PSA Certifies 1998 Pokémon Red Prototype at $25,000 Bid

A single bidder has placed a $25,000 offer on a rare 1998 prototype of Pokémon Red for the Nintendo Game Boy. The item is currently listed on the Goldin auction site, where it has drawn only that one bid as of today.

PSA specialists authenticated the cartridge but could not perform a complete data read. They successfully read the first 32KB of the contents, a result the company labeled technically unique. PSA states the readable game data is completely identical to the U.S. retail version. The authentication report identifies two specific differences in the ROM header that do not affect gameplay. One difference appears at offset 0x014C, where the Mask ROM version reads 55 instead of the standard 00. This change alters the calculated header checksum at offset 0x014D, which reads CB rather than 20.

The physical cartridge carries a sticker labeled DMB-MBC-16M-FLASH and the part number DMG-(F)KGDB-01. The report suggests DMB refers to Dot Matrix Game, the original internal codename for the Game Boy. MBC likely stands for Memory Bank Controller, a custom chip that allowed games to exceed the console's standard 32KB ROM limit. The 16M designation probably indicates 16 megabits of flash-writable memory. The device is physically longer than a standard Game Boy cartridge.

The auction listing describes the board as previously undocumented, though the part number has appeared in other records. The Rare Gaming Dump wiki lists the same number for a 2000 development cartridge that used a 16-megabit Sharp flash chip. Images in the Goldin listing show an almost identical design, but the wiki entry displays a slightly different sticker reading DMG-MBC3-16M-FLASH. The franchise itself helped launch the global Pokémon phenomenon in the 1990s. Red and Blue combined are reported to have sold more than 31 million copies.

A commenter on the initial report from Retro Dodo provided context on how such items reach collectors. The user stated that a Nintendo Age member named Pal rocks sold a batch of demo cartridges in 2015 that originated from a Nintendo employee who kept them instead of destroying them. The commenter also claimed this specific copy is a master copy that can be powered on and played normally. These details come from a reader comment and have not been verified by the auction house or the seller.

Several days remain before the auction closes. The current $25,000 bidder may win the piece, but the final price could increase before bidding ends.