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Causality. It's a thought process that I keep coming back to. As a hobbyist in both gaming and LEGO, an important moment in history that has shaped both hobbies was the cancellation of the SNES-CD. Without it, we wouldn't have had the Playstation and Nintendo's attempt to answer it: the 64DD. The 64DD's been on my wishlist for over fifteen years, and after a few failed attempts I've finally managed to save up enough for one and bought it earlier this year.
The 64DD is a Japanese exclusive add-on to the Nintendo 64. It adds a boot menu and a drive for specialized floppy disks to the console. These disks could either be games exclusive to the 64DD, or expansions for existing games. It was bundled with an online service, but the entire platform lasted only 15 months. Little over 15.000 units were sold.
Nintendo had big plans for the 64DD. It was intended to be released with the console, but it went through development hell. By the time it was ready, it was too late as the GameCube was already around the corner. Thus, the 64DD stayed in Japan. While it was planned to have dozens of disks developed for it, only ten ended up released: eight games, one expansion and one for the online service. The way the 64DD works and how it communicates with the console could warrant its own blogpost! Fun fact: when this add-on was available, I never even heard about it or saw it advertised at our local media store, despite living in Tokyo at the time. I didn't discover it's existence until the early days of Youtube.
Nintendo made sure that the short-lived 64DD wasn't in vain though, as they took the best ideas and repurposed them for the GameCube, Wii and DS. It's too much to go through for a blogpost, but there's a lot of good videos about it. It's hard to believe that if the contract between Sony and Nintendo didn't fell through, many of my favorite games wouldn't exist, and more importantly: LEGO wouldn't have gone nearly bankrupt. That's like, half of my niches and identity!
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So, what's the reason why I wanted to have the 64DD? It's simple. Games! For some weird reason, none of these games have ever been re-released at all. Stuck on the 64DD. Doshin the Giant was remastered for the GameCube, but it's such a drastic departure from the original that it's hardly the same experience. But there's one 64DD floppy that eclipses all: the F-Zero X Expansion Kit! It's the sole reason to get a 64DD - the true killer app. It's ironically also the only expansion kit that came out for the 64DD, seeing as the 64DD was intended to have many more developed for it.
Talking about the F-Zero franchise warrants its own blogpost though, which I might do at some point. But I have to say, F-Zero X with the expansion is a significant upgrade. I think I might even prefer this over F-Zero AX, which I otherwise would've considered the best in the series. But speaking of AX... that's definitely going to be a story for another day.
But before I wrap up today's blogpost, I'll have to clarify that I'm not aiming for a complete 64DD library. While I have six out of the ten disks, Doshin 2 and Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 are not worth the insane price. I am planning to get the two other Mario Artists games at some point, though. There's also plenty of other N64 games that I want, but until then I'm going to enjoy my time with my good ol' friend, the Nintendo 64. Now fully decked out, the way Yamauchi intended.
That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!