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A look back at console dev kits (image heavy)

Meelow

Meelow

Member
Oct 31, 2017
9,227
I find dev kits really fascinating; it's something the public doesn't really see, yet if a dev kit leaks before a console is shown, it is fascinating. Some dev kits look close to the final product, while others look nothing like the final product.

Here are some dev kits from this generation and past generations.

Nintendo Switch dev kit - Looks very close to the final product, except for the lack of ethernet port in the final version, this was leaked a day before the official announcement!
h0UlVeX.jpg


Xbox Series dev kit - Looks very similar to an Xbox One S IMO.
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PS5 Dev Kit - I like how it's a V (PS5), I know that's not why it is designed like that but it reminds me of those fanart designs for consoles.
ps5-development-kit.jpg


Wii U dev kit - Looks like a PC
wii-u-dev-31.jpg


PS4 dev kit - This also got leaked before the PS4 reveal. I remember people on the old site going crazy.
ps4-devkit-extdev-intdev-settings-for-playstation-4-developers-jpg.1904


Wii Dev kit - What a big console for a small product.
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PS3 dev kit - Very long
PS3%20DECR-1000A%20Reference%20Tool.jpg


Nintendo Dolphin i mean GameCube dev kit
Gamecube%20NPDP-GDEV%20-%20Development%20Solution.jpg


Xbox dev kit - Nevermind what I said about Wii U, this is straight up an Xbox PC
EHa1H3VUYAAOWdy


PS2 dev kit - Looks like a PS2
s-l1600.png


Dreamcast dev Kit - Fun fact, this was called the "Katana"
Sega-katanafront.jpg


N64 dev kit - I didn't expect it to look like this
sgi-indy-front.jpg


Sega Saturn dev kit
wmwb0ydi7hasejlydnu9.jpg


PS1 dev kit
PS1OriginalDevKitMW3_EDGE_Issue_20.png


SNES dev kit
VERY_RARE_Super_Nintendo_SNES_DEV_kit_RICOH_SFBOX_II_Super_Famicom_Debugger_01_sog.jpg


Sega Genesis dev kit
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NES dev kit
Famicom_PDS_INTERFACE.jpg


Can't find Xbox 360 or Xbox One.
 
XaviConcept

XaviConcept

Art Director for Videogames
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
5,062
not appreciated on the photo, but the PS2 devkit is HUGE, like a big computer tower, knee high
 
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Super

Super

Studied the Buster Sword
Member
Jan 29, 2022
7,847
PS2/ Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn are basically the console. N64 looks great.
 
Masterz1337

Masterz1337

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,945
Early 360s were using PowerMac G5's as the devkits. I don't know if they ever had a dedicated version. But they also used retail 360's with a special attachment that sat between the system and the hard drive as a way to link to the desktop and transfer data and debug info.
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,927
It's fitting the Wii U dev kit is also a hideous monstrosity.

The N64 one looks super cool / surprisingly modern.
 
XaviConcept

XaviConcept

Art Director for Videogames
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
5,062
Masterz1337 said:
Early 360s were using PowerMac G5's as the devkits. I don't know if they ever had a dedicated version. But they also used retail 360's with a special attachment that sat between the system and the hard drive as a way to link to the desktop and transfer data and debug info.
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Yeah the 360 devkits we had were just 360's

Gamecube devkit was rather small as was the Wii, that one was very compact, looked like an airplane black box

Got a fun story though

I dont have any pictures of it but the first 3DS devkit was just a big motherboard with two screens on it. Nintendo sent us one at EA and I believe we were the first western studio with one. As usual with Nintendo they didnt really sent any instructions with it, it was basically a "heres the machine, figure it out, we wont even tell you what all these switches do"

So the engineers mess with it for a few months. Mind you at the time we just know its the next DS with a wider top screen. Seemed like an OK system. Then one day Nintendo says the devkit can be updated, we do so and suddenly TWICE the processing power gets unlocked ALONG with the 3D screen functionality which they HAD NOT told us about at all. It was one of the biggest "oh shit" moments Ive had in the industry. Took us a while to get it working but seeing that realtime 3D screen demo working for the first time felt like such a big deal
 
Baroni

Baroni

Member
Oct 25, 2017
328
I love Dev Kits too. Here are some other fun ones. Credit to Retro Reversing and Chris Covell.

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BOXYIGj.jpg

NrdTrP4.jpg
 
barjed

barjed

Project Lead
Verified
Aug 31, 2018
1,530
Switch has has one more devkit, which looks almost identical to the retail console.
 
Vulcano's Assistant

Vulcano's Assistant

Member
Oct 29, 2017
13,737
The N64 one looks so expensive, even Self-indulgent. That typical 90s look of computer hardware made for Hollywood studios or hospitals.

Do we know how much it was?
 
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Tribes of Trusty

Tribes of Trusty

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,749
I really love those dev kits.

