Every Expansion Pak Game for the N64

[@bisc67]

Great video, enjoyed watching it. I was an engineer at Acclaim and you featured a number of games I worked on directly. The Expansion Pak was used in several different ways: 1. Video memory buffers, code buffers and workspace were all split to separate 1M banks - with 4M of RAM there wasn't enough banks to split it well enough without needing to share a bank in some manner. Splitting all of the video scanout, z buffer, render buffer, code buffers greatly helps with the RDP & CPU performance - there is much less contention on the RDRAM bus. Overall, this would give smoother frame rates at the same resolutions. 2. For a good number of the Acclaim games (especially the Iguana ones), we used virtual memory (which I implemented). If the Expansion Pak was present, then all the code & data in virtual memory was loaded & decompressed ahead of time - usually when the title screen was showing. Performance was improved quite a bit by doing this. Hence the few FPS improvement in performance. If no expansion pak was detected, code & data was swapped in and decompressed from cartridge as needed - which could cause some stalls but at least we could fit the game within 4M without needing to resort to overlays. If you pay attention to some of the "play select" and "in game" transitions for Quarterback Club & AllStar Baseball, you'll note the transition is much shorter with the expansion pak present. 3. As you mention, higher resolution modes could be made available. Game recording buffers could be increased in size (longer replays in Allstar Baseball & QBC). Larger cache buffers, etc. You may have not personally thought that it made all that much difference, but we wanted to take advantage of anything that would improve a players experience. It didn't take much actual technical work to implement it; so why not? The most difficult part of implementation was probably making the title screen that displays "Expansion Pak Detected" :)

[@asddw4998]

I'm assuming the documentation and SDK/implementation code samples for the Expansion Pak must have been close no nonexistent knowing how Nintendo historically does things. Did you have to figure this out mostly by yourself?

[@bisc67]

@@asddw4998 it was pretty straight forward as far I recall. It just shows up in the memory map.

[@vincentoconnor5640]

That's awesome, all of those games were a huge part of my childhood

[@enshk79]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing your personal experience. and great work!

[@ProWrestlingReality]

Thank you for your service...I remember...That era

[@Supersayainpikmin]

That was a great episode; this is a topic that isn't very well documented online, so seeing it here was great and makes this a fantastic resource.

[@Azuris190]

Indeed, there really isn't much out there and some are even wrong. Thats why i really enjoyed seing all of this :D

[@Tirgo69]

SSFF did a video on the Expansion Pak some years ago but I don't think he looked at every single game

[@CommodoreFan64]

Same, the only thing I think he could have added was that many 3rd party N64 expansion/RAM packs are not fully compatible with the console, and will cause some games to not run at all, or just have random freezes/glitches. So you must have an official Nintendo Expansion pak.

[@roboyle]

+1. This is true Public Service Broadcasting!

[@Supersayainpikmin]

@@Tirgo69 That was a good video but he really only gave us info that was already well known online.

[@Nate1979]

This...must have taken a hideous amount of work. I have been following your work since Day 1 and sincerely appreciate the effort you put into every single video. Thanks!

[@Geforcefly]

In the Pokemon Stadium and Stadium 2 GB towers, the extra RAM allows the entire GB Pokemon game being played to be loaded into RAM thereby preventing extra loading during gameplay.

[@jonniefast]

no more controller bumps 😍

[@jonniefast]

no more controller bumps 😍

[@Gizmo88]

Also makes the game menus high Res 480i instead of 240p in Pokemon Stadium 2

[@fshoaps]

This is far, far, far from nothing.

[@Haywood-Jablomie]

I was thinking that I remembered the text getting much clearer

[@ChrisGripeos]

Awesome! You finally referenced a game that I worked on! "Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers" Thanks! :D

[@Bro-tz5zd]

Quack it up!!!!!

[@changotv5847]

Love that game, I've got it for ps1 and ps2

[@jeroenboth167]

What did you do on the game if I am allowed to ask as I love that game to this very day so much 😁

[@ChrisGripeos]

@@jeroenboth167 I was one of the coders that ported the game from PS2 to the GameCube. One thing I remember was that we had lost the original files for Gyro’s 3d meshes and the only one we had was missing his left hand geometry. I had to reconstruct it from scratch manually in Notepad :)

[@benitosierrajr3958]

Donald Duck: Goin’ Quackers is a fantastic game on both 5th gen and 6th gen systems, I love it.

