Console expansion ports

o1s1n

Just on from the discussion of the ps1 expansion port..

These are always something I've found pretty facinating. More so for the 'what could have been' factor associated with them. You have to wonder what was going through the developers minds when they included them.

I remember seeing a Megadrive connected to a Mega CD years ago and thinking -

'how the hell did sega know they were going to add this on years later and have a port ready on the Megadrive?!'

I guess Sega were a good example of them having some sort of function. Most of them were left untouched though. How many were actually used? Another one that comes to mind is the n64 DD. Then there's the oul Snes expansion port for the ill fated cd add on that we never saw.

Retr0gamer

Console expansions just never seem to take off, ever. It's why I think kinetic is going to crash and burn. Didn't the NES have one for the disk drive as well? I think they might have been a hangover from the home micro days.

KeRbDoG

There was on on the Atari Jaguar (used for the CD addon), the Panasonic 3DO had a ext connector (if I remember right) and a VCD addon slot, the first few models of the orignal PS1 (it was called the Parallel Port).
The Snes expansion port was used by the Satellaview system no? Only released in Japan I think.

Doesn't the Sega Saturn have some sort of expansion port on the bottom? I know there was one at the back but that was for the VCD decoder I think.

If yea look closely under the Sega Dreamcast yea can see that they put in slide clips like they might have released a unit the DC would have sat on top of.

What about the PS2? It had that expansion port which on the fat models was used for a HDD/LAN adapter. The earliest units had a PCMCIA connector inside the Ext. cover at the back.

The NES has a funky cover on the bottom, I've only ever seen a PAL unit but maybe the US version had a connector or some sort under it.

Those are just the ones which I remember

polyfusion

KeRbDoG wrote: »

If yea look closely under the Sega Dreamcast yea can see that they put in slide clips like they might have released a unit the DC would have sat on top of.

Sega found uses for those:


http://www.debaser.force9.co.uk/drikara/


http://the-dreamcast-junkyard.blogspot.com/2007/10/dreamcast-zip-drive.html

KeRbDoG

polyfusion wrote: »

Sega found uses for those:


http://www.debaser.force9.co.uk/drikara/


http://the-dreamcast-junkyard.blogspot.com/2007/10/dreamcast-zip-drive.html

nice, a karaoke interface (oh why!) and a zip drive unit

Retr0gamer

No expansion ports on my V Saturn but it is a V-saturn not a Sega one. There's a comunnications port but I think that's for console to console link. You can count the cartridge slot though.

As for Karaoke on the dreamcast, it makes sense since a lot of saturns were used as karaoke machines.

One last thing, the saturn had an mpeg adapter that improved video in a handful of games and allowed it to play vcds.

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

Just on from the discussion of the ps1 expansion port..

These are always something I've found pretty facinating. More so for the 'what could have been' factor associated with them. You have to wonder what was going through the developers minds when they included them.

I remember seeing a Megadrive connected to a Mega CD years ago and thinking -

'how the hell did sega know they were going to add this on years later and have a port ready on the Megadrive?!'

I guess Sega were a good example of them having some sort of function. Most of them were left untouched though. How many were actually used? Another one that comes to mind is the n64 DD. Then there's the oul Snes expansion port for the ill fated cd add on that we never saw.

I always felt the expansion ports were just hardware access & bus access/extensions. The addons were not designed at the stage of the original consoles designing, so any future addon would have to be designed around the capabilities that the expansion ports had. They are fascinating though, the thoughts of what might have been etc.

Jack burton

The Gamecibe had about 3 seperate ports on the bottom of it, I know some of them were used for the GBA player and the modem.

It always used to fasinate me when i was younger caus i had no idea what they were for

o1s1n

Ah the Japanese. If they can use a device for Karaoke, they will!

I'd totally forgotten about the Satellaview. It really looks quite nice sitting under the Snes.

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

Ah the Japanese. If they can use a device for Karaoke, they will!

Ha it's so true! Sure they're a great bunch of lads

KeRbDoG

Jack burton wrote: »

The Gamecibe had about 3 seperate ports on the bottom of it, I know some of them were used for the GBA player and the modem.

It always used to fasinate me when i was younger caus i had no idea what they were for

Ah thats the other one I was trying to remember - remember seeing them as I was 'modding' (the region mod one) a whole bunch of import JAP units for a games store down near that GameExchange place to get myself cash for college rag-week Good times!

