Sometime ago a Nintendo DS debug cartridge was sold on eBay and a couple of weeks ago the rom of that cart was shared and preserved online (NINTENDO DS NTR DEBUG) thanks to NintendyFan from the GBAtemp Form. There is some interesting stuff that we can see in this DS debug cart, such as weird icons, models of Nintendo characters and music from Mario Kart 64 (?!?). We are not sure why they chose such kind of strange images and sounds to test the Nintendo DS hardware, but it could be possible that hidden in the rom’s code there could be even more unusual / beta files, just like in that old SNES debug / hardware test cart. Does anyone want to try to find them?
In order to get to the menu, you have to hold Start + Select when launching the ROM.
Here’s the description from the eBay auction:
Up for grabs is a Debug Mode / Dev cartridge for the Original Nintendo DS and DS Lite Models of handhelds. I have never seen anything quite like this before on the market. We received a few of these, totally smashed and broken up, however we were able to recover this cart and get it to load up. It was tested on each model of DSi including the 3DS, but would error out. This is because the cart is specific to testing on the original DS software on the older handhelds. This is an official Nintendo cart that was apparently supposed to be decommissioned before being tossed out, but whoever attempted to break this one didn’t do a thorough enough job.
As you can see from the photos and video, the date on the program is August 18th, 2004; which is 3 months before the handheld was released anywhere in the world! The Product ID on the back of the cart reads: NTR-005
Videos:
What do you think about this unseen game? Give your vote!
(7 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)
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salve xd. I’ve found some interesting strings in the rom. Probably these are the names of each program executed, but I’m not a great fan of ‘Mario & Co.’, so I don’t know if there is some connection between this strings and some interesting beta stuff. I’ll continue to search in the rom. Meanwhile, you can have a look to this strings:
SEQ_MARIOKART64_TITLE
SEQ_SE_D01
SEQ_SE_DBEND
SEQ_SE_DVIB
SEQ_SE_GBEND2
SEQ_SE_SWEP2
SEQ_SE_NOISE
SEQ_SOUND3
SEQ_SE_DBEN2
SEQ_SE_GBEND
SEQ_SE_SWEEP
SEQ_SE_DGMIX
SEQ_AGB2000
SEQ_WARIO
SEQ_ENGIN
SEQ_CGB
SEQ_SE
SE_COIN
SE_AMBULANCE
SE_REPEAT
SE_PATTERN
SE_PORTAMENT
SE_PORTAMENT2
SE_SWEEP
SE_VIBRATE
SE_VIBRATE2
SE_SUPER_MARIO
SE_SUPER_MARIO2
SEQ_CHECKER
SE_CHECKER_OK
SE_CHECKER_NG
SE_CHECKER_OK1
SE_CHECKER_SIN
SE_CHECKER_SIN_R
SE_CHECKER_SIN_L
SE_CHECKER_ANNOTATION
SE_CHECKER_NOTE_C
SE_CHECKER_NOTE_D
SE_CHECKER_NOTE_E
SE_CHECKER_NOTE_F
SE_CHECKER_NOTE_G
SE_CHECKER_NOTE_A
SE_CHECKER_NOTE_B
SE_CHECKER_NOTE_C5
BANK_SE
BANK_MK64
BANK_AGB
BANK_CHECKER
WAVE_SE
WAVE_MK64
WAVE_AGB
WAVE_CHECKER
… also, “Nitro Explorer” (program used to view nds roms’ files) doesn’t find anything. Probably this rom is using different extensions from those used by regual nds roms. Because it’s a Nitro cartridge, I guess…
Thanks for the info John! From the video, i see some “screenshots” with Mario in there, i wonder if it could be from an early Super Mario 64 DS port or something else :)
These are the sound effects, you can look them on the sound test editor
where did you get that DS debug game card thing?
Thanks for the article Monokoma, I love unseen64 and it’s cool to see something I’ve been working on get some attention from you guys. :)
As a side note, to get to the menu of the ROM all you have to hold in is “Start”.
I’ve got a handful of different carts from Nintendo that need a little TLC before they will load up, so I will be busy with that and will let you know what my findings are.
No problem, keep up the good work NintedyFan! :)
After looking at the screen of Super Mario 64 DS, I knoticed that the background in the screen is different than the one used in the final game.
This looks like there are very early super Mario 64 x4 ports in there. Great find i paused it at the right time and i found some important history from the SM64X4 development. One Frame looks like he has sunshine textures, in another frame it looks like he has a very bad quality texture.
and the trees look really round.
The location hes in i have no idea? where that is?! looks like a location from sunshine or a test location, because behind him is like Mt. Fuji. (The SM64DS Dev team is in japan)
THANK YOU SOO MUCH! verry helpful
This looks like there are very early super Mario 64 x4 ports in there. Great find i paused it at the right time and i found some important history from the SM64X4 development. One Frame looks like he has sunshine textures, in another frame it looks like he has a very bad quality texture.
and the trees look really round.
The location hes in i have no idea? where that is?! looks like a location from sunshine or a test location, because behind him is like Mt. Fuji. (The SM64DS Dev team is in japan)
THANK YOU SOO MUCH! very helpful. If you could please see if there is a way to play this or walk around as him in that place. :)
I wonder if those are 3D mario models, or just images (maybe from Sunshine?)