What was the N64 Expansion Pak actually used for?

[@the_kovic]

StarCraft 64 is a big user of the Expansion Pak. Not only does it unlock multiplayer mode, it also unlocks the 3 Brood War campaigns. That's basically 50% of the game locked without the Expansion Pak.

[@zanmaru139]

Me and my brothers used to play the multiplayer as kids, back when pc Lan play simply wasn't an option for us. It's a port that plays better than it has any right to. A lot of thought clearly went into it.

[@TeamLinux01]

I wanted to bring up SC64 as well. The multiplayer had a few co-op maps that I thought were very fun to play.

[@brandonkick]

@@zanmaru139 I'll have to check that out. My brother and I spent SO MANY HOURS on starcraft / broodwar. SC64 was interesting, but never played it. It's a lot like C&C Red Alert: Retaliations on the PS1. A port that punches hard for a console RTS.

[@AndrevusWhitetail]

​@@brandonkick Starcraft 64 is a very interesting port all things considered. It had some special "extra missions" in multiplayer that got later ported to the PC version like after a decade or so, included like 6 more units per control group (18 instead of 12, letting you move more units at a time even if you were limited to only a single group instead of 10 or so on the PC) and while it lacked voice acting in the cutscenes and every unit had like 2 noises it made (compared to the classic Blizzard 3 greets 6 "stop poking me" types of 'pissed off' lines) it is a miracle that the whole game and the expansion (like 1.4 gigabytes of data) fit onto a 32 mb cartridge.

[@pipdjs]

i always wondered about this. was it a technical reason brood war required the expansion pak or was it just a fun thing they did ("you need the expansion pak to get the expansion hue hue")

[@the_kovic]

The Expansion Pak in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine is so much better than you even covered. Not only is the resolution increased, and an extra level unlocked; the Expansion Pak also helps the game do a better job streaming new level data in as you explore the game's massive levels and improves the fidelity of the music, with more instruments in some scenarios. The game is also quite notorious for being able to crash on real N64 hardware but the Expansion Pak seems to reduce the number of crashes in an average playthrough significantly. Overall, I would argue that using the Expansion Pak for Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine is almost essential.

[@F0nkyNinja]

Amazing game, that unfortunately got a lot of flack because of an AVGN video where they were being dumb.

[@SethMcKenzieTV]

I expected to see you here. 😁👋

[@OM19_MO79]

@@F0nkyNinjaAVGN videos are not just them being silly, is them playing as silly as people would, at least for some games. The videos on Castlevania 2, TMNT1 and the latest Goonies video is the proof of it; they were already considered by most gamers as bad games because of their difficulty or disappointment when compared to others, when the videos were released.

[@adam1984pl]

This is good game,but too long.Last two levels are total mess.

[@xman777b]

I'm sad I missed out on the Indy N64 game. Shockingly, didn't know about it, at the time

[@devronius]

Majora's Mask and Perfect Dark are such good games it made the purchase of an expansion pack completely worth it.

[@ItIsYouAreNotYour]

I actually wasn't a fan of Majora's mask. 007 and eventually Perfect Dark were amazing though. "DON'T LOOK AT MY SCREEN!" As we share a 24 inch TV. haha

[@bigbangatk666]

​@@ItIsYouAreNotYourMajora's mask is my all time favorite Zelda game. It's notable that my other favorite was links awakening and both of these games were directed by the same director who I believe was from some Mario games as well. Anyway those two are different from other Zelda games for that reason. The hate MM gets isn't fair. I thought it was much easier to get through without losing any interest than OOt was 🤷

[@dreadwolfrising]

​@bigbangatk3076 I feel like a lot of the people who hate on MM got stuck on the first 3 day cycle and didn't go back to replay it. I know bc I was one of them - I only very recently got back into it and fell in love with the game. I totally understand if people get frustrated with the difficulty, but compared to OoT, there's a lot less fatigue in the busy work and I found the side quests way more interesting

[@SuperPickle15]

i never finished MM, i got stuck and couldnt figure out where to go and it wasn't interesting enough for me to bother finding a gamefaq guide... OOT on the other hand, i 100% it like 20 times, including several times on the 3ds re-release....

[@dannyurd85]

@@dreadwolfrisingthank you, I will try again. I was one of the few people who didn’t complete it back then but after reading your comment I think it’s time to start.

[@KorenLesthe]

Rogue Squadron was so much cleaner with the Expansion Pack, I never played in "low res" after activating it.

[@eduardoaguilar7361]

That game definitely looked above 90% of everything else on the system.

[@KorenLesthe]

@@eduardoaguilar7361 I miss Factor 5 so much...

[@Dc-alpha]

Yh, I was confused. I looked it up to check even. I would likely have bought the pak for MM. But clearly remember buying the pak for Rogue Squadron. The three remastered, with the Shadows snowspeeder and a few vs levels is another no brainer that never seems to happen.

[@entertainmentgaming8738]

​@@Dc-alphasorry , but what does MM stand for?

[@schaffiourketaris2691]

@@entertainmentgaming8738 Majora's Mask

[@KarlRock]

I always wanted a N64 for Wave Race 64. That game looked so "next-gen" to me as a kid. I didn't have any money, so I had to skip that generation though. Thanks for the info on the expansion pack!

[@diegos_world]

can i ask you something, dude? you wrote ‘an’ N64. is that because the single consonant, N, phonetically sounds ‘en’? sorry for being so off topic here, but i’m in a never ending learning process of this language and my way to do it is by watching videos that i like, with content that i enjoy and, again, sorry for being so random.

[@KarlRock]

@@diegos_world ow yeah, that’s just a typo. I’ll correct it. Should be “a”.

[@MisterM2402]

@@diegos_world I'm a native English speaker and sometimes I'm not sure whether to use "a" or "an" for an abbreviation either. You're correct that it's based on phonetic sounds, but for abbreviations it depends which way you expect the reader to read the sentence. If they see "N64" and think "Nintendo 64", then "a" is correct. But if they see "N64" and think "En 64", then "an" is correct. In this case, I think most people would read it as "En" rather than "Nintendo" so "an" is fine.

[@volvo09]

Waverace64 looked incredible at the time, I was blown away by it.