K.O.Kiki

This probably goes hand-in-hand with how Nintendo develop hardware -- they have the prototypes running YEARS ahead of schedule, and are just waiting for the component prices to drop enough to make a profit.

Sure they admit to having 3D stereoscopic ready on the Gamecube.

Myrddin

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

This probably goes hand-in-hand with how Nintendo develop hardware -- they have the prototypes running YEARS ahead of schedule, and are just waiting for the component prices to drop enough to make a profit.

Sure they admit to having 3D stereoscopic ready on the Gamecube.

Fascinating article, oh how I'd love an hour to walk around their R&D dept...can you imagine the goings on in MS/Sony/Nintendo's labs...

o1s1n

EnterNow wrote: »

...can you imagine the goings on in MS/Sony/Nintendo's labs...

Just think of all the wonderfully strange items they'd have that were just deemed too out there and non commercial to be mass produced.

Sega's one must be even more insane going by some of the stuff that actually got released.

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

Just think of all the wonderfully strange items they'd have that were just deemed too out there and non commercial to be mass produced.

Sega's one must be even more insane going by some of the stuff that actually got released.

Just think o1s1n, there's a Neptune sitting rotting away somewhere....argh it would wreck your head thinking about it :mad::D

o1s1n

Even worse, the amount of stuff that would have been dumped. (And I don't mean preservation dumping, I mean dumping smashed up in a big crusher dumping)

If one UK Sega magazine can throw out thousands of beta/sample/proto carts (yes, he actually said thousands to me) then you can only imagine the amount of gear flung out of those labs.

We should be over there sifting through their bins

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

Even worse, the amount of stuff that would have been dumped. (And I don't mean preservation dumping, I mean dumping smashed up in a big crusher dumping)

If one UK Sega magazine can throw out thousands of beta/sample/proto carts (yes, he actually said thousands to me) then you can only imagine the amount of gear flung out of those labs.

We should be over there sifting through their bins

Or the arcade labs....Sega's Arcade R&D Labs 1 Day Pass...it's our version of the golden ticket

o1s1n

I wonder do they do tours like that? Obviously not near the top secret R&D deparments though..

There was a Squaresoft mode 7 demo cart on ebay a couple of weeks ago that I was bidding on. The guy who was selling it got it from the Squaresoft development/headquarters in the States.

He was doing a project in school about videogames or something. Someone he knows was able to organize a tour for the class to Squaresoft. They were making Secret of Evermore at the time and the teams were explaining to the kids how they were putting things together and that.

They also had asked them to bring a piece of artwork along with them on the trip.

At some point during the trip, they took the artwork, scanned it and put it onto cartridges which were demoing mode 7. From the pictures he had up it looked like a simple plane with their image stretched across it. Kind of like Mario Kart but if the ground was their image.

Pretty cool little story. Really made me want the damn cart!But alas, I did not win the auction. He did say he dumped it ages ago though so it should be somewhere online.

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

I wonder do they do tours like that? Obviously not near the top secret R&D deparments though..

There was a Squaresoft mode 7 demo cart on ebay a couple of weeks ago that I was bidding on. The guy who was selling it got it from the Squaresoft development/headquarters in the States.

He was doing a project in school about videogames or something. Someone he knows was able to organize a tour for the class to Squaresoft. They were making Secret of Evermore at the time and the teams were explaining to the kids how they were putting things together and that.

They also had asked them to bring a piece of artwork along with them on the trip.

At some point during the trip, they took the artwork, scanned it and put it onto cartridges which were demoing mode 7. From the pictures he had up it looked like a simple plane with their image stretched across it. Kind of like Mario Kart but if the ground was their image.

Pretty cool little story. Really made me want the damn cart!But alas, I did not win the auction. He did say he dumped it ages ago though so it should be somewhere online.

What a cool little story to go along with a dev cart Is that SNES Mode7 ala Contra 3 Level 2??

o1s1n

It was more along the lines of Mario Kart/Flying the airship around in FF VI. You have a ground and sky.

In this case the ground was the drawing they bought along (angled to give some depth) and the sky was loads of diagonal Squaresoft logos.

Ended at 93 dollars. He should have held on to it to be honest!

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

It was more along the lines of Mario Kart/Flying the airship around in FF VI. You have a ground and sky.

