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[Heimdall_Xtreme]

What if the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive had been a success.???

I was watching a full gameplay of Conker Bad fur Day on N64 and the game looks incredible, it pushes the limits of the N64 to its maximum capacity.

It still looks amazing for one of the latest games on the console. Just like Perfect Dark.

Rare made magic with the power of the N64.





If they did an excellent job with just the cartridges, what would have happened if only the DD came to America.

 

[nial]

That shit was delayed for three years straight and was released near the PS2 launch, and a whole year after the Dreamcast had come out.

 

[IFireflyl]

Better question: what if they had just used CD-ROMs? That would have been way more impactful than a disk drive.

 

[Badlucktroll]

I for one wonder what would have happened if the damn thing used CDs and the japanese 3rd parties didnt leave

 

[Quasicat]

I’ve been playing through the Dinomod Enhanced edition of Dinosaur Planet and it is rather remarkable when you consider that it was running on an N64. I think, at one point, it was scheduled to come out on the 64DD because of the cartridge size. Here’s a video showing how it plays. I wish that Nintendo would have let this get released instead of shoehorning StarFox into it.

 

[Moses85]

I’ve been playing through the Dinomod Enhanced edition of Dinosaur Planet and it is rather remarkable when you consider that it was running on an N64. I think, at one point, it was scheduled to come out on the 64DD because of the cartridge size. Here’s a video showing how it plays. I wish that Nintendo would have let this get released instead of shoehorning StarFox into it.

Rare were Gods in the N64 era.

Miss them

 

[consoul]

Better question: what if they had just used CD-ROMs? That would have been way more impactful than a disk drive.

I don't know, I think they were on the right track going with a media that you can write data to as well. Being able to save a good amount of data (like we do on HDDs today) opens up a lot of possibilities you couldn't do with the tiny save files of the era.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Rare were Gods in the N64 era.

Miss them

I'll do the next thread.

I saw Banjo Tooie and I was hooked.


I think it's not time that changes the time we play... But it's modern games that lack charisma.

I saw Banjo Tooie and I was really hooked, so it's... The game is amazing and I like it more than a ps5 game.

 

[Rentahamster]

Better question: what if they had just used CD-ROMs? That would have been way more impactful than a disk drive.

That would mean Sony was right all along lol

 

[Togh]

What if the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive had been a success.???

I was watching a full gameplay of Conker Bad fur Day on N64 and the game looks incredible, it pushes the limits of the N64 to its maximum capacity.

It still looks amazing for one of the latest games on the console. Just like Perfect Dark.

Rare made magic with the power of the N64.





If they did an excellent job with just the cartridges, what would have happened if only the DD came to America.

The videos you used to show how those games pushed the limits of the N64 were bad choices because they are clearly running on emulator (one of them is even with the screen stretched )

 

[nkarafo]

OP, there is plenty of real N64 footage or, at least accurate, native resolution emulation footage of N64 games on Youtube. You don't have to use videos that don't represent the actual console.

 

[Ozzie666]

Didn't they take the most important part, the 4MB expansion pack and use it? Extra storage is cheaper, but the disks weren't that big. Conker was a huge cartridge game for home systems, expensive as hell to produce. I am not sure the DD would have made things better.

 

[RoboFu]

It would not have matter much. The n64 texture problem was at a hardware level. The small bandwidth of its rdram matched with its tiny 4k of texture cache was the biggest factor to its blurry textures. The only way around it was to break high res textures into multiple smaller textures but then you needed more polygons and more ram as you run out of space quickly doing that.

 

[cartman414]

That would mean Sony was right all along lol

They were still working on the SNES CD-ROM drive for a little while after Sony bailed.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

I’ve been playing through the Dinomod Enhanced edition of Dinosaur Planet and it is rather remarkable when you consider that it was running on an N64. I think, at one point, it was scheduled to come out on the 64DD because of the cartridge size. Here’s a video showing how it plays. I wish that Nintendo would have let this get released instead of shoehorning StarFox into it.

Nintendo has made or published my favorite games of all time, which makes their occasional, baffling decisions all the more heartwrenching.

The only way that the decision to force Star Fox into Dinosaur Planet was made is that Nintendo didn't respect Rare as an equal creative partner. They saw an also-ran adventure game and wanted to use it to slap some life into Miyamoto's beloved but waning franchise. It was a cynical decision, not one made with passion for video games or creativity.

