MrPing1000
Member
I'd love to see the fps of perfect dark without it, probably couldn't even run on their dev kits without it but I'm curious the same.
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Looking Back Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak
- Thread starter Captain N
- Start date
PSGames said:
It's considered to be better? I suppose the graphics are cleaner, but the FMV looked awful. It was just amazing they fit the videos AND the contents from both PSX discs on the cart, I think. It was 512-Megabits, which Gamespot's review tells me is twice the size of Ocarina of Time.
A Black Falcon
Member
CloakBass said:
Same here.
DavidDayton said:
The better graphics made it worth it in Castlevania LoD, in my opinion. It was still perfectly playable.
PSGames said:
the fmv looked like low quality youtube with the audio sounding like it was coming out of a tin can. the rest of the game looked better than the ps1 version though. the compression used on the n64 version was amazing considering the year it came out. its too bad the tech wasnt developed earlier.
the expansion pack really helped some games look nice. kinda wish developers would have used it to smooth out the framerates more than just highres though.
RocketDarkness
Member
I believe it also had the "Random" mode, where all the items were randomized. Thus, every playthrough, all the items, required or otherwise, were moved around. Infinite replayability!big_z said:
I kinda want to track down a copy of it to see that, actually.
xs_mini_neo
Banned
RocketDarkness said:
It also meant you got waaaay more ammo, too. Also, it had a violence level and choose the color of blood option. You also did not need a memory card. It had different costumes for Leon/Claire not in the PS version. There was even the EX files and Jill's diary you could find.
Oh, and for those who hated the tank controls, this version had an analog control option that let you move around freely...which made certain parts a lot easier since you didn't have to turn around to run away. It did kind of look funny seeing Leon/Claire move around like Cloud in FF7 if you used the d-pad with that option enabled. This is probably the only time RE will ever have an option to have something other the traditional tank controls.
The downside is that FMV quality took a hit and so did the sound. The PS version wins in the sound department and also because it had the EBM which was not in the N64 version, sadly. Probably Sony's fault.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
N64 RAM pak was awesome, but I think I got more joy out of the Saturn RAM cartridge.
X-Men vs. Street Fighter, fuck yeah!
X-Men vs. Street Fighter, fuck yeah!
Frencherman
Member
One of the most beautiful racing games on N64. I will never forget you...
I dont think Top Gear Rally 2 supports the expansion pak, atleast the pal version anyway. If you input a code to turn high res mode on the game freaks out.
Speaking of codes Vigilante 8 looks really nice with the cheat code to max out the resolution and still has a decent framerate and seems to get rid of the dithering at the same time.
The debug mode of Shadows of the empire has an option to increase the resolution but it does not work atleast in the pal version, anyone try the US edition ?
Speaking of codes Vigilante 8 looks really nice with the cheat code to max out the resolution and still has a decent framerate and seems to get rid of the dithering at the same time.
The debug mode of Shadows of the empire has an option to increase the resolution but it does not work atleast in the pal version, anyone try the US edition ?
A Black Falcon said:
It's been a while, but I THINK that LoD was fine with it installed and HD mode enabled... it was just the opening cinema "chase sequence through the woods" that was horribly choppy.
Hybrid Heaven, though, was horrifically choppy in "HD" mode.
Classic_Gs
Member
Good call :lolriskVSreward said:
JSnake said:
Rare wrote their own microcode for the RSP which highly outperformed SGI's default implementation. Factor5 did too, which is why games from these developers look so much better than anything else on the n64.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64#Hardware
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Thread fails without screenshots of games with and without the expansion pack.
A Black Falcon
Member
scitek said:
The much improved ingame graphics, and in particular the higher-detail models than you will find in any other version of RE2, really more than make up for this. The FMVs are only a relatively small part of the game, after all... all of the actual gameplay not only looks good, it's perhaps the best looking version of RE2 out there. Even on DC and GC it still uses PSX models and not N64, I believe.
It did indeed also have the random mode. Also there's a violence level change option and blood color options, and they added some more files (the ones with the background story information in them) I believe. They did remove the battle mode or whatever, though.
