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| unitsshipped = 15,000<ref name="nus">{{cite web|url=http://maru-chang.com/hard/nus/english.htm |title=NUS: Nintendo64 |publisher=Maru-chang.com |date= |accessdate=February 25, 2014}}</ref>{{better source|date=June 2014}}

Revision as of 23:33, 23 October 2015

nintendo 64dd
File:Logo 64DD.png
DeveloperNintendo, Alps Electric
ManufacturerAlps Electric
TypeVideo game console peripheral
GenerationFifth generation (32-bit/64-bit era)
Lifespan14 months
Units shipped15,000[1][better source needed]
Storage36 megabit ROM (audio/font)[2]
InputMicrophone[2]
Connectivity28.8 kbps dialup modem[2]
Online servicesRandnet[3]
Dimensions10.2" x 7.5" x 3.1" (260mm x 190mm x 78.7mm)[2]
Mass3.53 lbs (1.6kg)[2]
RelatedNintendo 64

The 64DD (Japanese: 64DD, Hepburn: Rokujūyon Dī Dī), colloquially referred to as the Nintendo 64DD, is a magnetic disk drive peripheral for the Nintendo 64 game console developed by Nintendo. It was originally announced in 1995, prior to the Nintendo 64's 1996 launch, and after numerous delays was finally released only in Japan on December 1, 1999. Only ten pieces of software were released until the unit was discontinued in February 2001. It was a commercial failure,[4] with an estimated 15,000 total units sold.[1][better source needed]

"DD" is short for "Disk Drive", and originally "Dynamic Drive".[2] Plugging into the N64 through the extension port on the system's underside, it allows the N64 to use proprietary 64 MB magnetic disks for expanded and rewritable data storage, a real-time clock for persistent game world design, and a standard font and audio library for further storage efficiency. Furthermore, the 64DD's software titles and peripherals let the user create movies, characters, and animations. The system could also connect to the Internet through a now-defunct dedicated online service for e-commerce, online gaming, and media sharing.[5]

Calling it "the first writable bulk data storage device for a modern video game console",[6] Nintendo designed the 64DD as an enabling technology for the development of new genres of games and applications,[7] dozens of which were in development for several years. Upon the decline of 64DD's commercial viability, most such software titles were either ultimately delivered on Nintendo 64 cartridges alone, ported to other consoles, or canceled altogether. IGN summarized the 64DD as "an appealing creativity package"[8] "targeted at a certain type of user"[2] "that delivered a well-designed user-driven experience" and a "limited online experiment at the same time", which partially fulfilled Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi's "longtime dream of a network that connects Nintendo consoles all across the nation".[2]

History

It would have been easier to understand if the DD was already included when the N64 first came out. It’s getting harder to explain after the fact. (laughs)

— Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto[7]

In 1994, during the Nintendo 64's development phase, Nintendo had explored the possibility of complementing the cartridge format with the CD-ROM format.[9]: 77  The company also explored the forging of an early online strategy with Netscape, whose founding management had recently come directly from SGI, the company which had designed the core Nintendo 64 hardware.[10] Nintendo retained the core impetus of these ideas, but would drastically alter both plans over the following years, for a different storage technology strategy and a different online software and service partner.

The 64DD was first announced at Nintendo's 1995 Shoshinkai trade show, at which time Nintendo said it would launch by the end of 1996.[11] Nicknamed "Bulky Drive",[2][6] its first public appearance was at the 1996 Shoshinkai show, from November 22 to 24. There, Nintendo of America Chairman Howard Lincoln stated that the prototype had received its finalized hardware specifications and sported its own show booth. The prototype's demonstration included a graphics application mapping the audience's photographical portraits onto live 3D animated avatars, and an impromptu disk-converted version of the familiar Super Mario 64 game to demonstrate the drive's operation and performance.[12][13] Also at that show, Nintendo's Director of Corporate Communications, Perrin Kaplan, made the company's first launch window announcement for the peripheral, scheduled for late 1997 in Japan.[12][14][15][16] Included in the early roster of committed developers, Rare officially discounted any rumors of the peripheral's impending pre-release cancellation.[17] The event featured Creator, a music and animation game by Software Creations,[18] the same UK company that had made Sound Tool for the Nintendo Ultra 64 development kit. They touted the game's ability to be implemented into other games, allowing a player to replace any such game's textures and possibly create new levels and characters. There was no playable version of Creator available at this show, but it was later integrated into Mario Artist: Paint Studio.[18]

