Topic: Castlevania Vampires Kiss & Legacy of Darkness Prototypes

[Nighty]

Hi!

I got my hands on two Castlevania Prototype Games.

Vampires Kiss ( Snes )
Legacy of Darkness ( N64 )

They are undumped - both working fine. I opened the Cartridges to check the Boards. All Original Nintendo Stuff. They are both PAL Versions by the Way.
I searched a lot on the internet about other known Pieces and found nothing - so they are most likely Unique pieces i think.

So what do you Hardcore Castlevania Fans think is the Value of one of these two Prototypes?
I dont feel like start collecting Prototypes so i am thinking about selling them.

Thanks!

[uzo]

I would like clarification on whether they are prototypes or beta versions. There is a huge difference. I would find it hard to believe they would have PAL prototypes for Japanese developed games.

Also screenshots would be nice.

[Nighty]

Here are Photos

[crisis]

A Castlevania 64 prototype recently sold for over $500 on ebay. As the seller described, there were no discernable differences in the gameplay, glitches, etc. It was simply titled "Castlevania Prototype," so it's solely up to the seller & buyer to determine if that specific designation makes it valuable enough to warrant such a high price tag.

I suppose the same can be applied to your prototypes. In my personal opinion, these types of things should be going for no more than $100 UNLESS they contained something unique that the standard public release does not (altered graphics, missing/added effects/enemies/items, etc.), but this usually applies to BETAS, as opposed to prototypes. As uzo said, betas & prototypes are 2 different things, 1 being worth more than the other on the market, depending on the details. Sadly, not everyone is aware of this.

[Phoenix7786]

Gratz on the sale! And welcome to the Dungeon!

[X]

What about Vampier's Kiss? Anything new or different then the  publicly released cartridge? Screenshots please 

[DoctaMario]

What about Vampier's Kiss? Anything new or different then the  publicly released cartridge? Screenshots please 

i think the differences between that and Dracula XX are nominal, but with that said, I paid $50 for the DXX cartridge before the internet was as widespread as it is now. 

[LuxKiller65]

My opinion on Legacy of Darkness: differences are very unlikely, as the date is 99/11/17, which is around 2 weeks before the release (in stores) of the US version. By this date, the US version was already finalised, so what I think is that they put the US version on a dev cart and sent it to the localisation team. Maybe they modified something before sending it out, like adding a debug mode, or who knows what .

The 3rd line mentions CS + some Japanese characters. Those Japanese characters look like what's on the Castlevania proto just sold on eBay and should mean "lent to the overseas department/offices". Best this can be IMO is a PAL version which is actually a US ROM inside - with something else for debug or easier translation, because frankly the only difference between the us and pal is the addition of languages - french and german and the title screen (haven't played the game in way too long, I may be missing some other differences), right?

How's the title screen in your proto?

US


PAL


Also notice this is code revision 372, that's a lot of codes lol, for a game that's not even a game but more like 80% based on an existing game! Maybe they kept on numbering the codes after the original Castlevania proto, dunno.

Anyway this is interesting so keep us posted!

[Nighty]

Not the best Photo but clearly PAL Version Titlescreen.

Noticed that mine has 1986 1999 Konami
On the Screenshot its 1986 2000 Konami

Interesting!

[Super Waffle]

Long N64 cartridge is long.

[shelverton.]

Selling the Vampire's Kiss prototype on the european market could possibly give you a lot of cash. The original game is probably the most expensive PAL SNES game in existence, rivalled only by Terranigma and...dunno... nothing else. Sure there are other pricey games out there but not like THAT. I've seen a single cart of Vampire's Kiss go for over 300$, which is insane considering how mediocre that game is. Not that these collectors buy overpriced video games to actually PLAY them. It's more for showing off, I guess.

[crisis]

I know what you mean, shelverton.-chan. Several years ago I've considered putting down $300+ on Vampire's Kiss, but I decided against it. Yeah it's rare, but I feel like I've reached a plateau in my collection, which is why I haven't updated my collection thread in a while. When I see auctions for rare items here n there, I often don't even bid. As of right now all my stuff is sitting in my closet collecting dust, lol



fun fact: out of all things i own of Castlevania, I still don't own a copy of Legacy of Darkness 

[LuxKiller65]

Noticed that mine has 1986 1999 Konami
On the Screenshot its 1986 2000 Konami

Surely because they were working on the American ROM to make their changes into PAL, and hadn't changed the date yet. Let us know if you see anything else!

[Nighty]

To be honest i didnt play LoD at all so i could not spot any differences in the game, if i would give it a playtrough.

Well at least the Date is different to the retail version. Maybe thats a clue that there is some more stuff in this rom which isnt final.

[VampirehunterB]

concerning Vampire's Kiss versions, here's a rare pal rental version of the game, released in Scandinavia only. the case has a unique instruction attached to it.