A new piece of Nintendo history is making the rounds as a prototype of Punch-Out has surfaced. It’s claimed that the cartridge initially belonged to a former Nintendo of America employee who sold it in a garage sale.
The prototype was obtained at auction for $45,000. After it was purchased, the ROM was dumped online through The Cutting Room Floor – meaning anyone can access it now.
The Cutting Room Floor points out a few differences. First, the prototype has no sound code or data. Additionally, there are only four boxers fought in the order of Glass Joe, Bald Bull, King Hippo, and Don Flamenco. And after taking down Don Flamenco, players go to the training cutscene and are given a password, before looping back to Glass Joe. There is no mention of Mike Tyson in the prototype.
What might be the most interesting tidbit of all concerns the Guest Stars section. Piston Hurricane and Pizza Pasta from the original arcade game are mentioned. To compare, the final game features the new Piston Honda instead of Hurricane, and Pizza Pasta isn’t present. There are also unknown characters Rockyhead and Mongol Khan. The credit roll has the character who would go on to be named Soda Popinski in the NES version by his more adult name from the 1984 arcade game Super Punch-Out, Vodka Drunkenski.
For debug options, one lets players control the unfinished opponents and cycle through their movesets. However, it essentially causes visual bugs.
The Video Game History Foundation showed off the Punch-Out prototype in a new video today. We have it below.
Prototype Video
For those that want to go down the Punch-Out rabbit hole, new codes for Super Punch-Out were previously discovered. We have more on that here.
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