A never-documented Pokémon Red prototype starts at $25,000 at auction

The 1998 module holds 32 KB of readable data, identical to the US version of the game.

PSA authenticated the item but could not read the full contents of its memory.

The Goldin auction runs until October 26 with a $25,000 opening bid.

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A rare Pokémon Red prototype for the Game Boy, never documented before, is up for sale at Goldin with an opening bid of $25,000. The cartridge is a 1998 development module, longer than a standard Game Boy cartridge, and the auction closes on October 26.

This is not an ordinary game. The item is a development module built for internal testing, with a 16-megabit flash memory chip and an MBC (Memory Bank Controller), the component that let games exceed the Game Boy's 32 KB memory limit. A sticker on the casing reads DMB-MBC-16M-FLASH, with the part number DMG-(F)KGDB-01, where DMB likely refers to Dot Matrix Game, the Game Boy's original internal codename.

The most important part concerns the data. The authentication company PSA examined the item and confirmed the hardware did not allow a complete read of its contents. PSA managed to read the first 32 KB, which it describes as technically unique, and found it identical to the US version of the game. PSA says it is confident the rest of the data would match the commercial release if it were readable. Its report notes two differences in the ROM header that do not affect the game itself: a Mask ROM version value set to 55 instead of 00, and a header checksum that changes accordingly from 20 to CB.

The part number DMG-(F)KGDB-01 has appeared on other development modules, such as a 2000 example documented by a community wiki, which also carried a 16-megabit flash chip. However, that module's sticker does not fully match the one in this auction, which is why the listing describes it as previously undocumented.

Pokémon Red, together with Green and Blue, kickstarted the franchise's global success in the 1990s. Red and Blue together have reportedly sold more than 31 million copies. A pre-release copy of the game is therefore a rare collectible. The auction still has several days to run, and the price could climb above the current single $25,000 bid.

Ultimately, what the sale puts up for grabs is the historical value of a development artifact rather than the chance to play it: the module, according to the reports, does not boot like a normal cartridge.

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