The realms of video game rarity often spark something of a treasure hunt amongst the community as gamers scour the earth for such curios. From hard-to-find collectible figurines that are only available in once sought after limited editions, to rare Nintendo games only found on emulators, video games are not just pixelated forms of entertainment, they are a link to the past. And it now looks as though a Nintendo 64 relic has emerged from the shadows, largely unscathed.
YouTuber Shane Luis, who goes by the alias RerezTV, recently posted a series of images on Twitter which seems to show a boxed Nintendo 64 console. Upon closer inspection, it turns out it's not the 90s cartridge console after all, but an even rarer development kit, known as the DD or Disk Drive, used to make games for it. Luis says the box was sent to him from a private collector asking him to verify the contents and to "carefully document" it on the chance it is a valuable asset.
In a series of additional tweets, Luis removes each individual item, explaining what each piece is. One such item is the 64DD Development Disks, which are blue square disks which sort of look a bit like a Nintendo style floppy disk. There's also the Nintendo 64 cartridges themselves, which the games are loaded onto. Basically, the box contains everything the budding developer would have needed to begin making their own N64 games back in the day. The fact that it's in mint condition suggests that it's likely still good for use.
While Luis doesn't say what he will be doing with the dev kit, it's certainly going to be a talking point for fans of the Nintendo 64 era as well as amateur and professional programmers who remember using it. Something like this is likely to go for quite a pretty penny on eBay, like the rare Nintendo PlayStation console that went up for auction last year, but it's too early to say how much the N64 DD is worth.
The Nintendo 64 was launched in 1996 and was the next step in projecting video game technology forward, offering a 64-bit processor and being notable for its unusual controller design. Despite it now being a relic of the past, many will fondly remember long nights playing such classics as Goldeneye 64, Mario Kart 64 and the cute-yet-filthy Conker's Bad Fur Day which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Either way, this is a very special find not only because of the history it represents, but because of how well-preserved it's been kept for all these years.
Source: Twitter