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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

A closer look at one of the more interesting peripherals for the Nintendo 64 - the Expansion Pak. Released in 1998 With Donkey Kong 64, it expanded the N64 System RAM from 4MB to 8MB and was also said to improve visual quality, framerates and more. It was rumored that it was essential in fixing a memory crash with DK64 - it didn't - and there are over 60 games supported the Expansion Pak with 2 games requiring it. But did you miss out if you didn't own one? In this episode we deep dive and discuss the myths and the realities of the N64 Expansion Pak.

Timestamps:

00:00 - 02:44 - Introduction to the N64 Expansion Pak.
02:45 - 05:15 - DK64 Expansion Pak Myth.
05:16 - 06:11 - What is a Memory Leak.
06:12 - 08:11 - Debunking the DK64 Expansion Pak Myth.
08:12 - 11:29 - Games with Resolution Increases.
11:30 - 12:29 - Games with Texture Increases.
12:30 - 13:52 - Games with Other enhancements.
13:53 - 14:43 - Conclusion
14:44 - 15:03 - Outro

 

[Krappadizzle]

I just watched this yesterday. I remember it was awesome to have for Rogue Squadron and Quake 2.

I also remember renting Perfect Dark and not having it and you could only play a select handful of MP maps with bots, it was a necessity for that game.

The whole N64 era was weird, frustrating, and awesome at the same time.

Memory Pack, Rumble Pack, Expansion Pack... Crazy controller. What a time to be alive.

 

[ManaByte]

Can't watch it because it features DK64 and I still have PTSD from that game from writing the IGN guide on it.

 

[The ninja farmer]

I remember having this for the essential perfect dark experience

But was so weird at the time, but seemed a cool idea.

I guess a forerunner to the market, to having two consoles, sometimes with different sized storage or one being digital makes. But such a pc thing to do. Especially for Nintendo at the time. (So many cancelled products or projects from this time)

Then we actually did get rumble packs, memory cards that couldnt fit in the controller at the same time and even middle man carts to get round region locks.

Those were the days . And so interesting to look back

 

[RoboFu]

It was the ram the n64 should have had in the first place along with a cd rom drive. it's probably the worst mistake Nintendo ever made. PlayStation wouldn't even exist right now if Nintendo would have just kept to spec.

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

I can’t even remember what game I got it for… I wanna say Turok 2 right? Once I put it in, it stayed in and in fact it’s still in the console, packed away.

 

[STARSBarry]

Can't watch it because it features DK64 and I still have PTSD from that game from writing the IGN guide on it.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Expansion pak and n64 controller pak were not only the worst accessories for any console, but a real rip-off on Nintendo's part.

 

[Drew1440]

It was the ram the n64 should have had in the first place along with a cd rom drive. it's probably the worst mistake Nintendo ever made. PlayStation wouldn't even exist right now if Nintendo would have just kept to spec.

Texture cache was the main issue which resulted in blurry textures in games. Still i think more consoles should have come with RAM upgrade options, the closest modern equivalent would be the original Xbox sine it's possible to solder additional memory modules, and by patching games some of them could run in 720p mode and even run Sega's arcade games that used the Xbox hardware (CHIHIRO).



Imaging what the PS360 could pull off if they had RAM upgrades.

 

[Matsuchezz]

I bought it to play Turok 2, the difference was very noticeable, the game looked super blurry without it. I remember that shit was used for debugging the games n development. And someone from Acclaim asked Nintendo to release it to improve the game visuals and the rest is history. PD also needed it. Fucking Nintendo with their expensive shit. They were good with the hardware but fucking Yamauchi was a stubborn mofo.

 

[adamsapple]

Thanks for the share, this is a very interesting video. N64 was a bit before my gaming time and even when I started, I was a PS1 kid. Never got into the N64 so a lot of that consoles oddities are very interesting to me.

That RE2 port is probably the greatest achievement in video-gaming history on how they managed to squeeze in a 2 CD game (1GB+ data, granted it has a lot of duplicated stuff) into a 64MB cart, FMV's and all.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Expandable consoles were a much better idea than Pro / new / Color hardware that forces you to buy a system twice.

People calling the N64 exp pack a ripoff should look up the history of the NEC PC Engine. A console so based on the concept of expandability, the base model became basically useless at one point because it was cart-based and the whole production for the console switched to CDs. The PC Engine basically had three (iirc) ”expansion pack” moments in its lifespan, and most games that used one wouldn’t run at all with the previous version. But at least you got to see sexy anime girls if you tried to boot a game your current expansion card couldn’t run.

 

[joeygreco1985]

The only game I had back in the day that used it was Perfect Dark. I have one nowadays because of my Everdrive, some ROM hacks need it, and I believe you need it for gameshark codes with the everdrive as well

 

[chromhound]

Bought one just to Play Perfect Dark...

 

[violence]

We had had performance and resolution modes with Turok 2 all the way back then.

 

[K' Dash]

Everybody I knew had one because we all bought DK64, the difference it makes is night and day in some of the games that make use of it.

 

[MarkMe2525]

It was the ram the n64 should have had in the first place along with a cd rom drive. it's probably the worst mistake Nintendo ever made. PlayStation wouldn't even exist right now if Nintendo would have just kept to spec.

I would argue that their 4KB of texture memory was probably a more agregious mistake, but both severely hampered the N64's potential.

 

[Astral Dog]

It was the ram the n64 should have had in the first place along with a cd rom drive. it's probably the worst mistake Nintendo ever made. PlayStation wouldn't even exist right now if Nintendo would have just kept to spec.

Ironically, the current and most successful Nintendo system uses cartridges
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/03/02/nintendo-switch-game-cartridges-taste-revolting/