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An uber-rare prototype of the Super Famicom - the Japanese console that would eventually become known as the Super NES worldwide - just hit an online auction site, and it's already garnered thousands of dollars in bids.
This Yahoo Japan auction listing went up on Sunday, June 5, and it wasn't long before it was making waves even among English-speaking collectors. Now, just one day after the listing went up, the bids are already up to ¥1,019,000, or about $6,600. The auction doesn't close until June 12, and it's likely those bids are going to start getting a lot higher as more big-money collectors start to realize this thing is available.
This appears to be the same prototype that was showcased in a 1989 press conference detailed in Famitsu magazine - or, at least, it's a prototype with the exact same design. It's quite similar to the final Super Famicom design, but there are a few key differences, including the bright red power switch. The front panel also features an expansion port and a different controller port design. Most interesting to me is the headphone jack and the volume dial on the side, a feature that would be excised from the final console. The platform's primary contender, the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, did feature a headphone jack up until its first major hardware revision.
The seller says they were able to power on the console, but were unable to test it further thanks to the oddball controller connectors and AV ports. That's a problem whoever ends up buying this thing will likely need to solve, and I've got my fingers crossed that the winning bidder will work with some gaming historians to make sure the console is properly preserved.
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