Development With the 1993 announcement of its new Project Reality console, Nintendo explored options for data storage. A Nintendo spokesperson said in 1993 that "it could be a cartridge system, a CD system, or both, or something not ever used before." In 1994, Howard Lincoln, chairman of Nintendo of America said, "Right now, cartridges offer faster access time and more speed of movement and characters than CDs. So, we'll introduce our new hardware with cartridges. But eventually, these problems with CDs will be overcome. When that happens, you'll see Nintendo using CD as the software storage medium for our 64-bit system." In consideration of the 64DD's actual launch price equivalent of about , Nintendo software engineering manager Jim Merrick warned, "We're very sensitive to the cost of the console. We could get an eight-speed CD-ROM mechanism in the unit, but in the under-$200 console market, it would be hard to pull that off." Describing the final choice of proprietary floppy disks instead of CD-ROM, Nintendo game designer
Shigesato Itoi explained, "CD holds a lot of data, DD holds a moderate amount of data and backs the data up, and [cartridge] ROMs hold the least data and process the fastest. By attaching a DD to the game console, we can drastically increase the number of possible genres." although giving virtually no technical specifications.
Computer and Video Games reported unconfirmed specifications, far above what would be actually launched: 4" disk caddy, 150 MB floppy disks, 2.44 Mbit/s speed, 13 ms access, 2-4 MB RAM upgrade, and costing about (US$200). The 64DD was fully revealed at Nintendo's
Shoshinkai 1996 show of November 22–24, 1996, There, Nintendo of America Chairman Howard Lincoln stated that the hardware specifications had been finalized and had its own show booth. Nintendo's Director of Corporate Communications, Perrin Kaplan, made the company's first official launch window announcement for the peripheral, scheduled for late 1997 in Japan.
Core Magazine said, "Nintendo representatives insisted the system would be aggressively supported by third parties and Nintendo's internal development teams" with sequels for
Super Mario 64 and
Zelda 64, and 64DD originals
Cabbage and
Emperor of the Jungle. Nintendo's list of 64DD developers included Konami, Capcom, Enix, and Rare. Reportedly, several developers attended the show to learn 64DD development, some having traveled from the US for the 64DD presentation and some having received 64DD development kits. The event featured
Creator, a music and animation game by
Software Creations, Much of the gaming press said the 64DD reveal at Shoshinkai 1996 was not as significant as Nintendo had promised, leaving the public still unaware of the system's software lineup, practical capabilities, and release date.
Zelda 64 (eventually released as the cartridge game
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) was seen as the 64DD's potential
killer app in the months following the system's unveiling. On April 3–4, 1997, Nintendo of America hosted a Developer's Conference in Seattle, Washington, where a surprise overview was delivered by Nintendo Developer Support staff
Mark DeLoura about the 64DD. On June 9, 1997, Nintendo and
Alps Electric announced their manufacturing partnership for the still tentatively titled On June 18, 1997, at the
E3 pre-show press conference, the company lacked even a prototype unit to display, while Howard Lincoln stated that the company wouldn't release the device until sufficient numbers of software releases support it. Reportedly featuring at least twenty games in development including
Donkey Kong 64 and the sequel to
Super Mario 64, the device retained its projected Japanese launch window of "at least" March 1998, and received its first American launch window of early 1998. and Nintendo's main game designer,
Shigeru Miyamoto, speculated that its launch games could be
SimCity 64,
Mario Artist,
Pocket Monsters, and
Mother 3. At
Space World from November 21–24, 1997, the 64DD was shown prominently but its delay was extended from March 1998 to June 1998, and because 64DD floppy disk speed cannot continuously stream 500
motion-captured character animations throughout gameplay as only a cartridge can. George Harrison, vice president of
Nintendo of America, described the logistics of the 64DD launch delays: The 64DD was conspicuously absent from E3 1998, having been briefly described the prior day as "definitely not" launching in 1998 and "questionable" in 1999, which
Next Generation magazine interpreted as being "as close to 'dead' as we can imagine". IGN pessimistically explained that the peripheral's launch delays were so significant, and Nintendo's software library was so dependent upon the 64DD, that this lack of launchable software also caused Nintendo to entirely cancel Space World for 1998. In June 1999, IGN reported that month's completion of Randnet and the modem, as having "breathed new life into what many have called the most elusive piece of vaporware to date". IGN said Nintendo "is surprisingly confident about the 64DD and is predicting to sell the full initial shipment of 500,000 before year's end". As of
Space World 1999 in August, Nintendo had set Randnet's launch date at December 1, 1999, but reportedly had not yet set a launch date for the 64DD. The 64DD pre-order program had been recently announced for mid-September, and was now delayed to November or December.
Earthbound 64, which IGN cynically called "in development for nearly 1,000 years", had been heavily anticipated inside the company and globally as a crucial 64DD launch game, but the sudden announcement of its release being retargeted from disk to cartridge plus expansion disk was interpreted by IGN as unsurprising and as a sign of possible further delay or cancellation of the 64DD. Nintendo's 64DD booth demonstrated eight launch games, including
DT Bloodmasters, which used the
64 GB Cable to connect a Game Boy Color to the 64DD. Nintendo listed many more 64DD games in development. Randnet had recently been announced and was being tested in Japan.
Launch The 64DD was launched on December 13, 1999, exclusively in
Japan, as a package called the Randnet Starter Kit including six games bimonthly through the mail, and one year of Internet service.
Core Magazine and IGN reported Nintendo's stated initial retail shipment of 500,000 units. Anticipating that its long-planned peripheral would become a
commercial failure, Nintendo initially sold the Randnet Starter Kit via mail order. Later, very limited quantities of the individual 64DD and games were released to stores.
Discontinuation On August 25, 2000,
Space World was signified by the launches of the GameCube and Game Boy Advance, and by what IGN considered to be the unofficial discontinuation of the 64DD, jokingly calling it "DeaDD". According to IGN, "Nintendo did not speak about 64DD during its opening speech, nor did the hardware itself have any booth presence. In fact, the unofficial 'No 64DD!' policy seemed to be enforced by Nintendo so brutally that had we even muttered the name of the hardware, we would have probably been tossed out of the show." In October 2000, Nintendo announced the impending discontinuation of the 64DD and Randnet, with 15,000 active subscribers. They were discontinued in February 2001. Only ten 64DD disks were ever released, including three third-party games and one Internet application suite. Most planned 64DD games were either released on increasingly larger
Nintendo 64 Game Pak, ported to other consoles like the
PlayStation or
GameCube, or canceled entirely. == Hardware ==