[@blahdelablah]

@@diegos_world You're right that usually "an" is only used when the following word starts with a vowel, but sometimes the rules are broken when it "sounds right" to do it. In this case, both "a N64" and "an N64" are fine, even though "a N64" is technically correct, personally I think "an N64" sounds better (in my view as a native English speaker). Sorry if that's not helpful when learning the language!

[@ryancooper3629]

I mean, PD was such an iconic 64 title that I would argue that alone makes the expansion pack a must have.

[@keinkoenich2673]

Facts. I consider it one of the best shooters of all time to this day.

[@6ixfoa320]

I remember reading gamepro book a week b4 it release in class. PD is iconic

[@pydron]

Very true! This is the reason why I got one.

[@jeremyschulthess63]

That game was way ahead of its time. The multiplayer on it was better than so many games multiplayer modes even today.

[@YouNameItGaming]

Exactly! I've even been following the PC port progress a lot lately, which to be fair looks every bit as good visually (with some included filtering) as the game itself looked on original hardware back in 2000 It translates pretty well to keyboard and mouse given that control style 1.2 i believe uses digital movement (c buttons) and analogue look/turn. Not to say the xbox remaster is bad, but potentiometer based thumbsticks are truly awful compared to the precision of the N64's optical sensors.

[@tspawn35]

Perfect Dark needed it for the single player campaign. What most people played the game for. Which is why when people argue that the Memory Expansion wasn't required for Perfect Dark always made my head spin.

[@Atari-Dude]

Don't most people play it for the splitscreen multiplayer? That's the impression I've always gotten, as a massive fan of PD (my favorite game of all time). Which is why it makes sense why Rare would choose the GoldenEye-esque multiplayer as the essential experience, whereas the campaign would be additional goodies... but not why Perfect Dark is still remembered today. I think they unquestionably made the right call there, choosing multiplayer first.

[@TheeGlocktopus]

Also needed it for split screen Multiplayer. I remember trying to use the xray gun on my friends N64 without one and that alone cut the fps down to flip book status.

[@dirediredude]

Yeah also most of the multiplayer features. It was really a limited game without it. I know personally that's the one single game that sold me on the ram expansion. Otherwise it was always just kinda "ooh that's neat" features. But PD absolutely was a different game with it. So many good memories :)

[@ace0415]

Perfect Dark campaign was so cool, I really liked the fact it had co op and the only game I know of to offer counter op! So much fun to play a henchman in the campaign. This game was ahead of its time

[@Blanco8x8]

​@@Atari-DudePerfect Dark was mostly remembered for the campaign, unlike Goldeneye 007 for the multiplayer.

[@peytonlutz1]

The launch PSP shipped with 32MB RAM for the PSP-1000 model, but was bumped to 64MB on 2000 and 3000 models. I would love to see a video of any potential games that take advantage of that bump. Thank you for the hard work!

[@Mates1500]

As far as I'm aware, no commercial games have direct control of the other 32 MB. Only apps like Skype and some homebrew apps made use of it. Instead, the rest of the buffer is utilized for UMD data caching, so for example reloading a level/race that has been already loaded once, is often significantly faster on the later models when playing off a UMD.

[@BitterspitBand]

@@Mates1500 I know that in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep you can control the CPU speed and color depth from options. I thought that the higher color depth option only worked with the later models because it would require more RAM, but I tried to google and couldn't find any info so I'm not entirely sure.

[@XxCrazyManoxX]

It also improve the web browser @@Mates1500

[@wolfson9308]

This was useful to emulate the N64 on it. The 2000 model perform so much better.

[@VexAcer]

It was mainly done for the internet browser. IIRC no official games make use of it, but a lot of homebrew stuff did.

[@suchanjv]

I remember getting the expansion pack just to play Rogue Squadron because I read how much better it was with it. I'm glad I did, it's still one of my favorite Star Wars games.

[@richardmh1987]

I still have that title. If my memory doesn´t trick me, it made the fog less noticeable, but I haven´t played it in a long long time, so I don´t remember if it did something else.

[@jonnamechange6854]

You are speaking with a Supreme Allied Commander

[@HelplmAlive]

Same here.

[@prehistoricgentlemanbird9131]

Same!

[@sterilyte]

Same here. I believe it added some dynamic lighting as well. I can remember watching laser bolts lighting up the scenery on night missions that you couldn't see without it, unless I'm misremembering. That was a long time ago :P

[@jimmyhirr5773]

Kaze Emmanuar's optimized Super Mario 64 engine requires an Expansion Pak. He explained in "Fixing the entire SM64 source code" around 5:30 that it helps improve RAM speed by minimizing DRAM refreshing. N64 RAM is split into 1 MB banks, so a stock N64 has 4 banks and the expansion adds 4 more. The four extra banks allow Kaze to separate CPU-only memory and graphics memory into separate banks.

[@Sly2Cooper]

I love watching Kaze's indepth explanations and I'm not even a programmer.

[@lasskinn474]

did he explain something about why it's split into banks like that? like, that's peculiar especially for a system with 64 in the name. board lines? cpu pins?

[@fungo6631]

Someone also brought up DK64 there and I quoted the quote from this video on his stream just now. Kaze's theory is that they didn't really need it, but that their implementation of it was really low quality and very memory inefficient, so they needed the extra RAM.

[@AngelaTheSephira]

​​@@fungo6631IIRC, Rare actually spoke about this in 2010 or so, and they said it was a mixture of new hardware and a bunch of fresh hires combined with no idea what to do about a memory leak. In fact, the expansion pack doesn't even fix it: if you leave the game running for over... I think it's 12 or 14 hours straight, the game still crashes. EDIT: MVG partially mentioned it. I'll see if I can find any solid evidence other than the Stop Skeletons From Fighting video. EDIT 2: Jesus Christ can people please read the full comment chain. I wrote this ***before I finished the video.***

[@fungo6631]

@@AngelaTheSephira Did you watch the video? No memory leaks were detected by speedrunners. They would've been the first ones to notice crashing.

[@ayok101]

I will never forget seeing Mario 64 at a kiosk as a child. I was like 6 and had no idea the N64 was a thing, my dad and I were completely blown away.