[@X2011racer]

There's also a few tidbits not mentioned here: 1. While you can only play Multiplayer in US/PAL Perfect Dark without the Expansion Pak, the Japanese version isn't so fortunate; you get your typical message screen instead if you don't have one. 2. The Banjo-Tooie demo actually requires the Expansion Pak to run with less restrictions. Starting up the demo without it will open with dialogue between Banjo and Kazooie regarding the lack of an Expansion Pak, then assures the player(s) that the Final Game will not require the Expansion Pak to run. After this, the demo runs as usual, but certain activities in the demo are locked out. Chances are that the demo is built off Donkey Kong 64's code.

[@cormoran2303]

19:45 I like that the expansion pak even helps the Hammer Throw go even further.

[@Haywood-Jablomie]

Best Comment !!! 😅😂

[@samukadatp7969]

Should we consider using the expansion pak as a way of cheating? Like steroids?

[@FastTquick]

Now I’m looking forward to a video of every Dreamcast game released that uses the VMU.

[@segamon]

Even better: every VMU game.

[@badcommentbot8349]

They all do lol

[@charlesquales7450]

@@badcommentbot8349 some more then others tho

[@robertmanes9333]

Dreamcast > SNES > PS2 > Everything else

[@WardenOfTerra]

@@robertmanes9333 - Stop.

[@johnfoster7823]

You are a rare breed of workhorse sir. This had to be an excruciating exercise... setting tedium tolerance to the maximum pain setting to produce this. You are are an American treasure Joe. Thank you so much for Game Sack. I don't comment much but watching this really compelled me to chime in for a sec to say thanks man.

[@cpuvscpu]

Love the critically acclaimed spy series known as "Zero Zero Seven"

[@PugLifeJM]

In Brazil, it's actually called "zero zero seven". I'm sure it's like that in some other countries and languages, too.

[@TadRaunch]

@@PugLifeJM Some Asian countries also know 007 as "Zero Zero Seven".

[@Golecom2]

It's literally "Zero Zero Seven", 3 Numbers. Not "oo7" or "Double-o 7". Aparently the english native speakers have difficulty discerning between numbers and letters.

[@reeyees50]

Zero zero siete.....nueve dos nueve dos

[@redacted2275]

@@Golecom2 iT's LiTeRaLLy common knowledge that in British English, "oh" is an informal pronunciation of zero and in US English, "oh" is used when the number zero comes in a string of digits... for example: *007.* 🤌🤦‍♂️ Get off your high horse, it must be tired of you.

[@DGR_Dave]

I loved this episode...there were so many games you showed that I had no idea even supported the expansion pak (for better or worse). Thanks for all the hard work you put into your videos!

[@kevinhibbard320]

I remember I asked for the expansion pack and perfect dark for Xmas one year and only got the expansion pack. Those were the days.

[@Diepzeevis]

RIP

[@Marc_Araujo]

You didn't get it with DK64?

[@Diepzeevis]

@@Marc_Araujo you could, but you could also buy it separately.

[@Marc_Araujo]

@@Diepzeevis Yeah, but if you got DK64 you'd get the expansion pak for free. Since DK64 needed it to run properly, they included it at no extra charge. Anyone who bought it later by itself def made a mistake.

[@Diepzeevis]

@@Marc_Araujo true!

[@wugenius]

Crazy how the Saturn had expansion ram carts and those were amazing for 2d games.

[@thetechn1que518]

In theory, the N64 wouldn’t need to expand its memory for a 2D game because it could load sprites directly from the cartridge ROM like a Neo Geo. In reality though, cartridge space was limited and a lot of games compressed their assets, resulting in load times (Quake 2 and the Tony Hawk games have load times on N64, for example). With the RAM expansion they could decompress more sprites into the additional memory. Hard to say though, the N64 doesn’t have many 2D games and none of them use as much memory as something like X-men vs. Street Fighter.

[@themailman3331]

This was incredibly helpful. I’ve always been curious as to which games used the expansion pak. This video clearly took a lot of effort to make, so thank you for all of your hard work!!

[@Jordan3DS]

Majora's Mask and Donkey Kong 64 are two of the top games on the N64 and they both require the Expansion Pack, so for that reason alone I'd say it's a pretty great add-on!

[@GeomancerHT]

DK64 only requires it because a bug (bad coding) that cannot be fixed with just 4mb ram and it didn't happen with 8mb, there is nothing extra in that game.

[@GeomancerHT]

@Wiegraf go watch any other in-depth video about the game, it was designed around the expansion pack because they couldn't fix the memory leak bug, you can find a patch that makes the game work without it. The game actually was designed just to sell the game with the expansion pack XD

[@GIR177]

​@@GeomancerHTThis "memory leak bug" is a myth that has debunked by Rare employees themselves as well as modders who have looked at the code. The expansion pak extends the RDRAM size from 0x400000 to 0x800000. If the expansion pak was a last-minute thought, then there would be no base-game functions in the last 4MB of RDRAM (0x400000 - 0x7FFFFF). However, this is not the case. A lot of base level stuff is in that slot, including texturing, game constants (such as what kong is going to be used for which boss fight), sound, flag data. DK64 was designed with the pak from the start and there is no "patch" that makes it run without it.

