Zelda gb proto on eBay

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posted by jossan on Oct 3, 2016:

Sonny_Jim said:






You saying that just makes me even *more* suspicious. You honestly can't see the difference between a cleanly made, manufactured PCB and one that's got a piece of freakin' vero board and IDE cable soldered on it?

I could give you the benefit of the doubt *if* you hadn't seen the internals of a 'real' dev cart, but you took *close up pictures* of the other cart PCBs.

In case it 'slipped your memory', this is what the other carts looked like when you took a picture of it, can you spot the difference?


Something don't smell right here....

Way to go twisting my words to your own liking. Someone pointed out the difference between the Zelda -cart- and other dev -carts-, which I understood as the cartridges itself, not the actual PCBs. I can obviously tell the cosmetic differences between the boards, but apart from that I know nothing about protos in general, hence my question to get it clarified...

Still, you may doubt me (or the Zelda cart) all you want - I know my source is trustable, but convincing you might be impossible unless the buyer comes forward.

I have nothing new to add to the discussion yet, apart from a mention on Facebook about another proto with similar vero board a while back (R-Type, if I remember correctly). Is that not something any of you have seen before? Again, I'm asking out of curiousity, not to "build my defence" in any way.
 

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posted by Xzx123 on Oct 3, 2016:

jossan said:






I have nothing new to add to the discussion yet, apart from a mention on Facebook about another proto with similar vero board a while back (R-Type, if I remember correctly). Is that not something any of you have seen before?

Not to comment on legitimacy, but the vast majority of GameBoy prototypes that show up for sale come on actual development boards and not modified retail boards. Off the top of my head I can't recall having seen another such GB prototype.
 

[Archive]

posted by Sonny_Jim on Oct 4, 2016:

jossan said:






but convincing you might be impossible unless the buyer comes forward.

The problem is, the buyer trusted you to an extent that this was legit. You yourself admit you don't know much about prototypes, so maybe you weren't the best person to be selling such things.

jossan said:






Way to go twisting my words to your own liking.

Even a layman would notice that this prototype was radically different to the other prototypes in your auctions, which is suspicious considering if it were real, it would be worth vastly more than the other ones.
 

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posted by jossan on Oct 5, 2016:

Sonny_Jim: You've obviously concluded that the cart is fake, so I won't bother making an effort to convince you otherwise. However, some of the things you write don't make sense to me at all. Let it be clear that I don't have any problems with sound arguments and input about the cart itself, but I don't see what good comes out of you (and some others) pointing fingers and questioning my motives the way you do.

I also don't see why you keep arguing about something I've agreed to all along - that the board is different to the others I sold. I misinterpreted a statement from someone else, and pointed out that the shells were identical, nothing more.

And seriously, if you came across a piece you knew nothing about apart from its provenance and potential high value, would you leave it for someone else to find because you simply "weren't the best person to be selling such a thing"? Nonsense. I listed the cart with a starting price of $0.99 and no reserve, and the open market decided the final price. I had no reason to doubt its authenticity, thus marketing it as such. If it for some reason turned out to be fake, I would've had no problem refunding the full amount upon return. I really don't see the problem here.

I want to point out (again) that the collection I recently sold consisted of roughly 30 other prototypes as well, none of which have been questioned in terms of legitimacy. And Zelda wasn't the only one going for a pretty penny (the two Turtles games for NES were also rather expensive). If the owners actually had the equipment to make "fakes", why just make one? I can assure you money isn't an issue here. I've been helping out with the sales of this collection since April, and the price of Zelda is merely a drop in the ocean.
 

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posted by Sonny_Jim on Oct 5, 2016:

jossan said:




I have nothing new to add to the discussion yet, apart from a mention on Facebook about another proto with similar vero board a while back (R-Type, if I remember correctly).

You mean this one? Doesn't look like vero board to me:

jossan said:






However, some of the things you write don't make sense to me at all.

Could you please elaborate on the points that I've made that don't make sense to you?

jossan said:






I don't see what good comes out of you (and some others) pointing fingers and questioning my motives the way you do.

