#Randnet

[n64retro]

64DD Modem N64 Control Deck 64DD N64 Mouse RANDnet Utility Disk RANDnet DD Keyboard

[luigiblood]

The Launch Details of the 64DD

This was originally published on 64dd.org on October 15th, 2021.

There’s a lot of confusion about the release and price of the 64DD and what was the Randnet service about, so it’s time to talk about that, because it is more interesting than you think.

More info after the break.

Original Plans

Nintendo had announced the 64DD in 1995, the Nintendo 64 hadn’t even come out yet that they already announced the addon for it. The purpose was to bring higher capacity and big rewritable storage, as well as making it expandable through cartridges (such as the Modem Cassette and Capture Cassette for exemple).

The 64DD was properly introduced in 1997 alongside games, with a slated release for summer 1997 in Japan and a pricing between $100 and $199. Miyamoto himself even estimates the price to be $120. This might be about what the 64DD would cost on its own in retail stores. However this isn’t how it ended up to be.

Randnet

In around June 1999, in the wake of the launch of the 64DD, Recruit and Nintendo would establish their second joint company called RandnetDD Co., Ltd., the first one was Marigul Management, which would provide financing for game companies.

RandnetDD would handle all marketing and sales of the 64DD including software, management and provider of the Randnet service, which would be internet access, email, online game networks including matchmaking, as well as a content provider for newspapers, music, and more. This would mean that RandnetDD’s sole existence is for the 64DD and its service, making the 64DD bound to RandnetDD and one wouldn’t sell without the other as part of their plans.

Later on, RandnetDD announced their plans for the Randnet service membership to start in December 1999, for the first year, for 2500 yen (~$23) per month, you would rent-to-own the Randnet Starter Kit, comprised of the 64DD itself, an Expansion Pak, the Modem Cassette and Cable, and Randnet Disk (would be sent later), as well as a selection of titles, and of course, access to the Randnet service. For 3300 yen (~$30) per month, you could rent all of the above but also have a Clear Black Nintendo 64 unit. A 12-month flat rate plan was introduced later for 30000 yen (~$290) and 39600 yen (~$380) (including Clear Black Nintendo 64 unit).

All years after the first would cost 1500 yen (~$14) per month, and all hardware and software ownership would be transferred to the member from that point. RandnetDD actually states that very clearly. Of course, any dialup access fees aren’t included here, but they did set up a nationwide phone number in Tokyo with a 50 yen ($0.46) per minute flat rate, although other phone numbers were available with different fees depending on the distance or time of day.

The membership application form could be managed within select stores, in call centers, and by fax, and was limited up to 100000 members. This wouldn’t be as going as they hoped.

The Reality

So to make it clear, the 64DD has never been this expensive, the subscription plan included the price of everything you would get from Randnet, it would have been a constant stream of software that you would own, and services. RandnetDD wanted to be innovative, and essentially you could have owned every 64DD game, and they really tried to be competitive.

Every single consumer 64DD title and device released so far were only for Randnet members, I have looked for alternatives but there’s only evidence of 64DDs only being sold through Randnet.

Unfortunately for Randnet, the 64DD was released after the Dreamcast had come out worldwide, and mere months after launch, the Playstation 2 would make its debut in Japan. For me it just seems impossible to beat the next gen hardware with this, especially when the project codenamed Dolphin was already talked about, to be released in 2001 as the GameCube.

I’d say the closest comparison to the 64DD’s launch that I can make is the PlayDate, where you buy the hardware but also an entire season of games.

Sources: https://www.ign.com/articles/1997/07/26/64dd-to-sell-for-120 https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/1997-99/990611a.html https://web.archive.org/web/20000226213125/http://www.randnetdd.co.jp:80/apply/index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20000419022955/http://www.randnetdd.co.jp/tempo.html https://www.ign.com/articles/2001/02/10/everything-about-the-64dd https://www.ign.com/articles/1999/12/16/ign64s-ultimate-64dd-faq https://www.ign.com/articles/1999/12/17/64dd-goes-retail

[suppermariobroth]

The manual for Mario Artist Communication Kit, software for the Japan-only Nintendo 64DD add-on for the Nintendo 64 that allowed users to connect to the Internet and upload Mario Artist creations, features an illustration in its manual that explains a secure online transfer of images using Mario characters.

Mario is uploading "secret works 🩷" into a Randnet Net Studio "exchange box" while sharing the ID and password offline with Peach, the intended recipient. She is then able to retrieve the works from the exchange box using the ID and password she received from Mario, while Bowser, who represents a third party who is not the intended recipient, is unable to access them due to not knowing the ID and password.

Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source: twitter.com user "LuigiBlood"

[scummrevisited]

im logging onto randnet dont fuck with me

[sulan1809]

Nintendo 64DD - Periférico que prometia muita coisa, mas flopou

Sabemos que o Nintendo 64 trouxe muita coisa boa durante a era 32 bits, no entanto, embora o console da Nintendo tivesse tido bons games, como é o caso de Super Mario 64 e The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, ainda assim ele não foi capaz de bater de frente com um fenômeno que estava em ascensão: o PlayStation. Enquanto todos estavam maravilhados com o console da Sony e as maravilhas que ele podia fazer graças à mídia física em CD, que tinha custo mais barato e mais armazenamento de dados, por outro lado, a Nintendo ainda insistia em utilizar cartucho, uma mídia que além de ser cara e com baixo espaço de armazenamento, já estava ficando uma coisa bem obsoleta. Antes mesmo do lançamento oficial do Nintendo 64, a Nintendo tinha outro projeto em mente, o 64DD, um add-on que conectado à porta extensora do console, fornecia recursos que o aparelho base não tinha, como um leitor de disco rígido, o uso de uma mídia que permitia mais memória e games via satélite. No entanto, apesar da proposta que o hardware oferecia, como por exemplo o RANDNet, que oferecia games online, e expansão de games, ele foi um massivo flop, tendo apenas nove games lançados. Pelo menos a Nintendo tentou inovar, mas o orgulho desenfreado da produtora de Mario pôs tudo a perder... A Nintendo deu um massivo tropeço com o Game Cube, mas pelo menos teve um grande acerto com o Wii, um dos melhores consoles de todos os tempos...

[yournewkeyboard]

“Finally received my N64 Keyboard, time to reply to some 20 year old emails on the Randnet!” via u/Carl_Sammons on reddit

[kurhl]

Criações artísticas na Randnet do Nintendo 64.

[n64squid]

Andy from Hard4Games show us a set of goodies relating to the Nintendo 64DD including a 64DD Dev Box, Randnet newsletter and Doshin the Giant newsletter.

Nintendo 64DD Dev Box and more was originally published on N64 Squid

[pixelatedaudio]

Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 - PA109

Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 on the Nintendo 64 DD - Pixelated Audio Episode 109

Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 is a golf simulator developed and released by SETA and Media Factory in May of 2000 for the failed Japanese only N64 add on, the 64DD. Featuring Japanese pro golfers and official golf courses, it’s a fairly conventional golf sim with the the unique distinction of being the only 64DD game playable online through the Randnet service.

The music was composed by Ken’ichiro…

[vitt74]

Nintendo 64DD – Gaming Historian Gaming Historian provides a history of the Nintendo 64DD, including it's long delay and lackluster release. What was this add-on for the N64 and why did it ... source

[wolfgabe]

Can we please stop saying Nintendo are idiots when it comes to online

Okay so recently some more details have been revealed on how cloud saves will work with The Switch online service and it as it turns out certain games will not support it out of cheating concerns most notably Splatoon 2 and Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Evee. Predicatably people are now up in arms over how the Switch’s supposedly biggest online game doesn’t support cloud backups and again using this as a means to trash the Switch online service and rant about how inept and stupid Nintendo supposedly is when it comes to online functions and they still don’t understand the internet. I feel this is false for various reasons considering Nintendo has actually been experimenting with online services since the 90s believe it or not. Remember the Satalaview and the Gamecube broadband adapter anyone? Heck even the N64DD was intended to have it’s own online service via Randnet.

Nintendo’s primary reason for lack of cloud backups in Pokemon and Splatoon primarily stems from concerns involving potential trade abuse and item duplication. This is not too surprising in hindsight when you consider how rampant save scumming was with Splatoon 1 which is likely part of the reason they do not allow save backups to external SD cards with Switch.

The more I think about the more I believe it has less to do with incompetence like so many people seem to believe and more with various technical reasons that many probably won’t be able to really understand. There is a distinct difference between cloud saving and cloud backup which basically creates a snapshot of your current data. In a game like Splatoon 2 it’s not hard to see that this could lead to a lot of data inconsistency headaches with no way to ensure your data is always up to date regardless. In order for cloud saves to work in Splatoon 2 not only would they need a whole new set of servers but they likely would have to completely redo the save system which itself would probably require a massive overhaul of the source code because Splatoon 2 was not originally designed with storing data on severs in mind.

 Pokemon should hardly be a surprise as Game Freak disabled save backups on the 3DS games and expecting it to be no different here is just wishful thinking

I was sniffing around Reddit on a thread relating to this and someone actually brought up a very interesting point referring to something known as the consensus problem .

“It’s not as trivial as you would think. In distributed systems, this can be reduced to what's called a consensus problem-- we want N machines to agree on a single consistent view of the state of some save. Under some system models, guaranteed consensus is provably impossible (this is called FLP Impossibility, and it was a very big deal when it was first discovered in the 80s.) Unfortunately, the Switch is much closer to these models than competing devices, as it is portable and consequently allows for things like local trades even when offline.”

“In general, the rule is that you get to pick two of these three statements to be true:”

“The data is consistent across all devices (you can recreate a single timeline of updates.)”

“The data is always available (reading/writing the data is always allowed.)”

“The system is partition-tolerant (it works even when some parts are offline.)”