[@Ghost_Of_SAS]

I can confirm that the final boss in Legacy of Darkness is absolutely unbeatable in high res mode. The frame rate dips into low single digits.

[@64-Bit-Gamer]

I beat it. With a Game Shark.

[@paparansen]

@@64-Bit-Gamer you beat your dingdong with a game shark? interessting...

[@teh_supar_hackr]

The only way to beat that boss in hi-res mode is to become the game

[@aussiegamerplays7284]

DK64 is capable of being played without the expansion pack if you use a gameshark. So you'll be able to see what it looks like. Excitebike 64, showing you why you should just put the jumper pack back in to play. Goldeneye is in the right spot being its technical title is Goldeneye: 007 To my knowledge, Indiana Jones and the infernal machines level 13 requires the expansion pack due to the rate the level moves at, needing the extra memory to load the textures and geometry in on time Majoras mask on top of everything you mentioned required the expansion pack specifically to keep track of every character in the game for the full 3 days as everything runs by time of day and all those quests are running wether they're active or not. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron while playable without the expansion pack, is really required because in some of the missions set at night you'll struggle spotting the tie fighters from the backhround at almost any distance.

[@joseluki]

Majora's Mask also needs the Expansion Pak to keep the high resolution and be able to have that many characters at the same time on the city moving.

[@MaxwelThuThu]

So... what's the gameshark code for DK64? I have never seen that

[@aussiegamerplays7284]

@@MaxwelThuThu yknow..... I haven't seen it in a long time. The best way to find out would be to talk to someone who specialises in hacking n64 games. It's something to do with simply disabling the error screen.

[@charmanfer]

​@@aussiegamerplays7284better stop talking out of your ass. Dk64 cannot be played without the Expansion Pak

[@aussiegamerplays7284]

@charmanfer cool story bro

[@JohnnyWednesday]

I only have youtube to watch and I go through phases where I like one thing or the other - Game Sack is the only channel that has never fallen from grace :)

[@johnrad6268]

Super interesting episode!! Road Rash 64: If I’m not mistaken, the expansion pak gave the possibility to face up to 10 AI opponents instead of being limited to 9. There was a setting in the select race track to choose between low med or highest amount of opponents. I remember preferring that because there was one more enemy to beat the hell up 😅

[@TalesBarros]

That's really interesting and no one on the Internet mentioned this difference. Thanks!

[@Cableguy15]

Only ever had the expansion pack so I could play Majora's Mask. For whatever reason, it never occurred to me that it did anything for games besides Majora's Mask and Donkey Kong 64. Pretty cool to find out that it had some effects here and there on other games, even if it was usually minor.

[@thelas]

the sheer amount of research, recording and voice over work to make videos like these must be astounding. Thanks for what you do man.

[@W0lfenstrike]

Resident Evil 2 on N64 didn't have a fixed resolution, it always changed depending on the camera angle, but I guess that without the Expansion Pak, it remained at lower resolutions most of the time to notice any difference.

[@robintst]

I honestly didn't know this many games supported the RAM expansion, color me impressed. Great video, Joe!!

[@chrisf5475]

I remember Turok 2 looking amazing with the pack. We have to remember that watching these captures on our HD / 4K screens looks far worse than on our old 14” bedroom televisions. Thanks for the hours you put into this one!

[@sgtsquank]

That athlete's foot commercial was a blast from the past. I feel like they ran that thing for twenty years. I never got the expansion pack (the Dreamcast found its way to me) but I recall Perfect Dark being the hype game, or in so much as I could recognize a 'hype game' at 11.

[@Dsims37]

My mother loved Gauntlet Legends. Many hours of this was had.

[@j4ck.]

25:50 That's an Australian copy of the game. We have Kmart here too!

[@kennethd4958]

The N64 expansion pack is one of my favorite random add ons for any system... I was so excited to see GameSack covering it. Not many of the videos that cover it show the before and after footage.. well done GS.

[@wizzgamer]

Sega Mega CD still has it beat for me.

[@wettuga2762]

Thanks for the detailed information about how each game is affected by the Expansion Pack! I knew the list of games, but not exactly which ones would became less/more crappy with the extra 4MB of RAM. Now I know.

[@Bobson_Dugnutt_Esq]

Game Sack on Sunday. A bright spot to start the week on

[@Falcnuts]

Thank you for the Saturday night vibes Joe

[@SigSantilio]

Expansion Pak! A unique add-on. I think one of the rare graphics decelerators!

