How did Luckless Heaven start?

I think I must have received my first console, a purple Game Boy Color, at roughly... 4 years old?! Around the year 2000, as I distinctly remember getting in trouble with my first teacher for frequently humming songs from Pokemon Yellow Version, my second overall game, but my first Nintendo game. I enjoyed the Pokemon anime series as a kid, and my father, who owned a PlayStation at the time and had enjoyed ZX Spectrum games in his childhood, must have been feeling generous to be handing such an expensive toy to a young child.

My Aunt also owned her own Game Boy Color, a transparent model, with a copy of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, which was my first exposure to the Super Mario series. And then, my first exposure to the Super Smash Bros. series happened when I would visit my cousin after school. Naturally, I recognised the Mario and Pokemon characters, but who were all these other characters? Who was Kirby? Ness? Marth? I'd play endless amounts of Super Smash Bros. Melee with my cousin after school, with Marth becoming my main. We'd eventually end up scrolling through the trophy section, where peculiar designs like Doshin the Giant and Tom Nook would spark my imagination. What kind of games did they come from?

I would spend the next couple decades only really gaming casually. I would dabble in The Legend of Zelda series, maybe try out Metroid Fusion or spend play Animal Crossing: New Leaf with friends, but I would generally only really buy consoles for Mario, Pokemon and Smash Bros.

This would change in 2015. A reveal trailer featuring Shulk had been released for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. This once again sparked my imagination. Who was this guy? Lucky for me, Nintendo read my mind, and decided to release Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, a Nintendo 3DS port of Shulk's original game. Soon after, my friend encouraged me to buy a Wii U, basically just to play Splatoon. I'm not sure why I did this, but sure enough, I was playing Xenoblade and Splatoon simultaneously, and this had fully reignited my passion for gaming.

Fast-forward to 2020, when this website was started. At that point, I had already been seriously collecting Nintendo games for four years. When quarantine happened, I was left with a lot of free time to spare. Among clearing through my backlog of games like StarTropics, I decided that starting a website discussing Nintendo software and hardware would be a good use of the knowledge I had accumulated. The site existed to attract and build a community of people who thoroughly enjoyed Nintendo games, to a point of playing their most obscure games. My hope was to share my enjoyment of games with this community, so that we could all have fun together. I hope you enjoy the website!

The name "Luckless Heaven" is a reference to the supposed meaning of Nintendo's name "leave luck to heaven". I envisioned my future arcade as a videogame heaven for people who don't need luck to win, only skill. It's a shit name but it's what I'm sticking with.

Is the website still being updated?

I promise I'm still updating the website! I work a full time job and also procrastinate so, so much. The website gets updated when I have the energy for it, which is roughly two-three times per week at best, and once a month at worst.

Why is there software/hardware missing from the website?

Games and software listed on this website must have been developed or published by Nintendo in at least one region.

This includes:

• some Yokai Watch games (a Level-5 series, published by Nintendo in America and Europe)
• some Inazuma Eleven hames (a Level-5 series, published by Nintendo in Europe only)
• some Harvest Moon games (a Natsume series, published by Nintendo in Australia only)
• some Shovel Knight games (a Yacht Club Games series, published by Nintendo in Japan only)

This does not include:

• games published by Nintendo affiliates
• the Adventure of Lolo series is developed and published by HAL Laboratories, without Nintendo's involvement
• mobile games published by The Pokemon Company
• mobile Pokemon games are published solely by TPC, whereas Switch Pokemon games are joint-published by Nintendo and TPC.
• games distributed by Nintendo
• Minecraft was sold physically on Nintendo's online store, but was developed/published by Mojang without Nintendo's involvement
• games licensed by Nintendo
• Pikmin Bloom was developed and published by Niantic, Nintendo simply gave them permission to use their IP

Hardware listed on this website must have been manufactured by Nintendo of Japan, with a standard issue Nintendo hardware number. This currently does not include development kits made by Intelligent Systems, though this is likely to change in the future. Several kiosk models are not included, as older kiosk displays were typically manufactured outside of Japan, using standard retail hardware.



What are these weird numbers in the hardware pages? (Like RVL-001)

These numbers are Nintendo's way of easily identifying consoles, accessories and hardware manufactured by Nintendo, usually for retail. They're usually formatted like LLL-NNN where LLL is a three letter code referencing the associated console's development name, and NNN being a three digit number, denoting the order in which the hardware was developed for the console.

For example, let's look at RVL-001, the Wii hardware number: RVL is a reference to the Wii's prototype name, the "Revolution", and it's 001 because it's a console. The AC Adapter for the Wii is RVL-002 because it's used with the Wii and was the second thing developed for the Wii. Another example is the Nintendo GameCube, the DOL-001. It's using 001 because the GameCube's prototype name was "Dolphin".

There a few noticeable patterns to this system:

• Major console revisions start from increments of 100+1. For example, the Wii Family Edition is RVL-101 and the Wii Mini is RVL-201. Hardware made specifically for these remodels will be numbered after their related remodel. For example, the AV Famicom is HVC-101 and the controller for the AV Famicom is HVC-102.
• Minor hardware revisions that are generally visible or advertised are marked with a (-01). For example, the original release model of the Nintendo Switch is HAC-001, while a later revision advertised as having a longer battery life was marked with HAC-001(-01).
• Minor hardware revisions that are generally unadvertised are marked with a letter. For example, early Game Boy Link Cables are marked with DMG-04, whereas later cables with ferrite cores to reduce electromagnetic interference are marked with DMG-04A.
• Development hardware references the main console's prototype name, with a T on the end, presumably for "test". For example, the Wii NDEV development kit is RVT-001 (Revolution Test).
• Kiosk hardware references the main console's prototype name, with an IS on the end, presumably for "in-store". For example, the Wii Station kiosk is RIS-001 (Revolution In-Store).

There's also several quirks, such as the original Game Boy hardware only using two digits (DMG-01), European/Japanese SNES hardware using four letters (SHVC-001/SNSP-001) and each Game & Watch having different letters for each model (AC-01 for Ball, in possible reference to a potential prototype name "Acrobat", FL-02 for Flagman, etc). These codes didn't really stay consistent until the 90s with the Game Boy Pocket and Nintendo 64.

Can I send you information or pictures for your website?

Feel free to send me any information or pictures via email or in the Discord server. It's not guaranteed that the information or pictures will be published on the website, but I appreciate any help that people are willing to provide.

Can I buy a Nintendo development kit from you?

No, we do not provide development kits for any of Nintendo's consoles. We can only provide information regarding Nintendo development kits, found through extensive research. Any information found has been published on this website.