The Nintendo 64 has more RAM than you think

[@Dinosaur_Arcade]

This man is so good at the N64, he figured out how to download more RAM.

[@LaptopUserDumbo64]

He'll find a way to add 9 more RAM , just you wait .

[@_seanspeed]

Do you have a bad PC? Click here to download more space!

[@LazyBird352]

Why download more RAM when you can straight up use more RAM per RAM?

[@JoshuaEfron]

"You wouldn't steal a RAM"

[@renakunisaki]

It's using baker's kilobytes. "9 bits to the byte since you're such a good customer." (From xkcd)

[@SianaGearz]

A proven way to get support for an exotic hardware feature is to make a demoscene demo with it, publish at a major party like Easter Revision in Germany, then suddenly a few weeks later a handful emulators support it.

[@crashoveride879]

If that was the case emulators would support mgc2011

[@christopherthibeault7502]

@@crashoveride879 Midwest Gaming Classic 2011? What exactly is mgc2011?

[@gxhost]

This dude's mind will melt when he discovers the Gamecube.

[@DarkUndeadSpawn]

Can you imagine what he could pull off on a GameCube though???

[@WednesdayMan]

@@DarkUndeadSpawn honestly it might be comparable to what is achieved on the original Xbox

[@vilian9185]

maybe not, n64 is full or quirks, maybe the gamecube is too normal for him lol

[@SianaGearz]

Gamecube is kind of boring in comparison as far as abuse potential.

[@spimbles]

​@@SianaGearz:( thats disappointing

[@ceej5690]

Imagine being so good with the hardware you can create a 9th bit with your mind.

[@Blackpapalink]

Chakrom: With your miiiind.

[@ceej5690]

@@Blackpapalink god damnit 10 minutes and someone already got the reference XD

[@pixelator5312]

(blows up 9th bit with mind)

[@cubedude8690]

​@@pixelator5312i was thinking the same thing lmao

[@theultimatetrashman887]

@@pixelator5312 ''my fucking rambus''

[@Xbob42]

If Kaze keeps this up, my next GPU upgrade will be an N64 and the most powerful game engine will be the Super Mario 64 one.

[@ENCHANTMEN_]

Crazy to think what our modern computers would be capable of if they were optimized to the same degree

[@KopperNeoman]

@@ENCHANTMEN_ They have too many built-in security and consistency features for such bleeding-edge optimisation. As cool as ACE is, you absolutely don't want to risk RCE. (Although Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles has a few equipment glitches that are actually RCE!)

[@pirojfmifhghek566]

So much software from over the decades was built on top of these messy foundations. Why rebuild it when you can throw more silicon at it? Besides, it would probably take a lifetime to undo the gordian knot of software interactions. A lot of the problems are in code that you don't have access to, like the OS itself. There's a whole ecosystem of garbage to navigate now. Maybe the industry will be willing to roll up their sleeves once Moore's Law dies for good... and everyone gets past the existential crisis that presents.

[@huttyblue]

You can almost hear all the iceburg creators rushing to add "the byte's 9th bit" to the bottom layer.

[@DrFrugal]

Dev here... those technical explanation videos are actually what I am looking forward to the most, and I do not even work with the N64 myself lol

[@EnigmaticGentleman]

It always shocks me to see just how different old consoles were from standard computers, unlike current ones which often just use off the shelf parts.

[@ianhemingway9165]

Standardization is great, isn’t it?

[@erik3371]

Comments like this makes me wish more channels turned off their comments.

[@PelonixYT]

@@erik3371he's not wrong. Modern consoles use very similar, if not cut-down, parts and components from Custom PC Parts. Right now it's the 4700G (without the igpu) and rx 6700 non xt. It's cheaper to buy what already exists (architecture wise) instead of spend money in R&D to make a custom part. That's why consoles are cheaper.

[@mikesoto890]

​@@erik3371 I agree in this case but would like to know if we think like that for the same reasons, could you elaborate?

