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[Alfarif]

You know, it's funny, but Factor 5 and Rare were in top form back then, and I think it's in part to the limitations they were working with. After reading that Wiki about what Factor 5 had to do to get Rogue Squadron to the level it was at, it's apparent that both of those companies (and the people who were part of them) were at their best when presented with an "insurmountable" obstacle. I'm not knocking what they do today, because the new Banjo is gorgeous, and Lair, for all its faults, is still a visual showcase, but they have fallen far from what they once were.

This thread has me giddy. I own Hybrid Heaven, and the only thing I can remember about that game (besides being excited to own something that used my expansion pack; I bought mine separately) was naked man ass in the beginning. I owned Turok 2 before that, but the Turok series always gave me terrible motion sickness, so I stopped playing them. I never knew how many games actually used it, since I started falling out of gaming around the time of the N64's death. I should track some of these down and try them out with and without the pack. I still have my jumper pack... it's in the expansion pack's box. If I can figure out an inexpensive way to record with and without video on my Macbook, I'll toss some up onto my youtube account in high quality so we can actually tell the differences.

 

[Steroyd]

Weren't there slight differences in Zelda OoT with the expansion pak?

I'm sure there was something different with it, when my cousin accidentally left it in my console one time.

 

[storl026]

This thread needs some before and after pics.

 

[Spinning Plates]

ISS 2000 used it for a high res mode although the framerate went to hell when you did so your better off playing it with hi res turned off.

How did you find ISS 2000 compared to ISS 98?

ISS 98 to me is the best football I've ever played and it's a pity the ISS series gave way to PES which is a game I've never been able to get into.

Speaking of high res mode I would absolutely love an ISS on XBLA. Never gonna happen but one can dream.

 

[master15]

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...

I've had lengthy discussions with you in detail why I consider DK64 an abomination in terms of game development but I won't certainly won't deny I didn't like a few things. The mine-cart levels I thought were fairly good, there were one or two exceptional boss battles and like a lot of Rare games at the time there was a lot of extra content (I.e. replaying boss battles, hidden arcade units ect).

Doesn't excuse the game for having absolutely god awful floaty controls, a game to bogged down in collecting it makes your head hurt and some rather uninspiring latter levels.

 

[AlphaTwo00]

Was it as good looking as WDC? I freaking loved that game. Ran at hi res 640x480 without the expak.

OH MAN I totally forgot about that game. Running that at Hi Res widescreen almost made me forgot that GT never existed on the N64. The visuals for that was stunning at the time.

 

[kazuo]

N64 RE2 I think ran at a slightly higher resolution than the PS1 version, but the character models were less complex, as were the textures, IIRC.

Also, the resolution would change from scene to scene, depending on the number of on-screen models (characters, whatever).

The N64 did get rid of all the clipping and whatnot from the PS1 version, though.

 

[riskVSreward]

My younger cousin called me a few years back, he couldn't play some N64 games because he lost his expansion pak and wanted to know if I still had one. Of course, mine was in my N64 and I had since lost the original "pak" and it only raised the question; "why the hell would you ever remove it?"

Good times.

 

[Captain N]

This thread needs some before and after pics.

I've been looking for them all week and...no such luck...

 

[UltimaPooh]

Didn't Banjo-Tooie require the pack?

 

[Frencherman]

ISS 98 to me is the best football I've ever played and it's a pity the ISS series gave way to PES which is a game I've never been able to get into.

Yeah, Konami would be smart to release a new action-oriented ISS-Game on Nintendo plattforms. I am sure it would sell like hot cakes...

 

[AtomicShroom]

Didn't Banjo-Tooie require the pack?

It didn't even use it.

 

[Alphahawk]

I remember getting it for christmas along with Rougue Squadron, I was mildly dissapointed when I couldn't see much of a difference in the graphics, or sound. I guess it was worth it for the few games that required it, but I bought DK64 so I would of had one regardless.

I remember Perfect Dark needing it to actually have a full game, I am sure they cut down the amount you could access without it. :lol

Only the deathmatch section was playable without the expansion pack. That may not sound like much, but if you remember the game the deathmatch mode was freakin' huge in that game, you could set up bots to your specifications and it even had a single player campaign. I wasted so much time in that section of that game. Ahh memories...

 

[Captain Sparrow]

I saw no difference in games such as Rogue Squadron that could take advantage of the extra resources. What a great game either way.

 

[Morts]

Only the deathmatch section was playable without the expansion pack. That may not sound like much, but if you remember the game the deathmatch mode was freakin' huge in that game, you could set up bots to your specifications and it even had a single player campaign. I wasted so much time in that section of that game. Ahh memories...

I'm pretty sure it was only two-player deathmatch without the expansion pak, and with extremely limited options. But yeah, the amount of stuff you could do in Perfect Dark was insane.

 

[2 Minutes Turkish]

Bought one when it first came out for PD.

Then bought DK64 and got a second one.

As to the 'limited edition' carts on 64. They were a rort. The REAL limited editions, if you could find them, were the grey carts of those games.

 

[Captain N]

I got the expansion pak today and tried to see if I could tell the difference in a few games.

