Yes, its true. Im talking about prototypes, unreleased games and development kits. Now what i tell may sound weird but there is a very big underground market for these types of things. Mostly Japan, to get inside these collecting societies is very hard and dangerous (yes, dangerous).
Advance Wars 64
Star Control (was showed on E3 sealed in a sealed PSX)
The white M2 (the M2 developer kit)
Robotech 64
Gamecube Dolphin Cartridge version (a red gamecube without dvd but cartridge, some even have dolphin logos!)
Konami Famicom
Sega Master System Disk System (only 1 functional unit made)
Sega Saturn developer kit (extremely rare)
Super NES CD prototype (found in a dumpster!)
Prototype cartridges from SNES (think starfox 2 etc)
Mirai
I will scan in photos of some of these later. Most of the article source was the collector "Assembler". Some might know his website.
What interests me is that the article describes how one type of collectors wants to buy these things and share them to the public, while others just want them to be secrets forever. You see, many companies even pays alot of money to get their old software and hardware prototypes back, often they are then locked forever in storage. An example: the only known Virtual Boy prototype was bought for 3 000 dollar, on a "secret" auction, and is now stored in a anonymous collectors valve.
Advance Wars 64
Star Control (was showed on E3 sealed in a sealed PSX)
The white M2 (the M2 developer kit)
Robotech 64
Gamecube Dolphin Cartridge version (a red gamecube without dvd but cartridge, some even have dolphin logos!)
Konami Famicom
Sega Master System Disk System (only 1 functional unit made)
Sega Saturn developer kit (extremely rare)
Super NES CD prototype (found in a dumpster!)
Prototype cartridges from SNES (think starfox 2 etc)
Mirai
I will scan in photos of some of these later. Most of the article source was the collector "Assembler". Some might know his website.
What interests me is that the article describes how one type of collectors wants to buy these things and share them to the public, while others just want them to be secrets forever. You see, many companies even pays alot of money to get their old software and hardware prototypes back, often they are then locked forever in storage. An example: the only known Virtual Boy prototype was bought for 3 000 dollar, on a "secret" auction, and is now stored in a anonymous collectors valve.