[@PelonixYT]

@@erik3371most of your comments on this channel are lame ragebait. Find a hobby man

[@ismaeldarkness6765]

We need more versions of kaze for the rest of the nintendo consoles. This type of videos are very interesting

[@mariogariazzo2024]

I can't wait for 2040 when we'll have a kid from my generation doing this on the switch

[@RicoElectrico]

10:58 For those confused: "COMPILE WITH OS" refers to -Os flag in GCC which optimizes for size (and often results in more performance as well due to reduction of CPU cache pressure)

[@E_-_-]

I was always worried the N64 didn't have enouguh RAM and now I can finally sleep at night

[@Stevoisiak]

I heard the words “9 bit memory bus” and had to take a moment to process. Incredible

[@ssl3546]

Being unsupported by emulators is exactly WHY it should be used, as much as possible, so the emulators are fixed to work properly.

[@GabrielAKAFinn]

It's used in 1 of some 400 games, and just to make a rendering mask. You'll be pressed to find people who care that much about emulator accuracy

[@KeinNiemand]

@@GabrielAKAFinn maybe if there was some impressive demo or game using it emulators would care about supporting it

[@lpfan4491]

​@@GabrielAKAFinnI'd say "striving for 100% accuracy is the spirit of emulation!", but the goofy popular PS2 emulator also does not allow you to dump your own Magic gate data to make a handful of games compatible, so I guess it's whatever.

[@bastel_art]

​@@KeinNiemandYeah, I'd say kaze would be better off using these features in a one-off like peach's fury or letting someone else produce a demo using the extra ram once he releases the updated engine's source code

[@SaHaRaSquad]

@@bastel_art He could make a Mario-themed compatibility benchmark that an emulator has to pass to claim 100% accuracy.

[@MalooMF9]

I grew up playing N64, and later became a computer engineer. I love hearing about the engineering and quirks of this console, please continue!

[@masterandexpert288]

Him: We all know the N64 has 4MB of RAM Me: Rrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhhttttt. I knew that....

[@CompleteAnimation]

I love deep dives into hardware tricks that are so obscure that using them wouldn't run on any emulator.

[@S.G.W.Verbeek]

Expansion pack: IT'S OVER 9000KB jumper pack: THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!

[@entropy-cat]

Okay, that's clever. 😂

[@supersmily5811]

14:09 Completely unrelated, but I really like the "Please Feed The Animals" sign. Nice touch.

[@silverreaps6803]

1:24 I legitamately thought he was gonna say parallel universes

[@snowflakepillow8697]

Nah that was Google this week

[@beardalaxy]

Me too lol

[@renakunisaki]

That's where the hidden bits are.

[@tubeguylee-gf1tu]

Dont worry I watch these types of videos even if I dont know what youre talking about

[@CrAzYpotpie]

We aren't worried, but maybe you should be. 😂

[@mozydiaz8296]

Glad I'm not the only one in this situation 🤣

[@nikolaievichruadiaz4614]

Me too, I just like watching KZbin videos about any weird nerd-like thing. They just are way more interesting than other types of content.

[@IceYetiWins]

something something 9 bits something something

[@runderwo]

There's another 8KB of SPMEM most people don't know about. Other than RCP tasks, it is also used by boot emulators as part of bypassing the CIC lockout.

[@crestofhonor2349]

These videos on how the N64 works are always super interesting. It’s fun to learn more about a console that has long since not been made and how even games on there can be further optimized

[@phoebe-yt]

The editing is better than usual

[@randominput9974]

Accessing the 9th bit sounds like accessing the 9th circle of hell

[@gottagofast0077]

Very interesting. For the sake of preservation, we should get this feature into emulators. You should definitely keep making more videos like this. I'm a bit of a nerd and I enjoy learning about weird/interesting hardware things from older computers.

[@cajampa]

Bro, I bet we all are a bit of nerd's who likes to learn about old computer and hardware.

[@raynorzeraph953]

Do i plan on developing N64 games? Absolutely not. Do i enjoy hearing the nitty gritty details about the hardware and its quirks? You bet your bippy I do.

