Lets talk 64DD

[hellfire]

how much did it cost you?

[Chainclaw]

On the subject of all the FDS stuff, I've heard that a lot of the disks are failing nowadays, and was wondering if there is an estimated lifespan of 64DD games?

how much did it cost you?

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127743

[Tupin]

On the subject of all the FDS stuff, I've heard that a lot of the disks are failing nowadays, and was wondering if there is an estimated lifespan of 64DD games?




http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127743

It's more systems that are failing than games, but they ARE magnetic media and are fragile.

I'd imagine that 64DD games would be less fragile since it protects the magnetic media. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't they like ZIP disks?

[Chainclaw]

More or less. Although I would say the form factor, and the little sliding piece of plastic covering the magnetic storage itself makes me think of 3.5" floppy the most.

[Tupin]

More or less. Although I would say the form factor, and the little sliding piece of plastic covering the magnetic storage itself makes me think of 3.5" floppy the most.

Yeah, most Disk System games had no shutters.

[Aussie2B]

But Aussie you still need a Japanese N64, which means even more money. Like the Virtual Boy, another project Nintendo wisely canceled. The impact would have been almost identical to the SegaCD, negative, and lost a ton of money.

Actually, you don't. The 64DD works absolutely fine with an American N64, and the F-Zero X Expansion Kit is the only game that requires a cart to play it. But American N64s are perfectly capable of playing Japanese N64 games as well. The only thing preventing them from popping in and playing are two plastic tabs in the cartridge slot, which are easily removed. I can understand if someone wants to own a Japanese N64 for collector's reasons, but in terms of just playing games, there's no need to waste any money on one.

But, yeah, like I said, it's a lot of money to get a 64DD versus how many games are available for it and how much enjoyment they offer, but I know quite a few people that consider F-Zero X their favorite racer, some even their favorite game, so such a good expansion is worth the hefty price tag to some.

As for all the comparison to the Sega CD, I don't think it's quite appropriate. First of all, the Sega CD wasn't a horrible failure in the US. No worse than the Dreamcast, at least. The system got over 100 releases, after all. Compare this to a system that didn't even leave Japan and only got into, what, the teens in release count? Plus, you have to look at it from a worldwide perspective. The Genesis may have been huge in the US and the Sega CD paled in comparison, but the Mega Drive never really caught on in Japan. The Mega CD actually got pretty good support, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was more successful than the Mega Drive was on its own. In comparison, the 64DD never saw success anywhere. But I wouldn't blame the hardware or the games, though; Nintendo just bungled the whole affair.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, even the Virtual Boy had more released games than the 64DD. There were only 10 64DD disks, and that's including the RandNet disk and Mario Artist Communication Studio, while the Virtual Boy managed 22 games released in the US and Japan.

Sega CD indeed had a lot more releases, indeed, 224 total worldwide I believe according to Wikipedia. It also had a four year lifespan. It was more like 3 years in the US, but in Japan it was over four... (Dec. 1991 launch - Feb. 1996 last release in Japan, Oct. 1992 launch-Dec. 1995 last release for the US). The system didn't do quite as well as Sega hoped, but it did well enough, at least through the middle of 1995. It did collapse quickly after that, admittedly, but it'd had several good years.

The 32X, in comparison, had a very short lifespan (barely over a year) and only 39 released titles, 5 CDs (all also on Sega CD) and 34 carts (several also on Genesis). It was indeed a total failure in the market, for sure. The 64DD might be a bigger failure, though... but on the other hand, the 32X played a major role in destroying Sega, I'd say, while the 64DD didn't really do anything to Nintendo except disappoint some people. Not nearly as bad after-effects as the 32X.

[rbudrick]

Well, most pre-1986 Famicom games were pretty simple, but not bad. The Disk System also failed because third-parties wanting to develop for it had to give a certain amount of the rights to Nintendo, when they could just put it on a cart and have none of that.

The Sega CD wasn't a major failure, but it did a LOT worse in the marketplace than Sega thought it would. That was due to the lack of games.

Actually, they canceled it because solid state memory got much cheaper and games needed more memory as time went on. Piracy didn't help, but then again, it never does.

-Rob

[tom]

Would be a nice collectable to own, nevertheless.

[Zap!]

I'm thinking about picking one up. But for that price, I could get a boxed Colorvision, which is worth more to me.