NA » My first real step into the world of obscure! Info requested on DS Debug/Aging/Test Cart!

My first real step into the world of obscure! Info requested on DS Debug/Aging/Test Cart!

Aug 11, 2012 at 12:00:08 AM

BenTO (44)

(Ben T.) < Meka Chicken >

Posts: 539 - Joined: 06/01/2012

Arizona

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OK, I'm torn between posting this here or The Brewery, but this seems more appropriate. I'm not sure if anyone is going to care, but I'll share anyway:

I've always been fascinated with obscure things and have been wanting to get into this side of the hobby. I also enjoy a bit of researching. When I stumbled upon this cartridge, I couldn't resist.

I've done some researching, and stumbled upon a few discussions on these. Here's a summary on my findings:

A user named NintendyFan on GBATemp discovered a handful of these last year in a box of smash up carts. A few cartridges escaped obliteration. (Link: http://gbatemp.net/topic/298146-n...)
YouTube video of 2004 version:

YouTube video of Flicker version:
A user, raulpica, mentioned on GBATemp that this was a Burn-In Test card used to test the durability of the DS under harsh conditions. (Source: http://gbatemp.net/topic/298146-n...)
There were two cartridges that sold, a 2004 version (eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/150618921...) and a "Flicker" version (eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/160612582...).
NintendyFan also indicated that he had a working 2008 version that he managed to get working, but was unable to dump the ROM. (Source: http://gbatemp.net/topic/298368-o...) To my knowledge, there isn't a dump of the 2008 version.
The original v1.0 (2004) carts only booted up on the DS/DS Lite (Source: http://gbatemp.net/topic/298368-o...) and did not work for the DSi/3DS without a flash cart. I plugged this cart (2008 version) into my DSi and it booted right up. I have not tested this on the 3DS as I did not want to risk destroying it.

My questions/what I'd like to know:

Who had access to this piece of hardware? Were these part of the dev kit sent out to programmers?
Seeing the heavy wear on these carts (aside from the damage), could it be possible technicians use these to test DSes that were sent to Nintendo for repair?
Can anyone support/refute Raulpica's statement about this being a pre-release Test cart?
Does anyone have any information that they could share about this unit?

Thanks for reading. I hope that this was at least somewhat informative, and I would really appreciate any information/theories that you can share!

Edited: 09/07/2012 at 03:33 PM by BenTO

Aug 11, 2012 at 12:12:20 AM

Penguin (239)

(Justin AKA Penguin) < Wiz's Mom >

Posts: 10638 - Joined: 05/06/2007

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Seeing as the service centers closed down in 2004, these were most likely used by developers to test hardware comparability. I have a similar cart for the GBA that runs a test that looks almost identical, it has the AGING test. If I remember correctly Nitro was used for testing the DSi. Very cool find! I've seen yellow and white cases for these, but never a clear one.

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Looking for Black cartridge Color Dreams games, last 3 I need: Metal Fighter, Moon Ranger, Baby Boomer. Please contact me if you have any of these!

Aug 11, 2012 at 12:37:19 AM

BenTO (44)

(Ben T.) < Meka Chicken >

Posts: 539 - Joined: 06/01/2012

Arizona

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Originally posted by: Penguin

Seeing as the service centers closed down in 2004, these were most likely used by developers to test hardware comparability. I have a similar cart for the GBA that runs a test that looks almost identical, it has the AGING test. If I remember correctly Nitro was used for testing the DSi. Very cool find! I've seen yellow and white cases for these, but never a clear one.

Very interesting! I was not aware that Nintendo's service centers were closed down.

I also didn't consider the fact that there could be AGING carts for other systems, thank you for sharing! Does your GBA cart look something like the one on Limbofunk's site? (Link: http://www.limbofunk.com/gba-test...)

I guess there wasn't much mystery about these to start off with then, seeing as the other versions (GB/GBA) were all used to test hardware comparability. I thought that the button/microphone test functions were very neat also. I guess I can put this cart to use by testing DS units to make sure they work!

The clear case you see is a replacement shell that the chip was put into. The mutilated black cart was the original case!

Thanks again for sharing!
Ben

Aug 11, 2012 at 9:09:52 AM

Penguin (239)

(Justin AKA Penguin) < Wiz's Mom >

Posts: 10638 - Joined: 05/06/2007

Florida

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Originally posted by: BenTO

Very interesting! I was not aware that Nintendo's service centers were closed down.

I also didn't consider the fact that there could be AGING carts for other systems, thank you for sharing! Does your GBA cart look something like the one on Limbofunk's site? (Link: http://www.limbofunk.com/gba-test-cart-aging.html)

I guess there wasn't much mystery about these to start off with then, seeing as the other versions (GB/GBA) were all used to test hardware comparability. I thought that the button/microphone test functions were very neat also. I guess I can put this cart to use by testing DS units to make sure they work!

The clear case you see is a replacement shell that the chip was put into. The mutilated black cart was the original case!

Thanks again for sharing!
Ben

Yea Limbofunk and I got the GBA carts from a guy that found a couple of them. All of these we have seen have all been damaged, so I guess Nintendo was pretty strict about the users destroying them when they got rid of them. Thankfully they half-assed it. I know a couple people on here own one or two of these DS carts so maybe they can chime in on the specifics.

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Looking for Black cartridge Color Dreams games, last 3 I need: Metal Fighter, Moon Ranger, Baby Boomer. Please contact me if you have any of these!

Aug 11, 2012 at 5:15:14 PM

Limbofunk (160)

(Otto Man) < King Solomon >

Posts: 3850 - Joined: 04/12/2007

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There was an ebay seller at one point who stumbled upon quite a few of these, but most were damaged. He bought 3rd party replacement cases for them and sold them on ebay--maybe that's why the one is in a clear case.

There still are a handful of Service Centers that work with Nintendo, but none of them will give out any info since they're under contract.

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