[@HartRussell]

Next video: “I figured out how to make the N64 a quantum computer”

[@BlakeBickerstaff]

I don't really understand what you're talking about, but I can feel your passion for the topic and I love that you're trying to squeeze every last drop of power out of this old tech. Which, if you think about it, is very Nintendo of you ("lateral thinking with withered technology")

[@TerminallyUnique95]

Next video will be like, did you know the N64 has a hidden Nvidia RTX 4090 24GB gpu?

[@Joshimuz]

This is insanely cursed

[@Robert_D_Mercer]

Modern gaming feels so bloated today... Like this guy understands how important optimization is. I can't even play all these newer games because Im behind on hardware. Im very impressed, this reminds me of when I was modding and the hacks wouldn't work because of filesize, so I tampered and resized textures and stuff that felt less important until it worked. I wish I studied game design and software more. I know abit of 3dsmax and maya but... not enough. I barely understand coding and scripts as I only know the bare min. I was more an artistic type of guy messing with colors and the way things look

[@Robert_D_Mercer]

which I have to say, your very talented with your texture work :)

[@jhoenlylopezsantos2234]

I will wait 20 years more when this guy optimize Nintendo switch, and make zelta Totk run at 4K 60fps on native console.

[@GameTornado01]

Kaze Emanuar needs to collab with Pannenkoek one day. Just imagine what the sage of Mario 64 and the Sage of the Nintendo 64 could achieve if they worked together

[@villagerjj]

Next, kaze will simulate a quantum accurate copy of the entire universe, with billions of simulated humans, all on the N64 at a trillion FPS

[@lonergothonline]

you know eventually you'll have to make something like a demoscene demo that showcases all this stuff you've uncovered properly. like a rotating fractel with fur rendering over its surface and ray traced lighting to light the scene

[@3dmarth]

In all seriousness, I prefer what he's doing so much more than the demoscene stuff. There are so many cool tricks in those demos, but it's so much more satisfying to see them used in the context of a full game! But yes, Kaze, please throw in a boss character with fur rendering! :P Maybe Cat Bowser can return? (It's basically just a bunch of transparent textured shells, right? Can the N64 render that quickly enough, since we know the order in which to draw them, and Z sorting could be specified manually?)

[@MasterLYT]

If it's out of scope here, please make another video describing the masking technique in majoras mask (its my favorite game)

[@Matrox473]

At this rate, he will make his N64 a top 500 super computer. keep em coming !

[@UnknownUser-ow5zb]

0:35 I genuinely doubled-taked (took?) when I heard 9 bit per cell. I thought we were getting into some Apature Science "13% more byte per byte" shenanigans with this.

[@MasterMarioMX]

This reminds me of the time I messed with Flash Cs2 to utilize a function to move all enemies at once that doesn't require the use of a FREAKING "while"Loop to work...and give me better performance no matter how many enemies I added to the function; Tried to do that with the loop, and the game stank performance with barely 30 enemies. But with that function..... I could go MAD with 500+ enemies and the game still worked fast enough. It's always fun to see what your hardware or software tools can do to and try to figure out ways to utilize it at your advantage!

[@kanshank]

I first learned about the 9th bit while studying how framebuffers work, and I've always wondered if it could be exploited.

[@Pyrusbrawler30]

As a hardware engineer for FPGA and ASIC systems, architecture videos on the consoles I grew up with like this are super fascinating to me! Keep up the great work!

[@PhoticSneezeOne]

Kaze you are a nutjob... and i mean it in the most wholesome way possible.

[@extremepayne]

I love these technical breakdowns! I know they have a smaller audience but as a CS student they’re always my favorite

[@DylanMatthewTurner]

4:31 Actually, you dont have to store the upper bits-pixel there bc all ASCII codes start with 0b01. 'a' only needs 3 pixels. You can add back the upper bits later when you reconstruct the letter.

