A rare pre-Mike Tyson prototype of Nintendo's 1987 NES title, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! !, has appeared online, giving "a basically unheard of" insight into the early development of a first-party Nintendo game, while stumping historians in the process. The NES prototype cartridge was shown off yesterday in a video uploaded to the Video Game History Foundation's YouTube channel, where the foundation's founder and director, Frank Cifaldi, stated, "I've never seen anything like this" in his 25-plus years of handling and studying NES prototypes. Piston Hurricane would eventually be replaced in the NES game with Piston Honda, while Pizza Past would be completely missing from the final game. In addition to the change in the intro, the early build also features a single-ring palette, lacks audio, has different victory and game-over screens, and includes various altered statistics for the fighters.

Source: Punch April 10, 2026 13:19 UTC