Last summer, a very lucky gamer just happened to stumble upon some “junk” that was actually a very rare prototype of Nintendo and Sony’s joint console. This year, another Nintendo unicorn was found via Craigslist. Does the 64DD ring any bells? We’ll forgive you if you totally forgot about this failure of an expansion device which was slapped on the bottom of a Nintendo 64. Despite only 10 games made for the device, 64DDs pop up on eBay, but that’s the Japanese version.
YouTuber MetalJesusRocks thought his collection of rare (and very expensive) 64DD prototypes was impressive until he stumbled upon something most Nintendo fanboys and fangirls didn’t even know existed: A US prototype for the 64DD. A former engineer at Nintendo confirmed with the popular retro gaming YouTuber that the device he purchased is in fact a retail prototype of the 64DD that was intended for the North American market. MJR didn’t reveal how much he paid for the expansion pack, but we’re guessing it wasn’t cheap. The US 64DD has manufacturing dates from 1996 and 1997; two years prior to the 64DD being released in Japan. The device was never released stateside, probably because it was an epic bust in Nintendo’s native Japan.
MJR tried playing a game on the unit that was developed for the Japanese version, but unfortunately he was not able to play it due to the prototype being set up to play NTSC games. He did receive a rare blue disk that allegedly has gaming content that would have been released for North America, but the US 64DD was unable to read it. Currently, he’s looking for a tech savvy gamer to help him uncover the mysterious contents of the disk. If you think you have the know-how send him a tweet to help the world uncover something truly rare in the history of gaming.
(via Sploid)