JAPAN, 1995 Upon the announcement of the N64DD and Randnet at SpaceWorld (Previously named Nintendo Shoshinkai), videogamers, and developers alike were excited that they were finally going to be given the tools to properly create games without bugs and storage limits. Nintendo promised capacity 10 times the size of a Mario 64 cartridge (640Mb, just shy of PS1 CDs which held 650Mb) and Cartridges that were cheaper and easier to make than their competitors.

Nintendo also promised video gamers an entire Dev-Kit (released under the name "Mario Artist") and many titles that would, unfortunately, later be released for cartridges. They promised Sim City 64, Mario Artist (which included a paint studio, a polygon studio, and animation studio, a video editor, a sound editor, and a game maker), The Legend of Zelda 64 (Later released as Ocarina of Time), The Legend of Zelda Gaiden (Later released as Majora's Mask), The Master Quest (later released for GameCube) and Pokémon Snap (later released for Cartridge).

On top of that, Nintendo noted that they would provide services like a web browser, online battling, racing etc. and even beta testing soon to-be games.

So, with all these promises comes the question. What ever happened to the N64DD?

By the time the N64DD was being prepared for release, the hardware had already been outdated. Many of the developing teams simply lost focus on their games halfway through, or decided that the DD would simply never have to following for their games to make money. They then ported their games to various other platforms. SimCity copter 64 was ported to computer, Dragon Warrior VII was ported to Playstation, and Mother 3 became a GBA title.

As for the N64DD online service, I hear that the F-Zero X Expansion Kit was the only game that featured online racing. In fact, a little birdie told me that the online racing had very few framerate issues--which is surprising due to the fact that the N64DD connected directly through your telephone service.

As for Beta testing, you can say hola. Although Nintendo was very adamant about providing this particular service, there wasn't enough of a following at it's release for it to be implemented.

And the Dev Kit? Only half of it was released to the public. Unfortunately, Nintendo's fabled Game Maker was not to be included. (although Sony did release several game creation tools for PS1 in response)

The N64DD was in development for 4 years, and in that time, the technology was outdated, the peripheral lost it's momentum and finally was released to a small following, who, while gratified by the final release of the N64DD were disappointed by the little Randnet provided in the way of service.

So, even though the N64 and Randnet were failures in the greatest sense (although more successful than the Sega CD), it may help you understand why Nintendo is as conservative with their business tactics as they are. It may also prove that Nintendo's ambitions later influenced the later XBL and PSN. So, remember Hardcore gamers: Whenever you are arguing in favor of your Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, know that Nintendo was the company that pioneered many of the features used in those systems.