On April 3–4, 1997, Nintendo of America hosted a Developer's Conference in Seattle, WA where a surprise overview was delivered by Nintendo Developer Support staff Mark Deloura about the 64DD.[6]

On May 30, 1997, Nintendo issued a press conference announcing the first in what would become a series of the product's launch delays, saying it had been rescheduled to March 1998, with no comment on an American release schedule. At that time, the delays were reportedly attributed to the protracted development of both the disks and the drive technologies.[15] On June 9, 1997, Nintendo and Alps Electric announced their manufacturing partnership for the still tentatively titled[6] 64DD.[19]

At the pre-E3 press conference on June 18, 1997, the company lacked even a prototype unit to display while Howard Lincoln stated that the company won't release the device until sufficient numbers of software titles support it. Reportedly featuring at least twenty game titles in development including Donkey Kong 64, the device still retained its projected Japanese launch window of March 1998, and received its first American launch window of early 1998.[20] Also at the show, Nintendo's main game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, speculated that the first games to be released for the new system would be SimCity 64, Mario Artist, Pocket Monsters, and Mother 3.[21]

In a December 1997 interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and Shigesato Itoi, Miyamoto confessed the inherent difficulty in repeatedly attempting to describe and justify the long-promised potential of the mysterious peripheral to a curious public. He said that it "would have been easier to understand if the DD was already included when the N64 first came out. It’s getting harder to explain after the fact. (laughs)" To illustrate the fundamental significance of the 64DD to all game development at Nintendo, Itoi said, "I came up with a lot of ideas because of the 64DD. All things start with the 64DD. There are so many ideas I wouldn’t have been allowed to come up with if we didn’t have the 64DD." Miyamoto concluded, "Almost every new project for the N64 is based on the 64DD. ... we’ll make the game on a cartridge first, then add the technology we’ve cultivated to finish it up as a full-out 64DD game."[7]

More delays were subsequently announced, including pushing the launch to June 1998 and then April 3, 1998's apologetic push to "within the year".[22]

As of Spaceworld '99 in August 1999, Nintendo had set Randnet's launch date at December 1, 1999, but reportedly had not yet set a launch date for the 64DD.[23]

The 64DD was launched on December 1, 1999 in Japan, as a package called the Randnet Starter Kit which includes six games bimonthly through the mail, and a year of Internet service. Anticipating that its long-planned peripheral would become a commercial failure, Nintendo initially sold the Randnet Starter Kit via mail order.[8] Later, very limited quantities of the standalone 64DD and games were made available through stores.

As a result, the 64DD and Randnet were discontinued on February 2001. Only nine official disks, including three third-party games and one Internet application suite were released for it. Most 64DD games were either released as cartridge-based Nintendo 64 games as cartridge storage sizes had increased, ported to other consoles such as Nintendo's next-generation GameCube console, or cancelled entirely.[2]

Hardware

Dual storage CD-ROM
Cartridge 64DD
low capacity
4-64 MB
moderate capacity
64 MB
large capacity
650 MB
read/write read/write read-only
major production,
10–12 weeks[24]: 3 
easier production easiest production,
7–10 days[24]: 3 
expensive
media
cheaper
media
cheapest
media
cheap system
integration
moderately
priced drive
expensive
drive
fastest
5–50 MB/s[25]
instantaneous
moderate
503.70-1043.39 kB/s[26]
75 ms avg[2][27]
slowest
300 kB/s peak[6]
200+ ms avg
proprietary proprietary PC-copyable
durable magnetic[26][28]: 5  scratchable
The 64DD, unattached

Nintendo designed the 64DD as an enabling technology for the development of new genres of games,[7] which was principally accomplished by its three main design features: its dual storage strategy; its new real-time clock (RTC); and its Internet connectivity.[29] The dual storage strategy of the Nintendo 64 plus the 64DD involves the introduction of proprietary mass storage disks, which are large-capacity, rewritable, and cheap but moderately fast, complemented by its host N64's traditional high speed cartridges, which are low-capacity, non-writable, and expensive but very fast.

