Table of Contents

N64 Disc Drive

Better known as the N64DD, this was an expansion available for the original N64 that would allow for the loading from discs instead of cartridges.

Largely a commercial failure, never left Japan. But the few titles that were developed and released for it were incredible.

Quick reference

Emulators Accepted ROM formats
libretro: Mupen64Plus-Next .z64, .n64, .v64, .zip, .7z
libretro: ParaLLel_N64 .z64, .n64, .v64, .zip, .7z

BIOS

MD5 checksum Share file path Description
FIXME bios/Mupen64plus/IPL.n64 N64 Dynamic Disk Initial Program Loader for Mupen64Plus
8d3d9f294b6e174bc7b1d2fd1c727530 bios/64DD_IPL.bin N64 Dynamic Disk Initial Program Loader for Parallel-N64

Using libretro-Mupen64Plus-Next

To play N64DD games:

  1. First make sure that you have the right N64DD BIOS file at the right location (see above).
  2. Place your N64DD cartridge ROMs in /userdata/roms/n64dd. They should have the extension .z64.
  3. Place your N64DD disk ROMs in the same /userdata/roms/n64dd. They should have the extension .z64.ndd.
  4. While hovering over the game in the gamelist, press [SELECT] and set the emulator to libretro: Mupen64Plus-Next.

Emulators/configuration are the same as the regular N64 emulators.

Using libretro-Parallel64

Libretro-Parallel64 enables standalone N64DD games like SimCity 64 or the Mario Artist series. These aren't expansions but full games running originally on floppy disks. To play these games:

  1. First make sure that you have the right N64DD BIOS file at the right location (see above).
  2. Place your N64DD disk ROMs in /userdata/roms/n64dd. They should have the extension .ndd.
  3. While hovering over the game in the gamelist, press [SELECT] and set the emulator to libretro: Parallel N64 and the Graphics API to Vulkan.
  4. Then you can launch the game from EmulationStation

Emulators/configuration are the same as the regular N64 emulators.