N64 Console with unique shell & unknown board serial number.

I have had this console sitting in my garage for awhile now. I am hoping someone has seen something similar or just can help me find some info on it. The first thing that is unique is the shell itself. The plastic doesn't have any texture to it. It is just flat and shiny. The basic outline of the system is the same however, the rear of the shell in the power slot have two distinct waves where the top and bottom meet. The edges are smooth not cut out so it was definitely machined that way. There was no jump pak cover when i got it so I don't know if it originally had one or not. The game slot is obviously missing that normal flaps security lock out piece. Since that peiece isn't there is easily can play either US or Jpn games. The stickers that are on it have been there since I picked it up. N4 in the upper left, V1 on the top center (version 1?) also where the serial number normally is there is just the #32. On the bottom right there is remnance of a sticker, what looks to be some kind of tamper evident sticker at one point. Moving into the guts you find the most significant part. The number on the board is NUS-CPU-E7I. I have not found another serial number like this anywhere in my search. It is clearly marked 1996 which would make sense if it was used before the initial launch. The other thing that stood out to me was that where all the other boards I have seen have a 5-6 digit series of numbers typically with 3 digits then a dash and 2 or 3 more. I do not know what those numbers mean but I have seen them on every other board that I have seen. I would love to find some more information on this since I am completely stumped. If anyone has information or has questions that may lead to some answers I would very much appreciate the input. My brother David Hamblin posted about this a year or two ago but I don't believe he found any answers. I have since purchased it from him. The best possible answer I have heard so far is that it is possibly a PVT or DVT manufacturing sample. Thanks Josh

 

Nice piece !

It looks indeed like a manufacturing sample. The shiny plastic look is probably a plastic finition test. The two plastic waves at the back are molding default, so it is another proof that this unit is a design test. About the PCB, I can't help a lot to find out more informations on it.

Note: after a closer look at the PCB, there is a Capacitor at the bottom right of the picture that is not on the other N64 PCB I have seen.

One more Note: After a quick look at other PCB on google, this Capacitor also appear on some others PCB, so my previous note wasn't useful (as this whole post haha).

 

Very intriguing item. NUS-CPU-E7I PCB = Engineering, Revision 7, Internal? The '96 copyright on there feels a bit late to be doing mold tests though, unless maybe this was for choosing a manufacturer in the US...? Or maybe they simply predated the stencil

 

My old pre-production Sega Saturn console was just like that. Sounds like production sample or housing test sample...

 

Was? WAS? WASSSS?

Also very interesting! Love it when folks find these types of things, thanks for sharing

 

yeah that plastic is very protype-y

 

[GALLERY=media, 1458]Saturn_prototype_001 by HEX1GON posted Aug 26, 2016 at 8:14 PM[/GALLERY]

 

The picture of the back where the power adapter goes is quite nice to see.

The wavy plastic that shows the internal part of the board is from an injection molding issue. That happens when you use too little plastic or not enough plastic flows to that part of the mold.

These usually get tossed out or recycled for other things when that kind of defect happens.

Nice piece. Love to see these oddities.

 

cheap on purpose for a proto

 

Or when the heating flow of the mould isn't good.

And yes, pretty strange that they used it to mount a complete system

 

1996 is really late for such a piece. Which revs of the CPU and RCP are used here? Could you share pictures of the mainboard without the aluminium blocks? The PIF seems to be the same as used on the NUS-CPU-01 boards... and generally the board layout exaclty like the NUS-CPU-01 boards...

 

This looks like a pre-production evaluation motherboard, it is very unique (apparently controller routing was on the top layer?) Would you be able to provide a picture of the bottom side of the board?

I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that your motherboard was manufactured around the end of February in 1996, given the time stamp Nintendo silk screened beside the CPU. NUS-CPU-01 (first commercial revision) was manufactured in March, then the -02 revision afterwards until sometime around the 3rd quarter of 1996.

I've tracking Nintendo date coding for sometime on SNES and N64:

 

There should be a picture of the top of the board. I will take pictures of the bottom later this afternoon, when I have time to break it down.

 

I meant pictures without the aluminium blocks on CPU, RCP and RAM - so we can seen the markings on these chips

 

Update: I decided to completely take down the N64 and while taking close up pictures I found a date of manufacture on the bottom of the board. I have looked at this board multiple times and never noticed the date until I saw it through my phone's camera. I was so excited I almost dropped the phone. I have spent so many hours trying to get some answers and this is a big step. I am not sure what it proves other than it was definitely produced 7 months before launch. I am not an expert but I have been told that a prototype would be an item put together different then the release and in general with more crude appearance/materials and a manufacture's sample would be more like an item shown off at a convention like E3. It is probably just semantics but I don't want to misrepresent what the item is, so please give me your opinions on it. I'd love to track down more history on it, but don't know where to go from here.

 

YES! The date agrees with what I suggested in the code/date stamping next to the CPU - this is awesome! Somehow the image of the bottom of the board is very small, could you kindly re-upload a larger one please ?

This motherboard was made weeks before the first commercial revision. This is likely final pre-production/evaluation. In order to meet their launch deadlines in 1996 for both Japan and US, they needed to finalize design and begin production quite early - it is probably safe to say Nintendo was wrapping things up in February of 1996. N64/U64 Hardware prototyping was largely already done in 1995. This might be closer to the type of hardware that Nintendo may have used for their 1995 Shoshinkai show – these were already using the multi-out connector.

 

I will attach another one and highlight it. When I click on the above attached picture it is large but if you are still having trouble seeing it let me know and I will try to enlarge it. Thanks for you input. I have been searching for months for something like this. I honestly almost sold it a few days ago when someone offered me a couple hundred bucks for it but I just couldn't let it go before I had some answers. Man I am sure glad you suggested taking those pictures even though I had seen the board numerous times and even photographed it I never noticed the date until this last time. Now I doubt I'll ever sell it!! Thank you again and anymore help in digging up history or who I may contact to find out more would be awesome. I will be bringing it to the PRGE where there will be other historical items on display this year.

 

Do you know which connector was used on the earlier prototypes before Shoshinkai 95? I've seen pictures from RAMBUS that shows a board with a different connector, but I can't recognize it exaclty.

 

The images of the Nintendo chips and the zoomed-in date on the bottom corner both came in nice and large, it’s just the picture of the entire under-side is very tiny and pixelated and can’t be zoomed.

I have never seen the prototype stage AV connector, but I have seen its board pattern comprises of a single row of 9 pins – or this could have just been a break out method for conveniently hooking up and testing signals. I am guessing the Ultra 64 dev kits by SGI were already using multi-out early on.

The “Ultra 64” prototype motherboard was revealed at LA SIGGRAPH in August of 1995 by NEC, in the form of a picture not physical hardware – it has a slightly bluish appearance. I know Rambus pictured of one of those prototypes (less chips mounted) for a newsletter article. I am assuming that 1995 prototype was mostly intended for proof of concept and electrical testing since there are many design differences compared to E7I and commercial revisions.

 

I think so too. Probably Nintendo planned to use the Multi AV out since the very beginning of development.

Yes, exactly! There are two different photos floating around that were taken at Siggraph 95 - both show the picture showcased by NEC / RAMBUS from slightly different angles. Is the newsletter article you're refering to that one that also showed the Sega Saturn chip set?