Though incompatible in every way with any other consumer electronics product, the 64DD's magnetic storage technology resembles the generic floppy disk, and the large and sturdy shell of the proprietary Zip disk for personal computers. Though various prominent sources have mistakenly referred to the medium as being magneto-optical technology, Nintendo's own developer documentation refers to it in detail as being magnetic.[6][26][28]: 5  Complementing their proprietary and copy-protected cartridge strategy, the proprietary 64 MB disk format was Nintendo's faster, more flexible, and copy-protected answer to the commodity Compact Disc format, which is cheaper to produce but is much slower, read-only, and easier to copy on personal computers. Used by several competitors such as Sony's PlayStation, the most advanced CD technology delivered by contemporaneous Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation game consoles can hold at least 650 megabytes (MB) of information with a peak 300 kB/s[6] throughput and over 200 ms seek speed, compared to the Nintendo 64's cartridge's 4 to 64 MB size and 5 to 50 MB/s[25][better source needed] of low latency and instantaneous load times, and the 64DD's 64 MB disk size and 1 MB/s peak[26] throughput with 75 ms average seek latency.[2][27][better source needed] The high seek latency and low maximum throughput of a 2x CD-ROM drive contribute to content stuttering and a very long loading time throughout a gameplay session in many titles.[citation needed]

As an example of variable storage strategies, Nintendo determined that the development of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time would be retargeted from 64DD disk format alone, to the much faster cartridge format, for performance reasons.[28]: 5 

Similar in proportion of the historical comparison of Famicom Disk System floppy disks to early Famicom cartridges,[30] this disk format's initial design specifications had been set during a time frame when the initial N64 cartridge size was 4 MB as with Super Mario 64, and a 32 MB size became popular over the years. Nonetheless, the 64DD disk format would serve as significant storage size expansion upon its 1999 launch when 32 MB cartridges were the norm[14] and only three 64 MB cartridges were ever released. The medium's writability, up to 38 MB per disk,[2] would yield enduring benefits to game genre and social gaming like that of the Famicom Disk System.[31]

Nintendo contemplates CDs in 1994, prior to the 64DD

"Right now, cartridges offer faster access time and more speed of movement and characters than CDs. So, we'll introduce our new hardware with cartridges. But eventually these problems with CDs will be overcome. When that happens, you'll see Nintendo using CD as the software storage medium for our 64-bit system."

— Howard Lincoln, chairman of Nintendo of America, 1994[9]: 77 

Describing the choice of proprietary disks instead of CD-ROM, Nintendo game designer Shigesato Itoi explained, "CD holds a lot of data, DD holds a moderate amount of data and backs the data up, and [cartridge] ROMs hold the least data and process the fastest. By attaching a DD to the game console, we can drastically increase the number of possible genres."[7] In consideration of the 64DD's actual launch price equivalent of about US$90, Nintendo software engineering manager Jim Merrick warned, "We're very sensitive to the cost of the console. We could get an eight-speed CD-ROM mechanism in the unit, but in the under-$200 console market, it would be hard to pull that off."[32]: 66 

Many released Nintendo 64 cartridge games have been programmed to detect the presence of a 64DD drive and the game's corresponding optional expansion disk, most of which were never fully developed or ever released. Without an expansion disk present, such a standalone game carries on.[2] Depending on the game's specific capabilities, these expansions can provide extra levels, minigames, and can store personal and user-generated content. Any Nintendo 64 game which doesn't actively utilize the 64DD drive has potential access to only the few kilobytes of writable storage on the standard issue Nintendo 64 Controller Pak and on some cartridges' internal battery backed storage, for storing only the player's basic progress and preferences.

