Article: The cartridge gamecube: Inside the NPDP gamecube.

[ASSEMbler]

http://assemblergames.com/images/inside_npdp/splash07011.JPG



Go here for pictures and info on the internals of the NPDP gamecube! (http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=78710#post78710)

[ASSEMbler]

The first time you see a NPDP gamecube you're sure to be shocked. First, it's a beautiful reddish-purple color. Second is the huge cartridge shooting out the top. If it's seen without the cartridge, you're probably even more confused.

What is this strange device? This gamecube from the deep, dark depths of gaming? Obscure pretty much defines the NPDP gamecube.

Gamecube development has to be explained in short for you to get an idea.
First gen units were large, grey, rectangular enameled boxes called the NPDP-GDEV and the lesser and much cheaper NPDP-GBOX. Marginally cheaper than the NPDP-GBOX,the NPDP cube filled a cost niche but was soon outdated and quickly replaced by the NR reader (uses gamecube sized optical discs). As you can guess, there aren't an awful lot of them around in use. To give some sort of scale of use, the huge international development company these came from had only about seven in use.

The beta and first generation NPDP-GDEV development units used hard drives in cartridges for quick and portable storage. Theoretically, you could remove the cartridge and take it anywhere to program, demo,and debug. To play test, you could take it to a gangcopier and make copies for the playtesters or other team members.

In reality the cartridges are expensive. Monstrously so. They break easy if you drop them. So much so, the cartridge is designed to indicate if it's been abused. When you return it to nintendo for service (because you played desk pong with it), your asset management clerk is assured a nice call to tell him that you've voided the warranty.

The cartridge media is very fast, much faster than an optical system like the NR-reader is based on. The cartridges had enough room for four gamecube games. You can have a double disc game and room for programming tools on the cartridge. Eventually making copies to playtest was reduced, and when you had a new build you took it to the copy room and had them crank out 30 NR discs for the testmonkies. If you're like developer "X", you then shoved the unused NPDP gamecubes in a closet and forgot about them.

Mind you nintendo isn't too helpful a source for confidential information, or known for faxing over specs to people who possibly privately hold dev hardware. I'm not aware of any other sites with pictures of the unit, let alone the internals.

So let's crack this baby open.

Oh yeah, this is going to void the warranty, so I guess I'm screwed.

http://assemblergames.com/images/inside_npdp/a07011.JPG

Gamecube, hexdriver. Hexdriver, gamecube.

http://assemblergames.com/images/inside_npdp/b07011.JPG

What you are looking at is the motherboard cable running to the interface mounted in the lid. There the boot selector PCB plugs into the hdd interface.

http://assemblergames.com/images/inside_npdp/c07011.JPG

This is some sort of hdd to gamecube bridge.

http://assemblergames.com/images/inside_npdp/d07011.JPG

There's not much to the interface. I was expecting some huge asic there, but I guess not.

http://assemblergames.com/images/inside_npdp/e07011.JPG

What is very interesting is that this board is practically a straight pass through from motherboard to the HDD interface. Possibly there is a large amount of circuitry in the hard drive cartridge itself.

I'll close this out with a nice picture of the machine top to bottom. Please remember that all images are property of assemblergames.com, and if you use or modify them without permission, your children will be born gay.

http://assemblergames.com/images/inside_npdp/f07011.JPG

[Topic Archive]

Nice Pics, thanks for sharing.

...The Cart is indeed the clever part as it handles the emulation.

[ASSEMbler]

Didn't someone here have npdp cart internal pics?

[sayin999]

very intresting indeed, wonder if its possible to modify a retail came cube to accept one of those carts.

[Topic Archive]

Didn't someone here have npdp cart internal pics?


Yep, Shiggsy has a piccy of one all in bits.

It's here:

http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3140

[Topic Archive]

very intresting indeed, wonder if its possible to modify a retail came cube to accept one of those carts.


Yes.

[Blur2040]

Site name on only two pics? I can feel the pictures being stolen as I write this. Cool of you to take it apart though.

I know theres no Disc drive in there now, but I'm still surprised to see it so empty in there.

[ASSEMbler]

http://shiggsy.gbadev.org/npdp-hdd.jpg

Hey Shiggsy, is there an asic buried on these somewhere?

[ASSEMbler]

Here's a shocker, this is all IDE. So basically you're looking at those two little boards in the gc and under the HDD as being an ATA adapter for gamecube!

