Some consoles have legendary status, the machines that live rent free in out brains because we read about them so much as children. I liken them to finding the Legendary Pokémon in the Pokémon games, and I still feel a little bit like I see a Lugia every time I look at a Dreamcast, which can be a bit of a daily rollercoaster as there's one on the shelf in my office. I find the consoles that 'could have been' or that were ahead of their time so intriguing, the great 'what ifs' of the gaming world where the developers had all the ideas but no means of putting them into action.
And of all those consoles, the 64DD is the machine that I've been the most obsessed with ever since I was 5 years old.
Nintendo announced the 64DD before the N64 even came out. I was a SNES fan at the time after my uncle got me on to the games at a young age and was completely hooked. While I had begun to look at pictures of the N64 and the upcoming games in magazines, the 64DD had already begun to take root in my mind. I didn't know what it did or how it would affect the console at the time, but I knew that it felt important somehow.
I spent every waking moment looking through Nintendo Official Magazine as a kid, soaking up everything about the N64, about Mario 64 after its debut at Space World, wondering whether the controller that looked like a grey bunch of bananas would be comfortable to hold or not (spoiler alert, it's probably the reason I have RSI now, but hey, we live and learn). I still have many of my original N64 games on a shelf above me as I write this article, the ones that survived me wanting to get 'quick money' by stupidly trading stuff in as a kid, and like 8-year-old me constantly wondering what the Ice Key would do in Banjo-Kazooie, I thought about the 64DD continually. If the N64 was this good, then what would the 64DD be like?
Dreaming Of Doshin & The 64DD
I've written previous articles on what the console did and how it worked as well as going in-depth into the history of the game Cabbage, a title that would go on to be the inspiration for games like Animal Crossing, but for those of you who have come to this console because you liked the look of the guy in the hat in the featured image of this article, then let me give you a brief history lesson.
The 64DD was an add-on console that went underneath your N64 console, working in a similar fashion to the Sega CD add-on that attached to the side of the Genesis/Mega Drive. The idea behind is was that it would play rewritable magnetic disks that could provide gameworlds like we had never seen before, as well as boasting features like a real-time clock, the kind you utilise in games like Pokémon Gold on the Game Boy Color.
There were even plans for owners to take their disks to stores where they could download DLC content onto them and to have games where players could put their faces onto the characters. It was so ahead of its time that it kind of felt like it had been thrown into a time machine and landed here from the future, which would essentially come to be its downfall. More importantly, it's such an important console when you look back at Nintendo's history throughout our childhoods - creating your Mii ultimately came from an idea Shigeru Miyamoto had when working on the 64DD, as did games like Nintendogs. The processes involved with making this console were much more important than you might have thought!
Why Didn't It Become A Global Phenomenon?
The choice to use magnetic disks rather than going to CDs that could be chipped or copied is largely down to the face that Nintendo fell out with Sony over the CD Drive for the SNES. Developers went more towards CDs, however, as it was the more popular medium, cheaper to create, and boasted greater storage capabilities. Add to this the fact that the 64DD just couldn't live up to all of it's promises because it was such an ambitious project as well as the fact that there were numerous delays and Nintendo had already moved on to thinking about the GameCube, and the 64DD just kind of faded into obscurity.
The console officially launched in Japan in 1999 with a handful of games, 10 in fact, some of which were to be delivered bi-monthly as part of the Randnet service. So to cut a long story short, it was a commercial failure, only selling 15,000 units worldwide. Compared to the almost 33 million N64s that sold, it all starts to feel a little painful to think about. Many of the games planned for it came out on the GameCube instead, and the 64DD was finally laid to rest.
So Why Am I Still Obsessed With This Console?
Have you ever read about a game that never ended up coming out, a sequel that you didn't ever get hold of because it was cancelled, or searched for rumour articles for news about whether the studio that disbanded 20 years ago might be coming back for one final hurrah? Those games stay stuck in your brain and pop out unbidden when you're supposed to be having a serious conversation with a loved on while you're in the middle of a meeting. That's the same feeling I have with the 64DD, and as I never went to Japan as a child and the console sells for astronomical amounts of money second-hand, I figured that my obsession would have to remain solely research based.
That was until we went to visit Donny from Console Variations to check out the largest collection of Nintendo consoles in Europe. If you've not seen our video then I urge you to check it out as it's the largest episode of The Retroad Show and the longest YouTube video that we've made at just over an hour long. Donny has some of the rarest console we've ever seen in the flesh too like 1 of 1 GameCubes, a 1 of 10 cardboard-feel Nintendo Switch Labo, unique GameCube controllers, the original N64 Pokémon bundle given out by ANA airlines, and of course, every boxed variant of the 64DD with all of its games, some signed, and artwork signed by the creator of Doshin the Giant.
A Lifelong Dream Fulfilled
I can't begin to tell you what it felt like to actually hold this console in my hands, to unbox it from its original packaging and check out Donny's full collection of games. I mean, you can take a look at my face throughout this article and get an idea of how excited I was - like a kid at Christmas!
Donny has every variant of the 64DD including the original Randnet version which you could only buy if you had a credit card for the mail order service. The console I opened up is the rarest version, however, the retail console that arrived once Nintendo lifted the credit card only rule and tried to make more available to the public. Donny has all of the original boxes, inserts, manuals, and leaflets that came with the consoles too, meaning that I've had the ultimate unboxing experience from a collector who has done his very best to create a museum-like experience but one where you can actually get hands-on with items that you've only seen in magazine.
And the game I opened in the picture further up this article, well it just so happens to be the rarest game from the collection of titles released for the system - Japan Pro Golf Tour, and I was, as I said on the video above, absolutely terrified of dropping it or ruining it. Donny actually has signed copies of the games in his collection too as well as duplicates where one is sealed and one has been opened and played.
Donny has spent many years buying, selling, trading, and tracking down the items in his collection, and it truly is an outstanding exhibition of Nintendo's history. For me, it was a chance to get up close and personal with a bit of technology that has played a big part in my life, albeit from afar and more of an annoying itch at times, as a Nintendo fan. Sometimes they say not to meet your idols, but when it's a small piece of plastic, it's usually alright.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Donny for inviting us to the Netherlands and into his world to check out his collection. To se more amazing consoles, games, and rare handhelds, take a look at the full video of this Retroad Show episode!