In addition to writable storage, the realtime clock enables the existence of persistent game worlds according to a real-world clock and calendar, backed by a battery even when the system's main power is shut off. Nintendo's lead game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, said this of the four-year development of the ultimately unreleased pet breeding game Cabbage: "We're doing it on the 64DD because I wanted to make a clock function, such that even if the power is cut, can still raise the creature."[33][34]

A Modem cartridge is packaged with the system, allowing Internet connectivity through Randnet, in addition to the service's members-only portal sites.

The 64DD has an onboard chip containing an enhanced font and audio library for all software to share, further saving the potential available space of mass storage on cartridges and disks. The 64DD has a 32-bit coprocessor to help it read disks, and to transfer data to the main console. The main N64 deck uses its RCP and NEC VR4300 to process data from the top cartridge slot and the I/O devices. Like nearly all disc-based consoles, the 64DD can boot up without a cartridge on the top deck, because it has a boot menu. The 64DD is packaged with the 4 MB RAM Expansion Pak, yielding a total of 8 MB. The 64DD has its own software development kit that works in conjunction with the Nintendo 64 development kit.

Accessories

The 64DD bundle includes a modem for connecting to the Randnet network, the 4 MB RAM Expansion Pak, an audio-video capture port (female RCA jack, and line in) called the Capture Cassette to plug into the main cartridge slot, and a mouse and keyboard that plugs into the controller ports.

The CPU-powered 28.8 kbps software modem[2] was developed in partnership between Nexus Telocation Systems, Ltd. and Surf Technology.[35] It is housed on a special cartridge with a port for the included modular cable, which then connects to the network.[36] It is the Nintendo 64's only official Internet connectivity product, because the early discussions between Surf and Nintendo to have built one directly into the console did not materialize.[37] Coincidentally, an unlicensed third party alternative was produced by InterAct for America in the form of the SharkWire Online system.

Randnet

Recruit and Nintendo Co., Ltd.
has [sic] established a joint venture "RandnetDD Co., Ltd.," which provides a membership network service through Nintendo 64 and its newly released peripheral device, 64DD in Japan. The joint venture offers several network-based services: web browsing; e-mail services; and publication of digital newspapers and magazines.

— Recruit web site, June 30, 1999[3]

In April 1999, Nintendo ended their partnership with St.GIGA which had created the Super Famicom's proprietary Satellaview online service in Japan, broadcasting from April 23, 1995 to June 30, 2000. The company then partnered with Japanese media company Recruit to develop the 64DD's completely new proprietary online service called Randnet (a portmanteau of "Recruit and Nintendo network"). The resulting Japanese joint corporation was announced on June 30, 1999 as RandnetDD Co., Ltd.[3] Active only ever in Japan, from December 1, 1999 to February 28, 2001,[8][38] the Randnet service allowed gamers to compete against each other online, play prerelease game demos, surf the Internet including a members-only portal, share user-generated game data such as levels and animations, read digital magazines, and listen to music.

The Randnet Starter Kit comes packaged with 64DD peripheral and includes everything needed to have accessed the service at a subscription cost of ¥2500 per month, then equivalent to about US$25.[8][23]

  • 64DD: The writable 64 MB disk drive system.
  • Nintendo 64 Modem
  • Expansion Pak: This 4 MB RAM expansion brings the N64's system RAM to a total 8 MB.
  • Randnet Browser Disk: This let users of the former online service access the "members only" information exchange page as well as the Internet. Once logged on to the service, players could choose from the following options:
    • Editing Tool: Create custom avatars to interact with other users.
    • Information Exchange: Use online message boards and share email with other users.
    • Community: Swap messages with the game programmers and producers.
    • Internet Surfing: Surf the Internet with the custom web browser.

