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[Chittagong]

This came up in the "how do games get leaked" thread - that Nintendo of America sends first-party games in devices locked and sealed to the media in the US. I think I have heard earlier the same about GameCube.

I'm intrigued, is there any picture of what the setup looks like? Does it suck to play with that thing on?

 

[WarPig]

Generally it's just locked Cubes -- they're not as paranoid about GBA games most of the time, perhaps because they haven't had many high-profile first-party GBA titles lately. For instance, they just sent out an ordinary ROM of Mario Pinball Land.

I don't have a picture handy, but it's not much to look at. Just imagine a cheap sheet-metal bracket looped around a dark-green NR Reader debug unit with a regular old padlock holding it together. The setups for N64 games were actually a bit more imposing, that was a big metal thing covering the entire cartridge.

It doesn't really make a difference playing the game, unless you want to stack something on top of the Cube, and I don't, usually. It's already a pretty light console, too (at least compared to a goddamn Xbox or whatever), so it's not a big deal to carry around.

What used to be aggravating was not so much getting the games in locked consoles, but not being allowed to keep games sent for review. For instance, with several N64 titles -- Ocarina of Time, Jet Force Gemini, others -- Nintendo would send the locked console with a minder from their PR department, and the reviewing editor would have a limited amount of time to play through the thing while being constantly watched. Either that or you'd have to fly up to Redmond to play the reviewable version. In the GameCube era, however, they've lightened up on that score, so for most games (ever since Metroid Prime) they've just sent the locked console, let editors play it at their leisure, and then you send it back when you're done.

DFS.

 

[mrfindlay]

I know you're not supposed to post scans on this forum but this scan is pretty insignificant.
UK magazine NGC has a review for the English versions of Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green but all of the screenshot where in Japanese. To show that they were playing the English version but couldn't get any screenshots of it, they show a picture of the device Nintendo had placed on the GBA SP.

 

[WarPig]

Girdle, that's a good word for it. Or "anti-piracy belt."

DFS.

 

[fennec fox]

The girdle I'm familiar with does not have that big bar in the middle of the SP, so it's not all that difficult to play. The L and R buttons are a little harder to press comfortably, however.

Back in 2002 Nintendo would send out a locked-out version of the Intelligent Systems GBA TV display for reviewers to play with. That was superb, because at least you can take screenshots/video from it.

The N64 has similar lockout hardware on it, but the whole thing weighed a ton and you hated having to carry it around.

 

[belgurdo]

Do they sell those?

 

[jooey]

 

[ferricide]

yeah, that doesn't look anything like the one NOA uses.

i described it in the other thread.

maybe they don't send GBA lockboxes to the web guys -- they used to mostly give gamespy early retail copies when i worked there -- but for print ALL first party GBA games are lockboxed.

it makes the GBA heavy as shit. i'm holding the minish cap right now. you could fuck someone up with this thing if you hit them metal-side-down. =P

 

[mosaic]

You ought to do a photo journal of beating someone down with it, and then get it printed in a magazine. Perhaps you and SeanBaby could duel with them Def Jam style. That'd be worth dropping $4.99 on.

 

[Fifty]

You ought to do a photo journal of beating someone down with it, and then get it printed in a magazine. Perhaps you and SeanBaby could duel with them Def Jam style. That'd be worth dropping $4.99 on.

Go for it! Give EGM a kick in the pants. The kids want to see brutality.