[@ItIsYouAreNotYour]

I remember I was mad at my parents for getting me Donkey Kong 64 because I didn't ask for it. It actually was a really good game. As far as Mario, yeah I remember my neighbor getting it and being so amazed by the graphics and then...I forget the name I believe it was Waverunner (Jet Ski one) and Starfox. My only problem with the N64 was the lack of good RPGs, which was my thing as a kid because of the amount of hours they provided.

[@stax5ave380]

​@ItIsYouAreNotYour bruh DK64 is my favorite game of all time. N64 WAS MY FIRST SYSTEM EVER. I had to be about 4-5. I didn't even know what N64 was. One day I'm sitting home in the living room. Next thing I notice my mom and dad walk through the Door with big green box. It was the Dk 64 Bundle. I never been so hype in my life. The nostalgia is killing me 😢

[@ItIsYouAreNotYour]

@@stax5ave380 mine was Super Nintendo and Zelda. I wanted Zelda nes and I was once again mad that I got the super nes and not the nes because it wasn’t the same Zelda lol. Didn’t understand it was better.

[@grn1]

@@ItIsYouAreNotYour I had that kind of thing with the Gameboy color, I wanted the pocket so I could cheat my way through the dark tunnel in Pokemon Red/Blue and didn't understand that the color was much better overall.

[@ItIsYouAreNotYour]

@@grn1 haha ya. It kind of shows that as youngsters they would be happy with old stuff. Shit my parents probably would have saved $200 just getting me an NES instead haha. Reminds me of that Kat Williams joke where he says I can get you an xbox and 1 game or an N64 and 100 games haha.

[@keiyakins]

"Was it a necessary device to have?" given that its needed for Majora's Mask, yes, absolutely.

[@zeeegeee]

I used to hate that game. I still do but I used to, too.

[@jamescheddar4896]

having 5 older siblings and 1 console made it impossible for me to even get playtime and I remember thinking I needed permission/advice to go get a paper route etc.

[@pnut3844able]

MM sucks hard

[@DaemonForce]

There are people that hate MM? I didn't know that was possible. Extreme minority, interesting.

[@Kiyuja]

AFAIK on DK64 it was used to save the lighting animation of the dynamic lights to then play them back as if they were done in real time. You will notice a stutter entering a new area, this is because the game actually renders half of the real time lighting path of swaying lamps for example. It then plays them back in the correct order for the movement of the lamps to look convincing. The stutter also immediately goes away after that. You will notice many lights swing in a linear fashion and dont do circle movements, and thats exactly why. The playback trick only works for that type of movement.

[@override7486]

What? It doesn't make any sense. If it's "pre-rendered" than what difference it makes if the light moves in single axis or fly around the level? Except what exactly is being lit etc. of course.

[@Kiyuja]

@@override7486 it is NOT pre rendered. It is applied in real time but only calculated once. You can literally see it if you have original hardware. Or google it if you like.

[@Kiyuja]

@@override7486 the reason why its a linier motion is cuz the devs "flip" the data for the latter half of thr swing. This doesnt work on non linear motion. There is the little cutscene in front of the huge boss door where there come many lights all of them are real time and the framerate TANKS

[@override7486]

​@ non linear? You mean move in one direction? How it's different from light doing circles (which can be repeated or reversed in any direction and speed)? Framerate dips because of the extra lightning job done on vertex. If this could be prerendered it wouldn't drop whatsoever. Seems like you're not sure what you're talking about. It's not a video projected in the game with light or whatever you think it is. LOL.

[@gwentarinokripperinolkjdsf683]

@@override7486 I think he is saying that when entering a new area, it precomputes the lighting path for 1 half swing. then it plays this precomputed data in a ping pong motion, i doubt that is correct but that seems to be what he is saying and i guess it could be correct

[@Finch460]

I feel like this is one of the those KZbin docs that somehow catches fire and becomes MVGs most viewed video.

[@wouternet94]

Needs to be at least an hour longer for that

[@miguelelgueta5830]

it should, this guy is one the very few gaming youtubers that actually knows what is talking about.

[@StreamwaveProduction]

Agreed here I was thinking the same thing and was about to post a comment about this. Niche Nintendo peripherials like E-Reader and link cables for some reason do extremely well with viewers.

[@thecunninlynguist]

@@miguelelgueta5830 Stop Skeletons from fighting did a pretty good breakdown of the expansion pak and its uses

[@fungo6631]

Kaze Manuar would probably do an even better job.

[@iamdak]

I've got a very silly expansion pack memory. In high school, my friend and I really wanted to play Perfect Dark split screen co-op but we needed the expansion pack to do that. I went to a local NYC game store which was only slightly shady and thought I'd save a few dollars buying a third party knock off expansion pack. It worked great! At first! The game would crash after about an hour then start crashing more and more frequently at random times. I went to check the knock off pack and it was blazing hot! Figuring that it was over heating, we spent the rest of the night playing co-op just fine with a medical ice pack sitting on top of the N64; dumping the water and refilling it with ice every half hour or so. We returned it the next day and bought an official pack.

[@ADR69]

That's awesome 😂

[@foxdavion6865]

lol, liquid cooling for a crappy cheap RAM stick, likely wasn't the right type of RAM for the N64; was prob some cheap weld job of standard SDRAM off the shelf. N64 RAM, like that of the RAM in SGI Workstations ran at a much higher clock speed than that of standard SDRAM off the shelf at the time, which is why it needed a passive cooler (just like modern RAM sticks!), it was also 64-bit based as well. It ran at the same clockspeeds as that of the SGI workstations such as the Indie. So, for the time it was ahead of it's time, comparable to PC RAM sticks from the DDR3 generation in speeds, the first generation of commercial PC RAM to require cooling jackets. So, sticking off the shelf RAM into an N64, of course the N64 would cook the off shelf stuff lol, the N64 was forcibly overclocking it.

