SD F-1 Grand Prix

This is a prototype of SD F1 Grand Prix. Thanks to John Weidman for the scans and information. By: Evan G Last updated: November 5, 2016

This is one of the first prototypes I featured on SNES Central. John Weidman, aka The Dumper, was well known for being able to dump SNES games that conventional copiers were unable to, such as SA-1 games. He sent me a few things back in the day (I think circa 2003), including pictures of a this rare SA-1 prototype of SD F1 Grand Prix. Here is some information he gave me:

These are scans of a SNES SA1 proto board I own. The game it is a proto for is SD F1 Grand Prix. I have seen many SNES prototypes for sale but I have only ever seen one SA1 proto for sale and this is it. I'd say this is very rare.

The SA1 chip has a CIC lockout chip built into it. I believe that by switching one of the DIP switches you will be able to change the CIC lockout from NTSC to PAL, but since I don't have a PAL SNES I can't test this theory.

You'll note that there is some rework on the SRAM chip. This is to adapt the pinout of a socket for a 1 Mbit SRAM to the pinout of the smaller 64 Kbit SRAM chip installed on the PCB.

A ROM image of the prototype made its way into ROM sets, and I assume that it is a dump of this cart by Weidman. However, I don't know this for certain. As far as I can tell, it doesn't differ that much from the final game. They have disabled the "time attack" mode in this sample. Deep delving into this game is a bit difficult at the moment, since the sample does not work in SNES9x.

Screen that pops up when you load the game

Here is what this screen says:

この　カセットは　はんばい　そくしんよう　です。

"This cassette is for sales promotion use."

この　カセットを　むだんで　かいへん　ふくせい　することは　ほうりつで　きんし　されています。

"Reproduction of this cassette without permission is prohibited by law."

Prototype - time attack mode is disabled	Final

Prototype - front

Prototype - back

Download the ROM image