I'd pay a stupid amount of money for an actual, current-day, surely limited edition, Dev-kit shaped console (I'd love to have that PS5 V shaped console).
 

Fowler

Member
Oct 26, 2017
707
Vulcano's Assistant said:
The N64 one looks so expensive, even Self-indulgent. That typical 90s look of computer hardware made for Hollywood studios or hospitals.

Do we know how much it was?
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Not sure if you knew this (hard to tell if the Hollywood reference was intentional or coincidence) but that was the point -- that one isn't strictly a dedicated devkit like the others, it's a standalone computer from the company that made the N64's GPU, Silicon Graphics. It's for professionals, not consumers, but it's still a device that was sold to (corporate) customers, so the over-the-top styling and branding is intentional.
 
Last Jon Standing

Last Jon Standing

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,217
Brazil
The N64 devkit looks so cool, almost as if it was cut by a ninja and its halves had just started sliding off of each other. Sega made the prettiest kits overall.
 
glaurung

glaurung

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,648
Estonia
Got to love that those Wii U and Wii dev kits are heavy-duty metal enclosures with a serious industrial feel. Like, that thing is built to survive an earthquake and a meteor shower.
 
Vulcano's Assistant

Vulcano's Assistant

Member
Oct 29, 2017
13,737
Fowler said:
Not sure if you knew this (hard to tell if the Hollywood reference was intentional or coincidence) but that was the point -- that one isn't strictly a dedicated devkit like the others, it's a standalone computer from the company that made the N64's GPU, Silicon Graphics. It's for professionals, not consumers, but it's still a device that was sold to (corporate) customers, so the over-the-top styling and branding is intentional.
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I have heard of SiliconGraphics, but I'm unfamiliar with more that just the superficial knowledge.

It being an actual product makes it make a lot of sense.

I was thinking " why does this dev kit looks like it had a marketing budget?"
 
julian

julian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,109
You're missing the Gamepad side of the Wii U. Which is just a regular gamepad but with an auxiliary like jack at the top to directly attach it to the console. Also the pic you have is slightly different from the one I have. But only slightly. Odd.

I either never noticed or completely forgot the Switch kit used the same power cord as the Wii U and accepted Wii controllers. It always seemed odd to me they just dumped all those controllers since they kept them from Wii to Wii U but also used the same port for their mini consoles. I wish they still kept controller BC for the few games that would benefit from it.

Here's a DS kit pic I found online:
IS-NITRO-Emulator%20controller.jpg


Thing was a beast. They do love their metal boxes.
 
Noisepurge

Noisepurge

Corrupted by Vengeance
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,674
Damn, haven't seen that actual PS1 devkit before :D the cool Net Yaroze one came later,
Net-Yaroze-Full-Sdk.jpg
 
inpHilltr8r

inpHilltr8r

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,328
I'm pretty sure there was an external hardware component to the N64 devkit. Although that might have been a cart burner, thinking about it.

PS1 devkit was a bunch of PC cards. Personally I used a chipped consumer unit with a card hanging off the parallel port. bootleg style!
PS2 devkit known as Darth's Toaster, aka TOOL, also came in an off-purple model for hardware level profiling, or with a built in DVD emulator that was slower than burning discs by the end
PS3 devkit has 6 USB ports on the front, mostly broken from people kicking the cables. 8 blinkenlights and 8 dip switches for debugging boot sequences before the display has come up, 2 hot swappable hard drives with motorised eject buttons, and so many dead ports on the back with strange blanking plates. cursed kit
PS4 devkit was some sexy piece of 70s future hifi, but while the internal drive is slower than the network, the always rolling dvr really made this beast the goat kit

that ps1 box looks like a prototype, rather than a production devkit
 
Henrar

Henrar

Member
Nov 27, 2017
2,018
stormfire said:
How many kits does a studio usually need?
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Ideally everyone in the studio who works with particular console's build should have one, but with the ability of remote access you don't need nearly as much.

On the topic: the X360 devkit's photo is outdated, that's the early devkit. Switch also has several devkits.
 
julia crawford

julia crawford

Took the red AND the blue pills
Member
Oct 27, 2017
36,048
love the very industrial look of the nintendo ones, just metal boxes like you'd find in some factory
 
EccoCid

EccoCid

Member
Mar 7, 2018
731
London
PS5 dev kit looks to much designed for a kit, no? It feels like they were gonna go with a shape like that V in the middle but changed it for retail units.
 
gundalf

gundalf

Member
May 6, 2022
544
I own a WiiU devkit and it doesn't look like a PC at all, it rather looks like a piece of lab equipment.
 
Marmoka

Marmoka

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,246
It's great to see such cool designs. I hope these designs motivated developers when working on the games.

Of course nobody wanted to work on Wii U. That devkit is horrendous
 
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