Original Nintendo "Nitro" Development Kit

A super rare piece of equipment for todays video! An original Nintendo DS Development kit, the IS-Nitro-Emulator. In this video I repair it and show its functions. If you would like to see more about this unit, please watch:
Hard4Games: • Nintendo DS Developmen...
Dinos: • Nintendo DS Developmen...
Screwdriver: ebay.to/352E5QY
Soldering Iron: ebay.to/2VVj6uV
Patreon: / theretrofuture
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GameBoy Parts: bit.ly/2tZQ4iF
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The Retro Future
PO Box 174
JERSEY, UK
JE4 9RF
#TheRetroFuture #DS #Nintendo
(Links are affiliated where possible to support the channel)

[@TheRetroFuture]

Fun fact - “Nitro” was the code name for the DS, just like “Dolphin” was for the GameCube. This is why NTR is written on your game carts!

[@cameronchappell1893]

well thats cool thanks elliot

[@razingflame]

Wow 😳

[@hithere3462]

3p1c

[@flandrble]

@@kikomori CLIMAX used NTR, it wasn't very effective.

[@aliciaemiliahoward4300]

@@kikomori Just.... Why? People don't wanna be googling that.

[@SSDDR32]

"A company called Intelligent Systems" They are like a major Nintendo developer, responsible for WarioWare and Fire Emblem, as well as working a lot on hardware like you have here. They made the gameboy camera too!

[@Nintentoad125]

They also made paper mario as well I think?

[@jamiecruickshank9697]

@@Nintentoad125 Yeah, they did. One of my favourite games!

[@ungratefulmango]

They were involved with a lot of Nintendo games: Metroid, Advance Wars, Tetris Attack, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Mario Paint, etc.

[@ShinyQuagsire]

I have a Wii U kiosk unit and the motherboard is also marked Intelligent Systems, they did the 3DS devkits as well iirc. Basically all the devkits really.

[@mattbunky]

@@ShinyQuagsire intelligent systems, are often behind the prototype/kiosk stuff, i've seen a lot of hardware from prototypes with their name on it

[@em5345-]

The childhood DS sacrifices himself to fix the Nintendo DS Nitro Prototype

[@graphicsgod]

It's going to a good home..

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

Hopefully it’s only temporary. That’s just sad to use his original for that, it should be off limits.

[@ChaseMC215]

@@therestorationofdrwho1865 Elliot's got alot of DS systems

[@Decipher13]

But he didn’t. He specifically said he changed his mind because he didn’t want to have to make irreversible changes to it. He’s using the used brittle one for now until he buys another.

[@chill-ified2913]

F

[@brimless_]

It's fantastic to see a rare piece of history ending up in the right hands and being restored

[@shivalah]

"Rare piece of history." Goddamn now I feel old. I remember when the german gaming TV show Giga Games got one of those and joked around that it is "definitely included in every purchase with a DS".

[@Vird_]

Blast from the past! Thx, this brings up lots of memories. 15 years ago we had these at our university. Was my first console/dev kit that i coded for. Later on the PS3 and the PSP. Sadly we never got any other Nintendo dev kits.

[@jamesalexander5559]

Nintendo actually gave out dev kits to university's back then? I'm surprised given their stance on indie developers back then. My university professor wanted to get a Wii U or 3DS dev kit for his classes but Nintendo wouldn't let him. We ended using an Xbox One and in later classes a GBA with a flash cart to teach us C and ARM assembly.

[@fzeromaster2]

Seeing how they were able to capture the footage of gameplay is astonishing! Mind-blowing it looked like exactly how the AV output aesthetic visuals gave it that old 2000 commercial feel. Thats probably exactly how they got those small clips of gameplay for the ad

[@coolelectronics1759]

I recall as a kid seeing game footage on a CRT monitor of gba games at a walmart kiosk

[@iannorton5514]

I feel like your channel compliments Hard 4 Games perfectly, he's better at documenting software while you're better at documenting and restoring hardware. didn't expect to see an off the shelf stick of sodimm ram inside the actual box

[@avatarded5573]

that means it can be upgraded as well @theretrofuture

[@chattyinc]

@@avatarded5573 don't think the firmware can make use of the increased amount of ram though... Most likely hard coded somewhere

[@X360DevNerd]

Please do more, the dev community deserves high quality videos like this

[@eemeli7093]

"DO NOT RESALE" well uhhh-

[@unf3z4nt]

Relax, it is a dev kit for a discontinued console.

