Nintendo Museum has unseen hardware prototypes on display

In what has come as a surprise to many, a number of hardware prototypes were added to the Nintendo Museum just days before the official opening date.

One of the key complaints brought up with the location prior to its opening was that based on what was shown in the Direct and to the press, Nintendo didn’t delve much into its history here. However, this has been rectified a bit. Now that the museum has just started to open, fans have discovered that many prototypes are on display, including the earlier times with the Super Famicom and Virtual Boy, extending into the Wii U era. Some have been shown publicly before, but many have not.

X user FarmboyinJapan was among one of the first people to visit the Nintendo Museum and reported on the prototypes shown – which are featured at the “Storage” exhibit on the second floor. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed. FarmboyinJapan did take notes on the prototypes though, and we’ve rounded up those tidbits below.

• Prototype Super Famicom with red buttons (this has been shown online previously)
• Ultra 64 controller prototypes (they had this label instead of N64); one controller that seemingly had a control stick made out of a shiny metal material and another prototype that only had a center grip; museum also has final clay mold of the completed design of the controller
• Prototype GameCube that looks similar to what’s previously appeared online, but this one was a greenish blue color, and was slightly transparent, revealing there were no innards
• Prototype GameCube controller similar to a standard GC controller, with the button layout already in place, but much longer grips and the left grip was made out of clear (now yellowed) plastic
• Prototype Wii Remotes at the museum which were previously shown online, but also unseen ones including one shaped like a fidget spinner with a d-pad and buttons; another looked like a giant d-pad with buttons all over it
• Prototype controller that was seemingly the Wii Classic Controller that allowed you to dock it with a Wii Remote; attach the Wii Remote to the middle of the controller
• Wii U GamePad prototype, which was previously shown publicly, is at the museum; has a lot of cables that appeared to be several meters long
• Prototype Virtual Boy headset at the museum made out of clear plastic as well as controllers for the hardware made out of styrofoam, with buttons and cables attached
• Multiple Game Boy prototypes at the Nintendo Museum, including earliest model that was black with red buttons and layout similar to the original GBA; has “Dot Matrix Game” instead of “Dot Matrix With Stereo Sound” that the final product has
• Another Game Boy prototype that appears to be further along, which was now in the vertical layout we all now know, but it was an all black unit with red buttons; has the phrase “Game Boy Are Protected Widely by Patents” under the screen
• One GBA prototype at the museum seems to have been designed to be used one handed; size of a standard GBA Micro but it was instead designed with a vertical layout, has a tiny D-Pad / scroll wheel, and buttons
• DS prototype with two screens that opened horizontally instead of vertically; D-pads and buttons at either side, which makes it look like an early Switch

Again, since photos weren’t allowed, you’ll mostly have to use your imagination. However, FarmboyinJapan also drew  a few approximations of what the prototypes looked like, which you can find here.

The Nintendo Museum is now open in Kyoto, Japan as of this week. We have lots of details about it here.