11 replies to this topic

[Supergun]

Hey everybody,

I bought this Colecovision cartridge yesterday at a local mom & pop used video game store. It caught my eye for several obvious reasons;
it had an odd label and it also weighed just slightly more then a normal cart, so I took a chance and bought it.



I knew very well what game it could possibly be (only one game like it for the system) and when I came home, I plugged it in,
and low and behold, yes indeed, I was right.

It has a socketed eprom board with an 8kb EPROM dated from roughly May of 1983.



And the best part, is that it's different then the previously discovered version!
I played it for a bit last night and this morning. Carefully comparing it to the common version available on the internet.
Here is what I found so far:

It is probably an earlier build because it appears as how Konami would have released it by themselves.
-- it does not have the generic Coleco 8 second loading screen. It is not present at all.
-- it will not power up on a cold start. the cart must be inserted with the power on, and then you must hit reset.
-- the title screen is different as well. it has the keypad options on it since it does not have the standard blue screen.
-- it has an attract / demo mode which it cycles through on it's own.



Anyhow, I just wanted to share my discovery with everyone.
And yes, to answer what is always the most asked question, I will read & save the eprom at some point this weekend,
to safeguard the data and give it to the community.
Although I am not an "official" member of the Colecovision brotherhood, they have done many great things for us,
and so I want to return the favor, whenever it is possible.

Regards,
Billy

[TPR]

Oh man, that is fantastic! Looking forward to playing it!  Thank you!

[Ikrananka]

Very cool - thanks for sharing.

[youki]

Nice finding!    

[thevnaguy]

Awesome find!

[cmart604]

Congrats! Great find!

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

What a score! Thanks for sharing this, looking forward to checking it out.

[phattyboombatty]

Score! Not many Colecovision prototypes are found in the wild.

[NIAD]

That's a tremendous find in the wild especially since items like this only come up for sale from serious collectors who acquired such items from former Coleco employees as I have done a couple times.

 

OK, now on to the bubble bursting, of sorts. The actual Konami code prototype of Video Hustler, probably ported from the MSX version, has been available since the mid-80s along with the Coleco code prototype with CV title screen and skill select screen that would have been used for the public release if Coleco didn't pull the plug on the CV. I have attached both rom file versions, but you should still dump your cartridge and compare to the Konami rom to see if there are any differences.

 

There is another example of this Coleco and Konami interaction with the game Monkey Academy. The Konami prototype that was found in the mid-80s is a direct port of the MSX version, but the released game by Coleco has numerous changes to the title screen, select screen and even the game screen.

 

The Eprom PCB is a nice find and looks identical to the one that I used to own (just sold last month) and will come in handy if you ever come across any loose Coleco Eprom chips.

 

Attached Files

•  Video Hustler (1984) (Coleco) (Prototype).zip   6.12KB   47 downloads
•  Video Hustler (1984) (Konami) (Prototype).zip   6.47KB   40 downloads

[TPR]

That's a tremendous find in the wild especially since items like this only come up for sale from serious collectors who acquired such items from former Coleco employees as I have done a couple times.

 

OK, now on to the bubble bursting, of sorts. The actual Konami code prototype of Video Hustler, probably ported from the MSX version, has been available since the mid-80s along with the Coleco code prototype with CV title screen and skill select screen that would have been used for the public release if Coleco didn't pull the plug on the CV. I have attached both rom file versions, but you should still dump your cartridge and compare to the Konami rom to see if there are any differences.

 

There is another example of this Coleco and Konami interaction with the game Monkey Academy. The Konami prototype that was found in the mid-80s is a direct port of the MSX version, but the released game by Coleco has numerous changes to the title screen, select screen and even the game screen.

 

The Eprom PCB is a nice find and looks identical to the one that I used to own (just sold last month) and will come in handy if you ever come across any loose Coleco Eprom chips.

 

 

Thanks for that!  For some reason I never had the Konami version of it.  It wasn't in any of the various ROM archives I've downloaded in the past.

[ValkerieSilk]

Very Cool... Thank you for the post

[dj_convoy]

Amazing that these things are still being found out there.