Rare N64DD System Review - Gamester81
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- Опубликовано: 11 фев 2025
- This is a closer look at the N64 Disk Drive system released by Nintendo in 1999.
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@otomo129 yeah thanks for the suggestion. The loading intro is actually really short. I didn't cut it off, but that's actually the length of the intro when you boot it up. I'll post more vids of gameplay and you'll see what I mean. Thanks for watching.
I remember when this thing was coming out, I was so looking forward to it, then it didn't happen and a part of me died inside. I used to get the official nintendo magazine every week to keep up to date with the latest releases, and they hyped this thing up like crazy.
This guy is the ultimate gamer. I can only dream of having as immaculate of a collection as this guy. I honestly didnt even know half of these systems existed. You are a legend
Hey John, BEAUTIFUL review of this classic and very rare system! Im happy you reviewed it, and also showed some game play shots! Nice work, and another A+ video my friend!
6:25 "Let me know. But, if you guys know, let me know. But, I don't know."
LOL XD
wow, I am just speechless at the stuff you have in your collection sometimes.
It's unfortunate they didn't release this in the US, I think this would have been really cool to mess around with back then as a kid, especially the 3d stuff!
Interesting video, i have never seen one of these in action before.
The n64dd connects like the gameboy player for the GameCube
AJ_Thefiremaster yes and no. While it plugs in as an add-on, the EXT port on the bottom of the N64 is an exact mirror of the cartridge port above (with the addition of 12v and ground pins to supply power to the 64DD) as far as I know, it is the only system that does that, wire it up right and you could plug carts to the bottom! Lol
@christo930 The capacity is 64,45 MB, out of which half is reserved for rewriting. They are magnetic, not optical.
You can save all your creations on the disks, and with hotswapping the Mario Artist disks, you can for example import your 2D drawings as textures into your 3D models on another disk.
luv your channel...one of the best when it comes to details
Learnt something new today. Did not know about this console
Aside from the voltage differences between PAL and NTSC, which can be corrected with an adapter, the primary problem is the difference in frame rates and vertical scanning frequencies, which result in display problems when mixed without adjustment.
YES, I have been waiting for this review forever! I watched your firdt one was cool but this is even better!
I'd love to get hold of one one day. I did get a Doctor V64 a while ago though, very interesting piece of kit.
I was unaware that these things ever actually came out. I never saw a review of this N64DD or any of its games. This is pretty cool then
thanks for the flashbacks of all the classics u show keep up gd videos
It was a thing in the 90's, the Dreamcast had an online gaming feature. I remember being a kid and couldn't believe I was playing multiplayer against people all over the world. It also had a web browser program.
Ahhh man these things are beasts! I remember the very first video of yours I watched was your review on this and the other third party add on!
I translated the directions at 8:39 for you!
"how to create a crazy manga (comic).
select a film strip.
draw a picture on the paint screen.
once you finish your picture, click the (blue circle icon) to complete that film strip.
once you finish a couple of pictures, end it by clicking the (red circle icon) on the last film strip.
watch your crazy manga by pressing the (play button icon)"
If you ever need anything translated into English from Japanese, feel free to send me a PM! Great video man!
Once I have this my life will be completed!!!
10:22 the music is from when you save/load a picture in mario paint and that awkward robot sat there on your screen while it saved/loaded the picture.
In case anyone didn't know, the NES's underside slot is inherited from the Famicom. The Famicom Disk System is a totally required peripheral to play anything bigger than a 64kB game, and those games also thus used the FDS's additional sound hardware. Super Mario Bros is 64kB and can run from a Famicom cartridge but Zelda is 128kB, requiring the FDS. NES's games just waited longer to get released on larger cartridges.
i wonder if there is a secret legendary funtastic color version of this
My friend had this. We played but something was wrong with the CD or the system itself so the select screen of the games we had was blurry, so we couldn't see what games we were choosing. Most games were in Japanese, some were in English. I feel privileged to have played it.
I used to own a Nintendo 64 system and always wondered what the heck that slot on the bottom was for. This video answered my question even though I had to get rid of the system because it developed severe power supply problems. Thanks for resolving this bit of curiosity.
Thanks for sharing this m8 ive always been intrigued about the 64DD.
@shadow09601 The US/Japanese N64 doesn't have a lockout chip, just a bit of plastic to block the carts getting in (which can easily be removed).
PAL N64's do though.
Cool video man. I remember when I was young and seeing pictures of the N64 with the DD add-on and thinking "what the heck is that? How do I make my Nintendo look like that?"
Thanks for reviewing such a rare system!
this guy always has the coolest shit i never knew of some game consoles until he showed them
WOW! this is amazing thanks for uploading, and thanks for your STARWARS videos too!
In case you didn't know there was going to be 8 Mario artist games but only 4 were ever made. They were: communication kit (white), paint studio which you were playing first (red), polygon studio (blue), and another one that I forgot the name of (green).the cancelled/ unreleased games were: game maker, ghraphicle message maker, sound maker, and video jockey maker, whatever that is.
