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You've probably never heard of a Gamecube called the NR Reader right? Well if you haven't there's a very good reason why, it was not available for purchase in any retail shops. The NR reader was used by game
testers who would receive a game build on a special 8 cm DVD-R, called DOT-003. These DVD's were written with a special device called an NR writer and the discs are only playable on the NR Reader version of the
Gamecube.
While it looks like a regular Gamecube, the NR reader actually features a different DVD drive that doesn't need to verify a special barcode which is present on retail discs. This means too that the NR reader isn't
capable of running retail discs.
The NTSC version of the NR Reader features a switch to toggle between English or Japanese GUI, the same mod could be made on a lot of the retail Gamecubes, I remember modding my Japanese one to be able to play US
games. A PAL version of the NR Reader also exists and I doubt it has a switch, or need one for that matter.
I experenced an NR Reader in use for the first time back back at ECTS 2001, where Kemco was showing off their horrible Universal Studios game, which people for some reason seemed to enjoy. As far as I remember Kemco
was the only company to have a Gamecube on display at the trade event and while I was watching someone play Universal Studios, I didn't get to play it myself as I didn't feel like standing in line.
Well while standing there a whole bunch of people from NCL (Nintendo of Japan) showed up at Kemco's booth and cheering when they saw the Gamecube in action, yeah cool... Nintendo themselves decided to have a booth
at ECTS from that year on and until ECTS shut down a few years later when both Sony and Nintendo had left the trade event to make their own, what a shame.
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