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The video is confusing on this point. The focus is on all the cool improvements and it seems like there is a lot to like. But at 6:40, the dev says their solu

The video is confusing on this point. The focus is on all the cool improvements and it seems like there is a lot to like. But at 6:40, the dev says their solution would not work on the stock 4MB ram included w the N64. It is kind of snuck in there. It’s kind of an important detail, because like the GTA loading screen fix last year it’s way more interesting when stories like this have a What If?! slant to them. Another commenter mentioned this below, but it’s buried. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31104112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31104112

joshenders 5y ago
About midway into the N64 lifecycle a ram expansion card (expansion pack) was released. His modifications sound like they still play on a stock N64 but the expansion pack is needed. This was fairly typical with higher end games made by Rare. Even as a purist, this added detail doesn’t really detract from the outcome of the project to me.
- hnlmorg 5y ago
  Almost all games worked without the Expansion Pak ("Pak" intentionally spelt without a 'c'). In fact there were only 3 released games that required it[1] and even some of those were still playable without it, you just lost some content (eg Perfect Dark). If this Mario 64 mod requires the use of the Expansion Pak then it's definitely not typical of other N64 games and a point that, like the GP, I felt needed more emphasis rather than a passing remark that was very easy to miss. I'm not taking anything away from the incredible work that developer has done though. It's impressive and really interesting to see. From a hacker perspective it makes total sense to use the Expansion Pak because most retro gamers who might be interested in this mod would likely already have one. But from an authenticity perspective, this is a little bit of a cheat. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_accessories#Expansion_Pak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_accessories#Expans...
  - propertymagnate 5y ago
    For perfect dark the content you lost was the main game, so it was pretty essential for it.
    - hnlmorg 5y ago
      Indeed, however and, somewhat counter-intuitively, the multiplayer game did work without the Expansion Pak. But arguments about the completeness of Perfect Dark aside, my point is that Perfect Dark is still the exception in that the vast majority of games worked without the Expansion Pak. Which is contrary to the earlier commenter who said a lot of N64 games required it.
shdon 5y ago
That's only for one of the many optimisations he did, making use of different sections of memory to improve throughput. Many (all?) of the other ones don't increase the memory requirements. Quite a few (such as re-rolling unrolled loops) should decrease code size (though that won't improve memory use on a ROM cartridge based system) improving cache efficiency.

joshenders 5y ago

About midway into the N64 lifecycle a ram expansion card (expansion pack) was released. His modifications sound like they still play on a stock N64 but the expansion pack is needed. This was fairly typical with higher end games made by Rare. Even as a purist, this added detail doesn’t really detract from the outcome of the project to me.

hnlmorg 5y ago
Almost all games worked without the Expansion Pak ("Pak" intentionally spelt without a 'c'). In fact there were only 3 released games that required it[1] and even some of those were still playable without it, you just lost some content (eg Perfect Dark). If this Mario 64 mod requires the use of the Expansion Pak then it's definitely not typical of other N64 games and a point that, like the GP, I felt needed more emphasis rather than a passing remark that was very easy to miss. I'm not taking anything away from the incredible work that developer has done though. It's impressive and really interesting to see. From a hacker perspective it makes total sense to use the Expansion Pak because most retro gamers who might be interested in this mod would likely already have one. But from an authenticity perspective, this is a little bit of a cheat. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_accessories#Expansion_Pak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_accessories#Expans...
- propertymagnate 5y ago
  For perfect dark the content you lost was the main game, so it was pretty essential for it.
  - hnlmorg 5y ago
    Indeed, however and, somewhat counter-intuitively, the multiplayer game did work without the Expansion Pak. But arguments about the completeness of Perfect Dark aside, my point is that Perfect Dark is still the exception in that the vast majority of games worked without the Expansion Pak. Which is contrary to the earlier commenter who said a lot of N64 games required it.

shdon 5y ago

That's only for one of the many optimisations he did, making use of different sections of memory to improve throughput. Many (all?) of the other ones don't increase the memory requirements. Quite a few (such as re-rolling unrolled loops) should decrease code size (though that won't improve memory use on a ROM cartridge based system) improving cache efficiency.