"Gameboy Developer Unit" on eBay. But what is it? (56k GTFO)

[nitro2k01]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 1132565783" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This item caught my on eBay. A big metal box touted by the seller as a "Gameboy Developer Unit (Game Boy) Dev Kit Bundle". Well, after some cursory inspection, I can almost certainly say that this is in no way an officially licensed Nintendo product.
Let's do some cursory inspection of the item from the pictures and text.







As the seller says, "It's all metal so it's heavy but there is no interference from other devices when your playing so the signal quality is superb." We're seeing a solid metal box with a big clonkin' power switch and nice big heatsinks on the sides for superior heat dissipation. (Hey wait a minute...)

The cartridge appears to be an EMS 64M USB cartridge moved to a generic GB game shell. If you look closely you can see how the cartridge case doesn't actually close completely. Look at the full size image on eBay if you're interested. (EMS's own cases are taller on the top part of the cartridge to accommodate the USB mini connector.)

The SNES controller seems to have an extra wire wrapped around the cable. I'll come back to that in a sec.



This is the back panel where a lot of the connections are made. The most interesting shot of the unit, and coincidentally the only one that is blurry. This is the ultimate tip-off that this is not an official Nintendo unit. This is very obviously a reused case, considering all of the unused connector holes. Nintendo would not have manufactured anything like this.

So what do we have here? Stereo audio out, and the proclaimed S-video and composite out. So far so good. Then there's the DB9 connector that sticks out like a sore thumb. And where does the SNES controller plug in?? And what's that extra wire I remarked on before??? The seller claims "For controls you plug in a generic SNES controller." But I believe this to be false. I believe whoever made this unit modified the SNES controller and was 1 wire short of the number needed for all the buttons in the cable with most wires that he had lying around. This would also explain the DB9 connector, 8 buttons + ground. Note how the images are conspicuously leaving out the other end SNES controller cable.
And I need not add that Nintendo would not release a product with a single wire running on the outside of a cable like that.

So what games does it play?









Pokemon Silver, Super Mario Advance, Super Mario 1, 2, 3, 4, _16, HEY WAIT A MINUTE. The seller does claim "You can also install numerous games at once like pictured.", but these look like a preset list of games that would come with a GBA clone. Yep. This simply appears to be a consolized GBA clone or something of that nature, in a case belonging to maybe an old projector judging from the case.

So who is the seller, exactly? The seller claims "I'm selling my NTSC Gameboy developer kit. I don't know much about this, but it is fun as anything." I did some basic research on this as well. Searching for xcrossxi3 on a certain well-known search engine gives a YouTube channel with an Atari Portable as the only video. Interesting. Let's refine the search to xcrossxi3 site:benheck.com. This leads back to a well-known name around here, SonyPortableizer. His homepage as listed here on the BH forums is http://www.freewebs.com/xcrossxi3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. inb4 all SonyPortableizer's posts that mentioned xcrossxi3 will say "last edited 2013-07-08". In that case, the Google cache will still linger for a few more days.
All of a sudden "I built this and I'm asking for a massive overprice" seems much more likely than the claim "I don't know much about this".

So what appears to have happened SonyPortableizer took a GBA clone that has video out, and put it in a random big-ass metal case. He then sells it with a starting bid of $310 and probably hopes that someone will (nudge nudge wink wink) think it's some ultra-rare development equipment from back in the day and start bidding like crazy. (Granted, nowhere does it claim to be official Nintendo brand development equipment, but that's obiously what he wants you to believe.)

SonyPortableizer, I'm sure you've put some small amount of work into this, but the lies and deception sure leave a bad taste in my mouth. As you're a regular on this forum, you'll sooner or later see this thread. When you do, feel free to comment shattering any and all misconceptions I might have about the issue.

[wallydawg]

Thanks for posting the pictures since eBay removed it already. This really doesn't make any sense though. Anybody who would be remotely interested in a real gameboy development kit would notice pretty quickly that this isn't anything of that nature. If it was an actual consolized gba I'd argue that it would garner more interest in stating what it actually was instead of lying about it, but since its just a clone system I'm not sure what is really going on here.

[palmertech]

Good detective work!

He has not logged in for three weeks, and has not posted in more than a month. Not sure he will see this.

[nitro2k01]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gameboy-Develop ... 1133244477" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hmm, I thought maybe he saw this thread, and freaked out and removed the listing. But now he has put the unit back for sale and the listing is modified, suggesting that maybe eBay pulled the listing.

