turtles tour and how I found this obscure item in the recently-updated TMNT feature.

A prototype of the unreleased/unlicensed NES game, Robert Byrne’s Pool Challenge, was auctioned off on eBay back in February of 2011. An anonymous collector purchased the game for $500. That collector recently contacted me to share some photos of the cart and circuit board.

I’m happy to report that the Intro to Protos feature is achieving its goal in helping to open up the prototype world to more people.

One of these new aficionados, who wishes to remain anonymous, sent me five NES prototypes to look at and document. (Click on the carts for more information.)

First, a prototype of the surprisingly solid unlicensed Christian game, Spiritual Warfare, which is chock-full of differences.

Little Samson may just be one of the biggest sleeper hits on the NES, and the game also makes for a pretty interesting prototype.

This first-party Nintendo prototype of Wario’s Woods is anything but “final,” but I have yet to find out what exactly is different.

Next up is Romstar’s Thunder & Lightning. Unfortunately, this proto is the same as retail, so I have only uploaded the following photos for archiving purposes: Front Cart / Back Cart / Front PCB / Back PCB

Bringing up the rear is Impossible Mission, another prototype identical to the released game: Front Cart / Back Cart / Front PCB / Back PCB

I haven’t had much luck with the Turtles’ prototypes, but that doesn’t stop me from still trying. Will this NES beta of their very first video game outing, Konami/Ultra’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, finally turn the tide? Or will I get nothing but coal again? Read the article to find out once and for all if there really is a Santa Claus.

Cowabunga to all, and to all a good night!

Skrybe of Lost Levels purchased this Superman Famicom prototype from Yahoo Japan Auctions for 10,500 yen. He asked me to check for differences. Here’s what I found.

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