In this case the ground was the drawing they bought along (angled to give some depth) and the sky was loads of diagonal Squaresoft logos.

Ended at 93 dollars. He should have held on to it to be honest!

Well whoever won it got a bargain, really wouldn't be worth selling for that kind of money. A few curries etc & it's gone

o1s1n

I dunno man, some of your chicken curries have sounded fairly epic..

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

I dunno man, some of your chicken curries have sounded fairly epic..

I'm still on a smoked cod buzz at the moment

o1s1n

Stay the hell away from my goldfish :pac:

Anyone ever see the Sega Mega CD karaoke attachment? I'd love to get one. If only to make my Megadrive/cd/32x combo even more of a monstrosity!



I have no idea how it connections up/what ports it uses if any.

Jack burton

I saw that a while ago online, no idea how it would connect on? unless it just sits there beside the mega cd?

Myrddin

And it's a Mega Drive 2 in the pic, which rules out the possibility of using the old EXT (Modem) connection. The MCD only has the MD conenction. DOES NOT COMPUTE

Surely it just sits there?

Jack burton

Well I cant really find anything about it online, looks like it just sits beside the console

o1s1n

But you play discs in the Mega CD and sing along with them using the Karaoke machine.

There has to be a connection somewhere!

Found another oddity. Not first party, but extremely weird. Totally pointless too. How lazy can you be? -

[IMG][/img]

Retr0gamer

That brings back memories, I remember seeing ads for them ages ago.

Jack burton

Oh well theres wired connections for sure but just no attachment connecton I'd say

o1s1n

Wired to where though? Is there a jack on the back of the Mega CD that would link up to it? Must have a look. I hate not knowing things like this! :pac:

K.O.Kiki

o1s1n wrote: »

But you play discs in the Mega CD and sing along with them using the Karaoke machine.

There has to be a connection somewhere!

Found another oddity. Not first party, but extremely weird. Totally pointless too. How lazy can you be? -

[snip]

That... actually looks really useful.

Though I don't want to imagine what would happen if something went wrong.
6 cartridges dead all at once would be like a 24hr gut punch.

o1s1n

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

That... actually looks really useful.

Though I don't want to imagine what would happen if something went wrong.
6 cartridges dead all at once would be like a 24hr gut punch.

Not really though.

For a start, it's absolutely massive. Look at the pic. It's two and a half times longer than a Megadrive and about twice as deep.

The only time multi cart setups are useful are for when you can't get to the console/motherboard easily (Think a multi slot neo geo mvs in a cab)

But when you can just stand up and walk over it's totally and utterly pointless!

I'd still like one though. Purely for the oddness factor.

KeRbDoG

EnterNow wrote: »

And it's a Mega Drive 2 in the pic, which rules out the possibility of using the old EXT (Modem) connection. The MCD only has the MD conenction. DOES NOT COMPUTE

Surely it just sits there?

Looks like it just sits there, maybe it have a audio thru in/out connector that takes the audio out from the megadrive and gives yea cables?

lostboy

does anybody remember the cheat devices for the ps1 i/o port? when plugged in the ps1 booted off of it instead of the internal bios and it would load up your gamesharks/xploder what have you,I remember having one that would allow region free and backup play. probabaly why they removed the thing later on

Doge

lostboy wrote: »

does anybody remember the cheat devices for the ps1 i/o port? when plugged in the ps1 booted off of it instead of the internal bios and it would load up your gamesharks/xploder what have you,I remember having one that would allow region free and backup play. probabaly why they removed the thing later on

I had one myself with a pink menu screen i think.

You could even use it play video files in games and audio. Was a cool little device.

The trick to swapping the disc on mine was to enter the CD player, the legit PS1 disc would then stop, put in your copied game and then it would play.
The best gameshark cheat code I ever used for it was one that allowed you to play the london level? shown in the Ending credits for Driver.

That level was solely made just for those ending credits, you couldn't play it without using gameshark codes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-ke89sre5I

Hank Scorpio

Interesting thread, half asleep but didn't see anyone mention the SNES ext port.

The console's origins date back to 1986 where it was originally a joint project between Nintendo and Sony to create a CD-ROM for the Super Nintendo from wiki. Taken from Wiki

Did a good bit of reading on it a while back, interesting stuff, especially the part about panasonic and the zelda games they released :pac: