Nintendo 64 Motherboard Revisions/Serials Info Request

[timmeh87]

haha. nice

Anyways I was thinking that we should start collecting broken "VDC-NUS" boards.

Or at least the chipset. Thats really all I want, I might have a use for like. 5 or more of each chip sometime in the future. Anyone have something like that?

[Ben Cebhrem]

Serial Number: NS100932881

Board revision 3

VDC-NUS BU9801F 627 173

(Might be helpful to note to others that the VDC chip is to the right of a heatsinked chip, and has about 24 pins)

EDIT: What's the lowest serial an N64 could go to? I'm curious after having checked out your list.

EDIT 2: I found out I'm a huge packrat. I took apart an N64 a year ago, as I had planned to make a portable of it. It's all been packed away, neat and clean, static free, etc... dissasembled, AND with all the parts. For a year.

Serial Number: NS225840672

Board Revision 5

AVDC-NUS BU9805FS 837 138

[Kyo]

"It is possible (but not definite) that all French N64's with "NUS-001(FRA)" can be RGB modded, and that all "NUS-001(EUR)" cant - this would make the serial number irrelevent."

I am 90% sure this is true. The european version did not have RGB at all, however, the french had it because of secam. This is the only reason there was a france only version. When they dropped it, france just got the european version which can not be modded.

[Link83]

Thanks very much everyone, I have added your serials to the list and its starting to look a lot better

(Might be helpful to note to others that the VDC chip is to the right of a heatsinked chip, and has about 24 pins)

Yes, sorry I should have mentioned that! Its on the top of the board just below the right side of the cartridge slot, to the right of the middle 'big chip' (RCP)

EDIT: What's the lowest serial an N64 could go to? I'm curious after having checked out your list./quote

Actually the first serial number you gave me is the lowest I have ever got!
I have wondered about this myself and believe that the serials for the US probably started at 'NS100000001' as I have never seen or heard of any serials starting with 'NS01-NS09'

I have always wondered what increment the N64 serials go up by for each console (eg 1, 3, 5?) but I guess we may never know that.

The US appears to have launched with the revision 3 console (NUS-CPU-03) although I do know that revisions 1 and 2 were both available in Japan as the N64 was launched there earlier. I would love to get some pictures/scans of these two early revisions!

For anybody interested you can tell what region the console is from the start code of the serial number:-
NUJ = Japan
NS = USA
NUP = PAL (Europe, Australia, etc)
Also, the US serial appears to be one digit longer (It could be that extra number in the 'grey box' which I always include)

"It is possible (but not definite) that all French N64's with "NUS-001(FRA)" can be RGB modded, and that all "NUS-001(EUR)" cant - this would make the serial number irrelevent."

I am 90% sure this is true. The european version did not have RGB at all, however, the french had it because of secam. This is the only reason there was a france only version. When they dropped it, france just got the european version which can not be modded.

I am almost positive aswell - I only added that 'not definite' part so that no-one comes back to me and says 'You said it would have RGB but it didnt, now I wasted £30...etc)
The French N64 still needs modification though to get RGB output, although its easier than on an NTSC N64 as it has a different video encoder that also amplifies and outputs the RGB so it has a nice strong RGB picture with no amp required

[Kyo]

I know, that's the weird part about it.

[Link83]

I know, that's the weird part about it.

Yeah, it is weird - they even left all the traces for RGB on the board, but then left some components off so it wouldnt work!
I think that Nintendo thought the French N64 would have to use RGB as France uses SECAM not PAL colour encoding, but that someone must have informed Nintendo that by 1997 almost all French TV's supported both PAL and SECAM. So in order to stop people complaining that 'My N64 doesnt do RGB, but my friends does' they just left components off it entirely.
....Whats even weirder is that they left S-Video off this French N64 aswell (like they did with the PAL Gamecube and Wii) even though the video chip they used supports it - this means as standard this French model can only output an RF or Composite picture!

[jleemero]

Just found myself a Revision 9 N64.
I've never seen past Revision 8 before.

I can't give much info sadly, it came from an N64 that had been pieced together from other units, so no Serial Number.

M4V-NUS
BU9906FS
040 149

[timmeh87]

Lots of companies will leave some components off of their boards. Some of it is just for debugging during design, some parts are removed in later revisions to cut costs. Sometimes they have several versions that all share the same PCB. They just dont install what they aren't selling you.

RGB seems to have been dropped from the spec early on, and it just slowly got taken away as the design went through revisions.

I always assumed every board was the same, regardless of country, and they just threw down different versions of their custom chips. ..? My NTSC board has the spot for Q1

[Link83]

Just found myself a Revision 9 N64.
I've never seen past Revision 8 before.

I can't give much info sadly, it came from an N64 that had been pieced together from other units, so no Serial Number.

