Ultra-rare Punch-Out ROM dumped online featuring missing fighters, major differences from final NES release
An ultra-rare early prototype of Nintendo’s 1987 NES classic Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! has popped up online out of nowhere, and it’s a fully working build with no sound. This pre–Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! build has been dumped online for everyone to check out and play, and it boasts some differences from the retail version of the NES title.
The Video Game History Foundation recently took a deep dive into the prototype Punch-Out!! NES cartridge in a video. Founder and director of the VGHF, Frank Cifaldi, who has spent nearly three decades studying NES prototypes, was amazed. He stated, “I’ve never seen anything like this,” while taking a peek at the cartridge’s internals.
The prototype is strange in that it’s stickered with a mock-up label that follows Nintendo of America’s early NES style when it launched in the mid-’80s.
What’s even more interesting is that the game data is stored on stamped mask ROMs, or permanent chips, which are only found in retail NES cartridges and include date markings. For context, early prototype cartridges during the NES’s heyday typically used rewritable EPROM chips instead.
Cifaldi noted that the ROMs themselves could be mock-ups, but was puzzled as to why a development build of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! would be assembled this way.
Furthermore, unlike most NES prototypes, which are similar to the final build, this Punch-Out!! prototype bears stark differences from the get-go. The intro credits feature fighters from the 1984 arcade game Punch-Out!!, such as Piston Hurricane and Pizza Pasta.
For context, in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, Piston Hurricane was renamed Piston Honda, while Pizza Pasta was omitted from the North American version. Soda Popinski, on the other hand, is featured in the prototype build under his arcade name, Vodka Drunkenski, which Nintendo likely changed for marketing reasons.
In addition, two mysterious fighters also appear in the list, named Rockyhead and Mongol Khan, although they’ve never been seen in any released version of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!. In the prototype build, you can only fight four opponents: Glass Joe, Bald Bull, King Hippo, and Don Flamenco. Von Kaiser and Great Tiger are hidden in the game’s code and can be accessed via debugging, but you can’t actually fight them.
The prototype game cartridge itself has quite a story, as it turned up at a garage sale held by a former Nintendo of America employee. Later, it was PSA-certified and sold through Heritage Auctions for $45,000. Many expected the game to be locked away in a private collection. However, the generous buyer decided to dump the ROM online and let the VGHF take an extensive look at the cartridge.
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