[@thegeforce6625]

@@foxdavion6865 The N64 uses RamBus RD-RAM, which is a completely different type of DRAM compared to SDRAM. Narrow bus width, but high clock speed and bandwidth, with pretty high access latency too. Also runs really damn hot compared to SDRAM or DDR RAM, so thats why OP's knock off expantion pack likely overheated. (maybe the memory module IC's where overvolted or ran too fast or something)

[@foxdavion6865]

@@thegeforce6625 Ok I looked it up, ty for informing me about it, apparently it was also used in the Playstation 2 and the PS2 version was overclocked to an extreme amount for the time, it had a 3200 MB/s Bandwidth compared to the N64'd megre 500MB/s. No wonder the PS2 had heating issues. I looked these up for their limited use in PCs, they needed heatspreaders in the 90s!. So apparently Nintendo picked it not because it is good, but because it was the only SGI compatible RAM (The SGI Chip needed something with a wide bandwidth) which was cheap enough to go in the N64 to hit the market price they were happy with, now it all makes sense.

[@MarcusVinicius-go4hg]

The very first time i tried the N64 was with Starfox 64 and, after a 30 minutes session, my legs were literally shaking, I could barelly stand on my feet. It was so amazing!! The next generational leaps never felt anything like it.

[@navsingh9406]

I remember playing Starfox 64 (Lylat Wars here in Europe) in a department store that was hooked up to like a 50 inch rear projection screen. The rumble pack just blew my 10 year old mind away. I bought the game the very next week :D

[@Boberman286]

I take it you never played the original star fox!

[@MarcusVinicius-go4hg]

wrong shot@@Boberman286

[@Nokard]

they have, but we were kids, I felt the same but the modern jumps have been equally incredible.

[@navsingh9406]

I played it once at someones house.I gotta say...i wasnt too impressed, i recall it feeling laggy and the visual kinda confused me. I did play it after the N64, so its most likely due to me being spoilt with the updated version@@Boberman286

[@justinmillard4861]

It’s funny how performance and fidelity modes existed all the way back on the N64 with certain games. I’m really impressed with RE2’s dynamic resolution as well, truly ahead of its time.

[@Andreas-ip8bw]

Nothing was "ahead of its time" when it comes to consoles. They were always 2-3 years behind what the PC (or before that, the Amiga) was doing and capable of.

[@Odin3v]

Re2 was a big pile of piss compared to even the lower playstation version.

[@boingkster]

Great video! For those of us at the time it was immediately obvious that the increased memory gave big benefits - try playing something like the Star Wars titles Rogue Squadron or Podracer and you get far increased rendering distance which really adds to the gameplay. I remember searching for ages for objectives and landmarks in Rogue Squadron prior to getting the pack, and afterwards the increased render distance just blew me away and the things you were looking for were far more obvious. Likewise, Podracer had a great draw distance with the pack and much better multiplayer visuals as well. It was a great add-on and a really cool feature of the system.

[@JamieStuff]

I bought my N64 at launch, along with a copy of Super Mario 64. I spent a VERY long time with SM64, finally beating it months later. That game still holds a special place in my heart, and I'm very happy to see the community still working on it.

[@sc3ku]

check out Kaze’s work on SM64 if you haven’t. it’s incredible the support it gets, but shows how special it is to people to this day.

[@scintillam_dei]

See "Mario is of the devil" among my uploads.

[@scottevensen2615]

@@sc3ku2nd this! Kaze is a madman of epic proportion, and his videos are incredible! 👍

[@thisiswhatilike54]

@@scintillam_deiNo.

[@josephhefley9701]

My friend got one they day they came out. It came without a power supply. My friends mom called and they told her she had to purchase it separately. My friend's mom flipped tf out on Nintendo, and they sent her one for free. But they tried to get her to buy one first.

[@slats66]

Star Wars Rogue Squadron was one of the first games to take advantage of the Expansion Pak, which allows gameplay at a higher display resolution. It was truly noticeable.

[@theslicefactor4590]

Man I LOVED that game. I really miss the days of this gaming era.

[@Grumpyskater]

@@theslicefactor4590I still play on the N64… current games don’t have what them older games did you know?

[@RR-in7do]

This is exactly what I remember most about mine. I tried the game with and without it and the ships were noticeably smoother

[@Aeondrifter]

I remember begging my mom for this when I was in 7th grade. She got it for me after I pulled all the weeds in the backyard and washed the dog. Good times.

[@CIubDuck]

Mowing the lawns, taking care of the dogs, backbreaking jobs taking care of the house... what didn't we do for video games back then haha

[@spht9ng]

@@CIubDuck That and selling my games to gamestop at a loss just for store credit to get new games. haha once i grew up and wanted to collect I was so annoyed at my younger self.

[@davidpalmer9780]

Don't forget Road Rash 64 and the Expansion Pack unlocked extra bikes, some of which were outrageous in power and size that were difficult to control along with some new tracks, one of which was an airport runway.

[@jonnamechange6854]

I finished that game but don't remember being offered those extras (even with the expansion pak)

[@davidpalmer9780]

@@jonnamechange6854 They're not offered. You need to do some fancy controller keypresses to activate it. I'm sure there's a page about it with the cheat code to activate it.

[@ItIsYouAreNotYour]

I recall the 64 one being trash compared to the Sega one. But we are talking decades ago haha.

[@grn1]

I never had an expansion pack growing up but I do remember unlocking extra bikes at the end of the game that went insanely fast. Played the heck out of that game though.

[@ConsolasEight]

I got the expansion pack for Perfect Dark. Excellent game. Best thing ever was the simulants in the multiplayer mode. Each simulant had a different style - like one would always go for the best weapon, or one would grab the health all the time... one of them was the Revenge Sim (or Venge Sim?) and it would hunt down the last player who killed it. The Area 51 map had a bunker in the middle, so we made all the sims Revenge Sims and me and my brother held up in the bunker and the Revenge Sims just swarmed us. It was like the precursor to Horde Night on 7 Days to Die.

[@dinkyvision]

Yep. Perfect Dark was so great & the expansion pack unlocked more stimulants (bots) in multiplayer matches. Used to have a 2 player game with like 16 bots playing also and the ability to customize their gameplay style of them really made those multiplayer modes feel like large scale battles. It was very fun.

[@jingalls9142]

Indeed. The sim fights were great.

[@O_look_a_names_should_be_here]

Although the Perfect Dark Sims didn't use weapons and all they did was slap you until you were dazed senseless were the ultimate challenge

[@someguy1ification]

*attempts to shove a lobby full of MeatSims into the closet I don't know what you guys are talking about

[@TIZFUNK]

So many hours doing this kinda stuff bro with my homie

[@barnesiznoble]

I bought this for Majora's Mask and paid to have Toys R Us "install it" because I was a literal child and didn't know better.

