A prototype, pre–Mike Tyson version of what would go on to become Nintendo’s 1987 classic Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! has been purchased at an auction, and the ROM has subsequently been dumped online for all to use. And before any of you start pushing your specs up your nose and hitting me with a “well, actually,” this isn’t the Mike Tyson-less, Japanese-only “Gold Version” of Punch-Out!!, nor is it the 1990 version of Punch-Out!! released here in the States which replaced Mike Tyson with Mr. Dream either. It’s a genuine prototype version of the English version of the 1987 game, sans Mike Tyson.
The auction for the game ended on Mar 27, 2026, with the prototype selling for a whopping $45,000. Collectors were naturally skeptical of the listing, considering that the board listed in the photos doesn’t match other NES prototype boards from the era. Plus, the artwork on the cart itself looks like the type of thing you’d see on a retail NES cart, which is weird when other prototype NES carts almost always feature non-distinct placeholders instead.
However, as the Video Game History Foundation points out in its video on the prototype, its existence isn’t that far-fetched. While the Gold Version of Punch-Out!!, which has Super Macho Man serve as the final boss, was distributed to the winners of Nintendo’s Family Computer Golf: U.S. Course tournament a month before the release of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, Nintendo actually announced Punch-Out!! for the NES at the 1987 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January of the same year.
Thankfully we don’t need to speculate about the prototype’s contents, as whoever purchased it was generous enough to share its ROM with the rest of us, uploading it to The Cutting Room Floor. As noted on TCRF, there are a lot of weird differences between the prototype and the final release of the game. An opening credits roll makes mention of two fighters named Rockyhead and Mongol Khan, for instance, who aren’t present in any other game in the franchise. Also, this credit roll lists the character who would go on to be named Soda Popinski in the NES version by his more adult name from the 1984 arcade game Super Punch-Out!!, Vodka Drunkenski.
There are also a couple of curious debug options in the prototype. The most interesting one allows players to take control of the unfinished opponents and cycle through their movesets. As most of the available opponents are unfinished, this mostly just results in a lot of odd visual bugs.
Still, it’s an extremely fascinating look into one of Nintendo’s most popular NES titles, and serves as a snapshot into what the game’s cover art could have looked like had Nintendo of America’s president Minoru Arakawa not witnessed Mike Tyson beat the snot out of a dude during the 1986 Heavyweight World Series.
