Cheapest console devkit

[userzero1]

I am looking for a gift for someone and thought a devkit would be nice. They only play Nintendo consoles, so which is the cheapest to get for a collection?

 

[yankii]

Switch is $500 to rent, but you can probably find some on the secondary market.

 

[userzero1]

I cannot find any on ebay so I don't know about Switch devkits

 

[Ondrashek06]

Given that access to console devkits is usually very strictly controlled with layers of NDAs and severe penalties if you ever attempt to sell it or use it for any other purpose, "cheap devkit" is an oxymoron due to the scarcity of them.

 

[Ryccardo]

Depends on what you mean by "devkit"...

In the strictest sense, the top of the line boxes with live computer connection for installing and debugging stuff, well they're rare and expensive (each licensed developer did not buy many of them and indeed would rather have as little as possible, they're expensive for them too!), they also commonly have different tiers of features/licensing (already a thing since the DS) and timebombed software (since the N3DS)...

Cheapest MAY be a DS one (is-nitro-emulator), I can see a sold one on neo-geo.com* for $800 in 2023 and this was a fully loaded (capture+debugger) model, and I remember from many years ago they were relatively common probably because everyone and their mom tried to make something for the DS

* Like in this example I suspect the best places to hunt for one is uppercase-Dedicated forums, though I don't know what the current equivalent of ObscureGamers that didn't really fill the hole left by AssemblerGames is!

If you can lower the standard to a "test kit" aka "debugging station", "Panda", "debug kit", etc the prices can be (again, relatively) much lower, like 4x of a consumer model, because they're just more common + often smaller, as in the consumer model + can do less (for a PS1 it would the same as a chipped and painted console, a DSi/3DS/Wii/Vita/Xbox/PS2/3 would have more RAM and alternate signing keys and cool features but it still mainly comes down to "can officially run non-retail-signed titles", despite the name they can't be used for "debugging" any more than a modded consumer model i.e. you can only do play testing with little if any external interfacing to help you with)

In fact, for most of those consoles I mentioned you can get some subset of the testkit features - usually the most scenic ones too - on a modded consumer model... including the RAM for the first Xbox: I have never bought either kind of product but I surely have enjoyed installing developer tools for free
Remember the unfounded WiiU SystemConfigTool scare?

Given that access to console devkits is usually very strictly controlled with layers of NDAs and severe penalties if you ever attempt to sell it or use it for any other purpose

Buying them new from the authorized seller is, but you can't fine* the dead, and corporations die (close) or even are murdered on the open wall-street (bankruptcy), and even healthy living ones have stuff they own, or possess without owning, stolen

* nitpick - it wouldn't be a penal/traffic kind of "fine" either, just a contractual debt, so even if the licensed developer still existed I suspect it wouldn't be that fast and trivial to enforce...!

 

[userzero1]

Given that access to console devkits is usually very strictly controlled with layers of NDAs and severe penalties if you ever attempt to sell it or use it for any other purpose, "cheap devkit" is an oxymoron due to the scarcity of them.

I said "cheapest" [which means cheap in comparison to others], not "cheap".

Depends on what you mean by "devkit"...

In the strictest sense, the top of the line boxes with live computer connection for installing and debugging stuff, well they're rare and expensive (each licensed developer did not buy many of them and indeed would rather have as little as possible, they're expensive for them too!), they also commonly have different tiers of features/licensing (already a thing since the DS) and timebombed software (since the N3DS)...

Cheapest MAY be a DS one (is-nitro-emulator), I can see a sold one on neo-geo.com* for $800 in 2023 and this was a fully loaded (capture+debugger) model, and I remember from many years ago they were relatively common probably because everyone and their mom tried to make something for the DS

* Like in this example I suspect the best places to hunt for one is uppercase-Dedicated forums, though I don't know what the current equivalent of ObscureGamers that didn't really fill the hole left by AssemblerGames is!

If you can lower the standard to a "test kit" aka "debugging station", "Panda", "debug kit", etc the prices can be (again, relatively) much lower, like 4x of a consumer model, because they're just more common + often smaller, as in the consumer model + can do less (for a PS1 it would the same as a chipped and painted console, a DSi/3DS/Wii/Vita/Xbox/PS2/3 would have more RAM and alternate signing keys and cool features but it still mainly comes down to "can officially run non-retail-signed titles", despite the name they can't be used for "debugging" any more than a modded consumer model i.e. you can only do play testing with little if any external interfacing to help you with)

In fact, for most of those consoles I mentioned you can get some subset of the testkit features - usually the most scenic ones too - on a modded consumer model... including the RAM for the first Xbox: I have never bought either kind of product but I surely have enjoyed installing developer tools for free
Remember the unfounded WiiU SystemConfigTool scare?


Buying them new from the authorized seller is, but you can't fine* the dead, and corporations die (close) or even are murdered on the open wall-street (bankruptcy), and even healthy living ones have stuff they own, or possess without owning, stolen

* nitpick - it wouldn't be a penal/traffic kind of "fine" either, just a contractual debt, so even if the licensed developer still existed I suspect it wouldn't be that fast and trivial to enforce...!

It doesn't have to be debugging kit with all the ports and huge modifications, anything that's for "development" is fine.