I'm not so much questioning your motives, I think you have been fooled into thinking that this cart is something it isn't. I'm 'pointing the finger at you' because you were the seller of the item. If the two Nintendo hotline employees had sold this item, I would be asking them the very same questions I'm asking you.

jossan said:






And seriously, if you came across a piece you knew nothing about apart from its provenance and potential high value, would you leave it for someone else to find because you simply "weren't the best person to be selling such a thing"?

I wouldn't necessarily leave it behind, but I would do a bit of investigation before putting my name to it. For example, if I found a classic car in a barn, had no idea of it was legit or not, then I would be in contact with someone who *did* know about such things, before going off trying to sell it as rare, one of kind etc etc.

jossan said:






If it for some reason turned out to be fake, I would've had no problem refunding the full amount upon return.

I hope you are willing to stand behind these words, because if I were the buyer I'd be very nervous indeed.

jossan said:






I also don't see why you keep arguing about something I've agreed to all along - that the board is different to the others I sold.

This is the first time I can find in this thread that you actually admit that this cart is radically different to the other GB carts being sold.

jossan said:






I want to point out (again) that the collection I recently sold consisted of roughly 30 other prototypes as well

If I were a drug dealer, had 20 pills of MDMA, one of which turned out to be Aspirin, that pill would still be Aspirin. No amount of 'Well, the other 19 pills were legit' changes the fact that it's Aspirin.

jossan said:






If the owners actually had the equipment to make "fakes", why just make one?

Who knows? Maybe they were duped by someone else? Maybe they were unimpressed with the prices they were getting for the other GB protos and decided to up the ante? Maybe they thought they could slip in this obviously hacked up retail board in the hopes that someone would think that, due to the other legit looking carts in the auction, it may actually be real?

FWIW, it's trivial to make a cart like this, I've made several myself. You need a plain old soldering iron, you don't need expensive surface mount equipment. You don't even need EPROM burning equipment, you can just buy them preprogrammed from someone for less that $20. The instructions on how to do so are available are all over the web:
http://www.digital-circuitry.com/DO...GAMEBOY_Classic_Flash_Cartridge_UPDATED_2.pdf

If you are 100% sure that this cart is legit, why are you trying to 'change my mind'?
 

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posted by Xzx123 on Oct 5, 2016:

It might help to see the manufacturing date of the EPROM. At this point, though, it is pretty much just guessing since we probably won't ever hear anything more about it save for the very slim chance that the buyer actually comes forward.
 

[Archive]

posted by Sonny_Jim on Oct 5, 2016:

With better pictures of the board, you should be able to work out the manufacturing date. IIRC you might even be able to work out what retail game it was before it got hacked up.

But you're right, I don't think the buyer is going to come forward. They've spent a lot of money on this, so it'll be in their best interest for them to remain behind the scenes.
 

[Archive]

posted by skarpo01 on Oct 5, 2016:

Sonny_Jim said:






With better pictures of the board, you should be able to work out the manufacturing date. IIRC you might even be able to work out what retail game it was before it got hacked up.

But you're right, I don't think the buyer is going to come forward. They've spent a lot of money on this, so it'll be in their best interest for them to remain behind the scenes.

Maybe the buyer is just happy with the object itself and doesn't really care about content? I know collectors who buy things to have the "physical" item in the collection, nothing more nothing less.
 

[Archive]

posted by BLUamnEsiac on Oct 5, 2016:

skarpo01 said:






Maybe the buyer is just happy with the object itself and doesn't really care about content? I know collectors who buy things to have the "physical" item in the collection, nothing more nothing less.

I could buy that outcome if it weren't for the high ending bid. If this turned out to just be a repro of the final game, the buyer could be very upset. Even if someone wanted to collect odd pieces as a curio, $1k+ is excessive.
 

[Archive]

posted by contrafan on Oct 5, 2016:

Sonny_Jim said:






You mean this one? Doesn't look like vero board to me:

Heh, I used to have that Operation C.