[@Loch32]

ah yes do not resale

[@eemeli7093]

@@unf3z4nt relax, this is a joke

[@poppers7317]

@@eemeli7093 relax, this is a comment.

[@norixya]

@Joshua Beattie ? the comment don hyon made was most likely not a joke (re edited to phrase better)

[@kurokoro]

Looks like a ds with a cooling system or life support...

[@poppers7317]

3DS I am your father

[@bvndmxn567]

@@poppers7317 Darth DS

[@Gramps83]

You should put a “Property of RetroFuture” sticker on there too.

[@sirkowski]

I spent 2 minutes wondering why the hardware was censored, to realize it's out of auto-focus. haha!

[@fran5678can]

lol

[@Rodville]

I made sure youtube didn't mess with the resolution, restarted my computer, and finally had to walk away for a second to make sure I was seeing ok. I'm just not used to Elliot's videos being that out of focus.

[@jakesweeney]

I think a wider appertute might be required as you can either see him or the item lol

[@Martmists]

If you're interested in the details, we've got all PCBs documented, and we've figured out how the USB-controller firmware works.

[@ungratefulmango]

We all knew this was coming :) I'm so happy you covered it

[@TheRetroFuture]

Enjoy!

[@Enoxix.]

Pretty awesome thing to add to your collection!

[@walarocks1881]

Now the DS that Reggie held on the unveiling of the original DS is the only one left.

[@emilioduran3430]

But can we just get a F for his childhood DS you will be remembered

[@lolattetheplaguedoctor]

F

[@alexp113]

*F*

[@interessiertesalzgurke404]

F

[@finji2073]

*F*

[@aliciaemiliahoward4300]

F

[@piccolo3291]

I love everything that you buy most of them have "NOT FOR RESALE" or "DO NOT RESALE"

[@DijaFix]

I was wondering why this box seemed really familiar… and then I remembered that I’ve gotten to play some game on one of those! Like a forever ago as a child, on a cruise with my family I was randomly selected with my mom to test a game in developement! They told me the controls and let me play it, then they asked me for feedback and so on. Unfortunately I can’t for the life of me remember what the game was to be called, I don’t know if it ever got released or did well, but I remember it being a pretty fun, pretty colourful platformer-ish style game. They had the box plugged into a laptop, and now seeing this I assume it was to debug the game in real time. The game feels so hard to remember because at the time there were other stationary DS units on the cruise ship playground for children to play with, they had like Pac-Man and Pokémon games on them that I remember playing. What a weird nostalgia trip this provoked, thanks for uploading! I don’t know how common it was to take the developement unit on the go. Anyone got idea?

[@snoopdoggthecertifiedg6777]

cap

[@PoutingTrevor]

Projects like this never go to plan, and I like that you show the process warts and all. Also I gotta say that those tweezers are damn sexy!

[@johnsensebe3153]

You really lucked out. Most of the debuggers did not have the video out option, as those were more expensive and were only really used for video capture, since the built-in screens were better for debugging what the end user would actually see.

[@Martmists]

NitroVideoConfigurator allows you to enable it, as it's quite literally a software flag.

[@JoshThewonder]

Thank you for this fascinating video about a historical dev kit for one of the most popular video game consoles/handhelds ever produced. I'm happy to see the kit restored and preserved for the future

[@richardespinoza2839]

I feel like Elliot is just breaking into Nintendo at this point...

[@Styrac]

"I was able to remove it with some flush cutters" Ah, the old dremel!

[@TheRetroFuture]

Hahaha

[@lucasalvo7179]

I love that you show closely what you do (for example which screws you unscrew, or which ribbon cable you detach)

[@slopesgameroom]

Would love to own something like this

[@TheRetroFuture]

They’re very cool!

[@vargasbrothers23]

Yes they are

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

I'd love to get a psp dev kit to play around with

[@cavemaneca]

I'd say it's a bit of a legal grey area to say that even he owns this. It would probably be within their rights for Nintendo to request that it be returned to them. Developers pay for the right to utilise development hardware through a license, not buying the hardware itself. That being said, it's much better when they just let people keep a hold of these older console dev kits.

[@rejectionistmanifesto8836]

@@cavemaneca how would they know it existed in the first place and why didnt they get it back from the studio originally if it was so important?

[@truecauseofchaos]

I used to love these kits; we used them extensively when testing at SEGA. I used it for: - Touch Darts - SEGA Superstars Tennis - Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. We had different test kits for the 3DS which were simply a labelled 3DS (the 3DS Devkits were similar to this; a tethered 3DS).