 

[Impotaku]

Had one for a long time back when i was super into N64 it's an interesting device, but sadly nintendo took most of the games and just put them on cart leaving the remainder of the disk titles woefully lacking in variety. Fzero, talent studio & polygon studio were my faves especially polygon studio as once you get the hang of it you can make some pretty fun stuff plus it's the first ever game to show the warioware series absolutely years before it would reappear in a fully fleshed out form.

 

[Team Andromeda]

What if the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive had been a success.???

I was watching a full gameplay of Conker Bad fur Day on N64 and the game looks incredible, it pushes the limits of the N64 to its maximum capacity.

It still looks amazing for one of the latest games on the console. Just like Perfect Dark.

Rare made magic with the power of the N64.





If they did an excellent job with just the cartridges, what would have happened if only the DD came to America.

The trouble is they never looked that good on real hardware and let's remember that Conkers had a screen res to that of Mega Drive games and Perfect Dark frame rate was very poor . That is to overlook they came out after the millennium when many developers we getting so much better with their polygon budgets and 3D tools

Overlooking to no so great SGL N64 chipset I think the bigger mistake was not to go with CD-ROM for the N64. It would have been nice to see what Japanese developers could have done with its chipset for Arcade ports and traditional shooters

 

[SweetTooth]

N64 is one of the worst designed gaming console ever. Underpowered for the time also.

The tech leaps in the early 90s were unimaginable every week and we had Nintendo spend the first half of the 90s overhyping this PoS device. No disc drive, unbalanced architecture..minor leap over PS1 and Saturn who released 2 YEARS before it! a library full or ugly looking games with poor performance.

SEGA showed Nintendo how to do it with Dreamcast.

Ewww those stretched blurry texures

 

[Lokaum D+]

That would mean Sony was right all along lol

They were

 

[The Pleasure]

OP, there is plenty of real N64 footage or, at least accurate, native resolution emulation footage of N64 games on Youtube. You don't have to use videos that don't represent the actual console.

Using real footage of n64 games makes me have a headache. The only time shit should be that blurry is after a drunk hookup.

 

[nkarafo]

It would not have matter much. The n64 texture problem was at a hardware level. The small bandwidth of its rdram matched with its tiny 4k of texture cache was the biggest factor to its blurry textures. The only way around it was to break high res textures into multiple smaller textures but then you needed more polygons and more ram as you run out of space quickly doing that.

All perfectly doable as shown by many games in it's library, poster child being Banjo-Kazooie IMO.

RAM was not an issue since the N64 had more RAM than both SAT/PS1 either way, even without the expansion pack.

Geometry was also not an issue as well, since the N64 had the capacity to do bigger numbers than the PS1.

Of course all the above didn't matter if the developers didn't want to bother so in other words the N64 had a similar issue with the Saturn, in that it was difficult to program for.

But if it had a CD and was successful enough, developers would care more as a result.

 

[Majukun]

in terms of success of the console, it would have not changed a single thing.

in terms of good games, we could have gotten some neat stuff, but their reach would have always be limited by being on an add-on

 

[Majukun]

Better question: what if they had just used CD-ROMs? That would have been way more impactful than a disk drive.

we would probably still call consoles "the nintendo"

 

[existensmaximum]

N64 is one of the worst designed gaming console ever. Underpowered for the time also.

The tech leaps in the early 90s were unimaginable every week and we had Nintendo spend the first half of the 90s overhyping this PoS device. No disc drive, unbalanced architecture..minor leap over PS1 and Saturn who released 2 YEARS before it! a library full or ugly looking games with poor performance.

SEGA showed Nintendo how to do it with Dreamcast.

Ewww those stretched blurry texures

100% this.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

The nice thing about the N64 is the loading times. Took until this gen to get anywhere close to loading times of cart based consoles.

 

[Rentahamster]

They were

So it seems!

 

[SweetTooth]

That would mean Sony was right all along lol

"Sony is ALWAYS RIGHT!"

-Chad Warden

 

[Badlucktroll]

why does the 64dd cost $2000 on ebay

 

[Trunx81]

Better question: what if they had just used CD-ROMs? That would have been way more impactful than a disk drive.