Nintendo had originally promised the following, ultimately undelivered, features:[8]

  • Battle Mode: Play against other gamers and swap scores.
  • Observation Mode: Watch other players' game sessions.
  • Beta Test: Play sample levels from upcoming games.
  • Digital Magazine: Check online sports scores, weather, and news.
  • Music Distribution: Listen to music, some of which was yet to be released in stores.

Reportedly peaking at 10,000 to 15,000 users,[1][better source needed] Randnet was a fairly popular service amongst the limited 64DD user base. One of the most substantial series of games to include Randnet support is the Mario Artist series, which allowed users to swap their artwork creations with others. Contests and other special events occurred periodically. However, the service was not successful enough to justify its continued existence, so on February 28, 2001,[8][38] it was closed. Nintendo offered to buy back all the Randnet related consumer hardware and to give free service to all users from the announcement of closure, until the day it actually went offline.

Released software

Title Release date
Randnet Disk
(ランドネットディスク)
February 23, 2000
F-Zero X Expansion Kit
(エフゼロ エックス エクスパンション キット)
April 21, 2000
Japan Pro Golf Tour 64
(日本プロゴルフツアー64, Nippon Puro Gorufu Tsua 64)
May 2, 2000
Doshin the Giant
(巨人のドシン1, Kyojin no Doshin 1)
December 1, 1999
Doshin the Giant:
Tinkling Toddler Liberation Front! Assemble!

(巨人のドシン解放戦線 チビッコチッコ大集合,
Kyojin no Doshin Kaihō Sensen Chibikko Chikko Daishūgō
)
May 17, 2000
Mario Artist: Paint Studio
(マリオアーティスト ペイントスタジオ)
December 1, 1999
Mario Artist: Talent Studio
(マリオアーティスト タレントスタジオ)
February 23, 2000
Mario Artist: Communication Kit
(マリオアーティスト コミュニケーションキット)
June 29, 2000
Mario Artist: Polygon Studio
(マリオアーティスト ポリゴンスタジオ)
August 29, 2000
SimCity 64
(シムシティー64)
February 23, 2000

Proposed software

Several games were announced for the 64DD that ended up either cancelled due to the system's failure, being released on Nintendo 64 cartridge format only, or ported to another console such as the Sony PlayStation or the next-generation Nintendo GameCube. The following is a list of those games:

Reception

Rating the overall system at 6.0 out of 10.0, IGN's Peer Schneider finds the industrial design language of the 64DD and its accessories to perfectly match and integrate with that of the Nintendo 64, with no user-accessible moving parts, a single mechanical eject button, sharing the N64's power button, and child-friendly usability. Installation is said to be "quick and painless", operation is "even simpler", and the whole system "couldn't be easier to use". Software load times are described as "minimal", where the most complex possible point of the system's library reaches about five seconds. The site says that the 64DD popularity was inherently limited, due in part to its limited release in Japan, a country which had a limited adoption of the Nintendo 64 and of dialup Internet connectivity.[2]

Schneider found the combination of the Randnet's web browser and the mouse to provide a "passable surfing experience". He described the portal's private content as "much too limited", where "[a]nyone who has used the Internet would snicker at the lack of up-to-date contents or tools offered on Randnet". He was disappointed in the companies' failure to have ever delivered certain promised online features, such as game beta testing and music distribution.[8]

Schneider liked the overall product value provided by the Randnet Starter Kit, including hardware, games, accessories, and Internet subscription. However, the platform's abrupt discontinuation proved to limit the appeal to a per item basis rather than as a whole. Because these items were sold only as a soon-discontinued bundle, all with such ultimately limited application, he found the disks' cheaper prices to be aggregated back up to the level of cartridges.[8] He found the Mario Artist series (especially the 64DD's "killer app", Talent Studio) to be uniquely compelling in creative ways that "couldn't be done on any other gaming console on the market", utilizing the disks' writability and "[leaving] CD systems behind".[58] He acknowledges Nintendo's vision, attributing the system's downfall generally upon the drastically changing marketplace during the several years of delays until the system's release.[8] He summarized the 64DD as "an appealing creativity package"[8] "targeted at a certain type of user"[2] "that delivered a well-designed user-driven experience" and a "limited online experiment at the same time", which partially fulfilled Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi's "longtime dream of a network that connects Nintendo consoles all across the nation".[2]

