The 64DD is Nintendo's answer to CD-Rom: A writable disk drive with fast access rates The unit fits snugly underneath your N64 See this slot under your N64? That's where the two connect The disks for the 64DD look a lot like Zip-Disks We've been nominated!

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Nintendo 64DD What is the 64DD? More than two years ago, Nintendo announced that it was working on a custom-made disk-drive add-on for its upcoming Project Reality, the code name for Nintendo 64. The 64DD (64-megabyte disk drive) is a hardware unit that fits snugly under the Nintendo 64. If you check the bottom of your Nintendo 64, there's a removable slot called "Ext." This is where the 64DD attaches to the N64. Basically, the 64DD is a magnetic drive-based device that uses media units very similar to Zip Drive disks. A simplified comparison is to see them as gigantic floppy disks, holding 64 megabytes of data each. These disks are not CD-ROMs (Compact Disks -- Read Only Memory), and won't play CDs, like the Saturn and PlayStation. What Will It Do? A really cool thing about 64DD is that it enables developers to make games that can utilize both cartridge and disk. For instance, if Acclaim created a football game on cartridge, it would later be able to produce updates for it on disk. These disks could feature such things as new graphics data, new teams, arenas and presentation screens, and new information such as player's names, team colors, team stats, new players and so on. This update disk would obviously be much cheaper than a cartridge, and would allow players to get much more out of their games and not have to buy a new cartridge every year. The same holds true for other games, like RPGs: new adventures or worlds, or even new characters, for instance, could be created to add extra life to a game. But developers also have the option of making 64DD disk only games, and skip the cartridge version altogether. So they have three choices for development: straight carts, disk and cart, or straight disk. The other big advantage of the 64DD disk is that it is readable and writeable. CD-ROMs (remember that ROM means Read Only Memory) can't perform this function and need an additional memory pak to record data (and then only in small quantities). So, for example, in a 64DD RPG your character could be walking through a forest and drop a few cookie crumbs to mark the way. Any change is instantly recorded, and even when you turn off the game and later come back to it the crumbs will still be there. Maybe your footprints will still be there, too. Monsters you killed could be there and their rotting corpses could still be decaying. In essence, your game, once you start playing it, will be completely unique. With the flexibility of the 64DD, and more importantly, the rewritability of disks, your 64DD-compatible cart games will really become far more valuable then ever before. When Will It Arrive? Nintendo officially announced last spring that the 64DD will appear first in Japan in March 1998. Since then, the release date has slipped to June '98.

Nintendo's official word on the 64DD in the US is so vague, people's faces usually crinkle up in frustration and despair: "The official word is that Nintendo's 64DD is coming out in 1998. No games have been announced yet, and no firm date has been disclosed." We here at IGN64.com think that the 64DD will not come out in 1998 -- but we would love to be wrong on this. At Shoshinkai Ď96, Perrin Kaplan (Nintendo's Director of Corporate Communications) told IGN reporters that the 64DD will arrive by the end of 1997. The launch date for the 64DD in Japan has already been moved back at least twice. Now Nintendo of America says the 64DD will be out in North America sometime in 1998, and might possibly be revealed at the June Electronic Entertainment Expo in Atlanta, Georgia. But will it really? Only time will tell. How much will it cost? Nintendo has not yet revealed the DD's exact price. Early estimates put the price for the unit alone at around $99 in Japan. But industry insiders told IGN64.com that Nintendo is trying to keep the cost as low as possible (hence the rather limited storage) and that we might even see the drive for a mere $79 in the US. Why Not CD-ROMs?