[@robin2080]

That Nintendo cease and desist is definitely on its way lol

[@universalmudkip7397]

For some reason during the video I heard "Doughnut" while you disassembled and showed what appears to be your childhood Phat DS and from now on, I will refer the Phat DS as "The Doughnut."

[@tredI9100]

8:44?

[@williamharris8367]

I love seeing obscure hardware like this! Thank-you. I particularly like how Elliott was able to identify the original owner of the hardware -- and the specific games developed with it. 😀

[@rizrizriz]

I was disappointed the blue box didn't go BRRRR when it's turned on.

[@jayrosgameboymodz5438]

Thanks for the sneak peek inside the blue box, nobody ever cracks that open for us. Very interesting stuff Elliot!

[@TorutheRedFox]

AV out is also from the GameCube

[@nitrax8629]

The connector goes back to the Super Nintendo even :)

[@Sylveon9021]

And nintendo 64 or n64 for short

[@StarshineFlourish]

Absolutely amazing as always man! Lost nintendo tech is my favoriteee. The way they do things behind the scenes is so interesting, I love it :D

[@kerrboturbo]

Thats a pretty neat addition to your collection, im sure theres loads of neat stuff you can do with it

[@nsp6590]

We've been waiting for this since you started posting pictures of it on twitter. Finally it's here!

[@alisonmcgregor2002]

i love how you are doing more ds videos lately

[@mariomason95]

I was just thinking about watching some of your videos, then you uploaded!

[@marcspot1]

Awesome to see you won the auction and perfect that is in good hands now

[@supermariobloxy1319]

That's quite cool. i never knew what the DS's dev kit looked like. :) I've always been interested in seeing rare tech. (Mostly with nintendo stuff)

[@knightlei6257]

i’ve been wanting to get into collecting and i was just looking at one of these kits!

[@MegaManNeo]

Interesting. A German TV channel that I used to watch back then for its gaming show had such a device as well but with a longer cable (if I recall correctly) and WFC capabilities through the use of an ethernet cable.

[@dnlptr8]

GIGA? Thanks for the nostalgia haha

[@MegaManNeo]

@@dnlptr8 The console area especially.

[@LumariaAmaranth]

FINALLY!! I'VE BEEN WAITING SINCE OCTOBER FOR THIS ONE!

[@tobyfox1799]

SAMEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[@rainz9993]

intelligent systems is also the company that makes fire emblem

[@rubiksfaq9214]

“Bits and Bobs” - as an American, I love hearing British folks use these little idioms, I hope to use it myself soon when speaking to people!

[@reinaldomartinez13]

Fr its interesting lol

[@glaciiz]

We tend to be like that sometimes.

[@xex-jdmodz]

well in Scotland. if someone was to ask where we are going?. if we are going to a shop. we would answer. going to the shop for some bits and bobs.

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

This sort of stuff is gonna get crazy expensive in the future, as portable gaming is becoming a thing of the past.

[@frikisaurio]

Is it tho

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

@@user-mp4xd4tn8l well, if you consider poker as "portable gaming" then yes lol.

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

​@@oneofthecancor How so, and please I don't want to hear about that vita thing again. It's dead as fuck lol.

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

@@oneofthecancor That's not a fair comparison as the Switch is a hybrid console. The majority of people dock their switch, which makes them mostly a home console. If you compare the number of switches that people actually bring out to play vs PS4, I doubt it is more prevalent than the PS4.

[@JGHFunRun]

@@oneofthecancor most likely all no hybrid non-PC (and eventually even non hybrid PC, I speculate that there’s gonna be something like the switch for PC, currently it’s pretty sh*tty... like the Vita was, from my understanding) will be a dead thing of the past.

[@cdoty]

As you probably noticed, the actual brains of the DS is in the blue box, and the shell simply held the screen, buttons, microphone, and glue logic. I have the DS Lite version of the developer kit. It doesn't have the AV out ports though.

[@JimPatience]

Climax were based in Brighton & Hove. I used to work down the road from them and sold them many, MANY "portable" 14" CRT televisions to attach to their dev kits. I visited them once to "install" them. At the time I was a proper fanboy of them as Moto GP for the original Xbox was getting a lot of people online to their new service. Fun facts: The woman who did the voiceovers introducing the tracks on Moto GP is called Penny, she was a PA for Climax at the time. As a some time local radio presenter, I offered my services but they declined! Also the only track on the game not to actually exist is called Sheridan as Climax were based at Sheridan House in Hove which is still there, although Climax have since moved out.

