Nintendo 64CD is a add-on for the Nintendo 64 that was developed by JeremySoft that can be attached to the system. It was released on September 4, 1998, in North America, October 2, 1996 in Japan, and March 1, 1997 in Europe and Australia.
History[]
After the cancellation of SNES-CD, Nintendo commissioned JeremySoft to create a CD-ROM add-on for their next console. Development of the format started in 1994, when JeremySoft signed a contract with Nintendo to produce a CD-ROM add-on for Ultra 64 (now Nintendo 64).
More coming soon!
Design[]
The 64CD sits underneath the N64 unit, making use of the EXTension port on the bottom of the console. Once connected and plugged in, a game cartridge is taken out of the N64 and one is placed into the slot on the face of the system, just underneath the N64 and just above the CD-ROM drive, to act as a kind of boot disk.
When the unit is turned on, via the N64 power button, a GUI is shown where you can choose to launch the game in the slot, or run the CD in the CD-ROM.
The first version of the unit was solid black, like the N64 itself, and had only 128Mb of RAM. While upgradeable, the RAM was usually glued into place with a hot glue gun. The second version, was more stable than the first and was transparent grey. This unit came with 256Mb installed, again glued in place, but still capable of being upgraded.
Features[]
The inserted cart acts as a 'boot' cartridge. The N64 boots the 64CD BIOS using the 6102 CIC in the boot cartridge. The CD64 then boots a program from its cartridge emulator memory using a built-in boot emulator. This presents problems for running programs which have secondary protections against boot emulators, and due to the necessity of the 64CD BIOS to launch a program, it is impossible to use a cartridge with a different boot CIC than the 6102 with the 64CD.
Games[]
Launch titles[]
North America[]
- Avery the Warrior 3D: The Castle Rampage
- Wild Racer
- The Simpsons
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Main games[]
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