US version of Nintendo 64 DD found

[RetroDefense]

Youtuber Metal Jesus recently found a Nintendo 64 disc drive prototype apparently intended for stateside release.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/07/rare-us-version-of-the-n64s-disc-drive-add-on-unearthed-near-seattle/

A cool find. I'm sure we'll learn more via his channel eventually.

Let the double-dee jokes begin.

[Data]

This was a bad idea. Look at it. Nintendo had a CD drive but they cut off their nose to spite their face. Nintendo had so much arrogance that they could not see that a CD medium was so much superior. I know hindsight is 20/20 but, computer games had been using CD for 5 years mainstream at this point. Sega CD, 3DO, Turbografx CD, Neo Geo, DOS, CDI, and Atari Jaguar all had CD drives and everyone had known this was superior but Nintendo was so stubborn they had to pursue Franken 64.

I give credit to Nintendo for their awesome marketing and in house games as well as having the first home console that used analog joystick on a home console since Atari 7800 as well as haptic feedback. (rumble)

[RetroDefense]

[Data]

This is a lucky find for a collector but the 64DD has been emulated since late 2011 and now more recently with a new emulator called CEN64 as well as Project 64. There are community built tools as well as the games can all be found at

http://64dd.org/dumps.html

[90sRetroGamer]

Congrats to MetalJesus on the find.

 

This was a bad idea.  Look at it.  Nintendo had a CD drive but they cut off their nose to spite their face.  Nintendo had so much arrogance that they could not see that a CD medium was so much superior.  I know hindsight is 20/20 but, computer games had been using CD for 5 years mainstream at this point.  Sega CD, 3DO, Turbografx CD, Neo Geo, DOS, CDI, and Atari Jaguar all had CD drives and everyone had known this was superior but Nintendo was so stubborn they had to pursue Franken 64.

 

I give credit to Nintendo for their awesome marketing and in house games as well as having the first home console that used analog joystick on a home console since Atari 7800 as well as haptic feedback. (rumble) 

In fairness to Nintendo, the 64 had A LOT of great games: Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Perfect Dark, Paper Mario, etc.

I'm curious since the 64DD came with a keyboard and mouse, if a version of Linux could be developed to run on the N64 platform.

[RetroDefense]