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64DD is the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive, named the Dynamic Drive at the start
of its development. It is an external device that plugs into the EXTension
Port of the Nintendo 64's bottom side. It is the Nintendo 64 equivalent of
the Famicom's Disk System.
It has a 32-bit co-processor to help it read magnetic disks and transfer
the data to the main console. It was designed due to the high cost of
cartridges for the main Nintendo 64 system, and their low storage capacity.
For example, Super Mario 64 was an 8 Mb cartridge. The magnetic disks had 64
Mb of storage space. By the end of the N64 era though, cartridges had
reached the 64 Mb storage capacity of the magnetic disks, and the drive
would not be of any use to the consumer since the cost of it was more than
the main N64 deck.
The drive works almost like a Zip drive, and has an enhanced audio
library for the games to use. The main N64 deck uses its RCP and MIPS4300i
to process data from the top cartridge slot and the I/O devices. To hook up
with the 64DD it needed an extra 4 Mb of RAM for a total of 8 Mb. The 64DD
can boot up on its own, without the need of a cartridge on the top deck.
This is because it has a standard OS, unlike the N64 on which every game has
its own. The games on normal cartridge could hook up with DD expansions, for
extra levels, minigames, even saving personal data.
The 64DD had its own development kit that worked in conjunction with the
N64 development kit.
The released version of 64DD included a modem for connecting to the
testing network RANDnet, an audio-video (female RCA jack, and line in)
adaptor to plug-into the main cartridge slot, a mouse that plugged into the
controller inputs, and some games: Sim City 64, F-zero Xpansion, Doshin The
Giant, and the Maker Trilogy.
Games that were intended to be great hits on the system were: Ura Zelda
(Master Quest) - the expansion disk to Ocarina Of Time (released on Gamecube),
Pokemon Stadium 2 (only released in Japan) , Cabbage, etc.
The 64DD was finally released with a high price, and was mostly available
through the internet, retailing at around 800 USD. It is very rare to find
one with all of the above included, but it is a collector's item for every
Nintendo fan.
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