[@the_kovic]

I'd argue that Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine runs **better WITH** the Expansion Pak. Without it, you get some really noticeable stutters in levels like Tian Shan River or Aetherium where the screen goes entirely black for a couple of frames until it refreshes and continues moving. Also, the game is notoriously prone to crashing without the Expansion Pak. Playing with the Expansion Pak gets rid of most of these crashes/freezes resulting in a much more smoother and stabler experience.

[@TheReimecker]

For so many years i was waiting for this video !! Awesome Stuff !!

[@mikel6989]

Favorite part of sunday, a fresh pot of coffee, vitamins t, h and c and a new game sack video. Today is gonna be a good day.

[@falsehero2001]

Gamesack: “Quest 64 is the only RPG on the console.” Paper Mario: “And I took offense to that.”

[@LeonmitchelliGalette]

9:00 Also should be noted that Sega Saturn can benefit from expanded memory for 3D performance. Because standard Sega's graphics libraries are very memory inefficient for vertex storing in RAM. Additional memory in that case will benefit in more quads on screen and less artifacts and elements dropouts.

[@Soonjai]

Wait what? So if I get you right, if I have a 1, or better yet 4 Meg cart in my Saturn it has the potential to increase performance in some 3D games? Or is this mostly a theoretical thing that a game would have been specifically designed for?

[@LeonmitchelliGalette]

​@@Soonjai It can't now. It must be implemented in source code. And it is for Sega's graphics libraries, they ship with dev kits. SGL - pretty easy and nice library that helps with notoriously difficult Saturn's architecture. But it very memory hungry. And it's closed source. And memory expansions used almost only for 2D games. Sega of that time is really nice example how to not to do anything. But if they did it right~ Such waste of potential~

[@bigduke5902]

Agree. It WAS ok when SEGA did it.

[@thetechn1que518]

Final Fight Revenge requires a 4 MB cart, so that’s at least one game with 3D graphics that uses extra memory. Not really sure how the game benefits from it, though.

[@DarkWorldQ8]

In the 1990s: I have increased the RAM in my console by adding a 4MB RAM expansion pack. In the 2020s: I have increased the RAM in my PC by adding a 32GB (32,000MB) RAM stick.

[@theartcrusader759]

No matter the era your system inevitably needs a ram boost

[@Trainy2]

Shadowman is one of my favorites from back then. That game has such incredible, eerie atmosphere.

[@Mike-db4td]

Been following your channel for years, love the little sense of humor here and there, love seeing the differences and your descriptions, amazing work!

[@stilnoxVisions]

Lol I absolutely love how you ran out of ammo in the beginning of the World Is Not Enough comparison. I could feel you going, "Oh shit!" after pulling the trigger and your guy starts punching. Also, that is an underrated game! It obviously lives in the Goldeneye shadow.

[@emanuelepolloni4002]

Every Nintendo 64 shooter except for Perfect Dark lives in the shadow of Goldeneye

[@thefroyukenfiles3641]

It was still a great shooter, all things considered. The devs at Eurocom were wizards with the N64 tech and were pulling off some neat effects in the game along with keeping at a better fps than GoldenEye.

[@emanuelepolloni4002]

@@thefroyukenfiles3641 It's shame that it will never see an official rerelease on the Switch like Goldeneye and escape its shadow

[@JTCin2025]

You deserve more Subs...this is the best gaming channel on KZbin,and that doesn't even feel like an opinion.

[@vizuz]

I agree, why doesn't this channel have a million subscribers?

[@JTCin2025]

@@vizuz I'm just glad I know about it. Found this Channel after hearing Gaming Historian mention it.

[@JSCG12]

More N64 content please!

[@GameSack]

This is actually the 3rd episode dedicated to the N64.

[@jkemp6791]

@@GameSack - That’s about 3 more episodes than I would have dedicated to it, Joe. Lol. And I’m a Nintendo guy. On the other hand, your Saturn vs PlayStation episode is a masterpiece.

[@merchius]

This episode was a blast! Thank you for all your hard work Joe

[@TubbyJ420]

the Expansion Pak is required for searching GameShark codes. as you ran searches on values you were trying to edit, the addresses were saved in the extra RAM.

[@tw9074]

Thanks for making this video! Just went down a long rabbit hole of the expansion pack and got to your video.

[@Kage5868]

Another cool episode Joe, been waiting for this one

[@WhiskeyNixon]

In at least some of these games, the intention of squishing the aspect ratio was to put more information on the screen and rely on the user to stretch the image with the TV. This is certainly what the option in some games labeled 'anamorphic wide-screen' means, and I think a lot of these games intended the same thing.