Road Rash 64 • It could've all been in my head, but the draw distance looked better. I couldn't find anything else to be different. It didn't even look smoother..I forgot how much I prefer the PS1 version over this one.

Hyrid Heaven • The menus cug along when using the EP for this game. You can tell the difference though. Much nicer looking and the rooms are filled with green fog. They even added one of the characters climbing up a huge expansion pak.

Command & Conquer • the graphics look a little bit more crisp, but the fog of war doesn't expand. I was king of hoping for that.

 

[beefspring]

The issue with people not posting screenshots is... once you installed the expansion pack, what did you do with the jumper pak? I probably kept mine for the first couple weeks then threw it away. It's pretty much junk after you have the expansion pak.

 

[The Faceless Master]

Turok: Rage Wars worked with the expansion pak too.

Wow, someone else actually played that game? Thought I was alone.

one of my friends LOOOVED that game.

The issue with people not posting screenshots is... once you installed the expansion pack, what did you do with the jumper pak? I probably kept mine for the first couple weeks then threw it away. It's pretty much junk after you have the expansion pak.

aren't there a couple of games that crash if the expansion pak is in?

 

[Dreamwriter]

With Majora's Mask, they basically took OoT's engine and upgraded it to use the extra RAM. So of course it didn't look as good as Conker, a game built from the ground up to be the best looking thing ever, but MM did look QUITE a bit better than OoT. The overworld was larger and had a lot more detail in it (no longer was it just a random tree here and there on empty grassy hills with rocks occasionally strewn about). The draw distance was more than doubled (no fog!) More textures on the screen at once (still rather low resolution though). More things had unique animations, and there were more characters/enemies on the screen at once.

 

[dysonEA]

World Driver Champion Racing used it for Hi Rez

>

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

With Majora's Mask, they basically took OoT's engine and upgraded it to use the extra RAM. So of course it didn't look as good as Conker, a game built from the ground up to be the best looking thing ever, but MM did look QUITE a bit better than OoT. The overworld was larger and had a lot more detail in it (no longer was it just a random tree here and there on empty grassy hills with rocks occasionally strewn about). The draw distance was more than doubled (no fog!) More textures on the screen at once (still rather low resolution though). More things had unique animations, and there were more characters/enemies on the screen at once.

Plus they were able to use motion capture animation and they were able to have the whole time system with the game actually keeping track of characters movements around the world during the 3 Day cycle (Which probably wouldn't have been possible without the extra RAM)

Majora's Mask made fantastic use of the Expansion Pak!

 

[Shaheed79]

Check out Turok 2 with and without it :lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5qbi4Jbsgg

He forgot to switch the game to hir-res mode in the options menu. I owned the game and there was a huge difference.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

and they were able to have the whole time system with the game actually keeping track of characters movements around the world during the 3 Day cycle (Which probably wouldn't have been possible without the extra RAM)

I've frequently seen this used as an example over the last decade or so, but it doesn't ring true to me. Surely the amount of things you could affect among the individual people was less than the total number of things you could affect elsewhere in that or other games, which would all be kept track of in a save file much smaller than 4 megabytes. Just looking at it in one simple way, if the game boiled down those character possibilities to a series of yes/no possibilities, using 1 kilobyte of RAM would allow for over 8000 yes/no possibilities.

 

[EctoPrime]

I've frequently seen this used as an example over the last decade or so, but it doesn't ring true to me. Surely the amount of things you could affect among the individual people was less than the total number of things you could affect elsewhere in that or other games, which would all be kept track of in a save file much smaller than 4 megabytes. Just looking at it in one simple way, if the game boiled down those character possibilities to a series of yes/no possibilities, using 1 kilobyte of RAM would allow for over 8000 yes/no possibilities.

Beside better animation and more onscreen characters it also seems to hold more of the gameworld in ram. Go to the hotel and be next to the story tellers room, then Z target to swing the camera outside of the walls revealing that her room is already loaded before you enter it. That is just one example it has a few places like that.

 

[lordmrw]

World Driver Champion Racing used it for Hi Rez

>

no it didn't. the hi'res mode in the game was done without it. There's a very nice post on the beyond 3d forums from one of the developers about it, and he goes very in depth about the coding techniques used to make the game.

 

[evilernLeGG]

no it didn't. the hi'res mode in the game was done without it. There's a very nice post on the beyond 3d forums from one of the developers about it, and he goes very in depth about the coding techniques used to make the game.

Do you have a link to this? I'm having trouble finding it, and I would absolutely love to read it.

 

[Totobeni]

Comparison screens motherbuzers , do you use them ?

srsly without some Comparison screens this thread is one legendary epic fail >:[

 

[loosus]

I've frequently seen this used as an example over the last decade or so, but it doesn't ring true to me. Surely the amount of things you could affect among the individual people was less than the total number of things you could affect elsewhere in that or other games, which would all be kept track of in a save file much smaller than 4 megabytes. Just looking at it in one simple way, if the game boiled down those character possibilities to a series of yes/no possibilities, using 1 kilobyte of RAM would allow for over 8000 yes/no possibilities.

The reality is that Majora's Mask probably didn't absolutely need an extra four megabytes of RAM had the developers chosen to make it that way. It was just a "extra four or no extra at all" circumstance.