Oh, and one more thing... it's the only traditional RE game with a normal control option. Set it to "3d" control mode and not only will you run just by pressing the stick forward instead of holding a button, but you get full normal movement, and not RE-standard tank controls. You can also use the traditional scheme in '2d' mode if you want, though.
DavidDayton said:
I haven't played Hybrid Heaven, so I can't say for that one (Though I would like to try it, it's not easy to find locally...). As I said though, in CV:LoD, while the framerate isn't fantastic, it's perfectly playable and looks just fantastic. The comparison between Castlevania (N64) and LoD non-High Res is big enough, but turn on high res mode and it's just an amazing improvement.
Jazzem said:We had ours bundled with Donkey Kong 64. I always wondered what the 'jumper pak' in the N64 was all about until that point
I never really noticed the difference as a kid but the jump in resolution is pretty apparent now. I miss the N64 days
The Jumper Pak is a blank RAM cartridge, essentially. The N64, like the PS2 and all early Pentium 4 computers, uses Rambus RDRAM for its RAM. This RAM must be in paired sets, and, more importantly here, all slots must be filled at all times -- so you need to put blank RAM units in any empty RAM slots. I have an older PC which uses RDRAM, the system came with two slots with RAM in them, and two with blanks which I later removed and filled in with more RAM. The Jumper Pak is filling that same purpose on the N64.
EctoPrime said:
Top Gear Rally 2... hmm. As seen on GameFAQs, the US box has an expansion pak icon. The European box there, however, does not. Not sure about the Japanese version. I don't have Top Gear Rally 2, only Top Gear Rally and Top Gear Overdrive from that franchise on the N64, so I can't say myself... but this is something worth looking into, for sure. Is that (US) box accurate, or wrong? (Top Gear Overdrive and Top Gear Hyper-Bike both definitely support the Expansion Pak.)
Shadows of the Empire couldn't support it, though. That was a very early, near-launch N64 game, and there's no way it could have supported the expansion pak, which was not out for more than two years after its release. No games before late 1998 supported the expansion pak. I'm not sure what that high res mode option you mention is... but some games did have multiple resolution options even without an expansion pak. Top Gear Overdrive, for instance, has Low and Medium (Letterboxed High) resolution options without the expansion pak, for instance, and an additional Full-Screen High mode for if you do have one. The game looks really, really good in full high res...
A Black Falcon said:
I think the resolution option in the debug mode of SOTE probably requires a devkit to use, or it is just an option in the menu that was disabled. You can do some other cool things with it running though, turning off the textures and anti aliasing, decrease or increase draw distance and even change the aspect ratio to anything you want (you can make it 16x9)
In Top Gear Rally 2 the code to enable the higher resolution is Left-C, Left-C, dpad left, L, and L on the title screen, took me a while to find the code in a stack of old N64 mags.
Cosmo Clock 21
Banned
USB ports?DrGAKMAN said:
Cosmo Clock 21 said:
You can't really expand the graphics RAM via USB, it's not fast enough...at least not in the case of the Wii anyways. USB's are more for external peripherals.
If the Wii had an expansion port (simply to add more memory for a larger frame buffer) the system could've later been upgraded to a Wii + that supported 720p natively via component cables.
Houston3000
Member
Got it with DK64... which I got for a present so I don't remember if it was extra.
The fact that Majora's Mask required it though made it worthwhile. I remember loving what it did to the original Vigilante 8 as well, IIRC it was quite a drastic graphical improvement when you enabled it in-game.
The fact that Majora's Mask required it though made it worthwhile. I remember loving what it did to the original Vigilante 8 as well, IIRC it was quite a drastic graphical improvement when you enabled it in-game.
Frencherman
Member
EctoPrime said:
I was talking about Top Gea Overdrive. I can't remember that there had been a Top Gear Rally 2 though. Nevertheless, the higher resolution in Overdrive made the game look outstanding. If I am remembering right, there has also been a "smaller" letterbox mode for higher resolution without expansion Pak.
I can remember that there were a track placed in the sunset which had visuals almost on par with early PS2 racers!
