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NES Punchout prototype discovered and sold for $45,000


An early NES prototype of Punch-Out!! was found in 2026. The prototype cartridge allegedly belonged to a former Nintendo of America employee who had sold it in a garage sale.

The cartridge was auctioned off at Heritage Auctions and sold for $45,000 to an anonymous user who graciously allowed the prototype ROM to be released.

ROM dump is available.



The game is on an actual cart using ROM chips, not the typical rewritable EEPROMs used during production.
 
One of my favorite Nintendo franchises of all time!! This is a cool find! Cmon new Switch 2 Mike Tyson'sPunch Out!!!
A Gamer can dream!
 
NES Punch Out is in their collection on Switch Online. All you're missing out on is Mike.
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Hey I love the fucker too, but I have no qualms with Mr. Dream....even though he's just a total whitewash of Tysons model :messenger_grimmacing_

I do. Mike Tyson forever. And someone tell the assholes at Capcom to add Rog into the Season 4 SF6 character pass.
 
I do. Mike Tyson forever. And someone tell the assholes at Capcom to add Rog into the Season 4 SF6 character pass.

At the time he was still all busted and fucked because of the rape charge so it was pretty much instilled with me at 10 years old just to completely forget the dude. That's why i didn't mind ol whitey stepping into the ring.
 
At the time he was still all busted and fucked because of the rape charge so it was pretty much instilled with me at 10 years old just to completely forget the dude. That's why i didn't mind ol whitey stepping into the ring.

Yes, I know. Time should have healed the wound and Nintendo should relicense the GOAT video game boxing boss
 
Yes, I know. Time should have healed the wound and Nintendo should relicense the GOAT video game boxing boss

I think time healed it. He had fantastic and hilarious interviews on O&A as well as having a one man show on broadway like 10+ years ago.

If anything how about a re release of Punch Out on the Wii. That game would be absolutely even more gorgeous with an upres and then some.
 
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I think time healed it. He had fantastic and hilarious interviews on O&A as well as having a one man show on broadway like 10+ years ago.

If anything how about a re release of Punch Out on the Wii. That game would be absolutely even more gorgeous with an upres and then some.

I'd take that too.

Mike's likeness probably wouldn't be all that expensive. They should just do a MTPO2 and then restore the original as a bonus. /it will never happen
 
The Wii Punch Out would probably be censored in some way nowadays. Remember when you knocked out Glass Joe a bunch of croissants and bread rolls go flying all over the place? :messenger_tears_of_joy: Someone would deem that culturally insensitive to the French.

And Disco Kid is clearly gay. Every time you punch him in the face he makes a weak ass female whimper similar to when Damon Wayans gets his ass kicked in Blankman :messenger_tears_of_joy:

They'd probably put King Hippo on Ozempic.
 
Hey I love the fucker too, but I have no qualms with Mr. Dream....even though he's just a total whitewash of Tysons model :messenger_grimmacing_

There was this video that had postured the idea that Mr Dream is actually Rocky Marciano mainly due to how he was tied to the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports theme which is Punch Out title theme.

 
I remember playing Punch-Out on WiiU and I got rocked by Soda Popinski. The muscle memory was there but the lag was just too much. Tried the this ROM on emu and Bald Bull got me. Upper cuts don't seem to fire off as fast as the final release.
 
I played this game as a kid and could not beat Iron Mike without Game Genie.

However, when I was in HS I beat him on a rear projection LCD tv, lol. My friends didn't believe me. So, I went home and played it and took a pic of myself with the tv after I beat him again. I imagine that input lag was terrible.


Btw, this is a cool find. This is probably my favorite video game of all time. It may not be the best, but it hits that fast twitch itch and is very satisfying.
 
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Normalize releasing good boxing games again. This and Fight Night need proper new releases, now!

I feel like we're due for a Punch-Out!! sequel. 15 years between the SNES and Wii games, and we're now at 17 years since the Wii game. Love to see what Next Level could do with Switch 2, the Wii game still looks good.
 
The Wii Punch Out would probably be censored in some way nowadays. Remember when you knocked out Glass Joe a bunch of croissants and bread rolls go flying all over the place? :messenger_tears_of_joy: Someone would deem that culturally insensitive to the French.

And Disco Kid is clearly gay. Every time you punch him in the face he makes a weak ass female whimper similar to when Damon Wayans gets his ass kicked in Blankman :messenger_tears_of_joy:

They'd probably put King Hippo on Ozempic.
it's silly because the thing is real life heavyweight boxing is full of stereotypes anyway. Wilder, Fury, Andy Ruiz etc, could be considered offensive in a modern punch out game if they were fictional characters.
 

Is it good?

Sorry I have not played it and personally wouldn't spent 30 bucks, from what I read graphics are great and gameplay is super satisfying but its overall a very short game, for that price you really need to be a huge Baki and Punchout fan.
 
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