Legacy

All things start with the 64DD. —Itoi

New genres of games were developed due to the advent of 64DD's rewritable mass storage, real-time clock (RTC), and Internet appliance functionality.[7] However, the system's commercial failure required many 64DD games to be released on traditional N64 cartridges alone, ported to other consoles, or cancelled.[2]

Some of these standalone N64 cartridge releases include the equivalent of the 64DD's RTC chip directly on board the cartridge, as with Japan's Animal Forest. The N64's 4 MB RAM Expansion Pak became a sometimes mandatory staple of N64 game development, being packaged along with a few cartridge games. All subsequent Nintendo consoles would directly include RTC functionality.

The conception of today's popular multiplatform Animal Crossing series originated based upon the 64DD's rewritable storage and RTC. The eventual initial release of the series was adapted to utilize only the N64 cartridge format with an embedded RTC, in the form of Japan's Animal Forest. That game was cosmetically adapted for GameCube (with the console's built-in RTC and its removable and rewritable memory cards) with the new name of Animal Crossing. All games in the series are played in real time persistent game world, with the passage of time being recorded on writable media. The realtime effect reflects real seasons, real holidays, virtual plant growth, development of virtual relationships, and other events. Interactivity between real human players on different subsequent console generations has been enabled through the swapping of various Nintendo consoles' writable mass storage cards or through online communications.[59]

The legacy of what is now the Nintendogs series originated because of 64DD, in the form of a pet creature breeding prototype called Cabbage, codeveloped by Shigesato Itoi (designer of EarthBound), Tsunekazu Ishihara (designer of Pokémon), and Shigeru Miyamoto.[7] Its four-year development was fundamentally enabled by the realtime clock and mass writability, where Miyamoto explained, "We're doing it on the 64DD because I wanted to make a clock function, such that even if the power is cut, [the game] can still raise the creature"[33] and with optionally purchasable enhancement data;[34] A subset of creature maintenance functionality is made portable on the Game Boy via the Transfer Pak, to be synchronized back to the 64DD disk.[33][34] In 2006, Miyamoto concluded that "the conversations and design techniques that popped up when we were making Cabbage are, of course, connected to Nintendogs and other things that we're doing now."[41]

The concept of a personal avatar creator app which had begun on the Famicom is solidified in Mario Artist: Talent Studio and then seen on all subsequent Nintendo consoles. Those Talent Studio avatars can be imported into other 64DD software including the SimCity 64 game. Nintendo designer Yamashita Takayuki credits his work on Talent Studio as being foundational to his conception and development of the entire Mii component of the Wii platform a decade later.[30][31][60]: 2 [61][62] The game's concepts were reportedly specifically foundational to the characters in Wii Tennis.[41]

The premise of 3D printing was roughly implemented by way of modeling the characters in Mario Artist: Polygon Studio and utilizing Mario Artist: Communication Kit to upload the model data to Randnet's online printing service. The user then cuts, folds, and adheres the resulting colored paper into a full-bodied 3D papercraft figure.[30][63]

The concept of graphical stamps that are seen in various Miiverse-supported games is found in Mario Artist: Paint Studio.

