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A rare, pre-production prototype of the phenomenally-selling Game Boy release Pokémon Red has been listed for auction. The unassuming cartridge, supposedly a development build of Game Freak's 1997 title, is currently sitting on a single bid of $25,000 at the online auction site Goldin.
The cart, which is larger than a standard Game Boy cartridge, is housed in a clear casing and stamped with the serial number "DMG-(F)KGDB-01", while a handwritten sticker is labelled "Red P". The cartridge has been examined by the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), which is confident of its authenticity, despite only being partially able to read its circuitry data.
From the Goldin Listing:
"During examination by PSA, equipment data prevented a complete data read. However, PSA was able to capture the first 32KB of data, which is technically unique. Two changes appear in the header data, but not in the game data. The difference is at offset 0x014C, which denotes the Mask ROM version and is incorrectly set to 55 when it should be 00."
"Per the PSA notes, the game data present is completely identical to the final US release of the game, with PSA expressing confidence that the rest of the data, if captured, would follow suit."
I'mma be real with y'all, gang. While I'm sure the item listed here is likely an original, it would take a little more than a partial data read approval to convince me to part with my $25,000+. But then, auctions such as these never really appealed to me personally. Gimme the real McCoy. The grubbier the better.
If you're interested in tossing up the Big Bucks, then Goldin's auction closes Monday, October 26. The cartridge does not work in an actual Game Boy, but then, I'm assuming the buyer is unlikely to remove it from its sale box anyway
For everyone else, Pokémon Red is available to play via the Pokémon FireRed Remaster, available now on Nintendo Switch.