[@TheStraightGod]

Lmao that's the equivalent of paying the phone plan dealer to switch the sim card

[@sor3999]

Damn, having them charge you at all seems really scummy on their part.

[@FyreWulff]

It sounds silly when it added only 4MB, but that was also doubling the console's RAM from 4 to 8MB. That's pretty significant. Imagine if they released an add on that doubled the RAM of recent consoles - you'd be seeing games going absolutely nuts with what they could do.

[@ChamiCh]

my first PC only had 4MB of RAM, and in order to play DOOM i had to reboot it into a special "non-TSR" mode because it didn't have enough RAM to handle it otherwise. I got an upgrade from my uncle that added an extra 4MB, and after that, I never had to touch non-TSR mode again! For kid me, it was magical.

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

I would kill for something like that for my laptop, but that stuff is expensive as all get out.

[@f45411]

ehh, most games are more limited by cpu/gpu cores/clocks than ram these days

[@kjrehberg]

In the old days of the Atari 2600 and other consoles they put the extra memory chips on the cartridge and did bank-switching to swap in and out the extra memory. Very clever.

[@thelazyworkersandwich4169]

Modern consoles have plenty of memory its mostly the Gpu and Cpu that are the bottlenecks.

[@ZephyrGlaze]

My favorite expansion pack benefit was for Excitebike 64. They used the extra ram to increase draw distance and push the fog distance out.

[@Norrie_Rugger]

Command and Conquer 64 looked amazing with the expansion pack but it really slowed the game down. That, sometimes, was a blessing though giving you extra time to make commands

[@michaelmartin9022]

Reminds me of making the original GTA much easier on my Pentium 3 by turning the frame limiter off. The time limits were the same but the cars were 5 times faster!

[@segatailstrident3169]

Plus, at least units with flamethrowers no longer had the potential to overload and crash the game if you didn't have the expansion pak.

[@FamousWolfe]

MVG I absolutely adore how you're able to take complex technical topics and break them down into easy-to-digest videos. I could legit watch your content all day and not get bored or overwhelmed with overly technical details. Keep up the great content man!

[@fungo6631]

His N64 videos aren't always completely factual tho. When it comes to N64 programming stuff, Kaze Manuar does give more accurate explanations.

[@Gamesta100]

When we still had the SNES one friend brought over his new N64 to our friend's house. We were absolutely amazed by the graphics and even my friends father who didn't ever play videogames stood in the room watching us play Goldeneye. We obviously all wanted the N64 and all my friends did get one. I myself changed my mind when I saw a bunch of games that were only on the PS1. So I got the best of both worlds and I have lots of super fun nostalgic moments of playing the N64 with my friends. The end credits music of Mario Kart 64 always makes me equally happy and sad remembering the amazing times we had playing the N64

[@volvo09]

Goldeneye felt so real to me also.

[@MaxOakland]

I think the SNES looks better than N64 today

[@Xstioph]

I enjoy these type of stories! 😁🥳 Good times.

[@thepumpkingking8339]

Like wise. After seeing the PS1 and getting to play Resident Evil.. I knew then there was only one console I wanted.

[@theotherotherBrian]

I always thought the Mario Kart 64 credits were particularly well done

[@313Games]

Superman 64 with the expansion pack? EVEN MORE RINGS!

[@adamsfusion]

There's one case where having the expansion pak is a bad idea: Early revisions of Space Station Silicon Valley will crash during startup. Beyond that, it's a pretty amazing upgrade.

[@tribaltroll]

That's one of my favorite games. I never heard about that before. You mean they released updated cartridges later on? We had that game back in the day as well as the expansion pack but I don't remember having any issues.

[@ButtonMasherReal]

@@tribaltroll Early copies crashed if the expansion pak was installed, because the game's code was specifically written with the 4MB RAM in mind. If it tried to use the extra 4MB from the expansion pak, it would crash, because the game never prepared that area of memory for use beforehand. They did fix this on later releases though.

[@nicehorn5250]

Ah yes, the game with that uncollectible collectible 😂

[@wades623]

Goldeneye had problems with it too

[@cattameme]

1999 was peak humanity.

[@dwarfboy9996]

Honestly, to me the early 00’s up to ‘07 felt like an expansion of the 90’s

[@patrickwright8552]

Yeah the Wachowskis knew what they were talking about.

[@Ryuhei64]

Because of Dreamcast :)

[@hang10wannabe]

When I got my N64 for Christmas, the two games I got with it were Starfox 64 and Star Wars SotE... loved both of those games and had them for a very long time. Shadows of the Empire is one of my all time favorite games and I would LOVE it if we could get a Star Wars re-release on the Switch with all of those games on the N64 and Gamecube.

[@supabass4003]

Always said to people the DK64 bug was misinformation, the expansion pak provides memory for the vertex lighting used in the game.

[@crackaasscracka]

I'm looking forward to the 2050s when we're sitting on our digital rocking chairs in the metaverse saying this to the AI kids mowing our low poly lawns. "I always says, I says..."

[@scikoolaid]

But Rare themselves kept saying that was why, even recently... I mean They shouldn't need to lie about it now?

[@yordansic]

That was already mentioned in the video.

[@F0nkyNinja]

@@scikoolaid Because the different teams at Rare rarely met (pun intended) and there was friendly rivalry between the teams, it probably originated as a rumor from one of the other teams.

[@likenem]

It didn't help that, Rare developer Chris Marlow said this in a 2013 lets play. Its in the Did you know gaming video, "Nintendo 64 Games (N64) - Mario 64, Zelda & more." Also Rare developer Chris Seavor said that DK64 needed the expansion Pack. "Check the video, Conker: A Rare Retrospective (Part 9) - The Nostalgic Gamer" time stamp 26:22

[@overlordalfredo]

Definitely StarCraft 64. One of the ganes that makes great usr of the EX Pak. It is super hard to find for PAL though, as it was only released in Australia. Was so fortunate to import a CIB copy and love playing the game with EX Pak!

