Image: Shane LuisThe Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (64DD) is one of the company's most interesting releases. A long-delayed, quickly discontinued, infamous flop, the 64's bulky expansion was supposed to provide the console with an additional 'middle-ground' between cartridge and CD. Instead, it ended up being a black mark on an otherwise pretty spotless record (hey, we said "pretty") with only 10 games and a handful of sales to its name.In short, it's a pretty rare bit of kit. Even more so is the 64DD Development Kit the console Nintendo sent to studios before release so design teams could play to its unique features.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube785kWatch on YouTube As you might imagine, the Development Kit isn't the kind of thing you see very often these days, so you can only imagine our surprise when Rerez' Shane Luis took to BlueSky yesterday to announce that he had been asked to verify and photograph one for a game collector, new in box and everything!An opportunity like this wasn't one to be wasted, so Luis documented the unboxing process with a series of sweet snaps in a long BlueSky thread. We imagined that such a niche add-on would be precisely the kind of thing that you lovely lot would like to check out, so we have gathered together a selection of Luis' images (made publicly available via Internet Archive) and laid them out for you below.We'll start off with the box itself:Images: Shane LuisNext, onto the guts. The box contained two pages of official Nintendo documentation written in Japanese (obviously). Luis shared the original on BlueSky, but user Cheesemeister provided the following translation:Here's my translation of the #64DD devkit documentation. Disclaimer: this is provided for informational purposes only, not for actual usage. I am not responsible for any damage to anyone's hardware. Consider independent verification and proceed at your own risk. Cheesemeister (@cheesemeister.bsky.social) 2024-11-14T14:20:16.899ZThe Dev Kit itself appeared wrapped in plastic under a cardboard lid. Here it is snapped from all angles:Images: Shane LuisImages: Shane LuisBefore we get onto the peripheral all stacked up as it should be, here's a closer look at the other items included in the shipping box unused development disks and labels, an N64 cart, and two cart adapters 'N64JOINT-01' and 'NUS DCC-00':Images: Shane LuisImages: Shane LuisAnd when you compile all those pieces together, you get this almighty stack:Images: Shane LuisIt's quite the looker, eh? If you want to read all about the history behind this infamous Nintendo flop, our sister site, Time Extension, provided a full rundown of the peripheral's development and launch earlier this year. You'll find that history lesson in the feature below. Time ExtensionWe take a closer look at one of Nintendo's biggest failuresTime ExtensionWe've also done some digging of our own on the subject tooTime Extension"We can easily release something like a Second Quest version on the 64DD"What do you make of this unboxing? Anything in particular that catches your eye? Let us know in the comments.[source bsky.app]See AlsoShare:223 Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesMario & Luigi Fans Aren't Happy About Brothership's Battle Button TweaksIt should be 'B' for the Bro, right?Super Mario Party Jamboree: All Boards List And How To UnlockBoard meetingZelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Devs Explain The Method Behind The Menu MadnessIt even took Aonuma a while to 'get it'Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Mario & Luigi: BrothershipHere's what the critics thought