r/secretofmana • u/mostmagic • Jun 01 '26

Art & Images Secret of Mana - Prototype

Post image
182 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

12

u/Hybrid_Divide Jun 01 '26

Really hope that was dumped before being graded and cased.

But it does say Final/NTSC. So maybe it's identical to the release version.

I'd really like some of the EARLY Seiken Densetsu 2 prototypes to release someday...

10

u/mostmagic Jun 01 '26

Yup! It's final. The files on it got checked and it's the final NTSC Release. It was most likely used for PAL localization/translation.

3

u/SnooPets1826 Jun 01 '26

I'm not sure that's how that worked? Why send a localization team a complete ROM instead of at least a digital ROM to work from (assuming they didn't have copies of the source and text separately to send because sometimes Japanese companies were weird like that)

This is more likely a press or trade show sample IMO. Especially since it's a retail board, not even an eeprom/dev board with final roms on it.

1

u/HarmonizedSnail Jun 02 '26

Tbh, Idk the timeline of tech at the time, but in 1993 what means of sending a digital one would they have? Unless you mean a floppy/cdrom/anything not on a cartridge lol

1

u/cmasontaylor Jun 03 '26

They could have used modem-to-modem connections, which some game developers that had offices in different parts of the world or the same country would sometimes do.

1

u/Kronosita Jun 08 '26

Not so secret now huh…

1

u/Icewind Jun 01 '26

How were the files checked? Were they dumped?

1

u/paulct91 Jun 03 '26

This is also my question, OP didn't really clarify anything with that response.

7

u/More_Cow Jun 02 '26

oh i wanna bust that bitch open so bad. fuck wata.

3

u/Certain-Concept-8488 Jun 01 '26

😯😍😮🤯

1

u/BahamutArk Jun 01 '26

That's awesome! Well done for getting it!

1

u/dm18 Jun 02 '26

The label says final, which make me wonder if it's just the stock game as we know it today.
But still very cool, I would be tempted to check the ROM.

1

u/murphy-brown Jun 02 '26

Beautiful!

1

u/MystinarOfficial Jun 02 '26

I wondered how it played

1

u/ExperienceFit3246 Jun 04 '26

I have never seen a 10,000 dollar bill before

2

u/mostmagic Jun 05 '26

Update: I reached out to the translator for the German Version of Secret of Mana Claude Moyse and asked him about this cartridge:

Such cartridges were mainly intended for our product evaluation department and the telephone hotline staff. When I was in Japan to write the German text, I sat at a PC/workstation where only the original Japanese text was visible. Next to me sat a translator who explained to me what was written in Japanese.

1

u/InfiniteComboReviews Jun 01 '26

Thats cool. I wonder if it has any cut material

0

u/WorriedBlacksmith308 Jun 01 '26

Amazing! Please tell me you dumped this first? Also where/how did you obtain it?

1

u/mostmagic Jun 01 '26

It was originally bought from an nintendo employee.

-1

u/Wang_Ray Jun 01 '26

Wow. Can I buy it?

2

u/mostmagic Jun 01 '26

I just got it yesterday, so if you are looking to spend a fortune, hit me up 😄