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

Glad someone else mentioned SC. that definitely needed the expansion pak

[@VolkovAlexandernovskiOfficial]

You mean NTSC yeah? Australia used PAL and all N64 games released here are in PAL

[@VolkovAlexandernovskiOfficial]

Oh my bad. You meant the pack haha. Didnt realise there would be a difference as i always assumed the Ram amd Rom reading were identical between the 2 versions. But looking into it they arent.

[@overlordalfredo]

@@VolkovAlexandernovskiOfficial I have no idea what you are talking about... I was referring to StarCraft 64 AUS version. Which is the only PAL release of that game that exists. There are only about 4000 copies out there and I was lucky enough to get one Complete in Box and imported it to Europe (we also use PAL systems here) The game also makes great use of the expansion pak. There is an NTSC version of the game (and obviously if the EX pak) but both are USA, so not relevant for me and my PAL collection.

[@Cloudwolf785]

You missed the most important part of having the memory pack. You felt so much cooler pushing it into your N64 when your friends were over.

[@zekossss]

Perfect Dark and Counter-operative mode was fun AF. Rare was thinking ahead of its time in so many ways.

[@ShiroiKatana]

I agree - the jump from the Super Nintendo to 64 was the most amazing in gaming history. I was 11 in 1997 when the N64 was released in the UK, and as I had spent my childhood on the Super Nintendo, Game Boy, and Mega Drive, the leap to 3D was huge for me.

[@richy69ify]

3 years after the Playstation though

[@rwentfordable]

​​@@richy69ify And worth the wait.

[@triptheroad]

Rush 2049 is the only game I owned that needed it, and the expansion pack drastically improved the gameplay experience with additional audio, dynamic track elements, and the obstacle course mode

[@neilhaggerty1878]

Rush is a certified hood classic. My brother and I still play it sometimes.

[@nikoenciso01]

Rush 2049 one my top ten all time Hood Classic no lie

[@ColoradoStreaming]

@@neilhaggerty1878 I still remember how jacked I was to find the secret underground jump park.

[@kjrehberg]

As I understand it, Nintendo provided the Expansion Pak with Donkey Kong 64 at a loss, that is, they paid for it, not the customer.

[@-Gurza-]

It's a loss for the customer if you consider having to buy DK64. :U

[@ryukami404]

I remember back then that DK64 wouldn't even work if you did not have the expansion pack. Something I remember learning very quickly because of trying to rent the game from Blockbuster and being greeted with "You need the expansion pack!"

[@themanyouwanttobe]

I got Majora's Mask for a Christmas at my Grandma's house. I brought my N64 just so I could play it Christmas morning. Boy, was I miffed that I had to get home, go to a store, and buy an expansion pack before I could play it.

[@kjrehberg]

@@ryukami404 Eesh I remember that error when we got our second N64 without the Expansion Pak.

[@ryukami404]

@@kjrehberg Wow, I did end up getting to play DK64 during the rental period though. Remember being a little bummed about it and then one day my mom came home with the N64 bundle that had the expansion pak and Dk64. Definitely one of the weirder gaming stories I have.

[@Movie_Games]

I never considered the jump from SNES to N64 to be that big technically because when it came out, I was playing Doom and Quake on my PC. But I can see how console only people probably pooped their pants when first loading up Mario 64.

[@andybunn5780]

I grew up on Dooma and Quake as well, but still flipped out like that kid in the video when I got my N64. I was 7

[@Hazzardness]

I remember being sick as hell as a kid when I got Majora's Mask for my birthday. I got home, put in the cartridge, started up the N64 and sat down, bundled up because I had the chills... and I got the expansion pack warning because I didn't have one. I was so defeated I just went to sleep.

[@miguellorenzo3726]

I got mine from my DK64 copy. Then bought Majora's and that was my favourite game of all time. So I could say I did see the value in it.

[@calebr908]

Well its a bit more complicated then people would like to believe. For example,they had to lower the resolution for conquers bad fur day to a very low resolution in order to avoid using it. If you try to make a new scene in ocarina of time that is rather large, the object memory can quickly become too low. Allocating more memory and using 8mb can easily remedy this issue. It is interesting none of these videos touch on Majoras Mask which would most certainly crash without the extra memory.

[@wades623]

You couldn't even play mm without it. I tried it before and it doesn't load

[@ryans3199]

Oh man, the things I learned from this video. When I was a young pup, I didn't know what framerate was, so I wouldn't have noticed any drawbacks in that regard. I just stuck the expansion card in and went on with my life, enjoyed the upgraded resolution and textures, and that was it. Crazy to find out about this years after the last time I ever had the system hooked up.

[@hatorihanzoii7447]

I wish more games used the expak like Quake 2, also thanks for dispelling the DK64 memory leak bug myth

[@hairyviking9248]

I think I could have benefited from a side by side comparison. I couldn't tell the difference between with and without the expansion pack.

[@jaysmith4739]

Perfect dark is still one of my all time favorite fps games. Way ahead of its time and sadly most goldeneye lovers never even discovered perfect dark and thats just a shame, it was so good. Good story, good levels, good challenges, so much to do and different difficulties. I swear this game was massively underrated

[@rwentfordable]

Underrated? Not in my town or corner of the Internet.

[@wades623]

Perfect dark was way ahead of Goldeneye it showed reloads and they talked. There was also being able to get out of the menu and go do other stuff. The main issue was it didn't come out til 2000 which was pretty late for the 64

[@Baneslayer]

Too late to the party.

[@burnsZY85]

The n64 changed gaming for me to, playing goldeneye for the first time just blew my mind, perfect dark was the game i obsessed most over though.

[@Baneslayer]

Did no one play Quake or Descent in the early 1990's before the N64? the N64 graphics were legit crappy... I guess I grew up a PC kid....

[@craiganderson7986]

What a great video! Such a clear and concise explanation of the N64 Expansion Pak! Haven’t played my N64 since my Sony CRT died, but I’m looking forward to the Analogue 64, and more of your videos, so I’m subscribing! Now let’s see what other goodies you have to show me . . .

[@NighttimeNubbs]

I didn't know there was a version of the DK64 rumor where it was called a memory leak since the only solution to a memory leak is to stop it from leaking. I've always heard it as just "a bug" but Neato to know the expansion helped more with lighting.

