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A super rare Nintendo 64 Disk Drive dev kit has been documented by YouTuber Shane Luis on his Twitter account, @RerezTV. Luis was reportedly sent the dev kit by a private video game collector for verification and documentation, and he shared the entire unboxing process on his account. The dev kit has attaches to the bottom of a standard Nintendo 64 console, and uses several adapters to connect a utility cart and disk to the system. There was also an instruction manual included in Japanese that Luis has scanned and uploaded, if you want to try and help translate it. You can view Luis' full thread and see all the details of the dev kit in the linked Twitter thread below.

I was asked to verify and photograph a Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (64DD) Development Kit from a private video game collector. The system was new in box and needed to be carefully documented.

This is what it looks like to unbox one. pic.twitter.com/X2PflhtemW

— Shane Luis (@RerezTV) March 24, 2021

 

[SnakeOil992]

The ride never ends

 

[godreborn]

sent to for verification purposes? makes me wonder if he'll be returning it.

 

[gnmmarechal]

That looks pretty damn cool

 

[CTR640]

Cease & Desist incoming including getting dragged to the court!

 

[Deleted member 397813]

to quote rusty cage, "this is where the fun begins"

 

[banjo2]

Cease & Desist incoming including getting dragged to the court!

People talk about dev consoles all the time though, even showing prototypes, has such a thing happened often?

 

[VinsCool]

Cool! Now that's exactly what we need after all the prototypes and leaks that happened over time.

 

[raxadian]

sent to for verification purposes? makes me wonder if he'll be returning it.

He has to unless he wants to get in legal trouble.

But the thing would be worth more if it was never unboxed at all.

 

[Sterophonick]

The beytah never stops.

 

[Jayro]

Incredible. I was shocked to find out that an American 64DD is real too.

 

[Kwyjor]

I was shocked to find out that an American 64DD is real too.

Are you referring to something else..? Considering the documentation in this unit is only in Japanese, I doubt it was intended for Western developers. (Strange that the writing on the box is in English.)

 

[Jayro]

Are you referring to something else..? Considering the documentation in this unit is only in Japanese, I doubt it was intended for Western developers. (Strange that the writing on the box is in English.)

No, not at all:

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Cool! What's the main differences between a N64 DD devkit and the real deal?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

And has the Gigaleak well run dry at this point, or is there more that might get dumped later?

 

[Xzi]

Looks like an old printer with a pull-out paper tray.

 

[raxadian]

No, not at all:

Cool.

But honesty Nintendo lost so much freaking money with the Ultra 64 is ridiculous. Oh and they had also made the Virtual boy just before. Also did you know one of the reasons the Nintendo 64 couldn't beat Sony playstation was because it came TWO YEARS after it?

So Sony had two years of games and fixing problems with the console. And boy did they needed them. Early model Playstations sometimes melted because they didn't handle heating very well and early games had so much loading time it was ridiculous.

So.... why dis it took so long for Nintendo? Because they couldn't release the console without at least a single game for it and Super Mario 64 took several years and even then it was not 100% complete. Playable and beatable yes but they had to cut out some stuff.

 

[Hanafuda]

Nintendo probably has a pile of those in a warehouse corner somewhere.

 

[BitMasterPlus]

Now THIS is an awesome find!

 

[SAIYAN48]

The N64 programming guide for both the console and the DD is avilable on the internet, so anyone can program for the N64.

 

[raxadian]

Nintendo probably has a pile of those in a warehouse corner somewhere.

We know they still have some Gameboys... so... who knows?