Gamecube SN-TDEV

It's not out of the realms of possibility to certainly create something that could, in theory, be ported over to the Wii with relative ease. We have some very good tools at our disposal. Of course, it would never be a final product but it would certainly be easy enough to come up with a proof of concept and, (this is what the University is really scared of), make some money somewhere along the line.

I'm unsure about the cable on NR gamecubes. I assume that the OS disc inside the machine initiates the link and an NR machine could, in theory, read it. But since the first thing the OS does is initiate a memory check it would sharp discover it wasn't running in a TDEV and crap out. Unsure about anything else; apart from the colour and the NTSC/PAL switch it's looks pretty much the same.

I'll take some pics on monday when it's quiet.

There's no NR reader. The TDEV units need the OS disc in at all times in order for it to work. The machines we have are all sealed but, as I understand it, the minute we pop open the lid the unit stops working properly. All loading is handled through the SN Tools Utility program and the computer.

 

The devlink kit comes with the usb adapter thingy (looks like the one on the underside of the TDEV) + a NR disc (probably the same as the one you call "OS disc").
So my guess was that a TDEV is "an brown NR-reader with extra ram." + the devlink kit - now rebranded as the TDEV devkit.

 

Yeah. But as I understand it, only the OS Disc will actually boot inside the TDEV.

 

I guess they added some extra checks in the boot-up process then or something. idk, I've never had the pleasure to use one so I'm just guessing from the little info I got

 

Isn't taking pics breaking the NDA agreement you signed? I've had discussions with lead programmers who have said yes they have gear but under their NDA, they can't even show me it.

Don't get me wrong, it'd be great to see some pics, but you have to tread carefully as far as that NDA goes! Don't get kicked out of uni for it! ;-)

 

There certainly wasn't any mention of pictures in the NDA I signed. The restrictions in place were really there to stop me bad mouthing the hardware, giving away dev tools, disclosing the dev manuals.

I would be in trouble if I posted the entire Dolphin Development Manual that we have but I'm not planning on doing that. Nor do I plan on leaking the software.

Given the fact that a lot of Dev Hardware is freely available, (except the TDEV's damn them), I can't see a few snapshots particularly harming Nintendo's business. If anything I could say I was raising the profile of the hardware and the course

 

Pictures

Right. It was pretty busy today so I only managed to get a handful of screen shots.

First up is the Visual Studio Project Manager and the SN Plug-in which, as you can see from this shot, apparently supports other platforms, PS3 amongst them.

Visual Studio Gamecube Project Creation

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww198/xX_Illustrious_Xx/VSNGC.jpg

Any code we run and compile is sent to the unit with the manager tool. It's fairly straight forward; I don't think I need to explain the Playskool type buttons at the top ;-) Also, I had a poke around in this software and found that it could connect to other NGC dev hardware; there were options for serving a GDEV with code too.

Manager

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww198/xX_Illustrious_Xx/targetNGC.jpg

Debugging is done through the Gekko debugger. Part of the same tools as the above:

Debugger

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww198/xX_Illustrious_Xx/debugNGC.jpg

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww198/xX_Illustrious_Xx/debugNGC2.jpg

I also owe someone an apology. It seems that the TDEV is an NR Reader too. One of the units was open, unsealed and this was inside:

Disc

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww198/xX_Illustrious_Xx/osDisc.jpg

Standard NR Disc. I'm still fairly sure that the TDEV will only boot the code on here which we call the OS disc. If I had an NR disc I'd try it out and see.

Finally, excusing the poor quality, a snap of the USB interface that connects to the cube. This one is easier to see if you shrink it down slightly but I'll try and get a better picture:

USB Plug

http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww198/xX_Illustrious_Xx/usbCable.jpg

 

Thank you very much for sharing all of this.

Besides Visual Studio, Gekko, and ProDG, are there any other software tools that you use, even peripherally, in development ?

What creative (art, sound) tools are you using in these setups ?

 

We've got no specialised, Nintendo specific utilities for asset creation if that's what you mean. The software is limited solely to what I've shown you there.

For my own projects, I've been creating all my assets in 3DS Max; it's a standard install on the PC's in the lab we use. Putting those on the cube is relatively straight forward too. I have a MAXScript which converts MAX and 3DS models into vertex data which I can then drop into a class for the cube to use. I also use Photoshop for doing things like UI.

As for audio editing. I rarely edit sound files since I have about 30Gb of Hollywood Sound FX to drop in as I need them but any changes I need I make at home on Adobe Audition.

Of course, in the real development environment I wouldn't need to care about any of that. It would all be done for me. Although I have to admit to actually enjoying having control over all my projects assets.

 

I hope you dont mind me asking, but does your TDEV's really have an NTSC/PAL switch, or is it a USA/JPN switch as the pictures of a TDEV on the previous page showed?

 

very interesting

 

I was aware about university activities for Gamecube and Gameboy, kind of strange but nice step from Nintendo

 

You've cast a seed of doubt in my mind :icon_bigg. Our machines all run NTSC and we've never flicked them into PAL; we never touch the switch and I've not seen anything in the SDK for setting the mode in software either.

I am 99.9% sure they're NTSC/PAL switches though but I'll take another pic of the switch when I go in on Monday.