[@karl0ssus1]

There is another method, but I've only heard of it being used on the original Xbox. It's possible to reset some devices without interrupting the loading screens.

[@RAXtheGREAT]

I agree with you on the feeling of going from SNES to N64 feeling like a giant leap in gaming. I remember seeing Mario 64 for the first time and I dont think anything ever came close to that except when I saw sonic adventure on dreamcast. awesome video!

[@ZackSNetwork]

N64 to GameCube was massive.

[@GameAnGrog]

It blows me away that some of my favorite games ever, needed their available memory doubled to what is only 1/12800th of what I play with now only 25 years later.

[@GameAnGrog]

@RaniaIsAwesome 128. And in another 25 years, that number will probably be insignificant too.

[@midnighttornado22]

I remember the big hype for the Pak was Turok 2 and Star Wars Rogue Squadron, and then soon after it became a thing on the N64 peaking with Perfect Dark. I don't know about anyone else, but for me at that time, in that era, I preferred cleaner visuals over framerate. Probably because I was already used to framerate drops in games anyway and didn't think that would improve anytime soon on the N64. Although the framerate in Perfect Dark definitely got annoying at times, on the other hand seeing Rogue Squadron's graphics cleaned up was pretty awesome.

[@AmirZaimMohdZaini]

Coming up next video: "We're gonna talk about Yuzu Emulator..."

[@yoda3549]

My parents had a N64 but dad already had they expansion pack always in and we never experienced that infamous DK64 bug. Always loved playing pen and ink mode on Turok though!

[@TheAzrai]

Oh shi- ... you mentioning pen & ink mode for Turok just unlocked a core memory of mine.

[@microfister]

Perfect dark having bots in multiplayer made for infinite replay ability. build teams with different outfits and difficulty and just go at it in SP or MP

[@wannabesteve777]

I was just about to roast you for not mentioning my favorite N64 game that made A LOT of use of the Expansion Pak, San Francisco Rush 2049! 😂 Fortunately you ended the vid with footage and I was glad to see it. SF Rush 2049 adds new cars, full music tracks, additional sound effects, and even a new race track with the pak. Full experience for sure!

[@MT-ll3tu]

The PSone needed this way more since low memory was more a issue than the CPU/GPU power. Sony even admitted they almost thought of making a PS1 with 6MB ram(2MB video + 4MB ram).

[@ktvx.94]

30 years later, Nintendo hardware continues to show what developers could be doing if they had a little more memory.

[@Xenon-h9z]

Ingenuity* Developers today have plenty of memory to work with.

[@joeyreidelbach5509]

true, only problem is that N64 still has massive drawback which is the used of cartiges which 3rd party hated.

[@Xenon-h9z]

@@joeyreidelbach5509 Meh. It was both a pro and a con.

[@v2joecr]

I'm glad you mentioned Gauntlet Legends as I loved that game & being able to play with four players made it so much better.

[@ItIsYouAreNotYour]

Yeah, that was a really great game. Man, I'm getting massive nostalgia in this comment section. N64 was king of multiplayer games with friends.

[@kylekilgore291]

This isn’t a video about the expansion pak, it’s a trip down nostalgia lane with some sight seeing at memory road. Thanks

[@FireFlyFlying_]

As someone who has recently joined the Donkey Kong 64 community. They are recompiling the Kiosk demo beta in its full form. They already did pick up on the dynamic lighting a long time ago. Now just in general the Expansion pak was a massive flop but without it some life changing games for some wouldn’t have been playable. Thanks for this video too as I just bought an Expansion pak an N64!

[@patrickwright8552]

Where can i find this community?

[@KerrClapham]

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape one hundred days of sorrow.

[@gabrielv.4358]

Bizarre to know 4mb of ram ran things......

[@adamheidenreich5134]

I remember getting perfect dark. I realized I couldn't play the campaign cause I didn't have the memory expansion pack, so I immediately asked my dad to get one. 2 weeks later, I could finally enjoy perfect dark to the fullest extent. Still love the Farsight xr20. I will sing that gun's praise til the day I die.

[@The_Gallowglass]

14:02 Too much shents

[@zeitok8]

Turok 2 looks incredible with the expansion, I remember that many times I couldn't play DK64 because I didn't have the expansion.

[@TaiCheesy]

2:12 LEMMINGS WAS AWESOME IT DROVE MY LITTLE BRAIN INSANE 10/10

[@GENOMEFOX]

Majora's Mask was when I was introduced to the expansion pack luckily the guy at the store told my mother who purchased it for Christmas in 2000 that it was needed to play it I can remember waiting almost a full year after release to finally get to play it and it is still my Favorite Zelda to date

[@TampaTec]

4:36 that's interesting 🤔 to fix a bug and limitations of n64 customers had to buy an expansion pack. That reminds me in the 80s when NES owners had issues about cartridges not working so Nintendo solution was to sell those customers a cleaning kit. Maybe Microsoft Xbox 360 red ring should've learned from Nintendo's marketing strategy, sold customers an "upgrade kit"

[@blackdog6969]

I remember installing the expansion pak as a kid. First real tech upgrade I did myself. Now the DK Rap is stuck in my head, ahh nostalgia

[@Daniel-gb9ex]

I remember when I bought Perfect Dark a friend had 2 expansion packs for some reason and just gave me one. Didn't even remember Majora's Mask needed it. It's still in my N64 in a box somewhere.

[@SpontaneousWeasel]

Another great video! Thanks! Yup perfect dark was the reason for me - outside of that there were only a handful of experiences that i remember making use of the addditional memory I seem to remember it only giving a slight resolution boost in certain titles like Hybrid Heaven.