[@Lost_n_Found_1]

My favorite feature of the Expansion Pak came in clutch for Perfect Dark. In the combat simulator, it allowed you to have up to 12 bots over the base 4, provided you beat all the challenges in the game. Back then, it felt really special (and chaotic) to throw that many bots (with individual difficulty and personality settings) into the fray with 4 friends. It improved everything we loved about Goldeneye multiplayer, and then turned it up to 11 just for the hell of it.

[@ryersonfitzpatrick7955]

I think it was 8 bots + 4 players for 12 at once. It was horribly laggy, and the quarter screen meant you saw barely anything, but it was still glorious!

[@Lost_n_Found_1]

@@ryersonfitzpatrick7955 You had to beat all challenges to unlock 12 bots. We ran 16 all the time. After reading a few forums, I never knew this was the stuff of legend. Apparently people had a lot of trouble unlocking the last bots!

[@spencercrutcher5851]

I wasn't interested in the expansion pak at first, but now I think it's worth it. Being able to play extra games, try out 64dd games on an everdrive, and extra features is pretty cool.

[@Azuris190]

Quake 2 isn't getting enough Love for what it does with the Expansion Pack and its good Graphics overall.

[@Diepzeevis]

Hear hear!

[@samukadatp7969]

In some moments the game even runs in 60 fps

[@MSDGAMEZ]

Love when a 50 minute Game Sack video comes up

[@AnthonyRiddle]

The Saturn's ram expansion was done way better than the N64 expansion pack. The Saturn version added animation frames and a better fps. The N64 added higher resolutions with worse fps. Why would you buy something that makes your games play worse?

[@konradfun]

Same question can be asked for why you'd buy an N64

[@AnthonyRiddle]

@@konradfun I was team PlayStation all the way during that generation. My best friend had the N64 and I had the PlayStation. Other than Goldeneye we never really played his N64 when we all hung out together.

[@magicjohnson3121]

@konradfun because it has a lot of good games

[@raxomachine]

@@konradfun Best Mario and Zelda games.

[@sjake8308]

@The Player Agreed. Early PSX games were mostly very underwhelming: About the only ones I was genuinely impressed by were Wipeout and Tekken 2. And yes, piracy was a big factor in getting the PSX into a lot of households (though nobody talks about it now): I grew up in a socially deprived area and all my friends had Playstations and a ruck of copied games. Nintendo received a lot of flak for sticking with cartridge media, but this was one of the reasons why they did. I bought the N64 when it came out and the Nintendo/Rare games were absolutely incredible (and so much better than anything else available at the time), but the third party stuff was generally pretty dire. By the way, Mario 64 is possibly the best launch title ever: Not only great game, but also a great showcase of what the console was capable of in the right hands.

[@SaintCyrX]

@25:51 Australia uses PAL and has its own Kmart chain (now unrelated to US). That cover may be of an Australian box?

[@soundspark]

Some games might have better frame rates with the Expansion Pak because the ROM may have compressed assets for which the decompressed contents can be cached if there is more RAM.

[@SEGAHEADDY]

"I suggest not using this mode" is the theme of the video here, haha!

[@cax1175]

Resident Evil 2 on the N64 is still one of the most impressive things in gaming from a technical standpoint

[@GeomancerHT]

Most of the time spend porting the game was just developing the right compression algorithm to make all fit in the cartridge, it might have been a nightmare job for the developers that went in thinking we're going to make the port and then add content and make it better, instead they had to develop their own ZIP/ARC/PK code for almost a year.

[@GeomancerHT]

@Wiegraf RE2 was never ported to the GBA, it's only a very bad tech demo that doesn't use any code from RE2.

[@GeomancerHT]

@Wiegraf :D I'm sure that with modern SDK the game could be ported, maybe using 2 cartridges, you can even have the cutscenes done in GBA Video.

[@bahamutbbob]

@@GeomancerHT There is a Tomb Raider port to GBA that at least has a demo. I haven't been keeping up with it, it could be further along now. They plan on doing the entire game, and having it compressed so it could fit on a GBA cart. It makes you think if they could use the technique to port other PS1 games 1:1 to the GBA.

[@GeomancerHT]

@@bahamutbbob OpenLARA is great, if somebody did a disassembly or found a leak for the RE games source code that might be something worth trying.

[@MakeItPerfectlyWrong]

I was just watching the SSFF episode on the Expansion Pak recently and this is honestly the perfect companion video as I was looking to see this!