Your videos have gotten me back into retro gaming and collecting older consoles. My crown jewel is the Panasonic Q and a PC Engine DUO-R that's completely rebuilt and modded for region free and component video output. Let me know if the Panasonic Q is a good crown jewel of a collection. Thanks for your time.
My jewel is propably little samson or something
The unit will most likely fry connecting it to an outlet here in Europe, unless the unit can take 230 volts, but most units are build with only the local electricity standard in mind. This is however quickly helped with a converter.
Japan also uses NTSC though, maybe there will be a problem in conflicting standards from the main N64 (PAL) and the DD (NTSC-J) units. Not to sure how they work though, just my first thoughts.
Great look at this rarity man!
great review. the dd is a real gem in your collection.
Yeah. The games are bigger. As it happened, many standard N64 games considered the RAM upgrade either optional or mandatory. Some games were packaged with a RAM upgrade. The whole 64DD was always intended to be quite a premium experience.
You’re correct. The music at 10:21 is from Mario Paint. But it isn’t from the “Gnat Attack” game. It’s actually when you go to load or save a game.
excellent video. i remember reading about this thing back in the day. had completely forgotten about it. was introduced to youre channel through happyconsolegamer :) looks like you have alot of other good stuff, cant wait to check them all out
did you know in the mario artist paint game, with the gameboy transfer pack for the n64 you can use you gameboy camera pics in the mario artist paint game.
The 64DD is a very potent piece of hardware. Shame it didn't make it back in the day, it would have helped to get this released when they originally intended it to, pretty soon after the N64 itself was released.
Could be worse though, at least we got F-Zero X Expansion Pak, a fantastic package available only on the DD.
Man I was really looking forward to seeing F-zero's expansion in all its glory, I love that game. If I can request it could you please do a review of more of these games in the future?
i watch your videos almost every day and im subscribing right now!!!
Arite, glad we can agree on that it was a financial success at least. But in my eyes it still was a commercial success as well, only a smaller one than it's rival PS1 or Nintendo's earlier consoles.
i've read an article about an expansion for OoT. it sounded really cool because they remixed dungeons and turned the medallions into weapons, you know like aLttP
I can always trust this channel to make me jealous. DAYUM - It's your world Gamster.
I want one so bad, I really wish this idea would have taken off. The DD looks so awesome hooked up.
Cool upload. Thanks for this. Never actually seen footage of this thing.
I totally hear you, man. It's not just about what the DD64 was; it's about its obvious potential. The N64 was already radically advanced, but this would take it way beyond that. Nintendo had a complete Internet strategy including social networking, which was tied to the dead-on-arrival 64DD, and which stayed dead until the Wii U. Internet console gaming and browsing could have been "a thing" in the 1990s.
Omg, it's Ecco the N64 Disk Dolphin! Great review man!
Actually no, that song you mentioned that was familiar was actually the music for the save screen in Mario Paint, that song always scared me when I was little for some reason.
I am a Swifter, but Jesus, this video is going to get flooded. GAMESTER81 THIS IS A PLAGUE.
The bug swatting music you referred is actually the save/load screen music
Are the disks optical (like a cd/dvd) or magnetic?
I live in Canada. So what are the odds I found one of these at a local pawn shop. Low. EXTREMELY LOW. Well guess what? I did. I didn't buy it though, because at the time, I was not fully 'knowledgable' with Nintendo... Dammit
Whereabouts do you live in Canada? I'm From Calgary Alberta myself.
Skyler774 lol same
When you were doing the movie option, I saw an icon that vaguely resembled the Gameboy Camera
What does that do exactly or do you know?
thanks for amking this video, this really answered a lot of questions.
Only a thousand dollars? Huh, not as horrible as I had priorly anticipated. I was expecting it to be five or ten grand, but a thousand is affordable to me. However, buying that entire thing just for nine games, still more than the Virtual Boy, does not sound worth it to me. However, I might just wind up caving in at one point and buying it for its aesthetic and the Mario Artist titles. This system really does look quite awesome.
awsome video i remember news of this before it came out back in the day and have always been curious about it since! very intresting video and a super cool part of your collection!
There was also a N64 Forgotten Mouse for it bundled with Mario artist.
For the record, the Mario Artist version he's playing at 6:36 is Paint Studio.
I was wondering is the DD loud? like you know how a 3.5 inch floppy drive make quite a lot of noise when it loads data and since the DD also uses magnetic discs I just wondered if the DD also makes a similar sound
64DD flopped simply because Nintendo signed the deal with IBM for Gamecube technology, and thus they dismantled everything related to SGI/N64 technology.
Actually it didnt flop. Nintendo just released it to clear inventory and move on to Gamecube. 64DD was dead before it"launched".
The sound bite when the program loads is from the loading screen in Mario Paint. (Mario Paint had a few coloring book pages that you could load and color. You could also save your original animation, song, or background image to the cart.) I would love to see this released for Wii U or Wii.
Very cool, must be nice to play such rare titles on original hardware, at the same time kinda sad it never reached potential.
