Description
This is a standard Zephyr full development kit, originally issued with a sidecar when in use. This particular unit once belonged to Nuts Magazine (a now-defunct UK lads’ mag) — link.
I picked it up as part of a bulk lot of retail consoles from a UK wholesaler. The condition you see now is exactly how it came to me. Being a Zephyr, it suffered the dreaded GPU failure at some point. The team at the magazine clearly weren’t too happy about that, as they decided to write their own messages on the console itself. Another quirky detail is the letterheaded Nuts sticker still on it, with a handwritten warning telling potential thieves it was pointless to steal since it wouldn’t run retail games.
When the kit failed, the sidecar was removed (it held the HDD), which unfortunately caused damage to the DVD drive’s power and data ports.
I’ve since restored the console to full working order by replacing the GPU with a revised fixed version and repairing the damaged ports. However, I chose not to add a sidecar back to it — I wanted to keep it closer to the condition it came in, with its original quirks and story intact.