[@coolelectronics1759]

beautiful! Its crazy how this stuff is like vintage now I grew up with the ds and got mine when I was 11, late april of 2005! Ill never forget coming home from school the one day and there it was, the box on my bed containing the silver Nintendo DS metroid edition bundle!

[@donsolos]

Me and all my friends had the OG DS in middle school. Whenever I see one turn on and hear those couple chimes... so nostalgic

[@ctrlaltrees]

This is what I keep coming back to this channel for. So cool to see a rare piece of hardware restored and up and running! Great job. 👍

[@tobyfox1799]

BEEN WAITING SO LONGGGGGGGGGG FOR THISSS

[@dgpsf]

That's kinda rad, it's basically a "desktop computer" version of a portable console. So weird and, if you combine it with 2 monitors, a really cool way you could add the DS to an interactive museum where you can play all the consoles.

[@glaciiz]

I did some research about this device a few months ago and I was honestly surprised this existed.

[@clynaack]

Heck yea! getting my first ds lite on Tuesday because of your videos!

[@clynaack]

wow this is my first ever hearted comment!

[@ShadowLuna101]

Watching you clean this is very relaxing

[@dawhelan]

Oh I used to have one of these on my desk, back in my development days of 2008/2009

[@drcarrot415]

Overlord and Diner Dash were actually some top tier games, though I never played them on the ds.

[@Last_Colossi]

Awesome video Elliot! Just an FYI for people, magic erasers are great for cleaning certain surfaces that have tough marks on them but be aware that magic erasers are basically just a really fine grit sandpaper so it's actually sanding away at the marks you're cleaning off, so never use magic erasers on stuff like game catridge labels, stickers, shiny plastics and surfaces that have delicate paint or aren't meant to have a matte finish.

[@StudioGallifrey]

"Definitely not shovelware" Okay but like Nicktoons Unite was my childhood... Mind you the version on GameCube and PS2 was the one I played, but still.

[@uklu]

I remember not speaking english as a kid and not even being able to beat the first level. It looked so cool though back then.

[@ClickItYT]

I played the German version on my DS lite. Surprisingly Climax isn't mentioned on the packaging, just THQ. I never played the game till the end at that time, but a few weeks ago I got my DS back out of the cupboard and finished the game.

[@REALmyenemy]

You did keep the integrity of your childhood DS. I sub.

[@EduardoWeidmanBarijan]

Nice to see dev kits like that. Some people still thinks the games are developed on actual retail hardware.

[@nightmare_jpg]

This box is the best thing on your collection

[@RetroBerner]

Might as well use a new aftermarket shell, maybe see if you can find one that matches the blue of the box

[@dez-m]

Love your videos Eliot! So excited for you to delve into this device! Wishing you a safe year.

[@HaruVibes_]

Now this is cool as heck. Great content Sir! I'm curious if you ever get Nintendo actually reaching out to you on some of this stuff lol. Like I'm pretty sure they don't want most average folks seeing these >,>

[@JuicyJakeRepairs]

looks sooo much better cleaned and fixed up haha

[@grantm902]

A few years back, a long-term contributor to a music electronics forum contracted MRSA, of all things, by cutting his finger on a solder joint in an amplifier kept in storage. It was definitely a rarity, but watch out, as sometimes organic matter can find its way into gear. Please consider some sort of protection for your hands!

[@GameInCanada]

unreal dude so cool, cant wait to see it completed with a new ds, that video out feature is worth the whole unit

[@mecasacax]

its you again.

[@djessy5001]

I actually went to a Pokemon Black (on DS) Championship in Paris, and they used something like that to show the game to the spectators. One of the oponents just had to put his gamecard inside the 'Nitro kit', and his top display was shown to the spectators

[@mikeelewis1398]

I noticed there's not alot of ads in the video I quite enjoyed it and I'd be happy to watch more ads to support you mate

[@weaponizedemoticon1131]

Dang that is beautiful. Legitimately, a wonderful piece of slightly retro tech.

[@belmarduk]

It's such a bummer that first gen DSes are all basically disintegrating at this point when Nintendo otherwise had such a good rep for product durability

[@easyaspi31415]

Yeah, I also was kinda disappointed in the production quality of the original DS, especially in comparison to the GBA SP which just *felt* more sturdy.