[@KennySouthPark86]

This reminds me of "it's the same picture" office meme

[@Braindizruptor]

this must be the most coolest gaming intro ive ever seen man, very nice :D

[@ninjapirate47]

Joe... please never stop. This was a great episode and you're still one of the best things about youtube. We love ya, man & thanks for making Sundays awesome. Also loved the skit at the end of this one. Never knew that rumble pack needed batteries, glad I didn't get one due to it being an embarrassment compared to the duel shock. Those skulltullas in Zelda can bugger themselves.

[@KrealTube]

woaw it's like an expansion pack for game sack itself, and that's why we all tune in

[@Scott-fj9uf]

I always wondered about these! I was a PS and Saturn fellow growing up so the N64 is the most mysterious to me. I only just bought one in 2020, mostly for Conkers and Sin&Punishment

[@trumpetmasta92]

Thank you for such a detailed explanation for what it does to certain games along with a sample. So many just talk but never show the proof.

[@Killbomb]

Literally laughed out loud when Joe asked where the Nintendo 64 games from Jaguar and CD-I were. 😆

[@kildogery]

This is classic Gamesack. I thought every idea had been done. Great stuff.

[@matstodon]

this one is a god tier episode

[@josephcampbell9298]

Joe's killing it with these double stuffed episodes!

[@BuzzaB77]

both Revolt, Shadowman, and Vigalente8 are on Dreamcast Joe, all definitely worth a play through.

[@captain3186]

I personally much prefer Rush 2049, ReVolt, V8, Hydro Thunder, Tony Hawk and Star Wars Pod Racer on Dreamcast as they are all vastly superior IMO.

[@BuzzaB77]

Oh definitely, I just presumed Joe being a Sega nut would have mentioned the Dreamcast versions . So I just pointed out the ones he didn't just in case he didn't know somehow or maybe they were only pal releases?

[@6sideddice]

Rom hacks and Randomizers make great use of the extra ram from the Expansion Pak.

[@unluvable]

This is better than fentanyl. Let every sweet frame of this video drip into my eye veins and into my vein brains!

[@one7decimal2eight]

Ok weirdo

[@unluvable]

SPOILER ALERT! Did someone say "tits?" Yes, yes someone did say tits.

[@unluvable]

@@one7decimal2eight I'm so sorry. I take back my comments. I didn't realize Rocko had died from complications from canine AIDS. At least take solace in the fact that K9 STDs are not transmissible to their owners (as far as we know). We miss you Rocko. We know how much you loved mounting Mr.Peepin' and we know he misses your knot. Godspeed, Rocko.

[@bradtraq1]

"John Romero must be proud because his name is on the game and the box." You devious bastard. That was great dude

[@gameofyou1]

This is a great idea for a video. Well done! It would be cool to see something like this for the Saturn’s 4meg cart.

[@thefroyukenfiles3641]

They did an episode on that some years back.

[@RowDents]

Hey Joe just an FYI with the NBA Jam 2000 box yes K-Mart existed (and still exists) in Australia but they don't sell video games anymore.

[@ViremasterOfUSA]

I reversed engineered Aidyn Chronicles a while back, this is some of what happens when there is no expansion pak: "High resolution" mode disabled (a 32-bit color mode, like with 40 winks was planned, but left out of the final game) Certain music tracks replaced with more simplistic tunes. This includes title screen, combat (not shown in comparison clip - that's still "expansion pak added" music), and a few other areas map objects with a "No Expansion Pak" flag are rendered. Likewise vice versa. The latter includes a "lizard king" boss, I believe. The Item/entity/shop/ect. databases are temporarily unloaded and then reloaded. (there seems to be an exploit associated with this.) A temporary game save file is created and read/written at certain times - these use a lot of bit compression. (may be related to above exploit) For certain data objects, it checks for specific thresholds of free space before loading them in. Max particles (like from exploding trap chests and air elementals) are more limited based on the current game state.

[@GameCubeGalaxy]

Another phenomenal episode. Amazing to see every N64 game covered here and briefly detailing how each game was affected (for better or worse) by the Expansion Pak.

[@Rayuzx]

In Pokémon Stadium 2, the expansion pack only increases the resolution of the menus/intro, not the gameplay itself.

[@wizzgamer]

It doesn't even without the expansion pack the menus have an increased resoloution.

[@Diepzeevis]

Amazing episode, thank you so much for all the research and hard work! This is something I have always wondered and your video delivers and then some! Also: the makers of Quake 2 are one of the few who truly understood how to utilize the extra RAM. Great to see you point that out as well.

[@michelvanbriemen3459]

19:00 No expansion pak = no success Expansion pak = success Nice touch

[@IRMacGuyver]

@41:15 It kinda looks like the draw distance is also increased in Rogue Squadron.

[@TacticalPower88]

Thats why I love emulation. Nice to be able to crank these games all the way up AND maintain max FPS.

