I found a B2 Duke controller and was wondering how many of these were made and what they were used for originally. Unfortunately there is not a whole lot of information online about these.
To be honest, there isnt a whole lot of information out there on when exactly they were used. Numbers are hard to say, because most people dont look at the stickers and the design is identical to the retail. There seem to be quite a few of them out there, and there are at least two different revisions, maybe three. People may say "Beta 2," which might or might not be accurate, but it is certainly one of the last controllers before being ready for the retail release.
Tough to say. They would be really, really late dev kits to be receiving them (in terms of launch-late). Earlier kits got earlier controllers, a handful received green controllers though rare, and some probably received these.
Maybe it's just the label that's under all duke controllers' retail labels. Like how the consoles have 2 stickers, 1 factory, 1 retail applied on top of it. Doubt it but hey...
Its possible. I would imagine it is a situation like the first retail kits, where the controllers just hadn't been fully approved yet, especially after those last minute bugs in the Dakotas.