Imagine Christmas Day, you unpack your brand new N64 with cd drive, put in the game and wait 2 minutes for it to load Superman 64

 

[Impotaku]

why does the 64dd cost $2000 on ebay

you can thank youtubers hyping it up as some lost legendary grail and in doing so the price has been forever fucked up. back in 2003 when i picked up the DD it cost 700 and that was the complete randnet starter set and all the games apart from the very last 2 that was released.

yes it was hard to grab back in the day as to get one you had to buy it direct by a subscription service from nintendo you paid for the hardware and then they would send you bundles of games at certain points along with news letters which meant most of the ones that ended up on ebay were from people who had originally bought them. As nintendo offered a buyback system when the randnet service totally folded a lot of users sent theirs back to get a partial refund lowering the amount left in the wild. There were retail units towards the end of the systems life but they were on the market for so little time they are really hard to find and probably the rarest ones of all. It's theorized that there were around 10,000 of them made before nintendo folded the service. However saying all that they still popped up for reasonable prices in various bundles now it's the problem of old & nintendo meaning it's valuable when in reality it's a neat novelty at best of what could have been.

 

[BlackTron]

I was very impressed with Conker, but I'm unsure the disk drive would have improved games much beyond that on a technical level. The stuff in the game might change, but would it look any better?

 

[SweetTooth]

why does the 64dd cost $2000 on ebay

Target market have:

Cult mentality + Autism + lack of personal hygiene + Thinking Nintendo created life itself.

That's why they treat this toy like some sort of lost relic, while in reality its a faild accessory for a failed system.

 

[Horseganador]

It's incredible how much Nintendo resisted using CD when it was clearly the best option, with SNES they had the intention of releasing it with Sony...and they backed out, then with Philips...and they backed out, then with N64 neither, with the 64DD neither...until 2001 with GameCube.

 

[deriks]

What if the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive had been a success.???

I was watching a full gameplay of Conker Bad fur Day on N64 and the game looks incredible, it pushes the limits of the N64 to its maximum capacity.

It still looks amazing for one of the latest games on the console. Just like Perfect Dark.

Rare made magic with the power of the N64.





If they did an excellent job with just the cartridges, what would have happened if only the DD came to America.

Let's see with the multiverse lens:

- the N64 has some RPGs, but not a lot in comparison. The DD has more space than a cartridge, but it's way slower, so we have here a Final Fantasy exclusive for it, not FF VII;
- there's some expansions, but also not a lot. Perfect Dark got some new maps for example. Tony Hawk's 2 got the full soundtrack with it, but didn't sold well, so publishers got careful;
- more games first and third party. We got Symphony of the Night, baby. Not many other entries thou;
- way more piracy - people can buy a empty disk and write whatever game on it. That includes normal N64 games;
- Dinossaur Planet still ended being a Star Fox game, but got launched for both N64 DD and a upgraded version for Game Cube;
- the console sold better, but the argument is that it took just more Saturn sales than PSX sales

 

[Polygonal_Sprite]

It’s crazy to think that despite being a 64DD game Ocarina of Time turned out as good as it did with the scope tuned down so it fit on a normal cart.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

It's incredible how much Nintendo resisted using CD when it was clearly the best option, with SNES they had the intention of releasing it with Sony...and they backed out, then with Philips...and they backed out, then with N64 neither, with the 64DD neither...until 2001 with GameCube.

And yet Nintendo made the bad decision of not using a DVD on Gamecube.

 

[SidViscous]

The 64DD was more about a lot of fast writable storage on a per game basis, the plan was to leverage online connectivity to allow players to make, share and download content, and that content would be stored on the same disk as the game itself, so you didn’t have to juggle limited system storage, and could even take the disk to a booth to buy new content etc.

But it’s a story as old as time and has the same problem as most other failed accessories, too late in console lifecycle, too expensive or too niche, and this ticked all three.

People saying it was pointless because many of the games ended up coming to larger carts instead are missing the point

 

[nkarafo]

I was very impressed with Conker, but I'm unsure the disk drive would have improved games much beyond that on a technical level.

It wouldn't. It would just add loading times.

It would have been nice to see what Japanese developers could have done with its chipset for Arcade ports and traditional shooters

I'm 100% convinced the N64 was capable of arcade perfect CPS2/Neo-Geo ports because of the fast CPU and rom carts, especially if they used the later 64MB ones.

The games would be expensive, sure, but still much cheaper than Neo-Geo carts and they would be arcade perfect.

 

[tkscz]

I often wonder what things would have been like if the N64 used the magnetic disk system as it's default.

