Past to Present Online

Nintendo WiiU / Cafe Development Kit

Borman — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:37:43 +0000

Pictures popped up online of a rare (for now, anyway) WiiU development kit. It features an early version of the WiiU Gamepad, with circle pads rather than joysticks, and of course that prototype finish and design. I won’t be purchasing it, and I’d imagine ti wont be on Ebay for long, so check out the pictures below!

Source : Ebay

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Nintendo SN-TDEV Gamecube Development Console

Borman — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:20:21 +0000

This development tool for the Gamecube was crafted by SN Systems. On the outside, it looks like a fairly normal Gamecube, although it does have a unique chocolate brown color. It differs in that it has a switch for the BIOS, enabling the play of both US and Japan titles. Of course, retail titles don’t work at all, as the unit needs NR discs, which are special-formatted media for testers. Internally, the TDEV includes 48MB of ram for debugging functions, much more than a normal Gamecube contains.

Typically used in universities, the TDEV normally includes a USB interface to allow for quick testing of objects from programs like MAYA. Unfortunately, to get the most out of the kit, you do need a special license which has to be renewed regularly, although the common consensus is that it would relatively trivial to get around. ~~I believe that the unit should function as an NR Reader without the license, but we will find out of that is true or not in the near future~~. Updated : Thanks to Kiff confirming, the TDEV DOES work as a standard NR Reader! Be sure to follow him on Twitter!

For now, enjoy the screenshots located after the break. Expect video of the unit in the future!

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Dinosaur Hunting : Unreleased English Version

Borman — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:54:32 +0000

Dinosaur Hunting is a game for the original Xbox that was never even on my radar. It was apparently released in Japan, and was very nearly released in the US with late preview or review copies going out to journalists. But here we are, years later, and nothing has been seen of the English version. Until now. I received a copy of the game in the mail today, and hopped right on Twitch to check it out. The playlist below is a repeat of the stream, there is lots of fumbling around but ultimately I beat the first mission (after dying, of course)!

Conker’s Bad Fur Day : Pikachu Revealed!

Borman — Thu, 09 May 2013 04:27:26 +0000

Thanks to ConkerGuru for hacking up the ECTS build some more, the famed Pikachu scene, that was cut from the final Conker, has been found! While we initially thought the model was missing its body, it is pretty clear that the tail was all that was meant to be seen. Hit the video after the break!

Watch this video on YouTube.

The fun starts at around 2:25 into the video! Ive included the entire scene for completeness.

Malice : Unreleased Sierra PS2 Build Teaser

Borman — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:38:07 +0000

I’ve done a lot of complaining about what Malice eventually became. Heck, I’m not the only one. But before all that, before moving onto a small publisher who finally got the title out the door, the title had much more content. The story made sense, at least, mostly anyway. The game had a flow to it. Heck, even Gwen Stefani of No Doubt fame was on board. Bits and pieces of the fallout between Argonaut and Sierra can be found online. This video is one of the last builds made for Sierra, before the game was put on life support once again. The video itself shows off the level select menu, along with some of the debug functions left in the build. More to come at a later date.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Hacking Conker

Borman — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:20:22 +0000

With the ROMs out there, it didn’t take long for hackers to dive into the contents of the RARE Beta archive. User coolboyman over on the RareWareCentral forums has been pouring over the ECTS build of Conker, finding that some cut and test maps do indeed exist in the data. Subdrag, of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark hacking fame, dumped the build’s music files, which revealed that there were more in the build than previously thought. Ive added in a few more thanks to the cheats these guys are coming up with. Check out the first screenshots from coolboyman below, and stay tuned to see what else lies beneath the surface.

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ClayFighter Extreme

Borman — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:07:03 +0000

ClayFighter Extreme is an unreleased fighting game for the Playstation 1. It featured the “classic” action from the previous series, made in the same vain as ClayFighter 63 1/3 from the Nintendo 64. An early build of this game was sold way back in 2008, but it remains unclear how far the game got in development. If you or someone you know has any leads on this title, let me know!

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“Stargate” Genesis / Mega Drive Prototype

Borman — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:48:55 +0000

I don’t normally go for cartridge prototypes. They quickly get to being expensive, and are quite volatile, let alone hard to store safely. But when this item came up for sale, the fact that it was a prototype and Stargate related meant it was a must-have.

By all accounts, the Stargate game, based on the original movie, is okay at best. Most of the time, it barely resembles what the movie was about. Heck, the best, and perhaps only, view of the Stargate itself is in the Options menu.

This particular prototype was sent to the Next Generation magazine, and was likely meant for the review. The date on the cartridge puts it at two months prior to the game’s release in the USA, so the likelihood of any major differences is quite small. Unlike some Genesis prototypes that come without a shell, this one is placed inside two Acclaim shells, covering up the PCB itself.

This one is a prototype that I expect will stay in my collection for many years to come.

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