I know many have been waiting for more info on this 🙂
Today I received the only known copy of the official Nintendo Link cable for the VB. Thought only to exist in dreams 😯
It came as part of my VUE-Debugger bundle.

It’s a very official-looking cable, made in the same style as the controller plug to look nice beside it. One side sais “Nintendo” and the other sais “VUE-004”. It is of decent lenght, about 148.5 cm from tip to tip. It has the same type of ferrite core modules on each end as the controller cable has, and a snap-in mechanism on each side of the plugs to make the stay better inside the VB.

The plugs are professionally molded, and you don’t do that to manufacture just one cable, so chances are there are more of these out there somewhere. On the other hand, it took 19 years for this one to surface, so who knows? 😛

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Very cool. Have you tested any existing homebrew code with it?

nope, haven’t had the chance to yet.

Awesome… glad to see it arrived safely! From the populated pins, it appears that the 5<->6 pin swap is likely confirmed, though if you could verify the pinout, that’d be awesome (to confirm that they didn’t use resistors or do something else goofy).

DogP

Awesome! Glad to see you got it ok, looks great man! It would be really cool if there are more out there, like you said, I doubt they only made one!

DanB wrote:
I know many have been waiting for more info on this 🙂
Today I received the only known copy of the official Nintendo Link cable for the VB. Thought only to exist in dreams 😯
It came as part of my VUE-Debugger bundle.

Now if only we can stop dreaming of things like Dragon Hopper and Zero Racer (and Goldeneye)! Bound High was a dream come true, surely it’s only a matter of time…

It’s a very official-looking cable, made in the same style as the controller plug to look nice beside it. One side says “Nintendo” and the other says “VUE-004”. It is of decent length, about 58.5″ from tip to tip. It has the same type of ferrite core modules on each end as the controller cable has, and a snap-in mechanism on each side of the plugs to make the stay better inside the VB.

Are we going to conform the “aftermarket cables” to this design? That would only make sense; “official” cables for “official” (err, homebrew?) linked games! 🙂

The plugs are professionally molded, and you don’t do that to manufacture just one cable, so chances are there are more of these out there somewhere. On the other hand, it took 19 years for this one to surface, so who knows? 😛

They planned to make many more — but an aluminum mold is 1/4 the price of a steel one. It’s conceivable they made a couple hundred (surely more software developers had them), but all are locked up in whatever vault that also holds “DH” and likely a bunch of other prototypes. Maybe all but THIS one.

As long as I live I’ll never understand N’s attitude of CANCELING a system, never to be made again — so prototype games have ZERO detriment on profit margins — but then to be uninterested in customer’s loyalty with a “SCREW YOU NOT GONNA LET SLIP any stored items” (like prototype carts).

Just release whatever prototype games exist, the fan appreciation generates tons of good PR and future sales.

I love the last picture especially! Good to see both the link cable and controller cable side-by-side as they should be. If you have 2 VBs, I’d love to see a pic of them linked together 🙂

There “has to” be more of these waiting to surface, who’s to say it won’t pop up on ebay listed as a Nintendo AV cable or something? Given how obscure/unique this cord is, someone may find no information when looking to sell theirs. That translates into a lawn sale buy of a lifetime for one of us!

I call dibs on the next one to surface btw.

vb-fan wrote:
Are we going to conform the “aftermarket cables” to this design? That would only make sense; “official” cables for “official” (err, homebrew?) linked games! 🙂

I will most likely copy the side clip design, mine just bends one side, that looks way better with a sort of bridge with a small lug.
For the rest it will probably stay as we have designed it, we spent some time on a logo, which looks rad, so I’d like to keep that but the overall shape is similar.
I’m not really up for copying it directly, this is a re-make so I see no reason to try and be identical, its purpose is to be used, so fit for function is the key, with a little eye candy if we can.

Thanks for posting the pics. It really is an amazing find.

How rude of me, I didn’t thank you for posting the photos, those are great pics, thanks for sharing.
I hope you manage to get use out of it once our un-official link cable is released there should be some code to play with and you would be the only chap with the official cable.

Nice pics! Krisse should use them for the link cable page.

Hedgetrimmer wrote:
I will most likely copy the side clip design, mine just bends one side, that looks way better with a sort of bridge with a small lug.
For the rest it will probably stay as we have designed it, we spent some time on a logo, which looks rad, so I’d like to keep that but the overall shape is similar.
I’m not really up for copying it directly, this is a re-make so I see no reason to try and be identical, its purpose is to be used, so fit for function is the key, with a little eye candy if we can.

Well, looking forward to buyable link cables! (Of course, two-player GAMES will also be nice!)

How rude of me, I didn’t thank you for posting the photos, those are great pics, thanks for sharing.

Ditto that — very cool find! Maybe in a parallel Universe the VB proliferated, as did the link cables.

😉

I would have never guessed that one exists. I wish I had one so that I could build a multi player game.

that is soo cool that you got the only known one… i would love to have one someday. put me in your will please.