Gameboy "DUCK" DMG Universal CheKer DEV?

What exactly are we looking at?

Turns out the main board is marked 1989 Nintendo DMG-Duck Main-02. So this was more then likely the same as the Famicom one pictured but v2.

 

I don't know.
I'm going to go ahead and say that this wasn't an official Nintendo product. The workmanship and the acronym just don't fit it with anything I've ever seen.

 

It looks like some kind of debug console, but what's the label on the slot at the top? It's too blurry to see the first few characters.

[edit]
Now that I think of it, it's probably for reverse-engineering a cart at runtime. Any sane programmer would debug at software level. Any history on the thing?

 

Has yet to arrive yet, should be here tomorrow. Only info provided was:
One of the rarest Nintendo items you'll come across!
Powers on, speaker works, screen works
Logo that scrolls down on screen not legible - see pics
Has Controller Port, SIO Port, Main Cartridge Socket, Game Boy DMG Cartridge Socket, Start Button, Contrast and Volume Buttons, and mini keyboard

 

Label is not in English. When it arrives I can get better pictures.

 

Someone might have built it to check DMGs, hence the name, but making this would be going overboard if that's all you wanted to do.

Hypothesis- a large company had these distributed to game stores so they could check incoming returns and/or trade-ins for any corruption. Sometimes the corruption is minimal and only appears later in the game, so a simple "power on + 5 mins" isn't reliable.

 

x

 

Looks completely official, not third party.

 

!?
Why is there this terrible sinking feeling that fits a famicom cart?
Wonder if it allows testing or flashing of bootleg carts? There's no way this thing is legit.
Really pretty neat though! Never saw anything like it.

 

It's pretty obviously a FC slot. But in which way does that make it in no way legit?

It would fit right in with other Intelligent Systems hardware.

 

My guess is that it's used to test GB carts - probably runs tests on the internal RAM (if fitted) and does a checksum test on the ROM. I would also guess that as it is, it does absolutely nothing - because the operating program and the cart signatures would have been on the cart that plugs into the upper "main socket" - and that's missing.

I suspect the seller has quite a few of them, too - there are at least two, since the photos are clearly from different units (compare the position of the instruction sheet in the photo of the LCD to the others).

 

It is official; it looks identical to this, only a GB version:



It's a ROM checksum testing machine... and the software may well be in a separate Famicom cartridge (not included).

Though the interface between the Famicom (most likely) and GB hardware would be very interesting if investigated & reverse-engineered.

edit: I just realized that the FC checker has the same label in the lower-left of its case, making it a Famicom Universal ChecKer, or F.U.... for short. ;-D

 

The pictures are all of the same unit. A blue square was edited in over information not regarding the unit. Also thought it fit in with Intelligent Systems hardware having a few units already. When I searched though was coming up with next to nothing.

 

Yeah the definitely looks to be similar to this unit. Now finding a copy of the cart used will be hard part.

 

Should be in tomorrow. Will update with more pictures then.

 

Update 1/15

Posted some pictures of the inside.

 

Could you post or link to higher-res versions of these pics? They're fascinating. I see a GB connector on a GB-to-60-pin bridgeboard. Also, on that close-up, the glue logic dates to 1989, but the RAM chip is from '95...?

 

My guess is that the GB connector is on a plug in board because this is a production testing system and it would get a lot of wear - the reason for using an FC connector on the main board is simply that they had them handy. The big gap in date codes between that RAM and the rest of the logic is interesting - perhaps it was originally a smaller capacity part and was upgraded later because something (maybe the increasing size of GB ROMs?) meant they needed more RAM.

The ZIF socket next to it looks interesting, too - I wonder what sort of device is in there - maybe a DMG-CPU?

 

http://nintendoagemedia.com/users/8123/photobucket/798E7376-D9EB-F80C-1CFD9B25218F494C.png
http://nintendoagemedia.com/users/8123/photobucket/799CB392-0EB6-D64A-688395969846FFFA.png
http://nintendoagemedia.com/users/8123/photobucket/79A8695A-0ECD-5A49-E5960F7CB2DE6777.png
http://nintendoagemedia.com/users/8123/photobucket/79BA00E4-9104-605C-4B62A93595C92F5E.png

 

Few new pictures.