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Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge

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A typical Nintendo of Europe prototype with the final US version of the game.

Thanks to Marek Schmidt, the owner of the game for allowing me to document this! Make sure to check out his SNES PAL companion collector guide!

By: Evan G
Last updated: August 17, 2019

Nintendo of Europe was less careful than their other subsidiaries when it came to getting back prototype cartridges of games. This Metal Combat prototype has the typical label of a Nintendo of Europe prototype, and the writing on the EPROM chips is the same as well. What makes this prototype unique is that Metal Combat is the only game to use the OBC1 chip, and therefore a unique prototype PCB board was created just for it. The prototype contains the final US version of the game. This prototype was found at a flea market in northern Germany, though it is unknown how it came to be there.

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Prototype cart. The kanji read 宇治承認済 (Uji City, Approved - Uji City is where Nintendo's main factory is in Japan)
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Prototype PCB - front
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Prototype PCB - back

Another prototype of this game was sold on Ebay in 2016 by a seller from Amsterdam. The label and writing on EPROM stickers are the same, but the label is a bit more beat up.

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Prototype sold on Ebay in 2016
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PCB of the prototype sold on Ebay in 2016. Note that the handwriting is clearly from the same person as the other prototype.

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