[@Starwort]

All ASCII *letters* start with 01. ASCII in general only starts with 0 Numbers, control codes, and some punctuation all start with 00

[@DylanMatthewTurner]

@Starwort Ah yes my mistake

[@naotomuramasa178]

I'll say it simply, this video was incredible, so, don't hesitate to release other videos like this one

[@scottramsay3671]

Could you do a followup on how the Majora's Mask code works. How does that take advantage of this?

[@oussama7132]

"but first, we need to talk about" hey i've heard this before

[@lFunGuyl]

Your neck must be soooo strong to hold up that big brain 🧠

[@angeldude101]

Now how long until emulator developers add support for the hidden bits after this video is out?

[@adch1603]

Signed in just to leave a comment. No, I don't understand half of what you're talking about, but your passion is worth watching and the deep dive into the technical aspects of the N64 are really fun

[@DrMario3077]

Thank you Kaze! However, you haven't any idea what giving me this information could lead to. On second thought I have decided to be a good and responsible viewer.

[@guillaumefigarella1704]

i don't know the other guy, but hail to dodongo is also an n64 wizard, check out his channel kaze fans, the dude does bonkerz stuff, truly impressive

[@half-qilin]

Probably the most useful thing this could be for is detecting if you’re on an emulator.

[@TanchoLime]

Does this mean we can unofficially port Valve's Half-Life 1? If it's possible to plan a demake, emulate up to 256 megabytes ram of software, like B3313 rom hack, or use a custom expansion pak on physical hardware. I'm already aware Valve took down Portal 64 via DMCA, especially 2023 Fan Projects like Team Fortress Source 2, without explicit permission. If you're interested in demaking this 26 old PC Game onto an N64 Rom, good luck with that 🧧 Research note: GoldSrc is based on the Quake Engine (heavily modified); Midway Software's Quake did port to the N64 back in March 1998. It's a complex effort to challenge. The closest thing we have is the Dreamcast leaked port. Edit: btw, please use Original Models to manage geometry compression. Do not use HD Models for N64; the performance can't handle it.

[@fisch37]

Portal 64 was not DMCAd, it was a bit more complicated than that. In brief, Valve and James Lambert (the developer) were in a meeting (focused on supporting Portal 64!) and when Valve learnt James was using Nintendo's (copyrighted) microcode they advised him not to continue the project [because Valve was afraid to be dragged into a lawsuit with Nintendo]. For better words and accuracy, check out James Lambert's video on it.

[@TanchoLime]

@fisch37 Indeed.

[@SuperM789]

I already asked this last video and kaze said it would be easy, except for fitting all the audio in the cartridge

[@TanchoLime]

@@SuperM789 I didn't know, but thank you.

[@Wyatt_James]

Sounds like the ultimate anti-emulation technology. Would have been interesting if an official game had used it for this reason.

[@cajampa]

No bro. You are not following your thought to it's full conclusion. If an official game had used this quirk then the emulators would have developed support for it. The only reason they don't have it supported is because nothing have used it's functionality.

[@Wyatt_James]

I did actually consider that. I doubt that emulators would have wanted to deal with the performance and complexity costs of this, if they even knew the hardware details, at least for a long while. Obviously it would have likely been solved at some point.

[@phill6859]

The analogue "this isnt emulation" is marketing hype. It very much is emulation. It's not software emulation.

[@KazeN64]

yeah i refer to it as "emulating" features in the video too for this reason. it's clear the marketing claims are not honest but people seem really hyped about it which is why i am going to review it.

[@KopperNeoman]

It's like how DECKARD (7500x) model PS2s aren't backwards compatible with PS1 in the true sense.

[@lpfan4491]

Really, the marketing only works because "software emulation" is for some reason a bit of a negative term in some communities and I really don't understand why. Sure, there have been some pretty bad emulators over the years, but the best can either be cycle accurate or use their inaccuracy to their advantage(While Dolphin still has to patch up a lot of edge cases, there are games that legitimately get better results on it than on a real GC/Wii).

