We take a closer look at one of Nintendo’s biggest failures.
The N64 Disk Drive is one of Nintendo’s most fascinating failures. Initially teased at the company’s Shoshinkai event in November 1995, the peripheral took advantage of proprietary 64MB magnetic disks to expand the console’s available storage with rewritable data as well as introducing other exciting features such as a real-time clock and network connectivity.
Once considered to be a key part of Nintendo’s vision of the future of console gaming, it never became the groundbreaking success that many fans had hoped for, due to its various delays, limited library of games, unusual release method, and regional exclusivity. Originally slated to launch back in 1997 (with a North American release scheduled for the following year), the add-on only ever ended up being released in Japan in 1999, via a mandatory subscription service operated by Randnet (a joint venture between Nintendo and the human resource company Recruit). In the end, only 10 disks were ever published for the 64DD, with the vast majority of games that had been announced for the peripheral either being cancelled or released elsewhere on cartridge or CD.
Read the full article on timeextension.com
We take a closer look at one of Nintendo’s biggest failures.
The N64 Disk Drive is one of Nintendo’s most fascinating failures. Initially teased at the company’s Shoshinkai event in November 1995, the peripheral took advantage of proprietary 64MB magnetic disks to expand the console’s available storage with rewritable data as well as introducing other exciting features such as a real-time clock and network connectivity.
Once considered to be a key part of Nintendo’s vision of the future of console gaming, it never became the groundbreaking success that many fans had hoped for, due to its various delays, limited library of games, unusual release method, and regional exclusivity. Originally slated to launch back in 1997 (with a North American release scheduled for the following year), the add-on only ever ended up being released in Japan in 1999, via a mandatory subscription service operated by Randnet (a joint venture between Nintendo and the human resource company Recruit). In the end, only 10 disks were ever published for the 64DD, with the vast majority of games that had been announced for the peripheral either being cancelled or released elsewhere on cartridge or CD.
Read the full article on timeextension.com
