What is this dubious so-called "prototype" SNES controller?

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Individualised
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What is this dubious so-called "prototype" SNES controller?

Post by Individualised »

After posting this: viewtopic.php?p=285923#p285923 I was looking for pictures of prototype Super Famicom units and their controllers when I found this page: http://www.6809.org.uk/twilight/console/detail/sfc.html

It claims to show a prototype SFC controller, that says "Super Family" instead of "Super Famicom". However, none of the details match up whatsoever, so I have trouble believing this is an actual prototype. It says that a chip inside has a date code which suggests the 51st week of 1990, which makes no sense as the Super Famicom was first sold in November 1990. But even more strange is the fact that the controller has no shoulder buttons, there's no button labels except for Select + Start, and it uses an NES cable, which would suggest a very early prototype pre-dating the 1988/1989 ABCD ones because even they have shoulder buttons and labels (and they used the SNES cables too), but the buttons are multicoloured instead of red, the indentations/accents around the buttons go from left down to right up instead of the other way round, and the buttons are convex not concave, which all lines up with later prototypes and retail SFC controllers (concave buttons were reintroduced for the retail North American SNES controllers). To top it all off, the Select + Start buttons are flat like the NES, not matching the diagonal left down/right up shape of late prototypes/retail nor the diagonal left up/right down shape of the early prototypes.

This is all very strange and does not seem to match up whatsoever, so what the hell is this thing? Could it be a bootleg or counterfeit? After all, the page shows shoddily done internals, and the printing on the Nintendo and Super Famicom logos and the "Super Family" text also looks pretty off but it may just be due to compression artifacts. My guess is, if this is the case, that this is some sort of bootleg Famiclone controller that's trying to pass off as a SFC controller. That would explain the lack of shoulder buttons and button labels (the extraneous buttons would be turbo buttons). But I don't think early Famiclones were using the international NES controller ports, they usually used Atari-style ports, right?

If this is a genuine, albeit extremely early, prototype, and the date code means something else, however unlikely that may be (especially due to the button indentation thing; the reason the retail controllers have that shape the other way round was due to them re-arranging the button letters), then that suggests that they backpedaled on certain design choices late into development. My only other theory is that this has something to do with the NES model 2/AV Famicom, as that was originally intended to compliment the Super Famicom after backwards compatibility was removed, perhaps an early prototype of the "dogbone" controller, but I doubt that Nintendo would put turbo buttons on a standard controller. Alternatively of course this could just be a hoax but I don't see anything else strange there so I doubt it.

Any thoughts are appreciated.
lidnariq
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Re: What is this dubious so-called "prototype" SNES controller?

Post by lidnariq »

"NASA" was a video game peripheral manufacturer. Combined with the DE9 connector, this is probably a Megadrive controller.
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Individualised
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Re: What is this dubious so-called "prototype" SNES controller?

Post by Individualised »

lidnariq wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 7:58 pm "NASA" was a video game peripheral manufacturer. Combined with the DE9 connector, this is probably a Megadrive controller.
Oh wow. I could have sworn that was an NES connector. I even mentioned the Atari-style joystick port (DE9) in my original post. I really need to check things over more lol.
Pokun
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Re: What is this dubious so-called "prototype" SNES controller?

Post by Pokun »

Individualised wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 7:29 pm I was looking for pictures of prototype Super Famicom units and their controllers
If anyone are still looking I posted a link and picture in the same thread.
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