“This is called the CAP theorem, and as you can see, a save system that works while offline and disallows cheating requires all three. If they did some very complex things in the background, they could still get a property called "eventual consistency", but I am working on a PhD in distributed systems and have several years of previous industry coding experience, and even I would not want to sit down and hammer out such an algorithm, because it is far too prone to oversight for the marginal benefit.”

In essence data consistency and availability are probably the two biggest  hurdles with Switch and they are not a problem that easily solved like so many people seem to assume.

Really though I fail to see how exactly this is such a big deal when this has really been the norm for some time now. Even during the Wii days you could not back up games with Wi Fi capability.

 I have nothing against criticism  but the constant trashing of Nintendo’s online and using as it an excuse to say they are incompetent is getting tiring and needs to stop.

[n64retro]

シムシティー64 shimushitī-rokuyon SimCity 64 (HAL Laboratory, Nintendo, 2000). Game released exclusively for Nintendo 64DD.

[luigiblood]

How do I make a randnet packet and are packets as effective as DNS

Read up on basic dialup modem connections and protocols, look up CISCO, PPP, CHAP, and stuff like that because Randnet is really pretty standard.

[n64thstreet]

Mario Artist: Polygon Studio allowed users to upload 3D models to the 64DD’s Randnet internet service to be converted to papercraft which could be assembled at home after they mailed you the printout.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Ultra Rare Nintendo Cartridge Traded Into Game Shop

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/ultra-rare-nintendo-cartridge-traded-into-game-shop/

Ultra Rare Nintendo Cartridge Traded Into Game Shop

A copy of the ultra-rare Nintendo World Championships 1990 cartridge turned up in a box of traded-in NES games at a used game store in Portland, Oregon.On August 6, Pink Gorilla Games tweeted a picture of the cartridge and “Just traded in! Not joking.” We followed up for the full story from the buyer and Pink Gorilla Games Owner, Cody Spencer:

“The guy came in not knowing at all what the cartridge was worth. He was pretty blown away with the offer. I made sure to explain to him what the item typically sells for and what we would offer him and why… The seller had no idea what it was nor where he got it. It sounds like he collected NES games a little bit when collecting NES games had yet to grow in popularity.”

The Nintendo World Championships 1990 cartridges were given to winners of the Nintendo World Championships in (you guessed it) 1990, a touring event that had players compete in popular games. The cartridge itself was used in competition and features a sort of remix of Rad Racer, Super Mario Bros., and Tetris for a single high score. More copies were given away to winners of a Nintendo Power magazine contest.

While the Nintendo World Championships 1990 cartridge is often reported to have had a limited run of 90 grey cartridges and 26 of those in gold, Pink Gorilla Games Owner and Co-Director of The Video Game History Foundation, Kelsey Lewin, clarifies, “It was originally believed that only 90 copies of the grey cart were made, but as more and more have popped up over the years (somewhere around 75 copies), it’s now believed that several hundred were made with serial numbers as high as 348.”

The Pink Gorilla Games copy was #302 — I say “was,” because as of the publish time of this article, Pink Gorilla confirmed on Twitter it had already sold the cartridge. Spencer adds, “It has sold! Unfortunately, the seller wanted to keep the total private. But it sold for what you’d expect. Not way more, not way less.”

So how much is what we’d expect? Well, Lewin qualifies the Nintendo World Championship 1990 (NWC) cartridge’s ultra-rarity, explaining “NWC is probably the most classic ‘holy grail’ in the game collecting community. The NES had such a ridiculously important impact on the game industry and on pop culture. A lot of people collect for the system for those reasons (and personal reasons) — and NWC is the most expensive ‘attainable’ game.”

Nintendo World Championship 1990 Cartridge #302

Above: Pictures of the NWC cart traded in to Pink Gorilla Games, including the guts, which confirm its authenticity. Photo Credit: Pink Gorilla Games.

It’s hard to pin down an exact value, but previous grey cartridges have sold in the $10,000 to $20,000 range, according to this (unconfirmed) chart of previous auctions.

For the full story on how these cartridges came to exist, check out Frank Cifaldi’s awesome history of the first Nintendo World Championships.

So was this the rarest thing ever to come through Pink Gorilla Games’ doors? Lewin says:

“This is certainly the most expensive! We’ve had some other cool stuff throughout the years, like a complete set of Famicom Mini Game Boy Advance games with promotional collection boxes, a Sharp NES TV, or a complete 64DD Randnet starter kit. We’ve seen other expensive NES games like Little Samson and Bubble Bath Babes a handful of times, too. I never in 100 years expected an NWC cartridge to come through the stores, though.”

We’ll be hearing more about this cartridge along with you this evening, should you tune into Cody Stephens’s live retelling of the story, planned for 9:30 PM on Twitch.tv/Dskoopa.

Check out this video of video game collector and friend of IGN, Steve Lin, showing off both his grey and gold cartridges — and other rare Nintendo treasures. It’s pretty incredible.

Samuel Claiborn is IGN’s Managing Editor and both fixes and breaks pinball machines in his garage. TCELES B HSUP to follow him @Samuel_IGN on Twitter.

Source : IGN

[belrosa1969-blog]

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