The user-creation of graphics, animations, levels and minigames which are seen in the Mario Artist series and F-Zero X Expansion Kit are revisited in later console generations. The idea of minigames was popularized generally during the Nintendo 64's fifth generation of video game consoles. Some early minigames can be actually created in Mario Artist: Polygon Studio in the style that would later be used in the WarioWare series of games.[31] Certain minigames literally originated there, as explained by Goro Abe of Nintendo R&D1's so-called Wario Ware All-Star Team: "In Polygon Studio you could create 3D models and animate them in the game, but there was also a side game included inside. In this game you would have to play short games that came one after another. This is where the idea for Wario Ware came from."[64]: p.2 

See also

References

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  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Schneider, Peer (February 9, 2001). "Everything About the 64DD". IGN. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
  3. ^ a b c "Partners". Recruit. Archived from the original on August 22, 2002. Retrieved June 14, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "Super Nintendo Entertainment System Unrivaled Champion of the Fourth Generation". gameconsoles.co.uk. 2007. Archived from the original on June 27, 2008. Retrieved February 28, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "64DD: Broken Promises". IGN. Ziff Davis.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g "Nintendo Reveals New Details on 64DD at N64 Developer's Conference". Nintendo of America. 1997. Archived from the original on June 6, 1997. Retrieved January 11, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Miyamoto, Shigeru; Itoi, Shigesato (December 1997). "A friendly discussion between the "Big 2" (translated text)". The 64DREAM: 91. Retrieved January 14, 2015. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |subjectlink1= ignored (|subject-link1= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink2= ignored (|subject-link2= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "64DD: Broken Promises". IGN. February 23, 2001. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  9. ^ a b Gillen, Marilyn A. (June 25, 1994). "Billboard (June 25, 1994)". Billboard. Billboard. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
  10. ^ Lashinsky, Adam (July 25, 2005). "Remembering Netscape: The Birth Of The Web". Fortune.
  11. ^ "Nintendo's Lincoln Speaks Out on the Ultra 64!". Electronic Gaming Monthly (78). Ziff Davis: 74–75. January 1996.
  12. ^ a b "Nintendo 64 Shoshinkai '96". Nintendo of America. Archived from the original on December 22, 1996. Retrieved January 11, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ "N64.com Interviews Howard Lincoln". IGN. December 6, 1996. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  14. ^ a b "The 64DD: Nintendo's Disk Drive". IGN. January 28, 1998. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
  15. ^ a b Johnston, Chris (May 30, 1997). "Nintendo Says 64DD Delayed". GameSpot. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
  16. ^ Nintendo SpaceWorld '96: Miyamoto Interview + Super Mario 64 on 64DD + Rumble Pak Unveiled. Retrieved September 2, 2014 – via YouTube.
  17. ^ "Closing in on Shoshinkai". IGN. November 15, 1996. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
  18. ^ a b c "Career timeline". Zee 3. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
  19. ^ "Nintendo Teams Up with Alps on 64DD". IGN. June 9, 1997. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
  20. ^ a b c Johnston, Chris (June 23, 1997). "Donkey Kong 64 Jumps to DD". IGN. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  21. ^ Imamura, Takao; Miyamoto, Shigeru (August 1997). "Pak Watch E3 Report "The Game Masters"". Nintendo Power (Interview). Nintendo. pp. 104–105.
  22. ^ IGN Staff (April 3, 1998). "NCL Officially Confirms 64DD Delay in Japan". IGN. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  23. ^ a b "Inside Randnet". IGN. August 27, 1999. Archived from the original on January 5, 2002. Retrieved January 11, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ a b "The Making Of: PlayStation". Edge. Future Publishing Limited. April 24, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  25. ^ a b Getman, Courtney; Reeser, Collin. "Nintendo 64 Architecture" (PDF). Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  26. ^ a b c d Nintendo 64 Introductory Manual. Nintendo of America, Inc. March 1999. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  27. ^ a b "Nintendo NEXUS: 64DD" (in Japanese). Retrieved June 14, 2014.
  28. ^ a b c d "Iwata Asks: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D". Nintendo of America, Inc. Retrieved March 2, 2014. Cite error: The named reference "Iwata Asks OoT 3D" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  29. ^ Rogers, Emily (July 13, 2012). "Why Netscape Almost Never Happened". Not Enough Shaders. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  30. ^ a b c Fletcher, JC (August 28, 2008). "Virtually Overlooked: Mario Artist". Retrieved June 14, 2014.
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