Wii HD dev boards?

So I got these in a lot. From what I can tell they might have been dev boards for the Wii U, although I could be wrong there. Also the 2 green boards have the starlight logo on them.

All 3 use the Altera Cyclone II chip. Also of note is that some boards have notes for issues like insert disc, and from what I can tell they came from a recycling center.

Anyone know what these are and if they are worth anything?

 

They have the starlight foundation logo, which is for hospital industrial quality game kiosk / systems on wheels that sick children can play.

So they came from hospital machines.

These could be very useful for some hacking of the wiiu, very uncommon for sure, I am really surprised about the special pcb markings, as the previous starlight systems were just retail systems.

The starlight wiiu must have been hdd only with games with a special key or something,
I doubt that nintendo would put out boards that could emulate a wiiu optical drive without
some safety mechanism.

I'm going to up my estimate based on unusual-ness, rarity, and possible use in hacking wiiu,
to $80-100 each.

 

This is probably the coolest, but also the most depressing thing I've read in months.

Nice find, and I'll agree with kev on the WiiU hacking part.

 

They are very expensive kiosks, so you usually only see them at places like cancer hospitals, etc.

A small light in the darkness. Nintendo has been in this partnership since SNES. Nintendo does a lot of nice things,
but they don't go around parading their contributions.

 

Correted with picture and forum name- I often forget how that doesn't just apply to the sales area.

As far as static electricity- I live in the NW, and have worked on hundreds of circuit boards, it's a very uncommon issue here (with our weather). However I did once work for a guy that made me always wear a grounding strap on my wrist when working on computers- as he was very concerned about the potential for damage.

 

Not only that but he also put them on top of the static bags!

 

Really interesting stuff, especially considering the date markings (2009) and 'Wii HD' on it. I wonder what 'GRVL' means?

Relevant thread elsewhere: https://www.bluegartr.com/threads/89468-So...-the-WiiHD

Info and videos from the Nintendo website: http://starlight.nintendo.com/tech-support/

I suppose the 'HD' stands for Hard Drive, judging from the manuals.

 

The RVL is obviously Revolution as with all Wii stuff. The G? Noticed the "georgeca<at?>noa.nintendo.com" at the right edge of the green board? That's probably where it's from - some dude or department.

Btw, I don't see why everyone's jumping at the Wii U bandwagon. I'd say this is an official Wii ODE.

 

I think it's just unrealistic that Nintendo would be making new Wii dev boards in 2009. The Launch of the Wii U was upcoming, so that makes a lot more sense.

 

Yeah, was wondering about the G... maybe.

The Wii U was launched in late 2012, no way they'd be making production stuff for hospitals in 2009. It's definitely Wii stuff, the RVL codes indicate as much.

 

Okay- so I now agree that they seem to be from Starlight Wii units.

http://starlight.nintendo.com/_ui/pdfs/Wii-FC-op-manual.pdf

If you look at the back of the Wii- the ports look like they match up.

 

Starlight Consoles in the Hospitals had games pre-loaded on the consoles, but they also had DVD drives in them (Guessing for DVD playback or possibly to load games onto the console?)

Used to have doctor appointments at a nearby Hospital well known for Cancer Treatment and in the waiting rooms (at least in the Radiology waiting room) there was a Wii console pre-loaded with games. Mostly kids games, but I'm not sure if the games were the same between consoles. Had a neat looking GUI to select games, wasn't the usual Wii dashboard.


Reminds me of the Starlight N64 I played back in my Hospital room in '06, just wheeled in on a large kiosk unit.
"I beat DK64 for the first time in a Hospital Bed" makes for an interesting story.