Nintendo 64DD Dev Box and more
A somewhat unrelated post today. Not so much talking about a particular section of the SDK or a homebrew game from days gone by, but about a video I came by the other day. It’s about a 64DD dev box and a few more N64DD-related items that come with it, including a Randnet newsletter, a Doshin the Giant newsletter and a Doshin the Giant art book.
Without further adieu, this is random DD stuff.
So first up, I have a development Nintendo 64 DD box. So again, not retail specifically as the box will tell you ‘for game development’. It will also tell you ‘D Drive’ all over; ‘D Drive’. An you know, there’s no mistaking it, this box is beat to hell. I mean this is just holy crap, this box… someone was not kind to it over the years. Cool that we can have a look at it but good god. Pretty much says the same thing on every side. With the exception of this one side here, it has some identifying numbers: DF3A9U311A and then below it 00000551. On the inside, kind of what you’d expect: Styrofoam, cardboard… I’m sure there was some contents in here originally but time was a cruel mistress to this thing. Luckily everything else we have is in better shape. So if you had a subscription to Randnet, which is the Nintendo 64 DD internet service, you’d get Randnet newsletters which was all about promoting the N64DD, showcasing upcoming games, showcasing different merchandise… Like you can see here all these people are wearing Randnet t-shirts, and there seems to be like, this price next to it: 500 Rand. I guess they maybe had some sort of a monetary system, kind like on the Wii’s Virtual Console, eShop. You would buy credits, that kind of thing. Possibly, I don’ts really know for sure. That would be my best guess. But it’s cool you know because it showcases screenshots of people actually utilising Randnet and nowadays you can’t access the serers because they were shot down after a very short period of time. I think it was the year 2000. You don’t really have a lot of footage or images of Randnet actually being utilised so this is kind of a nice breath of fresh air, you can actually kinda see a little bit further into the program than you can nowadays you just boot it up and it says it can’t connect. And that’s kinda the extent of it, unfortunately. So unfortunately these newsletters didn’t have a lot of longevity because Randnet wasn’t up for very long. Keep in mind that the DD was very much a failed system. So the first issue is released December 1999. The last issue was released September 2000. You know there’s a lot of content in here that’s like ‘Mario Polygon Studio’, there’s some cartoons, some fan art, which is kinda neat. Look at this here, there’s this Majora’s Mask figurine and it looks similar to the Majora’s mask Amiibo that’s coming out soon, which just comes to show that there are no new ideas. I really wish that I could read Japanese because I really wish I could know what it says about Doshin the Giant 2, the expansion. Because if you check out our review of that game, it’s just I mean, I don’t even know what to say about it. The game is just disk swapping with the original Doshin and all you get are like these three frame per second black and white cutscene sketches as rewards and it’s just an awful game. Also you piss hearts onto people.
And down here it’s showcasing some different games. Japan Pro Golf Tour, Doshin the Giant 2 and some Doshin the Giant guidebooks. One them’s a guide, an art book which we actually have here today nd we’ll get to in just a second. In addition to the Randnet newsletters, Randnet – if you were a subscriber – would give you Doshin the Giant newspapers. Which was all about Doshin the Giant for the most part. It’s kinda cool, I mean it showcases nice screenshots of the game, these cartoons, advertises a Doshin the Giant t-shirt. Which actually I would like to have, that’s pretty cool looking, as a matter of fact. I will give it that. All in all, I mean it’s actually pretty cool. I would imagine it showcases some content here about the development of Doshin the Giant, or at least seems that way. Although I’m not 100% sure. It’s kinda cool stuff, and it’s actually in pretty good condition compared to the development box over here.
Now, these Doshin the Giant newspapers you would get every two months when you were a subscriber to Randnet. The first issue was released February 2000 but unfortunately the last one was released July 2000. So February to July, they were only released every two months so there were barely any and then they were kinda down with it.
So here’s the Doshin the Giant booklet and I really like this because it actually has a lot fo really good texture to it. Now if you’re familiar with Doshin the Giant, the Sleeve that goes on the game actually has some texture to it, and there’s some art on the interior of the sleeve. This is kind of reminiscent of that it has some texture to it. And it’s definitely full colour. It looks really good. There’s just a ton of screenshots from the game, full colour artwork. Some creepy-ass shit… I just mean that you could tell that a lot of love went into this, which is kinda nice.
Also, just for fun this came in the mail; it doesn’t have anything to do with the disk drive per se, bit it is an Ultra 64 advertisement before the Ultra 64 became the Nintendo 64. I love this here because it’s basically ‘Don’t buy a Playstaion, don’t buy a Saturn, you know, just wait for the 64 to come out. Maybe buy a Virtual Boy, who knows’. So it goes ‘About to buy a new games machine? Is it worth waiting? Yes. 32 bit CD machines are fine, but they don’t cut it where it really counts.’ Well, I guess they’re not really fine. ‘ They just don’t have the power. This does. 64 bit power. Nintendo Ultra 64. The speed of silicon cartridge. Not CD S-L-O-W. You can’t buy it yet. After all, nothing this good comes easy. But do you really want something less powerful? Wait for it… And I really love the old Nintendo Ultra 64 logo! Oh my god I wish they could have kept it. Oh well, Nintendo 64 is fine I guess, but ugh just so damn slick. SO damn slick. Anyways, that was our episode for today, a bunch of random stuff that’s just kind of neat, beautiful or rare or weird, really. Just wanted to showcase it off and I hope that you all enjoyed. Let me know in the comments below if you collect anything like this, whether it be for the 64DD, or 64 or any other system that you’re interested in. And aside form that, thank you for subscribing, thank you for clicking the notification button so you know when our videos are coming out and we’ll see you all next time.
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The Nintendo 64DD Dev Box is a bit disappointing since that’s just what it is – a box. The box itself is monochrome (blue and white) so you can’t really tell whether the image on it has the blue ‘mouth’ which make the dev kit distinct. Other than that, there’s not much to say about the Nintendo 64DD Dev Box itself. He has made another video about the N64DD development kit itself, so have a look at that if you’re interested.
The two newsletters are quite interesting as they reveal a lot of information for a product that has barely seen the light of day.The art book also has some flair to it, but he doesn’t show too much so I hope that there’s some quality scans around to tickle our interests.
Overall, I think that the video is pretty interesting, but it could have done a lot better if he translated some of the text or went a bit more into that art book at the end.
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