EarthBound Zero Proto for Sale

I see 6 days left on it, not 6 hours. But anyway, if this is real, I wonder how high the price will go to?

Oops, good catch, dunno why I typed hours.

Wow, this thing must fill up the plastic box. Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt is only half this size !

That proto looks real to me, it has all the basic prototype components, kinda similar to those on the Virtual Boy and Super Nintendo.

Just a heads up, the video link from the article http://earthboundcentral.com/2009/04/opening-up-earthbound-zero/ no longer works.

I wonder how many prototypes exist? When I first heard about EB0 I always thought it was just 1 prototype, and later I think I heard somewhere that about 4 copies exist. Not sure though so don’t quote me as a source.

As far as I know, there are two in public circulation that we know of, and at least one we definitely know about inside NOA.

He was pitching this in the ustream channel last night before upping it to ebay, courteous but probably not lucrative :). I think there is a topic on digitpress if you’re wondering about the veracity. I couldn’t say myself though ;).

Sounds fishy to me, if there’s only two you know of, and one just sold a couple months ago…

I find it quite strange that there is another one up for sale like this. It has a 50/50 chance of being the real deal or a perfect replica. Ofcourse i wouldn’t know, i’m not familiar with the hardware aspects of NES games.

Again, I’m not an expert, but your everday reproduction cart usually has tons of wires soldered into stuff, like in that video I linked to (though it’s down now). It’d probably be pretty tough to fake a prototype cart unless you had really good equipment and technical skill.

I wish I could get one of them, maybe someday we’ll find out nintendo has thousands of them in storage and we’ll all have one. (sarcasm)

These have been cropping up a lot lately, haven’t they (considering their value)? I don’t know, maybe it’s just me…

What’s up with there being so many EB0 carts lately? o_o

If it is the real thing, here’s to hoping he had the sense to cover the damn thing up after taking those photos. Too much UV light and those EPROMs containing the precious code will be blank.

I took a look at the bids, and there’s something strange going on there.

there are 22 bids, 19 are from a user with the first letter “U” and last letter “I”.
I think the its the same user 19 times in a row because the feedback is also the same each time, I think someone is just moving the price up.

I don’t know but I find it a bit strange.

A line of ownership for each cartridge going back at least two or three places should be able to be established by now.

Well, here’s hoping that it’s legit. I’m currently the highest bidder. :-\ I think $1000’s my limit for now, though.

It would be sad to have spend $1000 on a fake cartridge, but have you seen the other bids, that one person overbids itself like 19 times? isn’t that weird?

Would creating a good looking fake prototype be a worthwile way to make quick money?

Well, I mean, if it’s fake, then that violates eBay’s TOS, and there’s always up to $1000 in buyer protection. I guess bidding up to $1000 is “safe” in that case. I did ask him for proof that it’s legit beyond the pictures, which he claims he can provide. We’ll see. In any case, if it is legit, I don’t want to miss out on this chance. O.o

Did LucasTizma inherit Scrooge McDuck’s fortune or somethin’?

I’m jealous.

Bless me bagpipes, I dunnuh understand what ya’ mean!

I knew it! =P

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this yet or not, but the pictures aren’t consistent. In pics four and nine there’s two sticks of memory (also not too familiar with cart structure) at the bottom left of the cart. Then in pictures six and seven there’s only one. A little odd, methinks.

@Sander: A bidder can enter his maximum bid; however, the current bid will only increase by the minimum. If another bidder enters a bid greater than the current, but less than the first bidder’s maximum, the first bidder will automatically outbid the second. Thus, it can appear that the first bidder is repeatedly bidding.

Mot_Mot: Ignore pics 6&7, he said “they are for another prototype which I mistakenly uploaded” (Scroll down on the auction page and read the note.)

Ahhh, did not notice that at first. Just checking to make sure you’re paying attention. =P

Yeah the first bidder increasing his/her bid is a little suspicious to me. It’s a common tactic used to artificially create “panic bidding” for rare/popular items. Anyway, I asked him some more questions about it to see if I can be a little more confident about it. I hope it goes for $1000 or less. I REALLY want it! XD

the auction has been pulled

? What happened?

oh, thanks for explaining, maybe I should use ebay more.

and yeah, the auction has been pulled.

Some idiot on the SM.net forums most likely reported the auction because they were on their “it’s a fake!” high horse. The seller’s account was restored, but he’s not going to relist it. I made an offer. :-\ We’ll see what he says.

It looks like it wasn’t the case here, but in general in that situation I’d suspect the seller of pulling it himself to try to trick someone into an under-the-table deal.

I’d rather just go to nesreproductions.com and get that dude to make me an English copy for like, $25. Looks better, probably plays better, lots cheaper.