Nintendo Ultra 64 Prototype/Dev Kit?

For those who don't know, The Nintendo Ultra 64 was the early name of the Nintendo 64 (mostly used at SpaceWorld '95 and E3 1996) and this console is region free, I believe Nintendo used it to change the region of the cartridge for use on other consoles. I've tested it with Japanese and US games.
I found it on eBay from a reliable owner.
So, without further ado, here's some images:







I also noticed that someone found some Ultra 64 controller protos, but I just use a standard N64 controller.
It still says "Nintendo 64" because Nintendo 64 was going to be it's title ONLY in Japan.
Apologies about the low quality images, I'll put up some better ones soon.

EDIT: Here's an image I found online of Deck #53:


That's proof it's real!

 

IMO I doubt its actually Ultra 64, someone probably slapped on the sticker and tried to sell a non existing item. But the acquisition part leads me to think that its just used as a place holder name until Nintendo 64 was final.

 

I'm only willing to believe it's an actual Ultra64 when I see the U64 logo on the front up the system.

 

Can you fix the images please?

-doulomb

 

Can you post some pics of the front logo and, if possible, the insides?

Are you sure it's not a standard N64 with a new sticker? Japanese games work on the US N64 and vice versa. The only two regions for the N64 are NTSC and PAL. Can someone verify if actual Ultra 64 prototypes can play retail N64 games?

 

Images don't even load for me.

 

The only thing I've ever seen with "Ultra 64" on it was the original GIO bus development card that SGI made.

 

There was no official Ultra 64 logo. The ones you find online are fan-made.

 

I did test it with retail games. It works!
And, NTSC-J games do NOT work on NTSC-U systems.
It uses the "Nintendo 64" logo because it was going to be called that only in Japan.

 

The only difference between J and U consoles are the dust slots to match the tabs on the bottoms of the carts. It's very well known that they're compatible.

 

Japanese game DO WORK on American consoles since they have the same region chip. The only thing stopping it is the tabs in the cart slot. It's the same with NTSC SNES systems.

 

Then why do they have Japan to US adapters for sale online for N64?

 

All those things do is extend the cart slot, containing nothing but pass-through circuitry. They exist for people who don't want to remove the tabs in the N64. Don't believe us? Then take apart a Japanese N64 game and pop the bare PCB into the cart slot of a US system. Assuming you put it in the correct way, turn on the power. The game will boot normally.

It's been tried and tested for years. The lock-out chips are the EXACT same. They have the same code programmed into the chip. The N64 has two regions and two regions only: PAL (Europe) and NTSC (North America and Japan).

 

The three regions are PAL, NTSC, and MPAL: 0, 1, and 2 respectively.
It's not the CIC chips that perform the lockout but software; the PIF returns the region type for the console and the software will filter out the types it will allow to run. By default the standard libraries will allow both MPAL and NTSC carts to run on MPAL and NTSC consoles.

Actually, there are several out-of-region carts that will boot on the wrong system, displaying a message similar to "this game was not designed to be played on this system".

 

Ah I see. What's this MPAL region for?

 

Probably Brazil and some parts of Asia I would imagine.

 

Absolute rubbish. They were in magazines before the Nintendo 64 came out.

I've merged some of your posts - please refrain from double posting. Use the edit button, or multi-quote (as per my guide, it's really easy - just hit reply on the posts you want to reply to).

As people have told you, your images are broken.

 

There is kinda logo in the Killer Instinct arcade intro.

 

Want see the mainboard. But i think its not really a prototype or so... More some steps after the Indy U64 board. But nice find at all
Also we will see the modification for the partnerN64 if this is a devkit deck.