[@coolelectronics1759]

yeah, wonder if there are shell reps being made you can still get from china or something with superior formulation in the plastic chemestry

[@GoodwinsPlace]

That's a very nice bit of kit for the collection. Good work as always on the clean up.

[@monkeysyndicate]

Nice work dude, very jealous you have snagged one of these. You could always just get a 3rd party replacement DS shell, then you know at least the plastic should be good for a couple more decades.

[@EEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIII]

Cool fact: Intelligent systems is also the same company responsible for the Paper Mario series! Happy 20 anniversary🥳🥳

[@bend1119]

Hard for Games is the most underrated channel on KZbin. His content is amazing!

[@zoeherriot]

I had one of these on my desk for years. Pain in the arse to use.

[@nolyd3248]

That was a very nice capture of the DS. You should do more of those gameplay videos!

[@alan16cr]

Great job men that development kit back to life, salutes from Costa Rica Pura Vida 🇨🇷

[@proxy1035]

it makes sense that the main PCB of the DS' look different. after all the dev one is just a shell with some buttons and 2 screens, all the actual componenets like the CPU are in the box it's connected to.

[@MyRetroWatches]

Elliot, I really enjoyed that, understood little of it but still end to end watching! Like the Seiko to my man! Keep it up!

[@TheRetroFuture]

Thanks Mike!

[@XxLaMaravish13xX]

Tbh idk what it is but your videos are addicting

[@megamanfan3]

It's rather interesting that the SDK was made by the company behind the Fire Emblem series.

[@flandrble]

IS also made the Wide Boy and other dev kits

[@TurboCharged_RubberDuck]

Hey Elliot... really cool to see this! A teeny, tiny, question... does the cartridge and card slots work with real games?

[@mecasacax]

It depends. The IS-NITRO-EMULATOR can only read dev games, but you can use software to upload a rom to it.

[@NekoMichi]

0:34 - Wait... I just lost an eBay auction for one of these for £200... Was that you? Edit: Never mind, the one I lost was a JPN-region unit whereas yours is EUR.

[@Violant3]

6:22 perfectly cut screams LOL

[@shivalah]

Love your high quality "Tech ASMR".

[@og-nesley3885]

Tip for you sir. Fill the brittle post holes with CA glue and a small amount of baking soda mixed in. Once it dries take a drill bit the size of the diameter of the shaft of the screw ( the part that the threads spin around) and drill it out. Once that's done put the screws back like normal, they will cut new threads in the posts as you screw them in. Also if you want to cut it in its brittle state use a dremel with a metal cut off wheel or sanding drum, it will melt the plastic and not put the brittle plastic under stress. Hope that helps in the future.

[@SixtyDoesStuff]

I adore your sense of humor.

[@williama29]

I have to love watching the retro Future

[@CrispyBrisket]

This comment is on a year old video, but one tip for white cables that need cleaning... your favorite, IPA. I used to work on Apple displays, and the way we cleaned all the white cables was with little prepackaged medical alcohol prep pads! works absolute wonders

[@samsa4291]

hi elliot just wanted to say thankyou for all your extremely helpful and entertaining content !!! i just bought a 2ds xl pokeball edition (broken) and thanks to your help have replaced the top screen and cartridge reader and also the rear facing camera and volume slider .... just like new now !!! thankyou so much for the help and information and i hope you and family are safe and well :) lots of love from West Yorkshire

[@pou3321]

I would actually love to have one box like this in my room.

[@cyclonexe]

Sweet find! Although, I must say I was distracted by your great looking watch!

[@supermahmoud]

This Kit makes me nostalgic, I used to work with those a lot when I worked in Ubisoft between 2008 and 2012 before switching to Vita! I remember we had 2 type of Kits, one for Debug/Testing and another one for Capturing/"Burning" carts if I recall right And we had those DS carts but taller with 512 MB, some of them could Save, some not This brings me so many memories...

[@donsolos]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing

[@SuperMarioAPA3968]

Nice Video Elliot.

[@KaBArtStudioStLeonard]

Ohh! This is so cool!! The magic eraser is a life safer lol.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Beautiful machine, you made it like almost like new! The visually impaired (such as myself) would have loved one of those to see the DS on TV.

[@ulyxsigma]

I love to see the orignal nintendo❤!

[@heyitsthatdude17]

What causes some DSs to yellow and break down sooner than others? UV exposure?

[@TheAechBomb]

yeah, the plastic gets brittle as it yellows

[@wojtekpolska1013]

another difference of the shell, is the development kit lacked the Nintendo DS logo under the screen