[@3dmarth]

@@lpfan4491 I'm thinking it's a mix of outdated info (remembering how PJ64 had low accuracy in 2003) and people just regurgitating whatever they heard on the internet (so business as usual). It is a little frustrating, since emulation is so good now. But hey, it's their loss!

[@dbarrie]

Aye. Unless they’ve got the original netlist for every single part of the N64 at best they’re designing something based on the description provided by the documentation. It might be very good, and incredibly fast, but it’s still just trying to figure out a black box based on its description and poking at it with a stick.

[@Ballaam]

I always had my suspicions that the lighting claim was BS for DK64. Glad to know I'm not alone. Once the dk64 decomp is finished (42% of the way there), it'll be fun trying to optimize the heck out of it to give ROM Hacks some more room to work with

[@Mordecrox]

"unlocking the 9th bit" reminds me of someone who asked to disable the verification bit of ECC RAM to gain that bit back in addressable space

[@MagusArtStudios]

I love optimizations. After watching your channel I took my procedural map generation algorithm and made it compress all objects not in view to a reference of their source object in the library, making it run much faster by decreasing memory copying and usage.

[@Tuasmanque]

First off, enjoyed the choice of De Blob (2) music in the intro. Much love for an underrated soundtrack. Back to the video, learning about this kind of bit-hacking is very cool. It feels like a completely different world from low-level programming on modern hardware, especially the kind that runs in PCs/servers/consoles.

[@teknix1]

Absolutely love these types of videos. Especially the ones about improving performance. It would be so neat if this game could be played on 3D television or projectors with shutter glasses. I think all it would need is to render both sides in a single image (SBS, Side By Side), I'm simplifying of course. Keep up the great work!

[@b00marrows]

I like these types of videos. I understand most of it, but not all. I like to try and keep up, guess what things might be. ( i thought the extra memory might have been used by something silly like stop and swap on Banjo Kazooie, The memory's use in Zelda was surprising.) It would be interesting to see if any emulators or emulator plugin creators could reach out or be reached out to to potentially be able to utilize this information. If anything i like to hear the passion you have for what you do. I can genuinely hear it in what you say, keep at it.

[@ArmandoDoval]

13:29 Worth checking if the MiSTer's N64 core handles this correctly. If it doesn't, it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility that Robert Peip would implement it. He called the N64 core "done" over a year ago, but when new info surfaced on how to address the handful of games that had crashes because of timing limitations in the DE-10 nano board, he added bug fixes for them.

[@BrentMalice]

idk what you were talkin about half the time but i did watch it. so u were half right

[@fbelard]

1:17 There was no need for cinematic aspect ratio transitions, but there they are. The fit and finish of these videos keeps getting better.

[@weiswurschtlemitsoe2818]

I love your technical breakdowns! Would be really interested in a video about how and why this was usee in Majoras Mask. (Especially because Majoras Mask suffered from a lot of time crunch meaning they must have had a very good reason to not just reuse the effect from Ocarina)

[@RiskyStrats]

I love these types of videos and it would be great if you could make more! It's fun to listen to you talk about a topic you are passionate about and, even though I may not understand all of it, learning about the N64 on such a deep and technical level gives me a greater appreciation of the console, its games and developers as well as the work you put into your rom hacks.

[@aisback1990]

I believe there’s a Mister core that runs DK64 properly

[@djflugel79]

Perhaps it also has benefits to store (de)compression functions in this extra memory?

[@Jack_Hakker]

take your time, my boy, we are happy with these kind of videos, even though i don't understand much about coding, i still enjoy watching you explain how the N64 works and how you can enhance it

[@ericlooewe]

A byte is a byte, you can have a 9/8 byte!

[@Crackhog]

A byte is a byte. You can't say it's only a half

[@CaptainSamsquanch]

Good work ocaio. This is a big improvement imo

[@blusper1446]

i love the technical breakdown videos you do, it's really interesting to see what you are doing for your romhack

[@santiagoshang]

I'm not programmer (I have basic knowledge about it), however watching your videos I clearly understand the magic that developers did (and do) with the hardware limitations.

