N64 Question about the N64 Expansion Pack

[Waffles]

I have met quite a few Nintendo 64 owners over the years and they all seemed to be in love with this accessory, but they also told me that a lot of games became near unplayable while this was in use due to the frame rate plummeting once the resolution had been pushed as high as it'd go... is there any truth to this? Because it feels like an awful trade-off, yet I have never heard anyone in the industry complain about the accessory like that.

Thanks!

 

[Yousef]

The expansion pack is only required for games that state that they require it otherwise it is functionally the same as a normal pak
Silicon valley is one of the only game that can have issues with the expansion pak and not work with it, instead requiring the regular pak
Hope this helps

 

[ATenderLad]

I only remember Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness having a sluggish hi-rez mode, once I got an expansion pak for Perfect Dark I left it in the N64 permanently without any other issues. Most games just didn't utilize it.

 

[χKai]

Never had a problem, but I guess we also didn't really own a lot of N64 games either. Somewhere around 50-ish, but there's about 150 out there I would have liked. If I ever get to own and try them, I'll try to remember to let you know.

 

[raveci]

since starcraft 64, the most important N64 game, needs it to play the brood war missions after the original compaign, which anyone can beat in a jiffy with their hands tied behind their back, the expansion is a must have, get it while you can!

 

[lvl]

I have it and its more or less what everyone just said. A few games make use of it for bigger resolution or textures, that comes with a slight dip in performance in some of the games. But only perfect dark really needs it to work, so you're able to play the full game. I saw this video a while back while deciding if i should buy an xpak or not. Give it a watch, it explains everything nicely.

 

[Waffles]

As expected, you have all been very useful and informative.

Thanks, RGT!

 

[YuriSukiSan]

What everyone else said! I've never tried Donkey Kong 64 with out it (apparently it can play but eventually crashes) and when it came to enabling the HD rez option features in other games like Turok 2 it made the frames drop really bad! The same happened for Star Wars Episode One racer! It's a total gimmick that just stops crashes from happening with certain games when they exceed ram usage.

(I NEED TO STOP POSTING AND EDITING, SORRY!!)

 

[χKai]

What everyone else said! It allowed you to play some games (I've never tried Donkey Kong 64 with out it) but when it came to enabling the HD rez stuff on games like Turok 2 just it made it lag even worse and the same happened for Star Wars Episode One Racer. It was a total gimmick!

Turok was the very series I was considering testing this on first; I never owned the games, and it's a really jank setup trying to emulate. Making a priority to get them whenever the funds are available.

 

[YuriSukiSan]

Turok was the very series I was considering testing this on first; I never owned the games, and it's a really jank setup trying to emulate. Making a priority to get them whenever the funds are available.

In my experience the moment you shoot someone with the HD texture pak enabled in game the blood basically makes the game slow to a crawl, I think Glenn64 covered this a while back I'll see if I can find a video!

 

[χKai]

In my experience the moment you shoot someone with the HD texture pak enabled the blood basically makes the game slow to a crawl, I think Glenn64 covered this a while back I'll see if I can find a video!

I want to experience it for myself on the hardware. The issue is that I don't know if I'll be able to find the original cart; the expansion pak usually replaces it and a lot of people throw the old one away!

 

[YuriSukiSan]

I want to experience it for myself on the hardware. The issue is that I don't know if I'll be able to find the original cart; the expansion pak usually replaces it and a lot of people throw the old one away!

Oh, err.. I'm sorry! I think my english is bad tonight, I'll be quiet!

 

[Blamhammer]

The expansion pak should have been used to make levels and game worlds bigger but they just upped the resolution which tanked the framerate to near unplayable levels.

If you bought a Summer Cart 64 flash cart you can boot 64DD discs on it. I believe the 64DD software requires the expansion pak.

 

[χKai]

Oh, err.. I'm sorry! I think my english is bad tonight, I'll be quiet!

Please don't, I'm enjoying the conversation

 

[YuriSukiSan]

Please don't, I'm enjoying the conversation

Well! I didn't understand what you meant, sorry! I was trying to say that the nintendo 64 expansion pak just lets you use a HD texture option that's in the game but the moment you enable it, the frames drop really, really, badly! Especially when something bleeds! You can't get an expansion pak in the US?

Also this is the video I meant:

 

[χKai]

Well! I didn't understand what you meant, sorry! I was trying to say that the nintendo 64 expansion pak just lets you use a HD texture option that's in the game but the moment you enable it, the frames drop really, really, badly! Especially when something bleeds! You can't get one in the US?

Also this is the video I meant:

God that looks good.
Can't wait to actually play it.

So I don't have to magically fish out the original, non-expansion cart? (The name eludes me, but I normally remember it)

 

[YuriSukiSan]

God that looks good.
Can't wait to actually play it.

So I don't have to magically fish out the original, non-expansion cart? (The name eludes me, but I normally remember it)

Oh.. I might be out of my depth, I didn't realize they released Turok 2 on different carts? I always thought you could play Turok 2 with out the expansion pak but needed it for the HD textures option. At least that's what we got in the EU!

 

[χKai]

Oh.. I might be out of my depth, I didn't realize they released Turok 2 on different carts? I always thought you could play Turok 2 with out the expansion pak but needed it for the HD textures option. At least that's what we got in the EU!

This. This is what the thing that I am talking about

 

[Blamhammer]

Turok 2 did not receive different variants on the N64. It works with either the Jumper pak or Expansion pak in the N64.

 

[YuriSukiSan]

This. This is what the thing that I am talking about

Oh, I understand! Yahyah!

 

[χKai]

Oh, I understand! Yahyah!

Sorry, I was having so much trouble trying to remember the name.
This is what I was talking about; I was under the impression that you meant we had to swap back to the Jumper Pak to play Turok.

 

[Cu-Neo]

RE 2 was one of those games where the expansion pak is used to increase the image resolution. Castlevania legacy of Darkness also uses the pak with the same objective. Even in some games like Perfect Dark the single player mode is on the pak you if you don't have one you can only the play multiplayer mode

 

[χKai]

RE 2 was one of those games where the expansion pak is used to increase the image resolution. Castlevania legacy of Darkness also uses the pak with the same objective.

Does it cause the game to lag atrociously? Asking about RE 2 specifically.

 

[Cu-Neo]

Does it cause the game to lag atrociously? Asking about RE 2 specifically.

Don't know

 

[χKai]

Don't know

I'll probably still pick it up. I've been wanting to play that series for a long time.. I'm just not very good at many shooting games, outside of Megaman X;
Or rather, I wasn't before a year and a half ago..
Then I started modding Fallout New Vegas religiously. Spent all day, every day, modding. Not 'playing'; just modding.
And now that I have the perfect setup and hundreds of rare mods from all over the web, my computer screen is completely black.