MK6015MAP 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drive http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/img/spacer.gif
http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/image/mk6414map.jpg 6.007GB capacity with 9.5mm height on 2.5'' form factor
Extra-thin, light and low power-consumption design suitable for mobile computing
SFF8201 standard compliant dimension
Read ahead cache and Write cache http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/img/back.gif (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/spec2.htm) Basic Specifications (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#basic) Functional Specifications (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#function) Reliability Characteristics (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#relia) Power Specifications (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#power) Mechanical Specifications (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#mechanic) Environmental Limits (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#envir) Bios Setup (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#bios)
Basic Specifications Formatted Capacity 6.007GB Number of Disks 1 Number of Data Heads 2 Number of Cylinders 15,200 Bytes per Sector 512B Interface AT(ATA-2/ATA-3/ATA-4/ATA-5)
http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/img/top.gif (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#top)


Functional Specifications Seek Time Track-to-Track 3ms Average 13ms Maximum 24ms Average Latency 7.14ms Rotational Speed 4,200±0.1% rpm Data Transfer Rate Internal 103.9–192.7Mb/s Buffer to Host 16.6MB/s (PIO Mode) 66.7MB/s (Ultra DMA Mode) Buffer 256KB Interleave 1:1
http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/img/top.gif (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#top)

Reliability Characteristics MTTF 300,000H Product life 5 years or 20,000 POH
http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/img/top.gif (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#top)

Power Specifications Allowable Voltage +5V±5% Power Consumption (TYP.) Start 2.7W Seek 2.3W Read/Write 1.9W Idle 0.58W Stand-by 0.25W Sleep 0.1W Power Efficiency* 0.097W/GB (Class D) *the Energy Saving Law-Japan
http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/img/top.gif (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#top)

Mechanical Specifications Dimensions 9.5(h) x 69.85(w) x 100(d)mm Weight 92g
http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/img/top.gif (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#top)

Environmental Limits Temperature Operating 5–55°C Non-Operating -20–60°C Humidity(No condensation) Operating 8–90%R.H. Non-Operating Vibration Operating 9.8m/s2 (1G) Non-Operating 49m/s2 (5G) Shock Operating 1,470m/s2 (150G) Non-Operating 6,860m/s2 (700G)
http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/img/top.gif (http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk6015.htm#top)

Bios Setup Number of Logical Cylinders 12,416 Number of Logical Heads 15 Number of Logical Sectors per track 63 Number of Sectors
(LBA mode) 11,733,120

[LeGIt]

hmm reverse engineered ATA board with 300gb HDD, modified bootloader and a buttload of ISO's spring to mind -_-

[ASSEMbler]

exactly what I was thinking, gamecube RAID BABY!!!

But in all practicality it makes trading HDD images of unreleased games very easy.

Pop the cart, copy the drive. Load to ftp. Trade.

Hey oldengineer, have anything interesting on your nr carts?

[the_steadster]

Fantastic Assembler, Thanks for sharing

[Borman]

Plan on selling any of those :) lol

[Roi]

Site name on only two pics? I can feel the pictures being stolen as I write this. Cool of you to take it apart though.

I know theres no Disc drive in there now, but I'm still surprised to see it so empty in there.

Site name is on all the photos :) (And nobody would ever try to steel because there child would be born gay :'))

[ASSEMbler]

I added more names, I'll probably have to do larger ones next time, unless someone can tell me how to do semi transparent watermarks in photoshop with a new layer.

[Zilog Jones]

exactly what I was thinking, gamecube RAID BABY!!!

But in all practicality it makes trading HDD images of unreleased games very easy.

Pop the cart, copy the drive. Load to ftp. Trade.

Knowing Nintendo it's probably not that easy. Does anyone know what file format is used on these disks?

Cool pictures, BTW :smt023
And I can guess who "Blahblah Entertainment" are...

[Topic Archive]

Here's a shocker, this is all IDE. So basically you're looking at those two little boards in the gc and under the HDD as being an ATA adapter for gamecube!


Lol @ "IDE shocker" statement :)

...There'a a bit more to it than that.

...The board in the cart acts as an ODEM to 'stream' the game data.

...Also the HDD's are locked, a bit like the Xbox, thus preserving 'some' security.

...You can't just rip a cart apart and read the HDD contents in a P.C.

[Topic Archive]

Hey oldengineer, have anything interesting on your NPDP carts?

...Of course :D

[Tachikoma]

Very nice!

I have a few of those HDD's myself (admittedly not in the carts...)

http://img222.echo.cx/img222/734/hdds6dc.jpg

[ASSEMbler]

Lol @ "IDE shocker" statement :)

...There'a a bit more to it than that.

...The board in the cart acts as an ODEM to 'stream' the game data.

...Also the HDD's are locked, a bit like the Xbox, thus preserving 'some' security.

...You can't just rip a cart apart and read the HDD contents in a P.C.

Well you'd expect some sort of scsi drive now wouldn't you?

And is anything really "locked"?

[Paulo]

Nice pics!

