If you subscribed to Nintendo Power in the 90's, you probably remember reading about the Nintendo 64DD, a console disk-drive add-on design to bring higher storage capacity, a real-time clock and internet connectivity to the Nintendo 64. You may also remember that it flopped in Japan, badly. The N64DD never made it to the US market -- but it may have come closer to hitting store shelves than we previously thought. A collector in Seattle has stumbled upon a working US Nintendo 64DD prototype.

At glance, the unit looks almost identical to the Nintendo 64DD that hit Japan in 1999 -- so much so that when Jason "MetalJesusRocks" Lindsey found it, he assumed it was merely a US developer kit. Turns out, it's even more rare: the unit boots up without the aid of the "partner cartridge," developers needed to get devkits running. It also features an english-language menu screen, something not present in official development units or the original Japanese retail model. The unit is even region-locked to the US, and won't play japanese N64DD games. Lindsey (and Ars Technica) reached out to Mark DeLoura, a former Lead Engineer at Nintendo that worked on the n64DD, to figure out what was going on. The answer? This is most likely an unreleased retail unit, or at least a retail prototype.



Posted: Jul 16, 2016 9:19 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/07/15/rare-us-n64-disk-drive-retail-prototype-found-in-seattle/