While at max, the zip disk based storage couldn't hold as much as a CD (512MB vs 600MB) they would've been cheaper to produce than carts and help much more storage. To top it off, they were RW so you could have save data on the disk themselves without the need of a memory card and it would allow for expansions/DLC

That said, while they would load a ton faster than CDs, they would still have load times vs the carts lack of load times. They would still be expensive to make compared to CDs and pirating would be much easier (but so would modding so thats a plus). Not to mention games would probably run a little worse when it came to streaming data off the disk due to how bad Nintendo wrote the programming library for N64 games (look up Kaze Emanuar videos on how just changing the program language of the Mario 64 engine boosted it's frame rate by 10 to 15 frames and in some cases actually hitting 60fps on N64 hardware).

It wouldn't. It would just add loading times.

Also this. While I wonder what the N64 would be like disk based, I fully understand that most 3D games at the time didn't really fill up those disk. It was mostly uncompressed sound and video rather than textures and models. The N64's main issue was how it was programmed for. With loads of games going back and forth through the RAM in a manner that filled the bus and slowed everything down when there were ways around that (that they weren't aware of so it's a hine sight thing.)

 

[nkarafo]

I often wonder what things would have been like if the N64 used the magnetic disk system as it's default.

While at max, the zip disk based storage couldn't hold as much as a CD (512MB vs 600MB)

Pretty sure the released discs were only 64MB.

 

[tkscz]

Pretty sure the released discs were only 64MB.

They were but zip disk would eventually hit up to 512MBs before they were discontinued. I'm more pointing out what they could have potentially gotten up to like how the carts started at 16MBs but did reach 64MBs at max.

 

[Drew1440]

I'd rather the N64 stay with cartridges, having all three main consoles using CD-ROM wouldn't make sense to the consumer. Many still preferred the quick loading times of the N64, plus the graphics issues were more on Nintendo not letting third parties access to custom microcode tools. The rewritable MO/DD drive would make sense for larger simulation games like SimCity, or any games that supported a map editor. Problem is without the internet, all that extra storage is wasted since you cannot download. The Dreamcast was leaning into this approach with it's addon ZIP drive, but I think Sega were very wary of introducing yet another console addon after the failure of the 32X.

 

[Badlucktroll]

this shit very expensive

Nintendo 64DD Disk Drive Console System NUS-010 Landnet Starter Kit NEW HTF!!! | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Nintendo 64DD Disk Drive Console System NUS-010 Landnet Starter Kit NEW HTF!!! at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[Quasicat]

It wouldn't. It would just add loading times.


I'm 100% convinced the N64 was capable of arcade perfect CPS2/Neo-Geo ports because of the fast CPU and rom carts, especially if they used the later 64MB ones.

The games would be expensive, sure, but still much cheaper than Neo-Geo carts and they would be arcade perfect.

This is the alternate universe part I want to think about.

100% arcade perfect ports of Neo Geo games would have been amazing and would have made the N64 the ultimate console in the late 90s.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

this shit very expensive

Nintendo 64DD Disk Drive Console System NUS-010 Landnet Starter Kit NEW HTF!!! | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Nintendo 64DD Disk Drive Console System NUS-010 Landnet Starter Kit NEW HTF!!! at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Damn... And I was looking for it as a treasure for my collection.

 

[Zelduh]

N64 > PS1. Can you imagine playing Ocarina of Time with those slow ass loading screens? No thanks lol

 

[Spukc]

What are you and your autestic friend trying to proof here? .. oh wow 9MB of RAM! Its a weak and bottlenecked system.

And a failure too.

9MB RAM in 2000 is pretty sick tho?
The n64 pro had what… 4?

 

[Drell]

I guess Nintendo was against any form of CD drive for the N64 for multiple reasons (the main one being royalties I guess) but maybe it would've already have been a lot less bottlenecked if they opted for a magnetic disk drive from the get go as the main and unique game media. I'm sure 128 or even 256 MB disks would have been doable around 99-2000 and would've allowed N64 games to be a bit more "CD like" in their content.

 

[diffusionx]

64DD was a cool idea. The conceit of it was not just the increased storage space (I am sure Nintendo knew 64MB carts would be feasible eventually, just based on their experience with the NES/FDS), and the cheaper cost ot manufacture, but the fact that it was rewritable, something that obviously was not possible on CD-based systems. hence the focus on stuff like artist maker tools and level designers and stuff like that. I wish it worked out and came out in the USA, it would have brought a new dimension to console gaming.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Considering the PlayStation's dominance was at least 75% due to their unprecedented support of third parties, I don't really think technology even matters. Nintendo was going to lose due to their third party treatment no matter what.