[@theultimatepololo]

Awesome episode, it is true that the expansion pack wasn´t a great power up for the N64 technical capabilities....but it was require for 3 of the 10 best system games: Donkey Kong 64, Perfect Dark and Zelda Majora´s Mask....so it was and it is a MUST BUY peripheral for me

[@sjake8308]

I disagree that DK64 and Majora's Mask were in the top 10 games for the system, but Perfect Dark was excellent.

[@theultimatepololo]

@@sjake8308 Back in the day they were Top of the class, nowadays DK 64 has take too much hate in my opinion, it is an awesome 3D platformer (yeah, Banjo-Kazooie and Mario 64 are better) and well the case of Majora´s is different, for a lot of peolpe is even better than Ocarina of time....for me OOT is the best of the two, but I love MM a little more, it was my first Zelda and some things it did have never been do it again in the Zelda series, a unique game even among other Zeldas

[@sjake8308]

@@theultimatepololo I bought DK64 on the day it was released and was really underwhelmed by it, not because it's a bad game, but more because Rare's earlier collectathons (and Mario 64) were better. I also thought Majora's Mask was perfectly fine, but the design of the game, while certainly interesting, made it more of a chore to play than Ocarina of Time. I think they're both perfectly fine games (and two of the better games on the system), but I'm pretty sure I could easily find ten N64 games that I thought were better. Perfect Dark, on the other hand, is close to top tier.

[@Choralone422]

I always felt like the extra memory the expansion pack added is what the N64 should have had at launch. Unfortunately, RAMBUS memory was expensive at that time so what we ended up with on the stock console was "good enough" to get things going. While I really enjoyed the 32/64 bit 3D generation of games I do not miss having games running at less than 30 FPS be the norm!

[@hackerx7329]

RD RAM was ALWAYS stupidly expensive. My sister for some reason had a desktop that used it and it turned out that buying a whole new PC was cheaper than upgrading the RAM in that one.

[@rars0n]

@@hackerx7329 Yeah, the first Pentium 4 chipsets used RD RAM until Intel finally wised up and switched to DDR. Rambus essentially exists as a patent troll today thanks to the technology behind RD RAM.

[@thewiirocks]

@@rars0n They were a patent troll back then too. That's how the deal with Intel fell apart. I remember walking past their building on a trip to California in the mid-2000s. Took a lot of willpower to NOT throw a rock through the window.

[@Parker--]

I mean that’s always the case where you say just a little bit more, but the console was also $199 at launch and then $150 just 6 months later. I mean just watch this video and its clear the the expansion pack is largely going to waste; how many of these games had noticeable slow down when using the expansion pack? Nearly all of them. Why? Because the rest of the system couldn’t otherwise handle what it would take to utilize the extra ram. This is on top of the fact that the cartridge were basically used as pseudo ram to begin with. If you were going to add ram and make the 64 cost more you might as well then switch to disc or some sort of higher capacity format so that the extra ram would have actually been put to use.

[@ozzyp97]

@@Parker-- It's not really not really that system couldn't benefit from extra ram, the bigger problem is that the RDRAM they used had a stupidly high latency. One of the primary limitations of the N64 was a tiny texture cache, which could've been helped with faster ram. Later on developers would use extra cartridge space instead, because the ram was just that damn slow.

[@Michael.Hunt.14-52]

Thanks for doing the work! I was convinced the Xpak wasn't used for much but can see that it seems to have a lot of support.

[@OnslaughtSix]

You DO need to play more of Shadowman sometime. It's a great game and the recent remaster is really cool too.

[@ChaswellQuint]

Finally somebody who shows you the difference instead of giving me Expansion Pak trivia and history!

[@RichRetr0]

I think the average take away from this is, only use the expansion pak for the games that absolutely require it lol

[@joepwrsurge]

Been waiting my whole life for this analysis. I loved this time in videogame history... like holding a N64 controller in EACH HAND!

[@Crazy_Gamer_OG]

I think the ExPac was worth it for games that required it like Majora's Mask & Perfect Dark or for the texture upgrades, but for games where it just added higher resolution at the cost of FPS, not so much.

[@sjake8308]

That's basically how I see it: A necessity if you want to play specific games like Perfect Dark, but a waste of money otherwise.

[@projectmayhem6898]

Thanks!

[@GameSack]

Any time. :)

[@Petersorg]

Wow! Never knew that Quake 2 could look so good with the improved textures. Too bad that other games didn't use the expansion pack for the same purpose.

[@ozzyp97]

The issue there was that the RDRAM had terrible latency. Having space to store textures is nice and all, but they also need to be streamed to the graphics chip at some point, and then you're in trouble. Many later N64 games would use a bigger cartridge instead, because it turns out it's actually faster to read from there.

