N64 Expansion Pack problem?

[AWinterFuneral]

I decided to expand my old school gaming inventory, so I went to a local gaming store today and bought a Nintendo 64. Of course from what I remember playing when I was younger I though "Damn, I should buy one with the expansion pack already in it, it can save me a few bucks since I won't have to buy it". Naturally, I bought it. I found some awesome games at another store, and from a local ad and basically I ended up coming home with a Nintendo 64, clear blue model, and 12 games (Gex, Mario 64, Starfox 64, Zelda:Ocarina of Time, Zelda: Majora's Mask, Bomberman hero, Rogue Squadron, Banjo Kazooie, Nightmare Creatures, Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, Diddy Kong Racing, and Mario Kart 64).

Anyways, so I decided to put the games in and try them all out. First I tried Rogue Squadron. Once it booted up it asked me if I wanted to use the expansion packs features and play the game in high res, so I did of course, and no problem. Next I tried Castlevania: Legacy Of Darkness. Because I have the expansion installed, it asked me if I wanted to play the game in high res or low res, like RS, so I picked High Res. From the intro I already noticed the game was kind of choppy, and through the intro and into the gameplay, it tended to slightly skip and continue to be choppy throughout. I reset it, chose low res, and it worked much better. So I figured it was just a minor error and decided to disregard the matter.

Next I decided to play Ocarina Of time. So in the beginning (as expected), I created my file, and proceeded to watch the intro about hyrule where it fades into Link sleeping in his wood carved bed. Immediately I noticed links character sprite was flashing in and out, like disappearing and reappearing, and then the words that scrolled out at the bottom spelled some weird sentences that resembled readable text, but with random letters placed in between some of the words. Like "Stanbd ovyre threy". So in my confusion and by using the process of elimination I decided my N64 wasn't possessed and trying to tell me something, and started to think something was maybe wrong with my system, or the expansion pack for that matter.

I decided to make one final attempt, so I put in Majora's Mask and started playing it, since that was one of the games I knew actually required the expansion pack to play it. I started the game, and like OOT I made a new file. Started playing through the game, I think it froze once but I can't remember correctly if it did or not. Anyways it didn't look too bad. The graphics certainly looked different, but I couldn't distinguish what the difference was between a game that didn't need the expansion, and one that did, I honestly couldn't tell much of a difference.

Basically, I ended up getting a sweet deal on some awesome games and a sweet new system to add to my collection, but when I was younger I never had the expansion for my N64. Has anyone read or heard anything about the Expansion pack causing freezes and skips/choppy gameplay for some games? I remember looking at one review where some dude said that the expansion pack (or PAK as it was called) is known to cause choppiness in 80-90% of the the games that are played while it's installed. Is this true? I am going to try and clean my system and games tonight really good and see if that fixes the issue, but if anyone knows anything that can either help, or educate me on why this is happening, let me know please.

[joshnickerson]

I never had any problems playing games with the Exp Pak installed, and I never heard of anyone having similar issues. I think the most likely culprit is dirty cart contacts and a dirty system, especially since you bought everything used. I'd give everything a good cleaning then see if you're still having issues.

[AWinterFuneral]

sweet, thanks man.

[mattimeo310]

Im gonna have to agree with josh on this one considering I dont remember OOT even having any features with the expansion pack (I think it came out before the expansion).

[Streetball 21]

Zelda OOT did not have any features with the Expansion Pack. As mentioned, could be a dirty Expansion Pak, or maybe a dirty system/games...

[megasdkirby]

Castlevania Legacy of Darkness IS choppy when played with the Expansion Pack. Same thing with Hybird Heaven.

Some games were "enhanced" but basically unplayable that way. I rather stick with low res on some games (like he ones listed above).

[Dr. Dib]

Is it a third party expansion pack? it's always possible that it's the culprit.

Otherwise I've never had any problems with my expansion pack. I'm fairly positive I played OOT on it with the expansion pack in with no problems. As others said, it is probably a dirt issue.

[dreamcaster]

I have over 60 N64 games and they all work perfectly with the Expansion Pak installed, regardless of whether the games supports Expansion Pak features or not.

The problems here are either one or more of the following:
1. Unofficial Expansion Pak - these have been known to cause problems.
2. Dirty contacts - make sure the contacts for the game cartridges, the cartridge slot AND the Expansion Pak are clean and free of dirt/dust.
3. The Ice Blue N64 - I have found in my experience that the coloured N64's are generally of a lower build quality than the original black ones. This, in concert with the above issues could be causing you problems.

I am not saying ditch the coloured N64 (unless of course you ever want s-video output), but that they seem to be more sensitive to problems such as the ones I have listed above.

[Ze_ro]

Zelda OOT did not have any features with the Expansion Pack.

It's possible that the expansion pak is interfering with memory access even when games aren't actually using the extra memory it provides.

I don't suppose you happen to have the jumper pak that originally came in that slot? I'd say test things out with that and see if the problems persist.

--Zero

[A Black Falcon]

Castlevania Legacy of Darkness does have a somewhat low framerate in Hi-Res mode, but the graphics are so much better, and so good looking, that I don't mind... I got used to it, and played through the whole game and beat it in High Res. Super FX framerates I find too low (Star Fox, Vortex, Stunt Race FX...), but N64 framerates are higher than that, and, for me, tolerable. It is an essentiall addon, supported by many N64 games.

Oh -- the expansion pak was released in late 1999. No game from before then supported it, including OoT. Also, yeah, stay away from the third party expansion paks...

It's possible that the expansion pak is interfering with memory access even when games aren't actually using the extra memory it provides.

I don't suppose you happen to have the jumper pak that originally came in that slot? I'd say test things out with that and see if the problems persist.

--Zero

The only game I've ever heard of having problems with the Expansion Pak is Space Station Silicon Valley, and even there it's not all copies -- my copy, for instance, has no problems and has never crashed, while for some people they get game-stopping crashes when playing the game on a system with an expansion pak.

Other than that, though, I've never heard of a problem, and most certainly not with OoT. No correctly working expansion pak would cause problems with the game, I'm pretty sure.

[AWinterFuneral]

Thanks for the feedback fellas. I brought my N64 over to Gooch's house and cleaned the hell out of it. Cleaned the games, the contacts, and even pulled out the expansion pak and cleaned the contacts on it. I think it was installed incorrectly because it was just slightly crooked in the slot, I could be wrong though. Nevertheless I feel better after cleaning it, and I am yet to test it. I'll let everyone know!