>>11907316
This is what a lot of people don't grasp. Prototypes are different than retail games, the buyers are oftentimes different people. Thing is, people will fundraise and pay money for JUST the dumps. If you dump it for free, the ROM itself no longer has value, so that revenue-producing option dies the second it is freely released.
Think of it this way
>have desirable prototype worth $1k
>release it for free
>only way to make money from it is to now sell the original
>people who would once pool together funds to buy the proto for preservation no longer have a reason to do so, so now your only market is a collector
Or
>have a desirable prototype worth $1k
>dump it, offer to release the dump for $500
>raise the money
>release the ROM
>you now offset the cost of your $1k proto by $500
While "hot" collectorbait protos like Zelda or whatever will retain value regardless, a game that is only desirable because it is unreleased becomes less remarkable once it is dumped, and the cost of the physical proto will drop to being just a bit more than your standard prototypes as opposed to many times more.
I remember the couple of times when a proto of the unreleased Japanese version of Monster Party would show up for sale and clear a few grand at auction, then once one was dumped and released, one original cart was resold on ebay and it didn't break $1k, hit around $800 if my memory is correct, because a lot of the mystery was gone.