M4V-NUS
BU9906FS
040 149

Thanks very much for the info Its a shame I cant really add it to the list without knowing the serial number, but knowing that there is at least 9 revisions and what the video chip is is great to know, so many thanks

I am hoping to do some high resolution scans of the three known PAL revision N64 motherboards sometime soon (Just need a new scanner) Hopefully some people with unmodified NTSC motherboards may be able to do the same (Even just some good pictures would be great).

Also for anyone interested, the video chips appear to go like this:-
NTSC
NUS-CPU-01 to NUS-CPU-04 = VDC-NUS (BU9801F)
NUS-CPU-05 = AVDC-NUS (BU9805FS)
NUS-CPU-06 to NUS-CPU-09 = MAV-NUS (BU9906FS or RS5C382)

PAL
NUS-CPU(R)-01 = VDC-NUS A (BU9801F)
NUS-CPU(P)-01 = DENC-NUS (RS5C282)
NUS-CPU(P)-02 = MAV-NUS (BU9906FS or RS5C382)

Also the last six digits printed on the video chips which are usually in groups of three (eg. 631 291) are actually the 'lot number' of the chips production.

[Link83]

RGB seems to have been dropped from the spec early on, and it just slowly got taken away as the design went through revisions.

I always assumed every board was the same, regardless of country, and they just threw down different versions of their custom chips. ..? My NTSC board has the spot for Q1

Its a shame really - RGB was available and connected on all the N64 'Ultra 64' development boards, it was just dropped before the final retail N64 motherboards were made.

There are actually quite a lot of small differences between NTSC and PAL motherboards, more so than just the PIF-NUS chip being different.

I am guessing that you have read this thread about the French N64?:-
http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3083.0

The Q1 point on the NTSC N64 is for buffering the C-Sync line. On the French N64 there is also a point labeled Q1, but theres also Q2 and Q3 and they are supposedly different components used for the RGB lines.

Sorry for the double post, I meant to just edit

[timmeh87]

Havent read much about anything other than NTSC, I dont think Ive seen a PAL or SECAM tv in my life...

Anyways I just read your thread over there now. Dont worry so hard about finding some magical obsolete transistor. If its got the Ns and Ps in the right order and says "general purpose" then you are more than halfway there.

If its PNP (looks like it), then narrow your search by the SOT-23 package first, then find something with a normal-looking beta value (by that I mean 50-150), and then make sure the transition frequency is a fair margin above your signal frequency. We are in the kHz range so that pretty well means we can use anything.

Filter some results, read 10 datasheets at random, and hopefully find one that says "low power amplifiers" or something on the first page. Theres your transistor.

Oh and you might want to make sure that the pin connections are the same . Theres only 6 possible combinations anyhow...

[Kyo]

Funny, I read that thread when there was nothing but one post. Nice and very interesting additions.

[XCVG]

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but I think it should be revived, as there is some very good info.

In any case I have an N64 that I got for 6 bucks. The number on the bottom reads NS605180732. It says NUS-CPU-05 on the board, which means it probably has the non-RGB chip.

[Tibia]

I went through most of my N64s tonight. I didn't take the heatsinks off, so I didn't get any chip numbers, but I do have serial numbers and board revision numbers.


NS116506106
NUS-CPU-05

NS168671586
NUS-CPU-04

NS25348730
NUS-CPU-08

NS218256534
NUS-CPU-08

NS263307960
NUS-CPU-05

NS263689028
NUS-CPU-08


EDIT: Fixed a mistake, but the rev 5 board really did have a lower serial number than the rev 4 board.

[Link83]

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but I think it should be revived, as there is some very good info.

In any case I have an N64 that I got for 6 bucks. The number on the bottom reads NS605180732. It says NUS-CPU-05 on the board, which means it probably has the non-RGB chip.

Thanks you for bringing this thead back, I had actually intended to get back to it but hadnt got round to it, and it seemed a shame for it to die the way it did.

About your revision - this is actually very interesting! Your serial number doesnt fit anywhere within my current serial list. I also recently got hold an an NTSC N64 with a serial starting with NS6 aswell. I was expecting it to be a late revision but actually it was a NUS-CPU-04! It is very strange as I have never come across any serial starting with NS6 before. I can only guess/assume that maybe Canadian N64's had different serials to US units - any thoughts

Tibia, thank you very much for you serials and revisions Without meaning to sound ungrateful can I just ask if your sure those N64s have never been opened before, or could possibly have had their cases mixed round? I only ask as two of those serials really stand out as being unusual if correct, mainly:-
NS116506106
NUS-CPU-08
and
NS263307960
NUS-CPU-05
They just seem to go 'against the grain' of the serials I already have, if you see what I mean.

*Serial list has been moved to first page*