[tmbinc]

I spent quite a lot of time reversing the firmware for the cartridges (as it already has been said: the clever part is in the cartridge, the console itself is a straight DVD-Interface brought to the special connector).

Basically they use a SH-3 CPU plus an FPGA (and some smaller stuff) to interface the DI ("disk (or dvd) interface") to the IDE hdd.

There's hardcoded support for 4 disc images, which are at different offsets. The data itself is crypted with a stupid algorithm (stupid because it's XOR with a 32bit fixed key, and there is a lot of zero in the first sector of every gamecube game...), which depends on the so-called "NPDP-ID". Oh, and the special constant 0xdeadbeef plays into this calculation as well ;) for example, my XOR mask was d8 ae ca ad (now, nintendo, go and derive where i got my cartridge from! ;)

The harddiscs are locked with a key depending on the NPDP-ID as well, so you can't just swap the drives from two different cartridges. However, the security level is set to "high" (vs. "highest"), and the master-password is "N-PDP Master Passwd", maybe byteswapped (depends on your view).

So it's easily possible to unlock the drives, and read/write the contents.

The disc itself reports with some bits set in the first 32bits of the "IDENTIFY"-response (whereas DVD-drives have 00 there..), and to access the data you first have to issue an "NPDP-ID"-command (yes, ascii :), which will give you the string displayed when you switch on an npdp-console.

By the way, NPDP-Consoles have a special IPL (if anybody has a rip of the PAL one, i would be glad to get it ;), basically just to display the "this NPDP belong to..." in the beginning.

Then there are special commands (F0..F6) to do direct reads (reading absolute sectors), flashing the firmware, writing to it (these "NPDP Gang Writers" seem to use that interface - i have never seen them, though.).

I never managed to use these commands, as they seem to require some setup.

You can exchange the harddrive, but be careful, the Cartridge will lock them, so have an unlocking application ready. (please don't ask me for it as i wrote a special application for some embedded device having an IDE bus, as i didn't managed to do that with an USB-housing and i didn't wanted to have to reboot all the time ;)

You can use a smaller harddrive (and thus using less than the 4 images) or a bigger one, but you can't use more than the 4. I looked at any way overriding this offset, but didn't suceed. :(


(don't worry, i of course swapped some bits in the key :)

[AntiPasta]

That is very interesting mate. Thanks for sharing. And what was Nintendo thinking with using XOR encryption, jeez :-)

[GaijinPunch]

For that semi-transparent layer:

Make a new layer. Paste your water mark. Go to the layer options (in the layers pallette on the right-hand side most likely. If it's not visible, do Window->Layers. The opacity should be easy. Set to 50 or 60%. Viola.

[olanmills]

Maybe I didn't understand what you were saying, but the green GameCubes have not replaced these red ones, at least not at Nintendo. I tested at Nintendo for a while. They mainly use the red GameCubes for a majority of the testing cycle. Burning discs everyday just isn't practical. They use the green GameCubes nearing the final phase of testing, and then they sometimes, but not alwasy I think, use regular, retail version GameCubes for the final day of testing.

[ASSEMbler]

Well nintendo always has the best hardware and lots of it. If I could only get my hands on their dumpster contents every week!

Acclaim didn't have as much gamecube as they did ps2 or xbox testing.
They actually did burn every test, I have cases and cases of blank nr here.

[WarGames]

ooo tinY! :)

[Nintendo]

Anyone on this website ever try playing a GCM File as Resident Evil 4 or any other GameCube title inside the NPDP - Console? Those's cart's can hold up to 4 GCM files. Normal GameCube games can be turned into the GCM Files on your computer with the correct (HARDWARE + SOFTWARE). Not gong to say what is needed. If anybody has any info please post thanks.

[Quakester2000]

Im suprised nintendo never though of this idea for the gamecube. Lets face it using hard drives inside carts would have been a great idea firstly it would have been cheaper as you would be using hard drives of low capacity only 2-4 gigabytes for most games and these could be made for practically nothing now and secondly loading times would be much faster. Also you avoid the problems that appeared with nintendo 64 where capacity of the cartridges was a real issue.

[babu]

Im suprised nintendo never though of this idea for the gamecube. Lets face it using hard drives inside carts would have been a great idea firstly it would have been cheaper as you would be using hard drives of low capacity only 2-4 gigabytes for most games and these could be made for practically nothing now and secondly loading times would be much faster. Also you avoid the problems that appeared with nintendo 64 where capacity of the cartridges was a real issue.

well.. one problem with that would be that you can damage your game by just dropping it to the floor.. something both cartridges and discs can handle

[Quakester2000]

well.. one problem with that would be that you can damage your game by just dropping it to the floor.. something both cartridges and discs can handle

Well the iPod hard drives can take quite a fall and still work, as long as they are padded or have like cushinging around the drive it would be ok. There are always ways to protect it from dropping.

