Other changes include a large red power switch and the fact that the controller ports are located on the left side of the console rather than in the center as was the case in the final production model. There’s also what appears to be a console expansion port on the front, rather than at the bottom where it was in the final version. The panel surrounding the controller ports looks yellowed – but it wouldn’t be part of the SNES family without it, right?
Below is a gallery of photos from the auction:
Compare this with the final version:
And the terrible thing we found ourselves in the USA with:
These design elements were forgotten for the US-released SNES, which eventually featured a massive, boxy design with purple, sliding switches on top instead of a round, sloping, compact design. Nintendo released a revised version of the SNES in 1997, the New-Style Super NES, which was slightly closer, but with a pill-shaped power switch and a circular reset button.
Another lost Nintendo prototype turned up a few years ago for a Nintendo/Sony PlayStation that Pets.com founder Greg McLemore bought at auction – which also had a headphone jack. Two years earlier, an unreleased wired version of the Wiimote that connected to the GameCube sold at a Japanese auction for $660. The Super Famicom prototype up for auction today is priced at just over one million yen (just over $7,000) at the time of writing, and the sale will continue for over five days.
Credit : www.theverge.com