That's like the gaming equivalent of finding the Holy Grail.
Just about, yes.
It's just so much at once that it's hard to believe, but it sure looks like it's definitely real... amazing. The guy got $250 on EBay for just the first of those five Star Fox Competition Weekend carts...
He's definitely sitting on several thousands dollars worth of games right there.
If he sells that Earthbound Zero US cart, it should go for quite a lot... isn't this only the second one ever found? And Earthbound has ... fervent... fans. :D
There are only two known copies of Earthbound Zero US and only ONE of Nintendo Campus Challenge.
This does seem a little fishy though. Thing is, making an NES cart is pretty easy these days. There are groups online that will do it for you (if you provide the ROM mind you, so they can avoid legal trouble). They basically use flash rom and a gutted NES board (that's the same type as the original game). In other words, hacked ROMs can be played on the actual NES.
It is certainly interesting, but more to the point, a lot of scam artists have been selling "Earthbound Zero" carts on Ebay as "NES originals, never released" and VERY expensively. The buyers often never realize that these are not what they were advertised to be, and could have been bought for a much lower price from one of those sites I mentioned.
In other words, this COULD be a scam. This is the sort of claim that requires a little evidence.
If it was just EB Zero maybe, but the sheer volume of rare stuff there says that it's unlikely... both for the NES and SNES... I mean, SNES carts with Nintendo barcode stickers on them? LttP beta cart? Stunt Race FX demo cart? And so many others? I mean, why would you bother to pirate something like that? No, this seems legit to me... the Competition Weekend and EB Zero stuff yeah that's rare and popular, but this isn't just that stuff. It's a lot more too.
Makes one wonder how this person amassed such a collection. Still, evidence would be nice.
The guy said that the person he bought them from had worked for Nintendo...
Also, you seem to have missed this link (which I posted in the first post). Definite (or as close to definite as you'll ever get) proof that they are real: PCB scans. (on page 2 there are scans of the game running, too, so it's functional)
http://pixpipeline.com/users/jollerancher?page=2
I don't doubt that they are carts, I saw the scans. I'm doubting whether or not these are "originals" or just custom made copies (which as I said anyone can get together with the right materials), but a position at Nintendo would allow him access to such things. I'd still be surprised he got ALL of it. I thought Nintendo had tighter controls.
The story about that first EBZ cart was that Nintendo auctioned it off or something at some point, I think, so who knows...
And I doubt very much that pirate carts (or clone carts) would look that authentic... they're usually lower quality.
Yeah, the closer I look at the details the more prohibitively complex the effort it seems it might have taken to produce the labels and such. A hesitant "maybe", but at the same time, why would I want a bunch of incomplete beta products? :D
For the novelty value, mostly. :)
... or for collectors.