An expansion for the Nintendo 64 sells for several thousand dollars despite disappearing from the flash market more than twenty years ago.
The history of the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive begins at the end of the 90s. While Nintendo largely dominated the market, the company was overtaken by the appearance of the PlayStation and its CDs. Remember, Nintendo games were stored in cartridges. It was at this strategic moment that a console extension, the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive, was born. Objective: counter-attack. It increased data storage for the N64 and allowed the console to access the Internet.
The little story of the N64DD
The Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (N64DD), was announced before the release of the original N64 console, but was not released until 1999, following a two-year wait. The year of its release, in Japan, the N64DD only has two games and is only accessible to players who have subscribed to an annual subscription to Randnet.
In concrete terms, a modem made it possible to connect to the Randnet network, which offered online gaming options, a messaging service or Internet browsing. But the biggest advantage, intended to compete with the PlayStation and its CDs, is that the 64DD offers the possibility of communicating two games: one on the Nintendo 64 in cartridge format and the other on the 64DD in disc format. For example, it was possible to create a character in Mario Artist and transfer it to another game if it was compatible. Namely that the cartridges had a capacity of 32 MB, and the discs, 64 MB, logically. It’s the beginning of the golden age of the N64DD, with the release of Perfect Dark, Super Smash Bros, Mario Party or even Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
A collector’s item
Finally, in the long term, this project did not last. In all, only nine games will have seen the light of day for the DD64, which has not allowed it to survive. The accessory was never released outside of Japan, and in 2001 Randnet announced that it would no longer accept new registrations and that the 64DD network would close at the end of the year. Production of the disc player ended shortly therefollowing.
Today, according to Price Charting, this accessory, more than vintage, sells for around 1,500 dollars because of its rarity and its retro side.
On the eBay platform, we find a complete pack, still in its original box, at a price of 4,196.54 euros. Prices much higher than those offered at its release. Thus, over the years, the N64DD has become a real collector’s item.
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