Odd Xexyz cartridge that I found today
So, I was rummaging through the local Goodwill store today and found this odd Xexyz cartridge lying there which I bought. I noticed a few things right off the bat that were odd:
- It has a reprint of the front label, upside-down.
- The back has a MicroDen corporate sticker.
Moreover...
- The cart is fairly heavy
- It uses a philips head screwdriver to open the cart instead of the security bit.
My brother has a copy of Xexyz which is about the normal weight and uses the security bit to open it up.
I popped it open and the circuit board is huge! Most games are much smaller, some of the larger games with more data such as RPGs are usually bigger but this one is just large.
I have attached some pictures so that hopefully someone can weigh in on whats going on with this cart.
I dont have a solid NES to put it in as im at a friend's house, and his system is wonky, but from what I saw from boot up, nothing too strange is going on. I will pop it in later in my system to see what I can find in the actual game itself.
Thanks, guys.
- It has a reprint of the front label, upside-down.
- The back has a MicroDen corporate sticker.
Moreover...
- The cart is fairly heavy
- It uses a philips head screwdriver to open the cart instead of the security bit.
My brother has a copy of Xexyz which is about the normal weight and uses the security bit to open it up.
I popped it open and the circuit board is huge! Most games are much smaller, some of the larger games with more data such as RPGs are usually bigger but this one is just large.
I have attached some pictures so that hopefully someone can weigh in on whats going on with this cart.
I dont have a solid NES to put it in as im at a friend's house, and his system is wonky, but from what I saw from boot up, nothing too strange is going on. I will pop it in later in my system to see what I can find in the actual game itself.
Thanks, guys.
Comments
It sounds like a possible prototype, but I don't think they typically have labels with art on them... usually just some text on a plain white label.
(images are showing for me)
http://postimage.org/image/67ugohq6j/full/
Looks like a proto. Pretty sweet find
Scratch that, the pics that you posted for me showcase both sides.
Originally posted by: ASmalltownHero
Okay ill take one right fast.
Scratch that, the pics that you posted for me showcase both sides.
I see needed to scroll right. Yep it is a proto
I popped into my FC Twin and it booted up like a charm, but I dont notice any gameplay differences as of yet.
I realize that some of these protos dont have any notable differences, but sometimes you have to play for a while to notice any if any changes have been made.
If anyone else wants to weigh in then youre more than welcome!
EDIT: The images have been added from a photobucket account, so they should be entirely visible to everyone.
...until today. I think that was over 10 years ago! I know I found the receipts a few weeks ago but I think I threw them out without looking at the dates.
Anyway, all those years I was skeptical of it being a proto for the same reason: The photocopied label. It looked like a photocopy of full-color retail/final label art, which would usually require a time machine to have on a prototype, so I assumed that it was a rental or something with a damaged label that someome tried to restore, especially since most protos have handwriting or no label. Did I mention that it was missing the left third of the label art? It's missing. It looked like a perfectly straight cut leaving only "XEX" and part of the "Y." You could see old dried adhesive where the rest of the label once was, though I assumed it was more likely from the original retail label since I was still skeptical of it being a prototype. I thought the extra weight was from the wrap and labels BBV had stuck all over it over the years (multiple layers!). I now realize that the label was like that because the individual stickers on the label paper they used were smaller than the game pak's label area. They likely printed beyond the individual labels on the label sheet and used a guillotine to cut the backing off with pieces of multiple label stickers together. They applied them together as a full label, though they did it upside-down. The left side eventually peeled off when the adhesive degraded.
I began to suspect it was a proto anyway several years ago and wanted to check but I was living out of state and I had it in storage with the rest of the collection. I came back a few years ago and dug it out but I didn't want to check or even remove the BBV shrink-wrap until I was ready to record my effort. I didn't find the time and motivation until today. I am actually somewhat disappointed to see that mine is not the only one known to exist but, hey, congrats to you too, man.
