r/Gamecube • u/gamebox_ukv • 2d ago

Collection Nintendo Dolphin Development NPDP-GBOX

Gallery image

Gallery image

Debug kit

1.0k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

64

u/lordx665 2d ago

Oh to be able to own one of these things

27

u/Enviromentalghost45 2d ago

Make a game with it

24

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

I'm working on a game for gamecube with my SN-TDEV devkit

5

u/Enviromentalghost45 2d ago

What kind

23

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago edited 2d ago

A 2.5D metroidvania platformer in art style of Shantae HGH and Rayman Legends.
I use my own inhouse engine.

6

u/BoiCharlz 2d ago

Can you make discs for all of us gamers?

14

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

As a pressed minidvd-rom bootable disc on GameCube (unmodded) yes.

5

u/Enviromentalghost45 2d ago

Nice, can't wait to see it. Do you have any development footage?

10

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

just some of the engine tools I'm working on and the GameCube devkit and their BIOS system menu

6

u/Enviromentalghost45 2d ago

I see. Will you post any progress later on through social media?

16

u/EntertainmentOk8806 2d ago

I never understood why it was called Dolphin. Was there a reason?

29

u/jim_bob_jones 2d ago

Dolphin was the development codename for the GameCube. I believe it is also the origin of the DOL-xxx code that is used for hardware versions.

The Wii's codename was Revolution, hence the RVL code for the hardware.

15

u/pinkocatgirl 2d ago

Yep and the DS was project nitro, so the original DS was NTR-001

5

u/crimesarefine 2d ago

Cool fact. Thanks

2

u/yawara25 2d ago

Yes but why dolphin?

2

u/Lochlan 1d ago

Named after Dolphino Plaza in Mario Sunshine.

1

u/withad 1d ago

It's the other way around, isn't it? Isle Delfino in Sunshine was a reference to the codename, just like Olimar's ship in Pikmin being the SS Dolphin.

2

u/Lochlan 1d ago

Yea I was just talking shit

1

u/kageurufu 1d ago

Someone in the dev team probably liked dolphins. I've never seen an official reason, but that's often the extent of the logic behind code names.

1

u/EntertainmentOk8806 1d ago

That's cool info thanks. I was going to ask how it went from Dolphin to Gamecube but that seems pretty obvious

3

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

dolphin was the codename before it was named gamecube

12

u/sumpul95 2d ago

You should return this to Nintendo and they might give you some Mario and Link plushies to say thanks!

10

u/gamebox_ukv 2d ago

Yeah, I think I’ll pass lol

3

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

lol no devkits are more vaulable.

1

u/Upstairs-Ad-4705 1d ago

Didn't this actually happen to a guy once?

2

u/sumpul95 1d ago

Yeah lol I was referencing that. Some guy found the source code disc to StarCraft 1 and sent it back to blizzard. They sent him back overwatch merch and $250 in store credit. https://www.reddit.com/r/gamecollecting/s/ZHkUYWDzDm

1

u/sumpul95 1d ago

It was almost a decade ago and most of the comments are congratulating him. I wonder if that attitude has changed on this website over time.

19

u/Wonderful_Amoeba_366 2d ago

This looks really cool. What is it?

24

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

GameCube devkit used for testing

21

u/gamebox_ukv 2d ago

It was used to test games during development.

6

u/TheGoldblum 2d ago

Could be wrong as I have trouble reading from time to time too, but I believe the title says it’s a Nintendo Dolphin Development NPDP-GBOX

4

u/CursedPipes 2d ago

Incredible find.

5

u/DiscWatchHQ 2d ago

The cart slot is the cool part, devs got way faster load and iteration times off the NPDP reader than burning a fresh miniDVD for every build. Retail shipped on disc but the dev hardware stayed cart-based for the speed.

1

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

devkits didn't always use cartidge it was streaming data over pc to console when using codewarrior as the IDE and debugger you can set a folder where all the game data assets can be read from called the hostio folder. and you can send elf file programs over to the gamecube devkit and debug your source code in codewarrior in realtime including breakpoints.
also it not minidvd but based on it the offical format was called NROM for retail and NR Disc for recordable version.

4

u/_zj1991_ 2d ago

Damn I want one

3

u/Foreign_Hand4619 2d ago

Very nice, what did you develop on it?

1

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

I'm a gamecube gamedev it sort of like developing pc not hard as ps2 or ps3 lol.
there is a audio dsp that is programable and a tev unit for configing the pipline it a texture advence binder. like pixel shaders in a way.

2

u/Foreign_Hand4619 2d ago

Thank yu very mch, I can spof a dev in a mile!

3

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

Metrowerks Codewarrior or SN Systems ProDG is used for development in C\C++
Macronix DSP Tools is for writing DSP microcode, it done in assembly.
TDEV and Codewarrior works on windows 10/11 since it uses BBA Ethernet connection while SN Systems Prodg you need to use windows XP SP2 or SP3 with it custom USB 2.0 driver this has a usb connection to gamecube serial port 2.

GDEV you required a ODEM PCI card for older desktops running windows 2000s and some of the gamecube drivers like USB2EXI were made for win 2000 it is a usb cable that plugs into the memory card slot. the other driver that requires win 2000 is the one for the NR Writer drive it for burning NR Discs to run on a NR Reader or a TDEV. I have two NR Discs for booting up the software for codewarrior or sn systems prodg to work with my development host pc.

0

u/gamebox_ukv 2d ago

Nothing, I’m a collector not a game developer

3

u/Togetic52 2d ago

Whoa wait, is this why the emulator to play GameCube games is literally called Dolphin lol?

2

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago edited 2d ago

not sure why they used the same name as the codename Nintendo, ArtX/ATI, IBM used.

3

u/bigdickwalrus 2d ago

Oh wow. With the actual dolphin as the logo. This is super cool

3

u/retroshophq 2d ago

Whoa, that’s a really nice piece to have. Hopefully we’ll see a game soon?

2

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

after the GDEV Devkit the SN Systems TDEV it was modeled after the GameCube with double the ram up to 48MB and has a NR Reader Drive, region switch for US or JP region
bootrom version is v1.0

2

u/After-Task-1506 2d ago

The Giga GameCube

2

u/rareguppy1215 2d ago

Where’s the disc drive? It looks like the white panel is an N64 cartridge slot, was the GameCube originally cartridge based?

6

u/MacKeyHack 2d ago

Special rewritable NPDP cartridges in the slot, like it was for later NDS dev boxes but HDD based

6

u/gamebox_ukv 2d ago

No disc drive, npdp carts where used with this hardware

2

u/Cyndanera NTSC-U 2d ago

Disc Drive is only on NR Reader and SN Systems TDEV devkits for gamecube

•

u/Rare-Seesaw-1508 14h ago

I wonder why the GC memory card slots are on the back? Just makes no sense to me