Thanks to ConsoleVariations and GamingLegend64, we got some internal Randnet stuff, and we’re releasing the dumps of 4 blue development disks from Randnet!

All of them are some form of the Randnet Disk Internet Browser:

• The first one (BD113) is a debug test of different features of the Randnet API with a very early web browser that unfortunately refuses to let you browse the web.
• The second one (BD-104) is actually possibly a build we’ve seen before from the japanese TV show GameWave, with very early title screen and menus.
• The third one (H0000819) is just the same build as final Rev. 00.
• The fourth one (T0000017) is a build from after final Rev. 00 by a few weeks, but still before Rev. 01.

For more information about them, Hard4Games has prepared a video about it here: https://youtu.be/lZT6x0Egdz4
The video will do a reminder of how things were, including a “playthrough” of those disks on real hardware! Though there isn’t really much to do here but hey, that’s how things are. They also show the disks!

You can find those dumps in Games page in the Development tab.

Oh yeah, I made another update: you can now directly link to a tab in a page for easier sharing, see the link above where it should link you straight to it. I hope the small update makes it a bit easier for people to browse through.

Zoinkity is back at it, with the help of Whowasphone404 for the translation itself, the english translation patch of Dezaemon 3D, the Nintendo 64 shoot ‘em up maker by Athena, is now released!

You can find it in the Games page, in Translations tab. Unlike most things on this website, you can notice it is actually a Nintendo 64 cartridge title this time, but this has heavy use of the 64DD and N64 Mouse to unlock its full potential, I would actually recommend using either the unreleased Dezaemon 3D disk, or using the provided tool by Zoinkity alongside the patch that can actually create and manage Dezaemon 3D 64DD disks, to make even better games with it and unlock its full potential.

There’s also a page with Dezaemon 3D Tips if you want them, and the readme includes even more information to enjoy Dezaemon 3D.

Zoinkity has also uploaded (slightly outdated) videos of the lengthy and fully translated tutorials of the game, which you can also look with the translation if you want to more easily skip around: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7VAoXQYoWiC6zfJajZvy7vcM_YWj7JiD

This is legit exciting to me. Dezaemon 3D was actually the first N64 game released that supports 64DD expansions, as well as the N64 Mouse, way before any other game. It might be very daunting to use, some of it is definitely more complicated than it should be, but it has a lot of potential, definitely look into the sample games.

So we got more H8/3294 Drive Controller ROM dumps, 3 more of them from different kinds of development drives, for posterity, courtesy of Willis, GamingLegend64 and Zoinkity! Specifically:

• GS01X02 (1997-01-14): Earliest ROM date so far
• GS01B01 (1997-12-09)
• GS01B02 (1998-03-12)

We don’t really get the differences that much, but they seem to have a different purpose in mind maybe? It’s hard to say.

And then, something a little Rare: 2 new Blue Disk dumps, also courtesy of GamingLegend64 and Willis!

Now, I don’t wanna hype them too much, because none of these are playable, but they are a look into how Rareware actually used the 64DD back then, with crash dumps of Banjo-Kazooie. It seems Rareware was a fan of the 64DD purely for debugging purposes, if it wasn’t for games, it was at least for that. Unfortunately I’m no expert of Banjo-Kazooie code, and would rather leave the reverse engineering to people who knows the game in and out.

It’s not as hype than you would hope, but I hope they might uncover something interesting. I’ve also taken the liberty to directly offer extracted files from them alongside the dumps.

You can find everything in the Games page, in the Development tab.

You may have not noticed, but I added a new tutorial page for SummerCart64 to make it very easy to use for 64DD games but also to figure out how to update it and so on, hopefully this will be very helpful for new users.

As of recently, I helped Did You Know Gaming to cover every cancelled 64DD game, either to debunk or confirm, or provide technical information and some corrections (some of which I missed, I’m sorry!), and the first video came out a few days ago, and you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jk2JORHYsk

And, the day the video came out, I was managing what looks to be an actual prototype of a retail 64DD from Console Variations!
Insane! We dumped the H8/3294 CPU ROM from it, it’s even the earliest drive controller firmware I’ve seen, ever, from April 3rd 1997.
You can find it on the Retail Games downloads page, though it’s not of much use but for preservation for whoever is interested. I’ve also left the page to the retail prototype in question.

Sorry for the lack of news on this site but there was really not much happening.

But I’ve decided to update the website in quite a few ways now:

• The Emulators / Tools page was updated to use a tab system. Click a button to access what you need.
  • You can even access the Tutorial page from there now!
• The Dumps pages have been fused into one Games page and is way more to the point using the same tab system.
  • The IPLs have their own tab and clarified their requirement.
• I added a tutorial for Ares!

I hope this makes the website easier to navigate, and I hope to provide even more clarity to everything.