Nintendo Photo Printer Redux

[Jasoco]

I received my Printer today. And it looks good so far.

 

I was partially wrong. It DOES have Video in. Both AV Video and S-Video. They're on the front. And on the back is Video Out. So basically, you plug the game system, DVD player, etc into the front, the printer overlays messages if needed and passes them through to the screen. When I plugged it in and hooked up the video to the TV, it said;

 

NO PAPER CASSETTE

 

PLEASE CALL CLERK

FOR ASSISTANCE

 

On the top of the unit is a bunch of buttons. Title, Menu, four direction arrows, Clear, Enter, Field/Frame, Monitor, Memory and Print. The row above has PC Card Rec--Input Select Video-PC-PC Card, Display and a slider switch that says Auto Print.

 

In the front there's the door that allows Inputs. There's Edit which I don't know what plugs into it, S-Video In and Video In. Above that is the PC Card slot. It allows Laptop PC Cards to be plugged in with adapters for I guess Camera cards. Then there's the Printer Cartridge slot. Inside it is a Printer Cartridge that came with a couple vintage Pokémon Snap Sticker Sheets.

 

On the right side is the Ink door. It came with whatever was left of the Ink cartridge I guess.

 

On the back is the Video Out that goes to the TV, the Serial port (Looks like a standard Macintosh Serial port) and a Parallel port that looks like a regular Printer port. Sadly and understandable no USB.

 

Below that is some odd opening that seems to hold something. I don't know exactly what.

 

There appear to be some screws missing. I guess the previous owner tried to open it for some reason. I got it from a reseller called "Stuff".

 

I had it making noise actually. I told it to print. It tried, but I had taken the paper out so it said No Paper. So it APPEARS to work.

 

Playing around, I'm not sure, but it APPEARS to have a feature that lets me record the screen to a card rather than the paper. If it's true, I could in theory use this as a Video Capture device. But that's just speculation. I wish I had a manual for this. Maybe I could Google for one.

 

I will get some pictures of this posted soon. This is just as interesting as my SNES Control Deck Tester. But probably more useful.

 

Just number 2 in my slowly building collection of weird and strange Nintendo paraphernalia.

[AtariYoungin]

I just did some looking around and this http://www.printer-drivers.com/drivers/18/18157.htm looks like drivers for it...so if you can hook up a parrallel cable to it you may be able to test the printer through your computer. And these are what where in the Pokemon Snap booths at blockbusters...just incase someone didn't know...[/url]

[Jasoco]

Thanks for the link, but unless there's one for Mac OS X (Although, I have no Serial OR Parallel on my computer, THANK GOD.) I can't use it.

 

If it had USB, I'd almost expect OS X to already be able to support it. But I have no intention of hooking this to my computer.

 

And yes, these were the Pokémon Snap Kiosk printers. Kinda makes you wonder what happened to the rest of the kiosk and how the original owner got a hold of it.

 

 

I suppose they were disassembled when Nintendo discontinued them. I assume Nintendo told the Blockbusters to destroy the pieces or ship them back, but of course, much of the time that doesn't happen and they eventually end up on eBay. At which point I swoop in and Snap (No pun intended) it up at rock bottom prices to put on display in my small but humble collection.

 

I wouldn't mind having the whole thing. I am almost positive it's not limited to just Pokémon Snap. But I'd have to do more research.

 

I would kile to see a layout of how this was hooked up. And if the paper and ink cartridges are purchasable. I hope they're not proprietary.

[Ze_ro]

So, what exactly is this thing supposed to do? Does it just print out whatever frame of video happens to be going through it when you hit the button? Or is it like the Gameboy Printer, where it has to be controller by a game? In any case, it's pretty cool.

 

(Although, I have no Serial OR Parallel on my computer, THANK GOD.)

 

How is that a good thing? All it means is that you're more limited as to what peripherals you can use, since not everything uses USB. Pretty much all my legacy ports are still full... I still use parallel for my printer (even though it can use USB, and I have the proper cable), and serial for my mouse. In fact, I had USB ports for 4 years without ever using them until I bought a USB gamepad a month or two ago. Everything works, so I see no reason to replace things just to use new standards.

 

--Zero

[Jasoco]

So, what exactly is this thing supposed to do? Does it just print out whatever frame of video happens to be going through it when you hit the button? Or is it like the Gameboy Printer, where it has to be controller by a game? In any case, it's pretty cool.

Seeing as it seems to work completely, I could in theory test it out. Maybe tomorrow I'll hook up a game and see what I can do.

 

I would like to have a real piece of Photo paper though. The sticker sheets are probably one of a kind. A small size, 12 little stickers. I'd rather not waste it.

 

I don't even know if the ink cartridge is full or not.

 

I'll take pics tomorrow and maybe someone here can help me out.

 

The Ink cartridge looks like a smaller version of the ones the Kodak Picture Maker at my store uses. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're still made.

 

I'd really like to see what the PC Card Record function actually does. Record.. sounds like it could save the screen to a Memory card. I dunno what else it could mean.

 

It has three modes. PC Card which I guess uses the card slot on the front. PC mode which uses the Serial or Parallel port as I guess a regular printer. And Display which uses the yellow AV plud input.

 

If I plug the game system into the AV Input and the AV output into the TV, it passes through the printer and allows on-screen menus and options.

 

I gotta explore further.