The 64DD was a magnetic disc capable of holding 64MB of data (32MB of which could be rewritten). 

Nintendo probably should've just compromised on this and released a CD-drive instead. 64DD was a dud. 

I actually fondly remember the Virtual Boy, lol. Talk about an idea literally 20+ years ahead of its time. 

The cartridge decision was much more significant, in a lot of ways it still haunts Nintendo to this day because the fall out from it (alienation of third parties, loss of Squaresoft) have never really been rectified. 

Virtual Boy was something Nintendo just shrugged off and had no long term bearing on the company. 

NOE was so terrible in the 90s. 

Yeah, it came out in 1999. Two years before Gamecube. What support was the 64DD gonna really get? They pulled a Sega CD. Only a few games used it. And even if they released the exp pack to Pokemon Stadium 0. It would of been outdated. Pokemon Stadium 2 came out in the US a year later.

I agree 100%! Nintendo is still great nowadays, but I wonder if they will ever come close to those years! :/

They probably should've just released a CD add-on in fall of 1997. I think perhaps they would've seen a fairly large flood of games like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2/3, Silent Hill, etc. in that case as the N64 was selling quite well at that time. 

That was the issue. The 64DD was announced when the console launched. They where touting Pokemon Stadium (JPN stadium 1 not our 1) as a major thing to use it. It's why it only had 45 Pokemon. It was all ready to go. And has the code/menus to read the DD. I have Stadium 1 that wasn't released here. I can trigger the DD scan myself. But for some reason it kept getting delayed up the ass. The game did come out in 1997.

Then one year later, after that long wait. Stadium 2 was released in JPN. Giving everyone all 151 Pokemon. It could of been the online service provider service setup. Or Nintendo's perfection level they wanted. They just messed up and launched it too late. It bombed in Japan. So they screwed the US release. Even if you get ahold of a 64DD. Nintendo scrapped the exp. pack for Stadium 1. So there's no way to get it to function. Unless someone gets ahold of a prototype disc.

Nintendo's Peak Years are: NES and GB era and Wii and DS era.
SNES is is a lot of good too.
N64 is only good for playing Ocarina of Time and games from Rare. (and a few more pearls).
GameCube is a disaster. And the Wii U is an even bigger disaster.

Objectively speaking I don't think you can find a 4/5 year stretch that beats 94-98. 

94-98: Donkey Kong Country 1/2, Earthbound, Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, Killer Instinct, Super Punch-Out!, Super Mario 64, Wave Race 64, Mario Kart 64, Blast Corps, GoldenEye, Star Fox 64, 1080, F-Zero X, Banjo-Kazooie, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Diddy Kong Racing, Pokemon, Zelda: Ocarina of Time. 

1988-1992: Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA), Super Mario Bros. 3, Kirby's Adventure, Super Mario World, Zelda II, Zelda: Link to the Past, Tetris, Super Mario Land, Super Mario Kart, F-Zero, Pilotwings. 

1999-2003: Super Smash Bros./Melee, Pikmin, Pokemon Stadium, Metroid Prime, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Mario Sunshine, Zelda: Wind Waker, Zelda: Majora's Mask, Luigi's Mansion, F-Zero GX

2004-2008: Nintendogs, Brain Training, Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros., Smash Brawl, Zelda: Twilight Princess.