Zelda III proto cart surfaces

Wow, just... wow. This is, allegedly, a beta cart of Zelda III... for the NES. From the looks of things and taking into account what Okibi said this is probably the A Link to the Past 2-esque early conceptualising of Link's Awakening before it went Game Boy and developed its own flavour. I've always thought that from the early Nintendo Power preview scan I acquired, but seeing that dream game (hehe) in the flesh is quite another matter.



Don't you just WANT one? I know I do... if it's legit...

The owner bought it for $20 at a flea market. Not an impossible story, that's probably similar to how Star Fox 2 found its way to us.

Anyway, while I've decided to withhold judgement, until I have a dump at least, good old TSA has not. You've been wrong before buddy. Remember when you said Twilight Princess was a fake name? Yeah, I remember too.

One forum thread mentions it as possibly being a Hong Kong-produced ROM hack. Considering how surprisingly high-quality illicit ports of Mortal Kombat III and the like have been I would really be interested in a dump of this even if it isn't made by Nintendo.

Anyway, you can read more at his MSN Spaces blog. And be sure to beg him to dump and distribute it, he seems to want the community to tell him what to do with it.

Assuming this isn't a hoax, today's aquatic salute would most definitely go to both the enviously lucky Vavoom and the unknown developers who made this game, authentic or bootlegged as it may be... mmmm, chlorinated! —Garrett

UPDATE: apparently someone's offered an impressive sum for this cart. Whoever it is—I'm not totally sure who and I wouldn't say if I did—they're obviously convinced it's the real deal. Their identity doesn't really matter to me anyway, I just hope they own a copier!

These next few weeks are going to be some of the most exciting in Zelda history. Hopefully, pretty soon it will be time to kick ass or drink tap water. And I'm all outta water. —Garrett