possible prototypes?

[wesofthedead]

so i work at a game store and someone traded in like 19 colecovision games that had no labels on them and upon further inspection i looked at the carts and they looked too clean to have had the labels removed, it looked like they were never on there to start. some of them had some end labels with hand written names of the games on them too. so i opened up one that i had a copy of in my store and the microchips definitley look different, so i opened a couple other and they all have that same look and stickers with the games name written on them. i dont know too much about prototypes or reproductions do i decided to come here and see if any of you guys know whats up with these. the picture posted is of gorf, the one of the left is the copy i pulled from my shelve and the one on the right is of the one that has no label

[TPR]

There are many possibilities when it comes to a cart like this.... Could be a true "in development prototype." Could be a review copy or a copy used for a trade show/sales demo that is the same as the release version. The only real way to tell is to dump the ROM and see if it matches up with the released version, or even easier, just play the game and see if you notice any significant differences between it and the final release.

[Ikrananka]

BTW - don't keep those carts open for long. Those chips with the windows could be erased from extended exposure to sunlight.

[NIAD]

The cart on the left looks like a production run cart pcb with rom chips soldered directly to the PCB.

 

The cart on the right is a little more tricky seeing as it uses Eprom Chips on a PCB with sockets. These type of Coleco Cart PCBs were used in very small quantities for commercial releases sold in stores. They also were used In-House by Coleco employees as an easy way to make copies of ganes that were in development and or finished. I've acquired numerous such Cart PCBs over the years from former employees with, of course, no label on the cart shell... virgin if you may. There are numerous other possibilites, but not worth going into detail just yet.

 

Seeing as the window on the chips has been exposed to light, the data contained on it could already have been erased.

 

Only thing to do know is to test on a ColecoVision and compare to the released version. One could also dump these and compare CRCs..

 

Value is miniscule until tested although the Socketed Cart PCB is worth a little more.

 

Test and compare or get them into the hands of someone that can.

[Hannacek]

Sockets cost money, so any company would only use them if they have to. Even if a socket cost 5 or 10 cents, that's a lot to a company that makes millions of units. Sockets don't always mean a prototype, it could be an early run, review copies, or they had to get a lot made before Christmas, so for production they soldered in the sockets, and added the chips later.

[wesofthedead]

thanks for the advice, i will have to test them a little further. i basically just put each one i have in a coleco to see what games they were and they all seemed to work fine. i need to find someone who can dump the roms for me next, these are all the games that came with the trade in

[Ikrananka]

There are a few members here that have cart dumpers, myself included, although I'm in Canada. Happy to help out if you can't find anyone else. I also do a detailed binary comparison with roms and can identify exactly how many, and which bytes are different to others. This was crucial when I did the CV Rom Update Project (see my signature).

[wesofthedead]

There are a few members here that have cart dumpers, myself included, although I'm in Canada. Happy to help out if you can't find anyone else. I also do a detailed binary comparison with roms and can identify exactly how many, and which bytes are different to others. This was crucial when I did the CV Rom Update Project (see my signature).

thanks, i might know a couple people who can do it but if they cant i will def ask one of you guys for some help