Digital Electronics Technician & YouTuber with a passion for digital interfacing. Tinkering with 90’s era electronics & Retro Videogame Development kits.
Traveled back in time to 1997
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This is the 64GB cable (64GBケーブル).
😎🤘
An unreleased peripheral out of Japan that directly connected a Game Boy to your Nintendo 64/64DD console.
Imagine being able to play Pokémon with simultaneous 4-player tournaments and in-game trading options: Like real-time player settings, player feedback, control settings, level maps etc. 😎🤘#Nintendo #N64 #64DD #Gameboy #retrogaming
Shown @ #SpaceWorld 99 by #Nintendo was a #64DD & GB game, that used a custom Link cable to connect both consoles.😎🤘
Entitled simply "DT" was a digital card collection and trading game.
Later the game was ported to GBC as:
"DT Lords Of Genomes" #gamedev #retrogaming #gameboy
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Indeed!
I remember back around 1991-92 when a High school buddy of mine came back from a trip to Japan. His Dad had picked up a Sony Walkman for him while he was there. It was just slightly larger than a regular audio cassette case…and only required 1 AA battery to power it!! 🤯
This completely blew our minds…and was the most futuristic thing we had ever seen. lol 😂👌#Sony #Walkman
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Shown here is the Satellaview (サテラビュー) satellite modem add-on for the Super Famicom.😎🤘
It was released on April 23, 1995 and was only available in Japan. Nintendo partnered with satellite radio company St.GIGA so players could download games, digital magazines, and other content from satellite broadcasts. This gave players the option of downloading, instead of purchasing cartridges.
It plugged into the Super Famicom’s bottom expansion port (like a 64DD). The unit added 1 MB of ROM and 512 KB of RAM. You also needed:
• A BS (broadcast satellite) tuner and dish (buy or rent from St.GIGA)
• The included BS-X cartridge (Sore wa Namae o Nusumareta Machi no Monogatari — “The Town Whose Name Was Stolen”), which served as both BIOS and an EarthBound-style town menu.
• An 8 Mbit Memory Pack that slotted into the top of the BS-X cart to store downloaded games.
A bundled AV selector let you switch between the Super Famicom and regular satellite TV on one input.
Broadcasts ran in scheduled blocks (originally 4–7 p.m., later expanded), branded as “Super Famicom Hour.” During those windows you walked around the BS-X town, entered buildings, and downloaded whatever was being transmitted that day and only accessible while the live broadcast was on.
Yet another very cool Japan only add-on unit from the 1990’s.😎🤘#Nintendo #SuperFamicom #SNES #Satellaview #retrogaming
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Well, initially during development and when running the game ROM on the devkit…it wouldn’t needed.
However, as you come closer to finalizing your game, it will eventually need to run on a retail cartridge which will have a CIC chip.
So turning on the CIC functionality would be required when using the back cartridge slot on the devkit. As either a retail cartridge or dev flash cartridge would have a CIC chip on board.👍
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BehindTheCode with Gerry retweeted
33 years ago today, the Stranger stepped onto the dock of Myst Island for the first time. We can still hear the water splashing against the pilings.
ALT The dock of Myst Island from the original version of the game. A wooden dock ends at a spiral staircase that leads up to giant gears on a hillside. A ship is sunk in the water on the right, and parts of buildings are visible on the left.
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Not sure TBH…🤔 the only manual online for this unit is the Japanese version of the debugger manual. So I’m not sure it contains any details on the hardware ports. Most likely all software related details.
👀👇
The SF BOX-II debugger manual (Japanese version) is available on archive.org.
Link below:👇
archive.org/details/sfbox2sf…
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The SF BOX-II debugger manual (Japanese version) is available on archive.org.
Link below:👇
archive.org/details/sfbox2sf…
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According to a former developer at Konami, this devkit originally cost roughly around ~$18,500 USD. (2.5 million yen) 🤯 however many devs indicated that this fee also included Nintendo’s license fee which was usually quite substantial. $$$$$
The unit connected to a host PC (either a PC-9801 or to a proprietary Sony Unix workstation). It also came with the appropriate cables and a GP-IB interface card for the PC-98.
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Nicely done! 😮👌
Very very cool. 😎🤘
@SongbirdPro
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So true.😄👌
I love how they were all over the place with interfacing, and creating all sorts of cool peripherals and accessories.😎🤘
What an era!!
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This is the Super Famicom SF BOX-II.😎🤘
An ultra rare official development kit & debugger for the Super Famicom. Released by the company Ricoh. (Circa ~1991)
The unit used a proprietary Debugger software and interfaced to a host PC via RS-232 or GP-IB. The debugger software ran on MS-DOS. The unit was quite expensive when initially released. In turn, only a relatively small number of these devices were produced. (~500-1000 units)
Developers could use the SF BOX-II to:
- Load and test games using the real-time source level debugger to find bugs.
- Test games using standard Super Famicom controllers and video connections.
- Test games using EPROM-based development cartridges. Alternatively, certain revisions of the machine had a ZIF socket mounted on the front panel; for populating programmed EPROMs directly to the system, while the topside also had a cartridge slot.
Internally, the SF BOX-II contained multiple PCBs, housing SRAM memory and a proprietary Ricoh board. Ricoh was the company responsible for the Super Famicom's main CPU, the 5A22, so this was an official-grade development kit provided to Nintendo developers.😎🤘#Nintendo #SNES #SuperFamicom #gamedev #retrogaming #gamedevelopment
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👀👇
This is the Mobile GameBoy Adapter.😎🤘
A Japan-only accessory that connected a GameBoy Color to a compatible cell phone and used the phone as a modem. It allowed Peer-to-peer trading within the Japanese Pokémon Crystal game.
It connected to Nintendo’s short-lived Mobile System GB service (launched January 2001, shut down December 2002).
Japanese Pokémon Crystal was the main supported title and unlocked:
• Peer-to-peer trades and battles by dialing another player’s number
• A GTS-style Trade Corner
• The Battle Tower (online-only in Japan)
• News, quizzes, and limited downloadable content (including the Odd Egg / GS Ball event) #Gameboy #pokemonㅤㅤㅤ #retrogaming
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