I have been trying to find more information relating to the early Revolution controllers. I am mainly interested to know if anybody has used or seen these controllers and whether they were only used internally or whether they were available to all dev studios. Nintendo provided documentation and libraries, so I would assume they were available, but I have not seen any in the wild. By the way, I am not talking about the Wii wired dev controllers that were shipped with the Wii dev kits, I am talking about the Revolution controllers that were used with GameCube dev hardware. I have some documentation relating to the Revolution Development Controller Version 3 which also contains minor info about the previous revisions (Development Controller Version 1 and 2). If anyone has any info or pics relating to the Revolution Development Controller Version 1 or 2, please share them. Here is some info about the version 3 controller: The Wii Remote is provisionally called a "Game Remote Control", the expansion port has an RJ45 connection and the controller is wired with a GameCube connection. The + and - buttons are labeled select and start. The 1 and 2 buttons are labelled a and b. The Nunchuk is provisionally called a "Nunchaku Unit" and has an RJ45 connector. The Wii Sensor Bar is provisionally called a "TV Marker Unit" and features a GameCube memory card connection.
I had a Wiimote and nunchuck set for a very short period of time about 2 years ago. Long story short, the Yahoo Auctions seller I got them from (for a now seemingly low price of 13,500 yen) showed up at my door 2 weeks or so after the controllers arriving. He didn't speak very much English, so I had my apartment's receptionist translate for him, and he told me that he had been emailing me for the past 2 weeks saying that he needed his controllers back (whoops, my bad! I've always made sure to religiously check my emails after that). I asked why, and he said that he had been contacted by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft about the metric fuck-tonne of development hardware he had been selling and had been threatened with legal action. Nintendo had apparently requested my controllers to be returned (as their rightful property) for destruction. He then proceeded to pull out a large folder full of papers to show all of the other sold development hardware that he had managed to get back. It was pages and pages long, full of 360 XDKs, PS2 TOOLs and debugs, PS3 DECHs, etc and the Yahoo usernames and addresses that they had gone to. I was only 15 at the time and was sort of stunned by the whole situation, so I gladly handed the controllers back in exchange for 14,500 yen (1000 yen more than I had paid in order to compensate for the inconvenience). However there was nothing to say that he wasn't lying, and just wanted the controllers back for some other reason (potentially to sell them for more to another interested party). If 2016 me was in 2014 me's situation I would have told the guy to fuck right off and had my receptionist tell him the same, keeping the controllers. I believe a user here by the name of Teancum (who seems to have strangely disappeared...) bought some IS-NITRO-CAPTURE units from him as well through a Yahoo proxy service, and just refused to give them back when asked. So much for "long story short". Anyway, the guy was also selling the matching sensor bar but I was short a few thousand yen and my dad wouldn't lend me any money at the time. Here are some photos I luckily took of both controllers before I had to give them back. Unfortunately I didn't think to take photos of the internals, but I recall the boards looking very professional; they had Nintendo logos and I believe serial numbers as well. http://imgur.com/a/MjNun#0 Note the size difference between it and the retail products (the Wiimote was overall smaller, but the nunchuck was the same length and slightly thinner). I theorised that they were perhaps enlarged to fit bigger hands (aka. the market outside of Japan).
Thanks for the info. That's a cool story, it is a shame that you had to give the controller back, but it is great that you thought to take some pictures first. The documentation that I have doesn't mention the dimensions, so it is good to see a comparison with a retail controller.
Maybe these have to do with the earlier E3 2006 post here on AG, where they had Wii hardware inside the GameCube shell. http://assemblergames.com/l/threads...res-info-of-the-e3-2006-wii-demo-units.61853/
These are not designed for Wii hardware, they are designed for the DDH and GDEV. But since the Wii hardware inside those GameCube shells was prototype hardware, these controllers could possibly have worked with it.
Few years ago on these forums there was a topic with a PDF document who showed the Nintendo's consoles roadmap. In short, the Revolution project should be an extention for the Gamecube. But low Gamecube sales, forced Nintendo to review his project. I can not retrieve this document...
Would fit with the early versions of the Revolution SDKs being (controller) addons to the Dolphin SDK. From documentation of the Dolphin WPAD library: Code: This document has been written to support UI Tool Version 3. Two standard controller types were added with UI Tools version 3. The previously used controller is called the Game Remote Control (provisional name), and the newly added controller is called the Nunchaku Controller (provisional name). The Nunchaku Controller consists of the Game Remote Control and the Nunchaku Unit (provisional name). Also, the Nintendo GameCube standard controller can be used for debugging. ... The WPAD library for UI tool version 3 communicates with the device over serial interface (SI). Apparently it could also do some form of image detection called DPD, but that might just be for the infrared TV markers. The API refers to the WiiMote itself as WPAD_DEV_CORE and to the Nunchuck as WPAD_DEV_FREESTYLE.
Yes that would make sense. That was one of the main things that I was interested to find out. It seemed strange that these were made available so late in the GameCube's life-cycle. So I wasn't sure if these where originally intended as a GameCube add-on (like PlayStation Move) or just a way to get devs prepared for the upcoming Wii. Yeah DPD refers to the sensor that is used in the remote. Code: The Game Remote Control enables direct pointing at the television screen by recognizing the TV marker positions using the DPD sensor. DPD, which stands for "Direct Pointing Device," is the internal sensor in the Game Remote Control.
Also here is the info relating to the Version 1 and 2 controllers. Development Controller Version 1 Freehand-Type Controller A memory card slot connection controller that is comparable to the Version 3 Game Remote Control. GC Adapter-Type Controller A memory card slot connection controller that is attached to the GC controller. Memory Card Slot Connection Unit A unit that connects the GameCube to the Controller. Also used in Version 2. TV Markers Comparable to the Version 3 TV markers. These are the markers that are detected by the sensor that is built into the controller and connected to the controller port. They can be used in versions 2 and 3. In some cases, there may be a sticker that reads “Long distance” on the TV markers. If so, please do not use the TV markers and return them to Nintendo for replacement. This type of marker performs poorly and should not be used for evaluation. Development Controller Version 2 Freehand-Type Controller A controller connected to the memory card slot. The Freehand-Type Controller is comparable to the Version 3 Game Remote Control. However, it cannot be connected to the Nunchaku Unit. The TV markers and connection with the GameCube are as in version 1. Other They also experimented with attaching an accelerometer and DPD sensor to a GameCube controller. I would be interested to see if it would be possible to mod a wired Wii dev controller and retail Wii sensor bar and have them work with the GDEV using the WPAD/KPAD libraries.
