Donkey Kong 64 Expansion Pak

[Dark Jaguar]

Remember the expansion pak, which was repeatedly sold to us as something that lets DK64 be even bigger and better than it could possibly be otherwise? Remember how Banjo Tooie seemed like it was doing all those various things we attributed to the expansion pak in DK64, but it didn't need the pak at all?

As it turns out, DK64 didn't actually need the expansion pak for ANY of that stuff. It's been revealed now, in interviews with Rare, that the only purpose of that expansion pak was a hasty kludge of a fix for a game crash bug they didn't have time to iron out any other way before the game's release. Technically, they could have resolved the issue without the expansion pack, but they just couldn't figure out where that bug was coming in in time to code up something better. So, Nintendo slapped an expansion pak into the box for every copy of the game and mislead all of us into thinking it was giving us bigger and better graphics and gameplay. That's gotta be one of the most expensive bug fixes Nintendo has ever had. Still, I don't really have that much of a grudge in this case. It helped me get prepared for the upcoming games that actually DID need the expansion pak, namely Majora's Mask and Perfect Dark, without having to buy the accessory separately.

[Sacred Jellybean]

It was always so nice to pop in a game and see the screen flash "EXPANSION PACK ENABLED" with a spinning 3D render of it.

Not that it made much a difference. I couldn't pick out any real graphical upgrade, would probably barely even discern between the two resoluions side-by-side.

And damn it, that thing crashed my game of Space Station: Silicon Valley. :colbert: I had to rely on OBQuiet to advise me to put the standard pack back in. You know how much I hate admitting I need help from that guy!? The grudge burns me over a decade later.

Was nice to have one handy for the games that needed it, though, sure.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, I heard this somewhere not too long ago. That seems like a very expensive bug fix, but regardless of the reason, I still think DK64 has great graphics. It looks really good, and doesn't have the framerate problems of Banjo-Tooie or Conker...

Oh, and yeah, I got my Expansion Pak from the DK64 bundle as well.

It was always so nice to pop in a game and see the screen flash "EXPANSION PACK ENABLED" with a spinning 3D render of it.

Yeah, that is kind of neat when games do that.

Not that it made much a difference. I couldn't pick out any real graphical upgrade, would probably barely even discern between the two resoluions side-by-side.

And damn it, that thing crashed my game of Space Station: Silicon Valley. :colbert: I had to rely on OBQuiet to advise me to put the standard pack back in. You know how much I hate admitting I need help from that guy!? The grudge burns me over a decade later.

Was nice to have one handy for the games that needed it, though, sure.

I'm in no way a graphics-focused person, but you can absolutely tell the difference in games which let you enable and disable the higher resolution; 320x240 and resolutions as high as 640x480 look different. In a game which just enables stuff in the background and you can't disable it without removing the expansion pak, yes, it's much harder, but most games with resolution changes with the expansion pak do allow you to turn it on and off because the higher resolutions usually also have worse framerates.

Offhand, I definitely can tell the difference in games such as Aidyn Chronicles and Castlevania: LoD... in both framerate and graphical quality, which is why some people turn it off. I'm not one of them though, and beat Legacy of Darkness in high-res, liking it more that way because of the much sharper graphics.