Jul 20, 2023 06:00:00

The data recorded in the 'NINTENDO 64 test cartridge' is read and published in the Internet archive

Mr. Zoinkity, a hacker who is familiar with the system of NINTENDO64, reads the data recorded in the test cartridge of the game machine

NINTENDO64 released by Nintendo in 1996, Gaming Alexandra, an organization that summarizes the history of games and valuable materials donated to The data read from the test cartridge is published in the Internet Archive, which collects various information on the Internet.

Nintendo 64 Test Cart ROM – Gaming Alexandria
https://www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/2023/07/nintendo-64-test-cart-rom/

NINTENDO64 test cartridges are cartridges used by customer service center technicians and others to test NINTENDO64s sent by customers for repair. It seems that the selling price per piece was quite high at 500 dollars (about 70,000 yen), and when the repair demand for NINTENDO 64 decreased, it was sent back to Nintendo, so it is said that it is not readily available in the second-hand market.

A video explaining what the NINTENDO64 test cartridge looks like has been posted on YouTube.

Nintendo 64 Test Cartridge-ULTRA RARE-Full Tutorial-YouTube


A man holds a NINTENDO64 test cartridge. The shape is the same as a normal Nintendo 64 game cartridge, and it even has a label in the middle.

What makes them different from regular game cartridges is the presence of a small light next to the label. If there is a problem with the console or controller, this light will light up and let you know.

Also, there is

a JTAG port on the top, which normal cartridges don't have. If there is any problem with the test cartridge, it can be reprogrammed through this port.

When you actually insert the test cartridge into the NINTENDO64, you will see a strange screen like this. This is not a malfunction, but a normal operation to test various color ratios on the screen.

After a while, the opening screen was displayed. If it's for testing, it should be simpler, and you can get a glimpse of Nintendo's playfulness.

The menu of the test program looks like this.

audio test

Controller test

It is possible to perform various tests, such as testing the quality of the screen.

Mr. Zoinkity avoided the protection by attaching an insulating tape to a security chip called a CIC chip, and succeeded in reading data by activating the development unit of the dedicated magnetic disk drive 64DD while the test cartridge was booting. He said he did. Partial data was read by another hacker in 2016, but the data read this time includes parts that could not be read so far, and is closer to completeness, says Zoinkity.

NINTENDO64 test cartridge data can be downloaded from the following page.

Nintendo 64 Test Cart Dump ROM : Nintendo : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/n64_testcart