I am so jealous of that you have a dd. I want one. But I will wait till I find one at a thrift store lol.
What's a pal and is my red expansion good enoph? Or do I need the blue one?
PAL is the european version of games. They run at a different speed than american and japanese games and arent usually compatable without system modification. like how japan is ntsc-jp and north america is ntsc-na. Japanese and american games are usually compatable on snes and n64 if you can get the carts to fit... usually by cutting a little bit of useless plastic out of your system... as for your other question... no idea
michael Scholz faster or slower speed?
from what i can gather PAL games usually run at about 50 fps while NTSC game run at 60 fps... so its its more of a matter of frame rate than speed if played on their respective systems i guess... im sure you can find more info on some forums or something i honestly only know very little from my last few months of research... hope i could help man
Thanks have great
Iife
+Mister Maan PAL games run at 50 Hz and 25 FPS, while NTSC games run at 60 Hz and 30 FPS.
back in the day official uk nintendo mag in the UK was talking about this thing for about 2 years, and I was really looking forward to it. Then a friend told me it wasn't going to be released outside of Japan. I was so bummed out :-(
Whats the camera button do? It looks oddly like the GB cam... Maybe it can import stuff from the GB Camera plugged into a transfer pak?
Dude you hit the jackpot on this one!
nice system review. i would like to see more from the n64dd.....
I remember seeing an advertisement for this in an old issue of Gamepro. Too bad it never really got pushed. I would have loved to had this.
I've always wanted to see this!!!
This allows for easier mass production by making differences minimal. To prove my point you could take a model 1 European Mega Drive and use it in North America without problem as long as you are using an American Genesis model 1 power brick. Same goes with the other systems I mentioned. Once power gets through the brick there is rarely any difference between regions.
I wonder if the picture taking under water is where Endless Ocean first started?
@Gamester81 I think the N64 DD didn't so much fail, but suffered the same fate as the Supergrafx. Overall, I would love to own the DD add-on.
Same. But i have heard that there are some copies of the demo version. Ive never seen one on ebay, but it would be nice to own even if it wasnt complete.
What is the capacity of the disk? Does it use optical discs inside or magnetic? Can you save your animations and such on the drive ((it is writable) have an old floptical drive (from the same era) who's disks look exactly like the one you showed here.
The issue with PAL is the tv itself. Japan and North America TV's are both NTSC, it's all about the scan lines and the DD has no way without a converter, if one is even available to be viewed properly on PAL tv's. Old systems, and I mean old, you could get around this with an old tv that you could adjust the horizontal.
The internal power used in the pal and the NTSC n64 is he same it is only the power adapter itself that is different. The reason for the 64dd games not being compatible with the pal 64 could very well be the video standard being different 50hz 578 lines instead of 60hz 480 lines. But I could easily be wrong here.
@Gamester81 that familiar music is the laod music they play in mario paint when u used the load robot
There was a planed Banjo Tooie for the N64DD. And you would be able to play all the levels in Banjo Kazooie.
To me this seems like it would have been a awesome success.
You know, I remember reading about this just a couple of weeks ago. Crazy stuff! Thank God it didn't sell too well cuz Cartridges are much, MUCH more durable than CDs
im going to have to look for these when im out looking for consoles
They should think about producing this system again, the way it hooks in is the same as the Gameboy Player for Gamecube
I really have to get one of these. I have been looking but like you said they go for about a 1000.00
the music from the dolphin scene sounds pretty kick ass.....I'd like to have an mp3 of that or something!
I have been looking around for a Nintendo 64, and everywhere I go there out of it. I regret trading it in, I been wanting to play Goldeneye so bad the past few days, great game. ( Great videos, I never knew they had all those accessories for the Nintendo 64 until now. )
I think I will live with out this thing lol. Way cool seeing it in action though.
@Gamester81 Not sure if your interested but i just searched for N64DD on ebay and i noticed a auction for a lot of 3 N64 DD Games CIB it contains SimCity 64, Mario Artist and Doshin the Giant it also comes with the N64 mouse for $29.95 ends in 8 hours. The name of the Auction is "3 N64 DD Games Nintendo 64 CIB Complete N64DD" it's not mine i just thought you'd might be interested, just a friendly suggestion to another fellow true gamer.
This look's cool and had alot of potential so I wonder why it dident do well? Good review!
too bad we never got this over here, it probably would have followed the fate of the Sega 32X, but at least we got that here... thanks for sharing
Another great video gamester!
Do you not use your theme song on your videos?
Does that game connect to the Game Boy Camera? I think I see a GB Camera icon at 7:55
Can't believe this actually happened when I was small. Here I am almost 30 just viewing this
Talk about one heck of a blast from the past! In it's early days, that system would have really blown the competition away with awesome features. I just wonder why it was a flop to begin with...
omg ive always wanted a n64dd with the f-zero expansion!! but i was younger kinda when i had a 64 so i had no idea about the 64dd
Did the 64DD require its own AC adapter like the Sega CD or Atari Jaguar CD?
Jesus dude, you collect things that I didn't even know existed.