A rare copy of Pokémon Red, made in 1998 for developers, sold at auction for $123,220. The cartridge, a prototype of the American version of the game for the Game Boy handheld console, had not previously been documented and drew considerable excitement among collectors.
The lot was listed on Goldin, a platform that specializes in collectibles. The cartridge differs from those sold in stores: it has a transparent shell, is larger than usual, and carries the handwritten label "Red P". It is a developer board with flash memory, a device that allowed different versions of the game to be tested before release. The serial number of the copy is DMG-(F)KGDB-01.
The cartridge was examined by Professional Sports Authenticator, a company that specializes in authenticating collectibles. Its specialists were able to read the first 32 kilobytes of data from the device's memory. It turned out that this part matches the final American version of Pokémon Red exactly. The only differences were found in the file's technical header: in the version number and in the checksum used to verify data integrity.
Thus, the portion of the prototype that was examined contains no deleted characters or other previously unknown content. It cannot be ruled out that differences exist in the part of the memory that could not be read, but there is no evidence of this. Nevertheless, the rarity of the copy determined its value to collectors. Bidding started at $25,000, and after twenty bids the price reached $101,000. With the commission included, the buyer paid $123,220.
Pokémon Red and Blue were the first games in the series to be released in the West and made it world-famous. In Japan they appeared in 1996 under the titles Pokémon Red and Green, in the United States in 1998, and in Europe in 1999. The sale of the prototype shows that interest in the series' first games has not faded.
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