Anyone own an N64 DD?

[The Shawn]

I was just curious if anyone owned this system? And if so, "How cool is it?" I mean I did a search and I don't think it's been discussed and if so oh well.

I am currently looking into purchasing one and I would like some feedback if someone own's one or how good are the 10 games that are out there? (Or are their more?) I mean it goes for an average of 500 clams, so it would be quite an investment if bought. Yeah I guess I need to know if the people who own one are happy with it or does it suck or what. (And please no "Only you know what it's worth to you responces")

Thanx in advance
Shawn

[CosmicMonkey]

Lets be honest, there's not the greatest choice of games so:

If you think F-Zero X is the greatest racing game ever, then yeah, it could be worth it for the F-Zero Expansion Kit with the track/car designer.

If you have a liking for Golf games, Japan Pro Tour is apparently the best golf game on the 64.

Are you the creative type? Fancy a bit of Mario Artist?

Other than that, I'm not sure how you'll get on with Sim City or the Doshin games if you can't speak Japanese.

[The Shawn]

Yeah, I was kinda thinking along those lines my self. I was just hoping someone might say "Hey what an awesome game for this, make sure you get blazy,blazy or whatever for it!" Or maybe there are more games than I knew about.

The system itself though is very unique to me, how are the graphics? anyone know?

[Mayhem]

Graphics are the same quality as the normal N64 but obviously you've got a lot more space to work with from the disk media. That and the fact the unit needs the extra 4MB in the N64 to work (though you get that with it).

Prices for the unit have gone up in the last few years, I got my 64DD and 7 titles (ie. the common ones) for $300. You'd be lucky to get that for under $500 now. Japan ProTour Golf will set you back another $150-200 as it's one of the two "rare" titles for the system (only around 3000 copies shipped).

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I think the Mario Artist titles are really cool. I'm not a great artist or anything, but I find them a lot of fun to play around with, moreso than Mario Paint on the SNES which I got bored with pretty quick. Polygon Studio is probably the best of them, though I haven't played around as much with Talent Studio and that's the one some people seem to like best. what's really cool about them is that they're all integrated, so you can draw textures in Paint Studio and apply them to you models in Polygon Studio and then put those into your minigame.

The most unfortunate thing with the DD is that no actual game maker studio disks were released. If something along the lines of the Dreamcast disc DreamStudio had been released on the 64DD *AND* integrated with the Mario Artist disks (including a Mario Artist Sound Studio) so that you could add your own backdrops models, textures, sound effects and music, the possibilities would have been truly amazing. Same goes for a shoot'em up kit, a fighter kit or other game creation kits.

That kind of thing would have been the 64DD's true strong point. Nothing else that it can do is really unique--which is whay most of the games planned for it were eventually just released on cartridges--but the ability to save large amounts of data and then mix them together was really new, the Mario Artist Communications Kit also allowed stuff to be uploaded to the Internet for other people to try out, which was new as well. Of course, with the hard drives in modern systems the same could be done on any of them these days, but I don't see it happening which is odd. I'd love to be able to build my own game including the graphics and audio as well as event scripting and mechanics. I guess I have to use my PC, though if I want to do that.

Anyway, as for the 64DD, it's cool, but not anything fabulous. I can't say if it's worth $500 because I don't really know what $500 is worth to you. Doshin the Giant is totally playable even in Japanese, but it's not really that impressive, mostly because of the way the gameplay broken into days so you don't see the same kind of impressive growth that you do with a game like Civilization or even Sim City (it's also available on the Gamecube in English, so don't get a 64DD just for it). As for the Sim City on the DD, it'is okay, but kind of buggy and doesn't really take advantage of the system in any impressive way, either. The F-Zero Expansion is great, but even it is not integrated with the Mario Artist disks, so you can't add new backdrops or ship models which is a real disappointment. The Mario Artist disks are, like I said, my favorite things on the system, but your mileage may vary on those. I don't have Doshin 2 or the golf game, but I can't imagine they're worth the amounts they for *PLUS* the $500 you'd be spending on the system.

So my advice is to look into the Mario Artist games and see if they look interesting to you because they're really what the DD is good for.


...word is bondage...

[The Shawn]

Thanx for the info...I prob. won't get it, and just look for it at goodwill. LOL Too bad though.

[Borman]

Ive actually really wanted one off and on for the past year or two, but whenever I have money, there seems to be limited people selling. It seems like a really fun little system. Worth the money? I cant say, as I dont have one, but even just to have as a collection piece would be fun for me

[dj898]

I do have the set but tbh I don't play on it much
in fact they are all packed away for safe storage

are they cool? well that depends who you are - player or collector

[Aussie2B]

I wish I had one and have been contemplating it for a few years, but it's just been too pricey for me. I worship F-Zero X, so I'd LOVE to get my hands on the Expansion Kit. It's not just a track editor either; there are new tracks to race and some new music to go along with them (extra music probably isn't that noteworthy to most, but F-Zero X has one of the best game soundtracks ever, as far as I'm concerned). There's even a "Big Foot" track to go along with the cart's "Big Hand", hehe. :)

[The Shawn]

Yeah I have a great fondness for F-Zero myself. I was hoping I was wrong about the amount of games available, to make it worth the money though. They should have kept making them for a little while longer and just sold them as an expansion kit (Like the 32X) and dropped the price. After all I mean they made the input into all the 64's for that sort of thing in the first place.

Maybe I'll find one in the wild ;)

[Jorpho]

Is there a good review of SimCity 64 anywhere? I've wondered about that one.

[Princess-Isabela]

Nintendo 64DD is an excellent system from a collector's angle, only 10 games were released for it(2 of them are veery pricey, Doshin 2 goes for about $400-$500 itself).
the best game for the system is obviously mighty F-Zero X DD, this game really rocks, ~ many new tracks, DD championships, true stereo sound(not mono like on the N64, and soundtrack totally rocks, new beautiful quality music tracks made by Taro Bando are superb), editor is pretty nice, graphics looks better to tell you the truth, and all DD Games requires Expansion Pack(without it, they wont even run).
Mario Artist Games are great, many mini games, and beautiful Nintendo Characters Artworks are in them for usage with your projects(besides Nintendo characters such as Mario, Zelda, Yoshi, Donkey Kong and so on, there are also characters from Rareware Games ~ Banjo Kazooie, Conker, etc...).
when you're turning system on, you see actually N64 logo in 3d with Super Mario running around it ^^.
its a great collector's piece and good system when it comes to games(F-Zero X DD itself is worth getting it if you're a fan of the series).
great stuff for a Nintendo fanatics ^^

[Borman]

I just posted the N64 No Disk video on my site, along with the intro to the RANDnet disk. http://ptoponline.com . Just posted yesterday infact heh. Its quite cool to see it.