AI Representation: A rare early NES Punch‑Out prototype cartridge and console photographed alongside preservation tools. Image credits: Chatgpt
A NES prototype of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, first identified by preservationists in 2024, was discovered by a collector and later auctioned off for $45,000. The sale helped correct some erroneous community reports that had estimated the price at around $60,000. Frank Cifaldi, founder and director of the Video Game History Foundation , a non-profit video game history preservation and documentation group, examined the cartridge and said he had never seen anything like it in more than 25 years of dealing with NES prototypes. The prototype’s intro listed Piston Hurricane and Pizza Pasta, both of whom appeared in the original 1984 arcade version.
Unlike other NES prototype copies, this version had significant differences from the released version. After the sale, the anonymous bidder helped ensure that the cartridge contents were catalogued and released to the public by the Video Game History Foundation. GamesRadar+, Notebookcheck, and GAMES.GG reported on the release, and the ROM contents themselves were made available for downloading and analysis on preservation sites such as The Cutting Room Floor.
The label on the cartridge closely matches Nintendo of America’s house style from the game’s early development, according to Cifaldi. Additionally, Cifaldi said the data inside the cartridge appeared to be etched into a mask ROM, an unusual choice for a development-stage cartridge, since prototypes typically used rewritable EPROMs so the code could still be revised, a detail that suggested this build may have come from an early factory production pass rather than a typical iterative prototype. The cartridge contained a prototype of what would later become Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, built before Tyson’s name and likeness were licensed and showing a version of the game that historians had not seen before. What made this find unusual was that the buyer chose to make the contents available for public study rather than keep them hidden. as many vintage-game collectors do, the buyer did something unusual While the winner preferred to remain anonymous. The former was replaced in the official NES version by Piston Honda, while the latter did not make it into the roster at all. The prototype also shows Soda Popinski under the name Vodka Drunkenski, which was his arcade-era name. In addition, Von Kaiser and Great Tiger appeared in the code but were unfinished, and the prototype’s playable roster included only four opponents: Glass Joe, Bald Bull, King Hippo, and Don Flamenco. This eased concerns in the preservation community that the cartridge would disappear into a private collection and remain inaccessible.