A Black Falcon
Member
Frencherman said:
Yeah, when I got Overdrive, one of the things I was most impressed by was the graphics. They really are amazing, the game does an exceptional job of working with the system to make the game look as good as possible. Helping with that was the music, which actually was fully voiced rock music tracks. I don't like rock music that much, but having full, vocal music tracks in an N64 game wasn't common. The gameplay was just as good, too... really good game. Quite under-appreciated, as I said, in comparison to Top Gear Rally, but well worth playing for sure, for any arcade-style racing game fans.
Captain N said:
Probably because like me, people would simply put their expansion pak in and never remove it... because why would you, ever? Apart from those copies of SSSV that don't work with it (and as I said, mine works fine, with the expansion pak in), I sure can't think of a reason. I have no idea where my jumper pak(s) would be, if I even still have one anymore...
Anyway though, just screenshots will not always show the difference. Sometimes the difference was resolution, but sometimes it was something else -- beyond just the games that needed it to work, there's also stuff like how Rush 2049 used it for ingame music, one more track, etc, as I listed before, or how Hydro Thunder, Stunt Racer 64, and perhaps some others needed to have it for 4-player mode, etc... higher resolution modes was the most common use of the expansion pak, but not the only one. You'd need feature comparison lists as well as screenshots for titles that had higher res modes.
(And are you going to update that list?)
EctoPrime said:
Huh, that's interesting (for SOTE)... fun stuff, if you could actually access it ingame.
Prax said:Where's Aidyn Chronicles.
I KNOW that game needed that Expansion Pak. Otherwise, you'd hear these.. really.. pathetic drum bops and wheezes as "background music".
It was kind of funny, actually... one of my most endearing memories about that game!
Wow, someone else actually played that game? Thought I was alone.
Icomeinpeace
Banned
Frencherman said:
One of the most beautiful racing games on N64. I will never forget you...
Awesome game, also I miss the hand painted art from back then!
A Black Falcon
Member
master15 said:
Hah, I know I got you to say some nice things about DK64 once, not too long ago... don't deny it, you liked the game to some degree...
It was a good game then and still is. Sure, it's got a lot of collecting, but it does it better than Banjo-Kazooie in some ways, for sure. I mean, if you don't get all 100 notes in one try you have to start over from the beginning, but perhaps it's impossible from the start and you don't know it if some need some move you don't have yet? That's just annoying, and bad design... in DK64 you may need 500 banannas per level, but once you get one, you never need to get it again. Much better.
DK64 was the first of the Rare N64 platformers that I had, and it was just great. Sure I have the other three now, but DK64 is still one of the best... I played that a lot after it came out, to the point of getting all of the golden banannas before I finished the game, so I'd only have to beat K. Rool once and get the good ending.
Haven't played it all that much since, though, I admit. But for quite some time now I've thought that what really happened was a case of 'Rare's 3d platformers are all really similar, so people who played them absolutely loved the first one they played, but then started noticing how repetitious the formula was in their second game'... because B-T was the second Rare 3d platformer I got, and I quit midway, kind of bored. It felt like more of the same, but perhaps not quite as good as DK64... great game sure, but I didn't want to go through that whole formula again. I mean, it IS a lot of collecting, even if it's mostly fun and there's plenty of nonlinear options (so that you don't need to do everything in order or something).
Still though, really overall all four Rare N64 3d platformers are great.
birdman said:
I did too, and actually liked it, for the most part... though I certainly can see why so many people didn't. So many things didn't work right... bad bugs, missing features, etc. But what did was really, really impressive, and the overall accomplishment was amazing.
DieNgamers
Member
Thanks to the pak I could play three awesome N64 games that will forever be in my personal hall of fame and remain some of my favourite games of all time:
DK64 (it has much more fans than you can imagine outside from a few gaming forums), Majora's Mask and Perfect Dark.
They're still in my top 5 N64 list.
DK64 (it has much more fans than you can imagine outside from a few gaming forums), Majora's Mask and Perfect Dark.
They're still in my top 5 N64 list.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Because there's not a completely linear relationship between "better graphics" and "more RAM" which all software adheres to.JSnake said: