ever heard of the 'Nintendo Express' by BDL?

**GigaDrive** · 07-06-2004

I was hoping that someone has a picture of the unreleased(?) 'Nintendo Express' made by BDL. if you have never heard of this before, that's because there is basicly no info on it, on the internet. but I have an EGM article on the BDL Nintendo Express, which was basicly, a portable NES. it was developed around 1989-1990.

here' the article from the April 1990 EGM, page 38-39
(EGM Number 9, Castlevania 3 cover)

BDL's
Nintendo Express

With talk and rumors of all kinds of color hand-held and portable systems coming from all the major guns, many insiders have been waiting for Nintendo to make a similar announcement with a new ColorBoy or GameBoy 2 color machine. For the time being, however, Nintendo has officially stated that they have no plans to release such a device.

But wait! It appears that a portable Nintendo game system will appear this year! BDL, a new high-tech company with an extremely bright future, has secretly engineered the new system and will now produce the machine themselves with Nintendo's seal of approval. Without a doubt the most exciting of all the new portables, the BDL unit not only utilize a special color screen, but will also play all current NES cartridges!

Called the Nintendo Express, BDL's new wonder-system uses a specially constructed 4 inch color CRT with a unique back-lit system that produces vivid picture quality. Carts snap into the back of the unit and provide all of the enjoyment of standard NES games on the go!

Through special designing by high-tech wizard Paul Biederman, BDL eliminated unnecessary circuitry and scaled the system down onto a board that measures only three inches by five inches. The end result is a NES with a handle and built-in screen that's light-weight and completely portable.

the Nintendo Express increases the features of the normal NES as well. the system comes with a special stereo sumulator built-in and accessible through standard headphones which plug into the unit. The Express sends parallel sound info into a special stereo chip, much the same way other controllers like the Hudson Sansui SSS do. The effect this has on game play is quite impressive.

Since the Nintendo Express is still in an early prototype form, several questions remain in regards to player/machine interface. BDL was uncertain as to whether or not a cross-pad configuration would be built into the surface of Express, or if normal joystick ports would be used to allow players to use their favorite controllers.

With such a large screen (bigger than any other competing portable), you may be asking yourself how long the batteries last. Surprisingly, the Nintendo Express is said to outlast even the black and white Nintendo GameBoy, with an average battery life that reaches between 40 and 60 hours! This incredible feat is done by using a special AC/DC transformer arrangement. It must be noted, however, that this could not be confirmed. The Nintendo Express will also come with an AC adapter and car cigerette lighter interface for extra power when it's needed.

The Nintendo Express is now being finished up for final tooling and production. Since the system will take advantage of a special procedure that embeds the circuitry into the plastic casing, BDL is attempting to get the size down even more before release.
Will a portable Nintendo excite players? Most likely, concidering the fact that over 20 million standard NES machines are now in service. While the Express won't offer anything new in terms of game play, doesn't it sound exciting to be able to play Ninja GaiDen wherever and whenever you want to? As you know, a system is only as good as the games it plays - and the Nintendo Express will play a lot.

I think that perhaps the GameAxe is based on BDL's Nintendo Express but GameAxe came out in the late 1990s I think, a good number of years after the Nintendo Express was in development and mentioned in EGM

Anonymous · 07-06-2004

Eh, you might want to recheck the date on that issue before searching for more info on that "rare" handheld prototype. ;-)

-hl718

**GigaDrive** · 07-06-2004

sorry, I don't follow you (too little sleep lately) ....

are you saying that because the magaizne is so old (1990) that means there wouldn't be any info on the internet about it?

Anonymous · 07-06-2004

April Fools

**cahaz** · 07-06-2004

:smt043

ey , that could be really cool! :smt009

:smt043

**Hawanja** · 07-07-2004

April fools joke aside, I remeber in EGM there was a pic of an NES portable made by Camerica, kind of Supervision like with a large screen and extra controller port on the bottom. Don't have the issue anymore (sold them all.) I think they called it "express."

Was it the same thing, or was this the joke? I can't remember.

**A. Snow** · 07-07-2004

There were a few portable Famicom units.

The previously mentioned Gameaxe.
http://spoonman.roarvgm.com/videogame/gameaxe.html

There was also the Top Guy.
http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/pirate/topguy.html

Also the homemade one that is posted elsewhere on the boards.

Bandai made a prototype portable Super Famicom.
http://assembler.roarvgm.com/MIA_gam...erfamicom.html

**SuperGrafx** · 07-07-2004

Originally Posted by GigaDrive

I think that perhaps the GameAxe is based on BDL's Nintendo Express but GameAxe came out in the late 1990s I think, a good number of years after the Nintendo Express was in development and mentioned in EGM

I have that issue and I do remember how BDL (Beiderman Design Labs) used to come up with all sorts of cool NES hardware back in the day. BDL even had a working Gameboy-to-NES adapter which let you play your GB games via a special NES adapter cart! Sadly, due to Nintendo's tight control over the games market back then, few if any of these BDL gadgets ever saw light of day.

But the Portable NES does indeed sound like it could have been the precursor design for the GameAxe. Never saw a pic, but the descriptions given sound like it.

**Alchy** · 07-07-2004

Don't forget he Game Theory Admiral, a recent attempt.

BDL's new wonder-system uses a specially constructed 4 inch color CRT

Heh, a "handheld" CRT-based system would be kinda cool. The battery life would be nasty.

**GigaDrive** · 07-07-2004

SuperGrafx (great name btw, i love that system and Grandzort)
glad you know the article. I did not know what BDL meant before your post. I tried searching google, yahoo and altavista again for anything on that company, came up empty handed. I would have liked to have been able to compare the the supposed Nintendo Express to the GameAxe and other portable NES devices....

AntiPasta · 07-07-2004

Maybe a search of the patent database/chamber of commerce archives would turn up something? :smt017

**retro** · 07-07-2004

choo choo!

all aboard the Nintendo Express! ;)

**Hawanja** · 07-08-2004

I do remember the pic of it clearly, aslo I think it was mentioned in Nintendo power as well as EGM, and I could have sworn it was made by Camerica, the same article had a rumor about a NES CD Rom drive.

A few years ago I sold all my EGMs (I had issues 1-100, and it really stinks becasue I didn't get too much for them) but there's a used game store that has tons of back issues around here so I'm going to go hunt for this pic.

Anonymous · 07-09-2004

You won't find anything on the Nintendo Express because it was an April Fool's joke...

AntiPasta · 07-09-2004

Originally Posted by Hawanja

I do remember the pic of it clearly, aslo I think it was mentioned in Nintendo power as well as EGM, and I could have sworn it was made by Camerica, the same article had a rumor about a NES CD Rom drive.

The what?? Do you know some more about this?

**A. Snow** · 07-10-2004

Originally Posted by Hawanja

I do remember the pic of it clearly, aslo I think it was mentioned in Nintendo power as well as EGM, and I could have sworn it was made by Camerica, the same article had a rumor about a NES CD Rom drive.

Camerica was never officially licensed by Nintendo so there is no way you saw anything in Nintendo Power made by them.

**Hawanja** · 07-10-2004

Yeah, not in Nintendo power, probably in EGM. Still looking for the issue with the pic in it, the store has like seven stacks of old mags three feet high. It might take a while.

The CD rom drive was supposed to be something you plugged into any portable CD player, anybody remember reading about this?

And I'll bet my soul there was a pic of some kind of handheld; it was white, with a squarish screen and a NES controller buit in, also a controller hookup on the bottom. Is this the april fools joke, or was this thing real?