Nintendo has always said that cartridges are the best way to bring a game to life on videogame consoles. Third-party developers, however, almost unanimously disagree, especially after experiencing the inexpensive production costs and higher profit margins of making games for CD-ROM-based systems. Some were even reluctant to make Nintendo 64 games, period. Electronic Arts was one of these companies until Nintendo worked a deal to bring all of EA's biggest sports titles to Nintendo 64. That was a major coup for Nintendo, especially since EA had previously said it wouldn't make any Nintendo 64 games at all (with the exception of FIFA). Many developers, however, are very interested in making games for the 64DD (and are confused why Nintendo doesn't actively push for more DD development). 64DD disks much cheaper for developers/publishers and offer higher profit margins than carts. On top of that, disks allow for far bigger and better games to be created -- the extra storage space afforded by a disk (the largest cartridge so far has 32 megabytes of storage space compared to 64 MB on a 64DD disk) and a RAM expansion that ships with the unit pave the way for better music, speech and graphics. But this still doesn't answer the "why not CD-ROMs" question? The fact of the matter is that Nintendo turned sour on CD-ROM after a deal with Sony to produce a CD-ROM drive for the Super NES blew up (the remains of which became known as the PlayStation). This, coupled with the fact that Nintendo wants games for its machine to be delivered exclusively on Nintendo-manufactured media (CD-ROMs can be made by anyone with access to a CD pressing plant) has ensured that Nintendo has bucked the CD trend so far. Nintendo has only ever really said that cartridges have benefits that CD-ROMs don't, and while many gamers somehow believed this (qualities like fast loading games and durability), most developers, executives, and knowledgeable tech heads simply chuckled. The simple fact is that CD-ROMs have much more storage space, are easier to mass produce and provide a far more forgiving business model (they allow for a far bigger profit margin) than cartridges will ever. Even the size of Zelda 64, which holds 32 megabytes on one single cartridge, simply doesn't compare to a standard 650 megabyte CD-ROM. Size, of course, says nothing about the quality of the gameplay... Will it sell? What's so special about Nintendo's infamous 64DD? What separates this add-on device from the 32Xs and Sega CDs of yore? Unlike so many failed peripherals and add-ons, the 64DD doesn't merely offer more of the same. It takes a step into a new direction -- one virtually unexplored in the home videogaming community: writability. And that at a low price. The ability to store mass amounts of data on the writable drive opens new doors for developers and players alike. We're not talking about simple save-game features here -- that is merely the tip of the iceberg. No, imagine add-on missions to games, extra levels, new weapons, virtual pets, characters and storylines and worlds that unfold differently every time the game is played. Theoretically, with the use of the 64DD, it is possible for Nintendo to distribute monthly add-ons or updates to existing games. Replay value would jump to new heights. Together with another peripheral, the Capture Cartridge, it will actually be possible to bring your own face into a game. Simply grab a frame from video, edit it in one of Nintendoís Mario Artist games, and youíre ready to use it in other games supporting this 64DD feature. Imagine a fighting game with a character that has your face -- you get the picture. But that's not all. Nintendo is also planning to sell the 64 GB pak, a device that allows you to import data from a GameBoy game to the 64DD -- and you will even be able to directly connect GameBoys to your N64 to use them as data sheets for games like horse-racing or baseball (where the other player isn't supposed to see what you enter). The question remains if Nintendo can pull it off and sell the 64DD at high quantities to attract enough third party developers. Additional Features Built-in ROM The 64DD includes a 36-megabit-chip that contains integrated fonts and audio data files. No longer will programmers have to put ALL their sounds into a cart as is currently the case (the N64 lacks a dedicated sound chip). This will eliminate the need for developers to store many sounds and fonts on the disk and free up even more space. Real-Time Clock An interesting feature of the 64DD is that it has an internal real-time clock that is always ticking. Play a game at night, switch it off, and upon returning in the morning, eight hours will have passed in the game. Enough time for a village to be burned down, or for characters to regain health while resting, or an enemy to sneak up behind players for a surprise attack. Welcome to the real virtual world. This feature is likely to be used a lot with virtual pet sims and to unlock special time-bound features, like a winter-time level at X-Mas time, and more. Memory Expansion The 64DD comes with a 4 MB expansion RAM (random access memory) pack, which players install into the memory expansion slot of the Nintendo 64 (top). It will replace the current jumper pak and raise the N64ís overall RAM to a total of 8 MB (four times as much as the PSX). Among other things, the added RAM will help pave the way for more hi-res games. Modem, Network or Satellite? The other, more mysterious part of the 64DD is that it is supposed to feature modem or network capability. A modem could open the ways to multiplayer gaming or network downloads, but it does throw up a myriad of questions -- will the 64DD have a modem built in? Will the 64DD use the Internet or a specific Nintendo gaming network (perhaps satellite based)? And the big question -- will this ultimately allow gamers to play other gamers around the world? Sega has released its share of modems for its consoles, but all have lacked the benefit of writability. 64DD owners, presumably, will possibly be able to connect to a network and play against other players, or even be able to download add-ons, upgrades, cheats and tweaks. So what will it be, modem, modem connection, a software modem, or some alternate network? Our guess is that the Japanese version will ultimately hook up to Nintendo's new Satellite joint venture (for data downloading and TV/Videotext-type programming) and that the US version will possibly offer a "software modem" for downloading data from dedicated servers. Unfortunately, Nintendo continues to give conflicting reports. Some NCL employees say there will definitely not be a modem in either the Japanese and the international version of the 64DD, NOA says there will be. We will just have to wait on this one. 64DD Specs Physical Dimensions/Weight:

10.2" x 7.5" x 3.1"

3.53 lbs System:

Magnetic Disk Storage Medium

Error Correction Support Utilizes N64 console for data processing

Battery-backed real-time Clock

Built-in 36 megabit ROM (contains data files to assist developers, such as sounds and fonts)

4" front loading disk feed

4 megabyte RAM expansion (installed in console Memory Expansion slot)

Disks are hot-swappable (multiple disk support) Benchmarks:

Under 75 ms seek time

1 MB/sec data transfer rate

"Burst Access" Streams Disk Physical Dimensions:

3.98" x 4.06" x .4"

260mm x 190mm x 78.7mm

weight: 1.6 kg Games/Disks:

High Density, Double-Sided

64.45 MB total capacity (eight times the size of Mario 64)

Read/Write capable

Dynamic writable space<

1-38 MB writable

Shielded against data-loss Games to Look Forward to Many of the upcoming games for 64DD will arrive on disk format only (donít worry, Nintendo will continue to make cartridge games, too), while others are cartridge games that will have add-on disks. The first add-on disk will be available for F-Zero X -- and includes new tracks and even a track editor. We will bring you a rundown of all known 64DD games tomorrow. Any questions about the 64DD? E-mail us at editors@ign64.com, with "64DD" in the subject line. We will compile a 64DD FAQ from all the questions you send in.