Video game prototypes are an enigma within the video game world, as the mere idea of finding original hardware in its pre-retail form is just as enticing for collectors as it is for video game historians. In the 90's, prototypes for video games were more common, as revisions were expected over a development cycle. Recently, the prototype cartridge for Super Mario Bros 3 sold for over $31,000, showing how much of a commodity owning a piece of gaming history is among purveyors.

Earlier in the year, a discovery that many collectors felt was a tall order was completed when it was discovered that the long sought after Sonic the Hedgehog prototype was found and later dumped online. Since then, news on gaming prototypes has remained scarce, but if the discovery of the Sonic prototype was anything to go by, it was to never take a discovery for granted. There are many unearthed prototypes that have yet to be found, some of which are found in the most unexpected spots. For the Samurai Shodown scene, a tree in California was the last place anyone would expect.

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The story on how a prototype copy of Samurai Shodown 64 was found underneath a tree in California is just as interesting as the circumstance. The prototype was initially found by Craig Weiss, a pinball machine repairman based in Sacramento. After receiving a call from a client about a run-down pinball machine, Weiss visited the client to inquire more but had found several pallets underneath a collapsed tree in her yard. When asked about the origin of the pallet, the woman stated that her husband bought the pallets from an auction lot held by an ex-SNK employee based in China. The auction lots contained several warehouse pieces that SNK shipped once the original company's US offices closed in 2000.

Among the items in the pallets was the prototype Hyper Neo Geo 64 Samurai Shodown 64. Wanting to bring in an expert about the cartridge, Weiss contacted Anthony Bacon, who runs the YouTube page Video Game Esoterica, who would be more committed to dissecting the cartridge as well as identifying what made the prototype different from the original arcade version.

What makes this discovery even more unique is that Samurai Shodown 64 is a rare game in itself. The Hyper Neo Geo 64 was SNK's failed attempt to break into 3D gaming and the 64-bit era. There were only seven games released for the console, Samurai Shodown 64 and its sequel included before SNK dropped support and went back to the Neo Geo hardware, making the prototype more valuable than most.

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Source: Eurogamer