Strange Famicom Prototype/Developer Board

[Xious]

EDIT:

It just occurred to me that FCN probably means "Family Computer Network" and that this is a mainboard for the Famicom modem. Can anybody confirm this?

A member on NintendoAge posted a thread about a strange Nintendo prototype board that he purchased and I’ve been attempting to assist in identifying it and ascertaining its function.

I figure, perhaps somebody here has some insights...

The original thread is at:

http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messag ... adid=30592

This is a summary of my points on the matter. Feel free to kick them around a bit and see if you think they make logical sense to you.

1- HVC is the product code for the Famicom, not the Super Famicom (SNES). HVC = Home Video Computer. (The Super Famicom is SHVC.) i can only guess at what the FCN means, but I'd bet on Family-Computer-Network. the -12 is probably the revision number, thus:

HVC (Home Video Computer Part) - FCN (Family Computer Network) - Revision 12

2- The size of the board and the connector lead me to believe that it is some kind of developer board product for the Famicom A/V or part of the development-cycle of the A/V itself.

3-That 42-pin connector reminds me mostly of the 48-pin expansion bus connector of the American NES.

3- It looks like it could plug into the top of a Famicom A/V unit, although that doesn't mean anything.

4- The 1993 date is what further leads me to believe it is a developer board or prototype product in the same vein as the Famicom A/V. I tried ringing NCL to see if anybody there can cross-reference the part number, but it was already after-hours in Kyoto when I called. 1993 is about when NCL released the Famicom A/V.

5- My guess is that it is a tie-in board for the A/V that allowed developers to attach external debugging devices to the A/V units, possibly for burn-ins, but the odd shape of the card seems more likely to belong in some sort of case. Of course, burn-in modules can be cased, as can developer modules, so this is clearly incomplete.

6- It's also possible that this is part of an A/V-system prototype and that the 36-pin connector went to a second unit, however I can't read the numbers on the components, so I can't tell if there is a CPU or PPU on the board. I hazard to guess that the blue connector on the side is +5V/+9V in.

I archived the photos he took and placed them on my server. here they are, so have at it:







-Xious

Why doesn't the command work?

[Jeroen]

Seems like some other fami protos that have been found. It was meant to be put into a fds ram adaptor enclosure.

[kyuusaku]

Whaaa? This thing almost certainly has NOTHING to do with game development nor would/could it be AVFC-specific.

99% sure it's just this (RELEASED) without it's case: http://www.vandal.net/reportajes/wifi/f ... system.jpg or a standalone JRA-PAT device. BTW, those aren't rare or very expensive, a few years ago you could purchase them new for ~US$50 since they are essentially useless.

[BMF54123]

It's definitely a Network System board. Aside from the similar shape, it has two LEDs on the front right corner of the board, just like the Network System (visible in the picture kyuusaku linked). Too bad it isn't something more exotic.

[Xious]

What is mentionable is that it has a 1993 date stamp, which means it is a very late revision of the Famicom network board, and I'm not sure if NCL ever used this design in production units, so it may be something out of the ordinary for those reasons.

I suspect that NCL developed this as a LC revision to save money on production of the devices, and then either canned it or pulled them very shortly after release when the Internet boom started to explode around 1994-5.

I don't have a Famicom modem handy to crack open and compare, but I doubt that the standard units have SMD components.

-Xious