what are these?

[scurl]

got a bunch of stuff that was used by black box games which included multiple dreamcasts and various dc parts, and these japanese dcs have strange boards on them. the perfboard one is a prototype, i think, and the pcb is final version with "black box games" printed on the board.













i THINK they're for debugging, but i'm not into dev stuff so don't know. I just know they're very similar to the debugging boards that are on the psx systems i got in the same bunch of stuff.

Was hoping someone here might be able to shed some light on these because, time for refreshing honesty, i want to sell them and need to know what they are lol
i haven't powered anything on as the post it notes on the prototype that say "fucked?" and "catches fire?!" are pretty clear about not....doing that.

[Anthony817]

Yeah these are debugging systems for testing games. Looks pretty crazy how they did it. Kinda rare I would say though compared to the 10 million released retail consoles made. Would be nice if you could document what it looks like on the inside but the way these things are modded it may fall apart if you take it apart.

You may want to post this over at Obscure Gamers for more info. But pretty cool nonetheless. And yeah I wouldn't power the one up that says that on it. Not until somebody that understands electrical engineering to take a look at it first.

I would post this same thread over there.

https://www.obscuregamers.com/forums/ra ... gaming.12/

[scurl]

right on, i'll do that! thanks!

[scurl]

also, here. for what it's worth. the rats nest of wires is fun.

[Anthony817]

Damn thanks for the detailed pictures! I can say right away that cracked breadboard in the first image can be fixed by maybe gluing the broken part back into place and then bridging the connections to get them maybe working again.

But whoever built these it was a lot of work.

[Ian Micheal]

Looks like to me they did not have a proper katana dev kit thought fk it we will make our own..
This was also done with software creations they made the first nes devkit from scratch them self later a snes dev kit..


Like a custom dev kit hack .. if you had a retail katana dev kit you not need to do any of this..


Not only is this rare but i think should be kept it's amazing fine sure some when on that dev team if you post enff will fill you in on what that all does..


My guess they reversed the dreamcast and built there own dev kit to send there game to with out needing any thing from sega

[scurl]

they did the same with playstations (i have 2), built their own debug consoles with homebrew cards, but also had a proper psx dev card (which i sold) so, i don't know, maybe they'd just get one proper dev kit then build the rest in house to save money.
and i have five of these modified dreamcasts, three ntsc-j and two ntsc-u, so i suppose i could keep one if i wanted, but my wife already eyeballs my console collection enough without the exposed boards and rats nest of wiring lol

[mrneo240]

Does that mean they're for sale?

[scurl]

i'm not trying to post them for sale here now, just identify them so i can sell later and also to satisfy my curiosity. i'd love to know how i could test the function of the debug cards as that's what i'm totally unfamiliar with. i've got computers with serial ports and i've got cables that'll join the card on the DC to the pc, but beyond physically connecting things and the basic "does this console start and play" tests i don't know what to do so that i can firmly state "works" with these.

[runkthepunk]

Great find!

I'm probably being naive but if these are 'homemade' dev kits would they be worth documenting so people who wanted them could make their own?

I guess a lot of dev work is done in virtual environments on pc moving to DC emulators nowadays but surely these would be of use?

Only thing is perhaps bespoke software is required to operate them so then maybe not so much use :/

Anyway just an exciting find getting me excited