Its a shame the N64 never reached its full potential if it had, had more storage space back in the days im sure it could have produced some cracking games, instead of blocky looky ones. I bet today with the cheapness of flash memory nintendo could get cartridges hitting 1 gigabyte or more. They could even put a SD or MMC card interface inside the cartridge as these cards are already hitting 1 gig + mark. And they are drop.

[the_steadster]

The main problem is that hard disks dont become cheaper because the mechanism isalways a fixed cost. You will never get a hard disk less than about $40, simply because it needs the expensive mechanism. Thats why I can't walk into PC world and buy a 2gb HD for £5, but i can buy a 80GB for £50.

[Quakester2000]

The main problem is that hard disks dont become cheaper because the mechanism isalways a fixed cost. You will never get a hard disk less than about $40, simply because it needs the expensive mechanism. Thats why I can't walk into PC world and buy a 2gb HD for £5, but i can buy a 80GB for £50.

THey could have adapted a SD card reader or a MMC card reader for cartridges on the Gamecube as they are alreaedy hitting 1 and 2 gigabyte marks.

[the_steadster]

Well again the problem is cost. 1gb of flash is at least £20. A GC disc is what, 5p?

Perhaps as a supplementary form of distribution (e.g. mini games from kiosks) but not for full blown games.

One possibility though could be this: You go to a game shop, download to your MMC card, then install game to internal hard disk, wipe MMC, repeat. but then what would the advantage of using MMC over discs, as since I said, a GC disc costs so little to produce..

[Quakester2000]

Well again the problem is cost. 1gb of flash is at least £20. A GC disc is what, 5p?

Perhaps as a supplementary form of distribution (e.g. mini games from kiosks) but not for full blown games.

One possibility though could be this: You go to a game shop, download to your MMC card, then install game to internal hard disk, wipe MMC, repeat. but then what would the advantage of using MMC over discs, as since I said, a GC disc costs so little to produce..

Well MMC's would have been cheaper if they had decided to use cartridges again, shame MMC's and SD's hadnt been such a mature technology during the N64 days as they would have been cheaper and hold more data than a N64 cartridge.

[Nintendo]

I spent quite a lot of time reversing the firmware for the cartridges (as it already has been said: the clever part is in the cartridge, the console itself is a straight DVD-Interface brought to the special connector).

Basically they use a SH-3 CPU plus an FPGA (and some smaller stuff) to interface the DI ("disk (or dvd) interface") to the IDE hdd.

There's hardcoded support for 4 disc images, which are at different offsets. The data itself is crypted with a stupid algorithm (stupid because it's XOR with a 32bit fixed key, and there is a lot of zero in the first sector of every gamecube game...), which depends on the so-called "NPDP-ID". Oh, and the special constant 0xdeadbeef plays into this calculation as well ;) for example, my XOR mask was d8 ae ca ad (now, nintendo, go and derive where i got my cartridge from! ;)

The harddiscs are locked with a key depending on the NPDP-ID as well, so you can't just swap the drives from two different cartridges. However, the security level is set to "high" (vs. "highest"), and the master-password is "N-PDP Master Passwd", maybe byteswapped (depends on your view).

So it's easily possible to unlock the drives, and read/write the contents.

The disc itself reports with some bits set in the first 32bits of the "IDENTIFY"-response (whereas DVD-drives have 00 there..), and to access the data you first have to issue an "NPDP-ID"-command (yes, ascii :), which will give you the string displayed when you switch on an npdp-console.

By the way, NPDP-Consoles have a special IPL (if anybody has a rip of the PAL one, i would be glad to get it ;), basically just to display the "this NPDP belong to..." in the beginning.

Then there are special commands (F0..F6) to do direct reads (reading absolute sectors), flashing the firmware, writing to it (these "NPDP Gang Writers" seem to use that interface - i have never seen them, though.).

I never managed to use these commands, as they seem to require some setup.

You can exchange the harddrive, but be careful, the Cartridge will lock them, so have an unlocking application ready. (please don't ask me for it as i wrote a special application for some embedded device having an IDE bus, as i didn't managed to do that with an USB-housing and i didn't wanted to have to reboot all the time ;)

You can use a smaller harddrive (and thus using less than the 4 images) or a bigger one, but you can't use more than the 4. I looked at any way overriding this offset, but didn't suceed. :(


(don't worry, i of course swapped some bits in the key :)

So what your saying is that you can copy the cartridges if you take them out of the unit and then break the password or something? Please get back to me on this. I don't plan on swapping cart from cart just Bare Hard Drive same model and replace the one already in the cartridge.