Good question.
I've never seen a system behind this (or criteria) why, when and what goes nuts with the used prices. Some things/games become worthless junk, other things go to insane prices. (Mega Man NES/SNES, some Castlevania…)
The only thing I can imagine is that the 4MB memory expansion is much rarer than the N64 consoles – but a really good thing to have for many games and mandatory for DK64, Majoras Mask and Perfect Dark. Supposedly you can theoretically solder 8MB RAM directly to the board.
https://forums.nesdev.org/viewtopic.php?t=12517
No idea if this is true. Found no proof. If that works it will not be cheaper than an official Expansion Pack – and more work. Sounds cool though.
Haven't searched: Are there any third-party replacements for the Expansion Pack? And if so, are they good and reliable?
I've never seen a system behind this (or criteria) why, when and what goes nuts with the used prices. Some things/games become worthless junk, other things go to insane prices. (Mega Man NES/SNES, some Castlevania…)
The only thing I can imagine is that the 4MB memory expansion is much rarer than the N64 consoles – but a really good thing to have for many games and mandatory for DK64, Majoras Mask and Perfect Dark. Supposedly you can theoretically solder 8MB RAM directly to the board.
https://forums.nesdev.org/viewtopic.php?t=12517
No idea if this is true. Found no proof. If that works it will not be cheaper than an official Expansion Pack – and more work. Sounds cool though.
Haven't searched: Are there any third-party replacements for the Expansion Pack? And if so, are they good and reliable?
The Expansion Pak RAM chips were made a while ago and have not been reproduced since. The N64 system requires precise timing that other chips can not produce. That's why current 3rd-party Paks will not work or shortly malfunction. Any functional 3rd-party Paks use the same RAM chips as the OEM ones.
Last edited by zfreeman,
It's real life Bart vs The Space Mutants, this levels item is expansion packs
I swear we had this thread the other week.
Anyway as above they were an extra effort, made in smaller numbers than there are consoles (to say nothing of them generally being lost over the years because child's toy/electronics/all the usual), not made since. Limited supply, greater demand than supply -- there is not really a reason not to have one (not like the Saturn expansions where having one might trouble certain games) and they are used to make all the best games play in general or play nicer (some did like the Turok sequels without it for certain things) -- https://www.thegamer.com/best-n64-games-use-expansion-pak/ .
To that end there might be those looking to play one game that did not need the expansion and call that the entire use of their N64. However most will probably be looking to play all the games they can, and as mentioned many of the best the N64 had needed one, so they will be looking for one (in this old games in general I generally note you are facing people that had one back when and want it again, had a family one shared with siblings, played round a friend's/cousin's/whatever and want it, saw it in a magazine back when, resellers/investors, played it on an emulator and the general retro enthusiasts. No reason it would be any different here).
To that end time to work some overtime, learn electronics (if I can trick a raspberry pi into acting as a CPU and then some for an amiga this seems within reason, never mind just doing FPGA fun), hope you get lucky in a charity shop/car boot sale/facebook marketplace/... (good luck there -- I have not seen N64 stuff be vaguely common/get it out of my attic availability and prices for well over 15 years at this point but never say never I suppose as you might get some clueless grandma* price the one her grandkids left there like it was a decades old cooking gadget), emulate or see if the games you want are available elsewhere -- Rare replay on the xbone covers a lot of stuff here and individual Rare games have ports elsewhere, indeed I will play the original Perfect Dark these days as the XBLA version is so much better and the Tony Hawk games of the link above have things like http://www.thugpro.com/ .
*I go to a lot of places where said grandmas are selling things, even they check ebay these days.
Anyway as above they were an extra effort, made in smaller numbers than there are consoles (to say nothing of them generally being lost over the years because child's toy/electronics/all the usual), not made since. Limited supply, greater demand than supply -- there is not really a reason not to have one (not like the Saturn expansions where having one might trouble certain games) and they are used to make all the best games play in general or play nicer (some did like the Turok sequels without it for certain things) -- https://www.thegamer.com/best-n64-games-use-expansion-pak/ .
To that end there might be those looking to play one game that did not need the expansion and call that the entire use of their N64. However most will probably be looking to play all the games they can, and as mentioned many of the best the N64 had needed one, so they will be looking for one (in this old games in general I generally note you are facing people that had one back when and want it again, had a family one shared with siblings, played round a friend's/cousin's/whatever and want it, saw it in a magazine back when, resellers/investors, played it on an emulator and the general retro enthusiasts. No reason it would be any different here).
To that end time to work some overtime, learn electronics (if I can trick a raspberry pi into acting as a CPU and then some for an amiga this seems within reason, never mind just doing FPGA fun), hope you get lucky in a charity shop/car boot sale/facebook marketplace/... (good luck there -- I have not seen N64 stuff be vaguely common/get it out of my attic availability and prices for well over 15 years at this point but never say never I suppose as you might get some clueless grandma* price the one her grandkids left there like it was a decades old cooking gadget), emulate or see if the games you want are available elsewhere -- Rare replay on the xbone covers a lot of stuff here and individual Rare games have ports elsewhere, indeed I will play the original Perfect Dark these days as the XBLA version is so much better and the Tony Hawk games of the link above have things like http://www.thugpro.com/ .
*I go to a lot of places where said grandmas are selling things, even they check ebay these days.
My guess is that we should ask Microsoft and other game licencees/companies about this.
Why? Banjo-Kazooie no longer belongs to Nintendo and it has been made available to Switch users. I don't think Microsoft leased their property for free.
The same can be applied to some other games that might be released in a not very distant future.
It's all about business.
Why? Banjo-Kazooie no longer belongs to Nintendo and it has been made available to Switch users. I don't think Microsoft leased their property for free.
The same can be applied to some other games that might be released in a not very distant future.
It's all about business.
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Pandemic drove up the price of everything. Not sure why when it comes to older/retro stuff like this, but I am glad I more or less finished my retro collection before it hit. IIRC I nabbed an expansion pak from eBay for $15 some three or four years back.
General inflation (you don't print lots of money without it), people stuck in houses rather than paying for experiences (happened to all sorts of things people might have liked when they were a kid -- prices of action figures probably mirroring rises in games) and it being just about long enough for those that had it as kids-teenagers having money enough to fight over the remaining scraps.
Also the retro line keeps on moving -- I am mostly about the 360 this last however long (mostly because the N64 aged like milk for me and emulation covers anything older) and that was creeping up as people realise there is good stuff there.
Lockdowns (the virus didn't do squat - it killed fewer people in two years than a flu year) and money printer going brrrrrr. 80% of USD that have ever existed were "printed" (the numbers went up, there aren't more green paper things with dead Totally Not Kings on them) in the last two years.
The forced devaluation of the currency might make a difference. There's also supply-and-demand. Basic capitalism - the less stuff there is, and the more people want stuff, the more valuable stuff is.
Yes there is a reason. Nintendo fanboys are idiots.
There's emulators, and you can play the n64 games on most devices these days.
Plus, they're not really that amazing.
There's emulators, and you can play the n64 games on most devices these days.
Plus, they're not really that amazing.
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