Nintendo Satellaview

In 1995, a Japanese satellite company working in close conjunction with Nintendo developed a satellite modem to allow network capabilities on the Nintendo 64 DD. This network was known as the Satellaview satellite network. This network allowed a person in Japan, who owned a Nintendo 64 DD to battle other Nintendo players via their satellite connection.

This system basically worked with a mini satellite dish receiver, a tuner, an audio/video selector, a specialised cartridge for the Nintendo 64 unit and some wiring to connect them all together.

Once all this was connected together you would simply place your game disc in the DD unit, and at the same time place the BS-X cartridge in the Nintendo 64 unit. When this was done with the use of your television set, you were able to access games, demos and several other options. The cartridge had an 8-bit memory to allow you to download demo games and store them on the cartridge for later use.

Using this network, one would subscribe to the station, and then would be able to download games at specific times. It was also capable of accessing various news and magazine features on the Nintendo 64 unit, play quizzes, as well as sharing game scores with fellow players.

One of the most popular games to come with this LAN game console for the Nintendo 64 DD was The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets. In this game, you were actually able to connect via a headset and speak to the other players in order to give those helpful hints or advice. Because of the extras added with these units that included things like the clock system, live elements, as well as the live voice, you were only able to play at specific times of day until March of 1999 when the broadcast was ended.

This was one of the earlier releases that had the ability to battle other players in a real-life simulation via a home gaming console rather than a computer. Unfortunately however, this satellite system was only available in Japan, and only worked with the Nintendo 64 DD unit, and just like the satellite unit, the Nintendo 64 DD unit was also only available in Japan.