N64 hardware question... It's a weird one...

[cptpoppinfresh]

Hey Tom's community! Got a weird one for yall. The n64 required an expansion card...ish... thingy... in order to play certain games. It had a red top and black body and fit into a middle slot on the system on top.

The question is, what was it? Who designed it ( who did Nintendo get hte hardware from?) Was it some sort of additional CPU? Was it a new Gpu? What capabilities did it add to the system?

 

[Outlander_04]

google is your friend

 

[cptpoppinfresh]

Thank God for Tomshardware community.

 

[Doctor_Den]

Hey Tom's community! Got a weird one for yall. The n64 required an expansion card...ish... thingy... in order to play certain games. It had a red top and black body and fit into a middle slot on the system on top.

The question is, what was it? Who designed it ( who did Nintendo get hte hardware from?) Was it some sort of additional CPU? Was it a new Gpu? What capabilities did it add to the system?

I believe it was called the 'Expansion Pak' it added a few MB to the system which then enabled some games to have more detail. I bought back in the day to play Majoras Mask, as it was required.

 

[AdrianPerry]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_accessories#Expansion_Pak

Item 1.4 on the Contents

You were right Doctor_Den, it was called the "Expansion Pak"

 

[Chainzsaw]

Expansion pack expanded the N64's memory from 4Mbit to 8Mbit. It allowed some games to play with "High" resolution / High Quality.

 

[megamanx00]

It was additional RAM. That's it. Despite the fact that the N64 used a cartridge for fast access the high latency and small amount of RAM was a big limitation. Additional RAM made a big difference for developers allowing extra detail.

 

[dextermat]

+1 : it's a Expansion Pack from nintendo:

You went from 4 mg memory to 8 mg. if i remember.

I actually have on that still works (i remember playing Perfect dark and needed one of those )