Nintendo Power Previews?

[AdamAnt316]

Hello everyone. At a local flea market, I spotted an industrial Pioneer Laserdisc player. When I asked about it, the seller said he had some more stuff for it in the car. When he returned, he had with him what looked like a Super Nintendo cartridge, but is definitely not like any other one I've ever seen. All the text, except for the spine, is meant to be read with the card-edge facing to the left, as if the cartridge is meant to be plugged into a vertically-oriented cartridge slot. The card edge is thicker than on a normal SNES game, and not quite as wide.

It has the Nintendo logo, and says below it "Power Previews Program Cartridge version 3.0." On a warning note, it says "Not a game cartridge! Use of this cartridge in a game system may damage the system or cartridge." Below the warning note, it says "For use with SBN1 Controllers and SBN1K Keypad PC boards." It has a NOA part number of 28884, and the spine states "Program Copyright (C) 1993 by Visual Database Systems and Nintendo of America. All rights reserved." In place of the usual warning sticker, is a white label which says "Other Side Up."

Along with the cartridge, there was a CD-ROM disc with the Nintendo logo, and the following text: "Nintendo Power Previews Version 20 - English," and a part number of 36359. Needless to say, I'm quite perplexed. Does anyone have an idea what this was meant for? Might it have gone along with the aforementioned laserdisc player (which also came with a patchcord with an 8-pin DIN plug on one end, and a three-pin connector on the other, but I'm not sure if it goes together with the other stuff)? What other hardware might have gone along with this? Thanks in advance.
-Adam

[JLukas]

It sounds like it's for one of those non-playable kiosks they had at places like Toys R Us, that showed preview videos when you picked a game on the keypad.

[NESVIDIOT]

It sounds cool! You should post some pics of it!! Maybe it works on a developers kit for the SNES. ASSEMbler may know more about this, he has quite a cool collection of development stuff.

[AdamAnt316]

JLukas: I think you may be right on that. I remember seeing one of those kiosks at the local Toys R Us back in the day. I enjoyed watching those previews.

Anyway, I think the Laserdisc player definitely was a part of the system. I powered it up, ejected the drawer, and there was a disc inside! The disc has an Imation label, and says "NPPV . 20 P/N 35893." I'm guessing the CD-ROM was for a different version of the kiosk.

Speaking of which, I tried playing the CD-ROM in my iMac, and it contains several preview videos. The two I've watched so far were both for Super Game Boy games: Donkey Kong, and Tetris Attack. A friend of mine has offered to rip the video files, and will post them on the web later on.

Anyway, if anyone might be interested in these materials, PM me. Perhaps one of you has one of these kiosks, and would like to obtain some software for it.
-Adam

[NeoSNightmarE]

that sounds awesome dude. u have to post pics of this thing and please rip the videos. all at a local flea market. your lucky man.

[Jorpho]

I think I saw something like that on the Nintendo Information Repository once.

Here we are. No information, sadly, but I the pictures are as you describe.
http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/repository/snes/history/sneslaserdisc.html

[AdamAnt316]

Jorpho: That's indeed the same cartridge I have. The laserdisc I have is a standard silver (non-writeable) kind, and the label barely says anything, but it seems to be for the same sort of system. It didn't come with a holder, though the CD is still in it's sleeve. I will try to post pics later, and RockyRaccoon will post the videos.
-Adam

[RockyRaccoon]

Hey All. I documented all the files. Working on getting these up online somewhere soon. here is the list:

AVSEQ01.DAT - Donkey Kong GB Preview
AVSEQ02.DAT - Tetris Attack GB Preview
AVSEQ03.DAT - Super Star Wars SNES Preview
AVSEQ04.DAT - Wario Land GB preview
AVSEQ05.DAT - Kirby's Star Stacker GB Preview
AVSEQ06.DAT - Super Mario All Stars Preview
AVSEQ07.DAT - The Legend of Zelda - Links Awakening GB Preview
AVSEQ08.DAT - Mole Mania GB Preview
AVSEQ09.DAT - The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past SNES Preview
AVSEQ10.DAT - Super Mario Land 2 GB preview
AVSEQ11.DAT - Game & Watch Gallery GB preview
AVSEQ12.DAT - Super Mario Kart SNES Preview
AVSEQ13.DAT - Gameboy Pocket Preview
AVSEQ14.DAT - SNEAK PREVIEWS! Ken Grif N64, SNES Arkanoid, Space Invaders,

Wario Land 2, Donkey Kong Land 3.
AVSEQ15.DAT - Gameboy Pocket Commercial
AVSEQ16.DAT - Nintendo 64 Spinning Logo
AVSEQ17.DAT - N64 Commercial (Early?)
AVSEQ18.DAT - Spinny Nintendo Logo
AVSEQ19.DAT - N64 Footage
AVSEQ20.DAT - Super Mario 64 Footage
AVSEQ21.DAT - N64 Commercial
AVSEQ22.DAT - N64 Logo Scene?
AVSEQ23.DAT - Another Spinny N64 Logo...
AVSEQ24.DAT - Donkey Kong Land 2 Commercial
AVSEQ25.DAT - MarioKart64 Commercial
AVSEQ26.DAT - Shadows of the Empire Commerical
AVSEQ27.DAT - Wave Race 64 Commericial
AVSEQ28.DAT - Another Spinny Nintendo Logo
AVSEQ29.DAT - Another Gameboy Pocket Commercial (Diff one)
AVSEQ30.DAT - Starfox64 Commercial
AVSEQ31.DAT - Nintendo Products Explanation (The Fun MAchines!)
AVSEQ32.DAT - Nintendo Power! Player guide MAKING OF!
AVSEQ33.DAT - Super Mario 64 Preview
AVSEQ34.DAT - Mario Kart 64 Preview
AVSEQ35.DAT - Starfox 64 Preview
AVSEQ36.DAT - Shadows of the Empire Commercial
AVSEQ37.DAT - Blast Corps Commercial
AVSEQ38.DAT - Cruisin USA Preview
AVSEQ39.DAT - Goldeneye N64 Preview
AVSEQ40.DAT - Kill Instinct Gold Preview
AVSEQ41.DAT - Pilotwings 64 Preview
AVSEQ42.DAT - Turok Dinosaur Hunter Preview
AVSEQ43.DAT - Hexen 64 Preview
AVSEQ44.DAT - Fifa 64 Preview
AVSEQ45.DAT - Doom64 Preview
AVSEQ46.DAT - Dark Rift N64 Preview
AVSEQ47.DAT - Wargods N64 Preview
AVSEQ48.DAT - Hang Time N64 Preview
AVSEQ49.DAT - Tetrisphere N64 Preview
AVSEQ50.DAT - Donkey Kong Country 2 SNES Preview
AVSEQ51.DAT - Wave Race 64 Preview
AVSEQ52.DAT - Super Mario RPG SNES Preview
AVSEQ53.DAT - Wayne Gretzky3D Hockey N64 Preview
AVSEQ54.DAT - Donkey Kong Country 3 SNES Preivew
AVSEQ55.DAT - Mortal Kombat Triology N64 Preview
AVSEQ56.DAT - Yoshi's Island SNES Preview
AVSEQ57.DAT - << Nothing. Black >>

Gonna try to have these all up tonight...

~Rocky

[NeoSNightmarE]

what program would be required to run these DAT files?

[RockyRaccoon]

what program would be required to run these DAT files?

Alright. Explanation. They are Called DAT files...but are actually just renamed MPG files. I checked this out. they run in Windows Media Player.

~Rocky