Thread by @FarmboyinJapan

So apparently very late in the development of the museum, we’re talking *days* before it opened, Nintendo put in a “Storage” exhibit on the 2nd floor; and this corner is dedicated to prototype Nintendo hardware. Literally gasped when I saw this exhibit and what was on display.

It was filled with prototypes I had never seen nor heard of before. Sadly no pictures were allowed, so I scribbled down some notes; and drew approximations of what the prototypes looked like using my phone. Here is everything I saw:

First thing on display was the prototype Super Famicom with the red buttons. Pretty sure we’ve all seen this by now, but it was still super cool to see the actual prototype behind glass. (Once again these are not pictures from the museum; just pics I found online).

Note that the prototype on display was not the even older Super Famicom prototype featuring the more box-ish design. That prototype was nowhere to be found.

Next were several prototypes of the Ultra 64 controller. I’m using the “Ultra 64” name because for whatever reason, all of the prototypes that had labels on them had “Ultra 64” written on them. There wasn’t a single “Nintendo 64” logo to be seen in this corner.

There was the Ultra 64 prototype controller with the larger stick that we’ve all seen, but even more surprising was a prototype controller that seemingly had a control stick made out of a shiny metal material.

There was also a prototype of a controller that *only* had a center grip. I created this pic in photoshop to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Finally in the Ultra 64 section they had, what appeared to be, the final clay mold of the completed design of the controller. I felt like I was in the presence of a holy historical artifact.

There was a prototype GameCube on display. Looked similar to a prototype model that had previously appeared online, but the model in the museum was slightly different. The model in the museum was a greenish blue color, and was slightly transparent, revealing there were no innards

More interesting however was the prototype GameCube controller that was on display. It looked pretty similar to a standard GC controller, with the button layout already in place. However, the grips were much longer, and the left grip was made out of clear (now yellowed) plastic.

The prototype Wii-Motes on display were fascinating. These prototypes that have been previously shown were all on display, as were prototypes I’d never seen.

One prototype was shaped exactly like a fidget spinner with a D-Pad and buttons. Another looked like a giant D-Pad with buttons all over it. (excuse my rough drawings).

In what I’m assuming is a prototype Wii classic controller, there was a controller that allowed you to dock it with a Wii-Mote. You would attach the Wii-Mote to the middle of the controller.

The infamous Wii U game pad prototype was on display. What doesn’t come across in these photos however is just how many cables were attached to the unit, and how long the cables were. The prototype unit cables appeared to be several meters long.

There was a prototype Virtual Boy headset on display that was made out of clear plastic. There was also prototype Virtual Boy controllers made out of styrofoam, with buttons and cables attached.

Prototype Game Boys. I gasped. The earliest model was black with red buttons, and the layout was similar to the original GBA. And while the final Game Boy release has the phrase “Dot Matrix With Stereo Sound”, this prototype has the phrase “Dot Matrix Game” above the screen.

The other, seemingly further along in development Game Boy prototype was now in the vertical layout we all now know, but it was an all black unit with red buttons. Also the phrase “Game Boy Are Protected Widely by Patents” was under the screen.

There was a GBA prototype on display, but it more or less already resembled what the final release of the original GBA looked like. The most interesting GBA prototype was a GBA Micro prototype that appears to have been designed to be used one handed.

The prototype was about the size of a standard GBA Micro but it was instead designed with a vertical layout. There was a tiny D-Pad / scroll wheel, and buttons. This tracks as Nintendo was looking at the rise of games that could be played one handed on feature phones at the time

Finally, there was a DS prototype with two screens that opened horizontally as opposed to vertically like on the final product. D-pads and buttons were at either side, and so it looked like a super early Nintendo Switch.