Mine had the same label on the back but I didn't notice because it was under a "This (Nintendo) Game Pak Belongs To:" sticker with a picture of Mario which the previous owner had slapped on over the MicroDen label without even filling it out. It was bigger than the MicroDen Corporation label but smaller than the gray "Do not clean with alcohol, benzene, thinner or such solvents" label that was supposed to be sticking out the sides. When I noticed that the gray label was missing I looked closer and saw that there was another even smaller label underneath, which turned out to be the MicroDen label. My MicroDen label had an additional address and phone number hand-written in the blank space around the MicroDen information: Bill Scott, 220 Emily Dr, Lilburn, GA 30247 and a local 404-925-8899 (local). It seems that MicroDen was a graphic design business and I believe they were involved in making the artwork. I wonder if this other guy was a game reviewer or something who they passed the prototype on to.
When I took it apart I immediately noticed the large PCB with an unpopulated hole for an SRAM battery. Flipping it over, I immediately noticed the EPROMs with stickers covering the UV erasure windows with handwriting on it ("Xexyz CHR" and "Xexyz PRG"). Inspecting closer, I saw NES SKEPROM-01 on the PCB, which the Bootlord DB has associated with many other protos:
http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/search.php?pcb_op==`@`&pcb=NES-SKEPROM-01
I played it a bit to see if there were any obvious differences. There is no debug menu or version number or anything suspicious, but I did encounter glitches from the very start. I do not know if these glitches were fixed in the final version. For example, the ghost did not appear first time I entered the second door with the treasure chests. I had to exit and re-enter. It started over and it did it again the next time (ghost appeared when I left and re-entered). When I entered the third door for the first weapon (Ball-something), I got the message saying that I received it but when I left I still had my normal weapon. I would receive the Ball weapon after entering a second time. This also happened more than once. Now, I was using an NES Advantage joystick with turbo functions turned on so I may have triggered a glitch by pressing buttons really fast in an effort to hurry up and test things, but I've actually seen people recommend a turbo controller for this game. The were no graphical glitches so I did not try cleaning the game or testing more thoroughly.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36716461/Xexyz%20Proto.jpg
The attached image is much lower resolution than the one linked above.
Congrats to op and CZroe, and welcome to NA
Thanks. I have a lot of other cool stuff to share but I'm finding this site impossible to navigate on mobile so I won't have much time to participate. It wouldn't even let me sign up using my phone! It said that the site wasn't allowing regstraions from publc proxies or something when I was actually using a home Internet connection. It's missing almost every letter I type in the pop-up reply dialog so it isn't working much better on the desktop. I tried to write this in Notepad but even copy/paste isn't working right!
A teaser:
Couterfeit Rockman 7 Super Famicom cart from a thrift store (yes, a locally discovered import AND it's a counterfeit!).
New in box Satellaview BSX
Two Dr V64 Jr 512 units
Two Dr V64 CD units
...and MUCH more.
Originally posted by: ASmalltownHero
I played through it a little last night, but I have not played the retail version, much less all the way through either one, so I cant compare much. Since I got it, Ive essentially been the only one to have played it and I didnt notice a save feature, though I could check.
i know this is an old topic but Did you find that at the good will computer store off of freedom drive in charlotte nc?
Originally posted by: nes freak
Originally posted by: ASmalltownHero
I played through it a little last night, but I have not played the retail version, much less all the way through either one, so I cant compare much. Since I got it, Ive essentially been the only one to have played it and I didnt notice a save feature, though I could check.
i know this is an old topic but Did you find that at the good will computer store off of freedom drive in charlotte nc?
Nah, I found it at a Goodwill in Wilmington.
Originally posted by: ASmalltownHero
Originally posted by: nes freak
Originally posted by: ASmalltownHero
I played through it a little last night, but I have not played the retail version, much less all the way through either one, so I cant compare much. Since I got it, Ive essentially been the only one to have played it and I didnt notice a save feature, though I could check.
i know this is an old topic but Did you find that at the good will computer store off of freedom drive in charlotte nc?
Nah, I found it at a Goodwill in Wilmington.
Ah ok, well thats some find there! keep it in a save place ;P