[@_baller]

I liked the expansion pack, it felt like it gave the N64 one last breath of fresh air before it finally got over taken by the PS2, it also felt cool to “upgrade” it and also see it on the screen, the whole execution was great, and probably the first? And last time you’ll see people willing to “expand” some port on their console, Nintendo just did everything right with this console, even their controllers were a hit even though they’re a bit insane, it was just their golden era and I’m glad I was there to experience it first hand

[@benjaminmiddaugh2729]

I'm gonna quibble a bit about Gauntlet Legends being a pretty faithful port of the arcade game. I consider it a better than faithful port of the arcade game, even if it does have the least graphical fidelity of any of the console ports. If I remember correctly, neither the arcade nor any of the other ports allow you to deactivate powerups when collected. They're strictly a use-as-collected type thing, whereas the N64 version not only allows you to save powerups until you want to use them, but buy them in the shop to take into later levels as desired (if I'm remembering incorrectly about other versions, I never figured out how to do it, and I have spent a decent amount of time with the Dreamcast version). It's one of my favorite games for the N64 and finding out how much more it could do than other versions makes it even more special to me.

[@zachylimaki2167]

I got the console as a Christmas gift in 99, played PD at my cousins, and wanted it. Finally got it then found out I needed the expansion pack. Finally got an expansion pack, and my cousin shows me his GameShark. It was never ending

[@TheRealMattKronik]

As a kid at the time, there was so much placebo effect going on with the expansion pak. Stuff like your older cousin swearing on his life that it made Blast Corps have better graphics.

[@ChrisB_Crisps]

My second favorite game was Perfect Dark. After a link to the past for the snes. Excellent video, really happy that there is more coverage in the myth of the DK64 game breaking bug, there is a fair amount of content in youtube about how the expansion pack was the chosen option to ship the game for the deadline.

[@GlaciusTS]

35% of Perfect Dark is one hell of an overstatement. You had absolutely no access to the game’s campaign, and only a fraction of the multiplayer mode.

[@jasonmccrank4981]

SNES to N64 is 100% the biggest leap between generations. I was so blown away by Super Mario 64 that I would put it on just to look at the thing and run around.

[@FroFTW85]

I remember when I was a kid. My family went on a cross country road trip during summer break. One of my older cousins, let me borrow a DC to AC adapter. So I was able to bring my N64 and a 16" TV on the trip. I also borrowed some games from him, one being Perfect Dark. Which I had never played the campaign and was very excited for. My cousin brings all the stuff over and helps me get it setup in the back of the mini van. We get it working. Put in perfect dark, only to realize that multiple is the only option there is. He tells me I need an expansion pak to play single player. I beg my parents to buy me one before we leave. They obviously say no. So for the next 30 hours or so driving. I can't play the game. We spent 2 weeks out in California, then a week in Texas. I never got to play that campaign until like a month after our vacation, when I finally bought an expansion pak.

[@jmssun]

1:49 I grew up with PC Engine, I was very familiar with memory upgrades, and many games on the CD Rom library took advantage of the various expansions very very well

[@PlayPauseRecord535]

Man I loved DK64. The jungle green console bundle was my first console ever and everything about it had such a unique jungle vibe and charm. I hope Nintendo make a future game like this.

[@VenusChristy]

He was 100% into fasting with her until he understood that meant he couldn't eat.

[@monolithiccelestial9636]

"SWEET NUTRIENTS!" It also helped with Subzero Mythologies. Which is one of my favorite all time games.

[@rudysal1429]

DK64 was one of my favorite games as a kid in the late 90s. So many good times and frustrating moments that made it worth it when you beat levels

[@Knee_Boy64]

The Expansion Pak soft locks Space Station Silicon Valley at the first cutscene. When I bought the game a few years ago I thought it was dirty or damaged. I cleaned it 3 times before learning that it's a known issue. (This only applies to first-run versions of the game)

[@illyahrthebard3303]

I remember that Fallout 3 and ES: Oblivion had memory leakage with their saves. You wouldn't notice anything for a long time unless you saved your game at every opportunity. Every time you overwrote a save, a small extraneous packet remained. This wouldn't do anything in the short term, but long-term would eventually find the game having trouble loading. Each time it loaded a save or loaded an area, there was an increasing chance of loading up one of the leftover fragments, which would cause lag and even hanging the game at times.

[@controllerspixelsplayers9202]

you left a big title out and that was Star Wars Rogue Squadron, was an awesome game and it definitely looked better after putting in an expansion pak

[@AdamNehemiah]

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

[@mightylink65]

In the case of Majora's Mask they used it to keep track of the NPC's daily routines in the background.

[@CIubDuck]

Yeah, "Used to enhance graphics such as increased texture detail, removal of fog and increase number of on-screen models as well as effects." according to the wiki. Maybe the NPC routines were run on the normal RAM, but the definitely wouldn't have worked without the expansion either way

[@MrMarinus18]

I think they bundled the expansion pack with DK64 in order to get it to enough people. In order to get developers to use it and to justify using it themselves they had to get a big enough userbase. Bundling it with one of their big system sellers is very obviously a way to do that.

[@NOT_POLLY_YT]

As a child I never knew like what that was for and I thought it was actually not supposed to be removed until I got my hands on the extra memory as well

[@jefism]

Got mine with DK64, everyone hates it now but as an adult the fact that I as a child 101% DKC, 102% DKC2, 103% DKC3, getting 101% in DK 64 was an epic moment, something I as an adult who values his time would absolutely NEVER do again, but I have fond memories. My oldest unlocked the DKCR Golden Temple and I'd never been more proud of her, I didn't even do that.

[@kasyoi1545]

I'll never forget having Majora's Mask for half a year or longer without the expansion pack. I had to beg my dad the whole all that time for him to get it for me

[@HarryHoylr]

There are things so deep and complex that only intuition can reach it in our stage of development as human beings.

[@ItsBillsFault]

I worked on a couple of N64 racing games where we could have used the extra RAM to cache sfx and music samples. We didn't, but we probably should have. As it was, we chose to stream & mix sample data directly from ROM, which is waaayyyyy slower than ram, but you're only reading from it a small number of times per frame for sound mixing, so we accepted the small CPU hit to save space in our memory map. If they were cached, we could have read samples at full speed and had more time for physics et al. I don't think we would have done the thing with increasing texture resolution, since those higher-res textures would have had to be on the cart, and that would have increased cart size and manufacturing cost.

[@wesleybilly8097]

Great video! I appreciate your knowledge. I had no idea you were from Australia. Thank you for all that you do.

[@TikkaQrow]

Majora's Mask and Perfect Dark i played a LOT. (Perfect dark only let you have multiplayer with no skins without the memory pack)(no campaign, no multiplayer unlocks)