The Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (aka. "64DD") was an addon disk system for the Nintendo 64 console. The drive attached to the EXT port on the underside of the N64 and ran off the N64's power supply. It used rewritable disks similar to Zip Disks that provided high levels of game memory, as well as the ability to update the N64 game paks with new stages, characters, stats, etc. An optional online service, RandNet, was also available for several years following the 64DD's release.

The 64DD also contained an internal realtime clock that has been mimicked in the next generation of home consoles, such as GameCube. It was also capable of modem and network capabilities, but the adaptors weren't sold with the 64DD console.

The 64DD failed, plain and simple. This may have mostly been because of the countless delays the device saw. It was originally announced shortly after the N64 was released back in mid 1996 (and early print ads mentioned it would be out by the following Spring), but it was pushed back further and further and was only finally released to an unenthusiastic and limited audience in December of 1999, and even then only in Japan. In the end only two games were ready for launch. Before the idea was trashed, fewer than 10 titles total were released for it, and what could have been a really neat thing instead trickled away into Nintendo obscurity, never to be seen or heard from again.

64DD Game List

64DD Cancelled Games


A lot of this info came from the good people at http://www.classicgaming.com/nindb/64dd.shtml

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