[@danielmclaughlin2190]

still the best channel on youtube!

[@christopherkelly577]

Spacestation Silicon Valley is superb, a true "hidden gem". I played the entire game with the expansion Pak installed and had no issues...

[@lukegto]

Same and agree on gem status

[@medes5597]

There seems to be two rom versions and only one fucks up.

[@lukegto]

@@medes5597 wonder if it’s a revision I bought the game day 1

[@medes5597]

@@lukegto that's my thinking, my version also doesn't mess up with the expansion and I bought it the week it came out - just went and checked after I made that comment. I'm thinking a 1.1 revision broke comparability somehow and it didn't sell enough for a 1.2 - which is a shame, I love that game.

[@ninjapirate47]

Joe, a great big thanks for having Indiana Jones in that very compromising position for the comparison, tarnishing my opinion of his manliness and the character in general..

[@zorochii]

I guess they didn't really know what to do with the extra RAM. Except for the ones that added actual features like extra characters on screen, game modes or even graphical details.

[@mausmalone]

Well, some did. Majora's Mask, for example, used the extra ram to store a boatload of persistent NPCs and all their data. The only problem is that once you start using the extra RAM to do actual important stuff in your game (not just graphical tweaks) you have to require the RAM pack - and that in turn limits the number of people you can sell to.

[@zorochii]

@xg223 I phrased it poorly xD. I meant it like the early DS games with the touch screen. They just stuck whatever in the touch screen. Sometimes duplicate stuff of what you see at the top like Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Sometimes mechanics no one likes such as Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow's seals thing. Developers were figuring it out, and to me at least adding extra resolution but dragging the FPS to half or less isn't worth it. Very few did much more with it, the ones that did being stuff that only required the extra RAM like details and game modes, and not pushing the graphics renderer beyond its limits. I think those kinds of things understood better where to put that extra memory.

[@zorochii]

@xg223 yeah that's fair.

[@zorochii]

@xg223 yeah that's fair. It's just nowadays me who says it's not great. But that also reminds me of back in the day playing Quake 2 at like less than 10fps on a PC that shouldn't be running it lol. I didn't care at all back then. I guess that time was different. When I look back now, 240p and 480p are mostly the same to my eyes.

[@MrRom92DAW]

I never even had to think twice about the expansion pak because my console was the jungle green bundle with DK64 and originally included it. I don’t think I ever even knew it wasn’t a thing until years later. I just put the thing in when I first set the console up and never had to worry about it again!

[@thefroyukenfiles3641]

I recall there being a few unsupported games that had issues if the expansion pak was inserted, though.

[@deftones8717]

7:14 It sounded like you said, “you can actually tell if you look at the TURD on your tank”. 😂 Then you immediately followed that up with, “It’s a lot less mushy looking with the expansion pack inserted”. It’s 4:30 in the morning and I’m over here picturing Joe driving a tank whilst smushing expansion packs into fecal matter. Hahah I know… I’m a 35 year old with a child’s sense of humor.

[@Shorty_Lickens]

this is wild. The N64 was the console of my teenage years. I'd heard about expansion games but never saw or played one. They were the stuff of legend. No store in my home town ever sold one of them.

[@Marc_Araujo]

You never played DK64, Majora's Mask, or Perfect Dark?

[@Shorty_Lickens]

@@Marc_Araujo I did play Majoras Mask, on friends systems. I guess every single one of them had the expansion and I never knew it. Which is weird as hell. You'd think they would brag about it.

[@jackfedorka8904]

I think you were just ignorant.

[@nickparsons337]

Great video as always Joe, however; you forgot to mention that Hydro Thunder includes additional things in the backgrounds with the expansion pak.

[@GameSack]

I didn't notice any, but I did notice some on Star Wars Episode 1 Battle for Naboo

[@nickparsons337]

@@GameSack They're very subtle touches, such as birds flying in the background of Nile Adventure early in the track, as well as The Far East track, and additional vehicles on the bridges you pass underneath in Greek Isles, and also birds in Lost Island, more bats in Castle Von Dandy, some other examples I'm blanking on because it's been quite awhile since I've fired it up. Check it out when you get the chance; you'll certainly take notice of them since they've been pointed out. Please let me know if you do. Ah, I just remembered another example: monkeys on the bridges in Lost Island.

[@nickparsons337]

@@GameSack These of course; were already in the Dreamcast version, only obviously more detailed. However, they are at times, completely absent in the 64 port without the expansion pak.

[@arcadehispano877]

Really cool! Maybe the only video worth watching about this topic. Well done!