What this item is NOT:
-There are no Boot disks
-There are no Game enhancers
-There are no Mod chips
-It is not a Modified game system
-This isn't Softmodded

It will not play backups and it will not play imports. It also does not bypass a security check performed by a game console during the bootup sequence

So I repeat, it does not do the above. I don't know why eBay thinks it does this but this is not the case.

It is a Nintendo Made Gameboy, that plays Nintendo licensed games. It will also play games that you developed as this is what the unit was designed for.
Sorry about being so serious about what it won't do. eBay thinks its some sort mod chip. To be honest I don't think they even exist for the Gameboy system so there is no way it should be removed.

Especially the sentence "It is a Nintendo Made Gameboy" which I still suspect is a lie. I suspect this to be a clone with video out and built-in games, with the alternative being a GBA with a TV out kit installed, and a GBA pirate multi cart used for the demonstration.

The image of the unit showing the ROM menu is gone. And so is the hyperbole about hacking Pokémon, which is now replaced with a shorter statement:

It has a player link port so you can pop in your copy of Pokemon silver and battle against your friends on the big screen.

There's also this curious passage:

This plays any Licensed Gameboy game like a normal Gameboy would. It also plays games you create from scratch as this is a developer unit. Meaning it was designed to play games you develop. I personally created a Megas XLR top down shooter game and it played beautifully. (For those who don't know it was a show on TV that never had a game and I always wanted one when I was younger). It will not play games that are stolen (ROMs), backups (Again illegal ROMs), pirated or anything other then licensed work that Nintendo allows to play on their system.

Apart from the now-evident paranoia about illegal ROMs so the listing won't get pulled again, he claims to have made a game. Has anyone heard about that, or is it just complete bull?

[nitro2k01]

I've sent SonyPortableizer a PM. Let's see if he will reply.

[ttsgeb]

Guess I have to find another reason to report it this time...

[nitro2k01]

I don't know how well eBay keeps track of previous reports and deleted listings, but you could refer back to the old listing, maybe?

[nitro2k01]

I took a look at SonyPortableizer's posts and found this:
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php ... 14#p487014" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Basically our house may be foreclosed on so I need this stuff gone fast

But still, yeeeeah...

[absolalone111]

I took a look at SonyPortableizer's posts and found this:
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php ... 14#p487014" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Basically our house may be foreclosed on so I need this stuff gone fast

But still, yeeeeah...

I would feel a bit of pitty for the dude, if it wasn't for the fact that I've seen people pull similar skits, and their sob-stories turn out to be fake.

[gamer255]

It seems as if he has made a new one.
It looks better than the last but component? really?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gameboy-Develop ... 4175ca0889" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[nitro2k01]

Yep, beat me to it.

So, time for a little commentary.


Smaller sleaker case than last time. Looks pretty professional. Until...



you look at the other side. It's as if someone found oil and just said drill baby, drill! I'm also not sure if I like the looks of that DC barrel jack.


In this image we can see that he has actually learnt how to use the macro function on his camera so that everything isn't a blurry mess when he moves the camera closer than 20 cm (8 in) or so to the object he's photographing. This allows you to see the manually filed hole for the cartridge, for a nice rustic touch.
He explains this as: "There are signs of use where the cartridge slid in over the years as you can see in the photo. Constant use just did that. It's not a problem or noticeable, but it is worth mentioning."
Yeah, because aluminum is such a soft metal and will easily get chipped in a metal file like pattern, just by inserting and removing a plastic GB cartridge a lot of times.

He also seems to be using an actual NES controller connector that's wired up correctly. Maybe he managed to figure out how to connected a shift register or similar to read out the state of the controller and forward it. Or he paid someone else to do it for him.


And finally the money shot, this slightly more polished turd sitting on top of an authentic NES Test Station. Nothing says authentic like that shot. Nothing except maybe, you know, if the damn thing was actually real.


Btw, if anyone is wondering, I managed to figure out where the case of the old unit came from, an amplifier called Russound DPA-1.2.
http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Common/russ ... /DPA12.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[palmertech]

I bet it is using GBA internals of some kind, with a peg to keep GBA games from being inserted.

This would not be so bad if it was not clear that he is making these himself and lying about where they came from.

[nitro2k01]

I bet it is using GBA internals of some kind, with a peg to keep GBA games from being inserted.

Why would he bother doing even that, though. On the first one he obviously didn't care about it. If he wanted to keep the user from inserting a GBA cartridge, he could just place the cart connector so far back that you can't insert a GBA cart. Judging form the video, he may actually have done that.

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=21bw6co&s=5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This would not be so bad if it was not clear that he is making these himself and lying about where they came from.

Yes, this is exactly my sentiment. He's gambling on the idea that some collector who's out of the loop will fall for it and think he bought the rarest equipment that ever existed.