Nintendo’s 64 Disk Drive/ (64DD)

Nintendo’s 64 Disk Drive (64DD)

The video above pretty much shows you exactly how it works. I only heard about the 64DD in passing through magazines and old sites, but never paid attention to it. This video gives you a better insight that the big N had some things planned for the system, but it never came to be. Hell, Nintendo of America didn’t even support it.

After the break with Sony over the Nintendo Play-Station, I think Nintendo's interest in a disc-drive started to wane and they supported cartridge-based games. So, the 64DD was their answer to the cartridge-based games made by Sony's Playstation. The 64DD used magnetic disks for storage, so basically is was a form of a Jaz Drive or Zip Drive.

The 64DD came with a modem, a mouse and a keyboard. It really seems very similar to the early Sega Saturn NetLink device. The modem for the 64DD connected via the RANDnet.

I personally think, like the Sega NetLink before it, this add-on could have given a boost to Nintendo. But, they really didn’t support it. It seems like certain elements in Nintendo didn’t want to push the envelope with new technology and Internet content. I mean the N64 should have really been CD-Rom supported at the time anyway, given the lower cost of developing for CD-based games. With the exception of the Wii, I always felt Nintendo was always one step behind the other companies, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft. And, I felt it was on purpose.

After watching the video above, it would have been interesting to see this 64DD in action over here in North America.

This 2001 story from IGN 64, explains exactly why Nintendo kind of lost interest in 64DD and the broken promises of the DD. It was announced back in 95 but N released back in December 1, 1999.

A few more bits of information...

-Here is a strange Japanese Promotional video.

-This guy paid 600 dollars for the add-on.

-Here's a British preview of the system from 1998. It is kind of funny that the Nintendo guy is trying his best to hype system. Notice how vague he is about the DD and the release date?

-All of IGN's old coverage of the 64DD. This is a very good read.

-A site devoted to the 64DD.