[@Bangulo]

That smug yoshi has me dying, Great touch to the video lol

[@TheStickCollector]

Impressive hardware specialization. Would be nice to see how a 90's computer can emulate the n64 and if that is possible. What would it look like?

[@beardalaxy]

There was at least Mario 64 running in I believe 98 or 99 and pretty well at that

[@BaldingSasquatch]

you misunderestimate my stupidity. I thought there was 2GB. So no.

[@bybeezguepe6557]

I'm always happy to hear about your technical discoveries

[@McGreish]

Genius as always. Your work goes above and beyond. I appreciate you and the lengths you go, time you invest in these. Does take a bit of programming knowledge to fully comprehend your explanation either way it is very impressive and still looking very much forward on what's to come from you on this and the future of the modding space for Mario 64!

[@UltimatePerfection]

Ever considered making a fully copyright-free N64 game engine people could use to make N64 homebrew games without the fear of Nintendo Ninjas showing up?

[@duxzu]

I get it... It's dark matter. Kaze found dark matter in the N64. But now the frames per second are negative and Mario controls you. Is this right?

[@KopperNeoman]

You go to the parallel universe where Israel are committing genocide (and you therefore have their flag as your PFP instead)

[@blu3260]

A 9th megabyte has hit the N64

[@skellybob5620]

I absolutely love your technical breakdowns; keep up the good work!

[@einsteinx2]

I love technical breakdowns, please make more!

[@televisedfeedback6660]

I'm just saying, we ought make games using this extra ram until the emulators get their butts in gear and include this new development. Also it would be frankly cool to have console exclusives for a bit again, especially on something old like the N64. XD

[@TechflashYT]

I actually love these videos! Didn't confuse me at all, and I find stuff like this really interesting

[@JR-yh9jh]

13:40 i really dont understand what you are talking about but the explanations visuals and the passion of yours are addicting i love watching those videos

[@jordantfryman6184]

Love these sorts of explanatory videos... p.s. I'm having to write this comment blind due to a bug in the web browser engine where some text is rendered invisible

[@xotmatrix]

This is my favorite kind of video, Kaze.

[@xephon3000]

I love videos like these! Amazing that we’re still finding new ways to get even more performance/functionality out of the n64

[@willem1703]

These videos are intriguing and I'll gladly watch more! Even with only junior rookie sub-brick levels of programming skill I'm feeling satisfaction and wonder.

[@dooki51]

I hope at some point someone can investigate why exactly DK64's memory pack expansion dependency exists. It begs the question of just how technical of a problem it is.

[@renakunisaki]

Because 4MB just ain't enough.

[@jsr734]

i always assumed it was because the game was rendering in true color mode (24bit color) instead of the typical 16 bit color with dithering.

[@gingeh1]

These technical videos are my favourites

[@HexaBlade007]

when it comes to the emulator delema, i can see a few options, 1, release the rom hack with the extra memory and semi-force emulators to implement this. 2, add it to an emulator yourself, or 3. just dont use it. im curious as to how the analogue 3D would handle this though...

[@ViktorPripyat]

This guy could make something kickass on Atari 2600 if he were to learn how it works

[@3dmarth]

Wasn't DK64's lighting data all cached? So instead of calculating the lights in real-time and keeping a sort of double buffer as it went along, it went through the calculations once, stored the vertex data for every single frame, and then cycled through those cached frames. That was my understanding, anyway. And yeah, there was some broken telephone around the memory leak thing. One of the Conker devs *did* say that DK64's 4 MB mode had to be cancelled due to an unfixable crash bug, but he never claimed that the crash was the reason for the Expansion Pak support in the first place! Filling in the blanks, it would seem that DK64 was always meant to have some Expansion Pak enhancements (like the lighting), but would have offered a downgraded experience for base N64 owners.

[@green929392]

I enjoy these topics, with the context of all your other videos it's easy to follow and understand so don't worry.

[@nin10doadict]

Very cool to find this hidden treasure, even if its use cases are super limited

[@notoriouscasual3333]

god i wish i had this level of intelligence