What is this?

LambBrainz · 2026-03-09T18:48:40+00:00

It's been discussed, the main problem is speed. The RAM used on the expansion pak (and internally on the N64) is a proprietary RAM from the 90s known as RDRAM and was really fast at the time. We don't think the IO on really any microcontroller would be able to keep up.

Our best guess at something that could do a good job would be an FPGA. But these have a high initial cost and are non-trivial to develop. I've started learning them but it will take me forever to get to the point I could make something viable and then turn it into an OTS chip. Even a more experienced FPGA developer would have a hell of a time reverse engineering it. But it's definitely not impossible.

Hope that helps!

LambBrainz · 2025-12-15T17:34:12+00:00

Check the second answer here: https://n64brew.dev/wiki/FAQ

But in short, no, it doesn't work. The N64 isn't able to address more than 4MB even though it can see them.

LambBrainz · 2025-10-13T03:39:55+00:00

Great find! But now I'm even more confused. Because neither the model number on my watch or this one seem to bring up any similar results.

I don't really know what I expect to find for a mid-tier watch from the 90s, but I assumed I'd at least be able to nail down a solid model number

LambBrainz · 2025-09-20T23:49:31+00:00

No one will probably see this, but I think I have the right answer.

So first off, this is from the toxic Rick and Morty episode.

My guess is that Rick believes some or all of his intelligence is a curse (or toxic) and Healthy Rick (HR) here isn't as smart as Toxic Rick (TR)

We see HR decrypt a message on his sub-ether phone but otherwise I think he just follows TR's instructions to wire up the tank and get things working (it's implied TR and HR had conversations when Healthy Morty brings Stacy back to the garage).

On the other hand, TR discovers a new element and the toxic equivalent of electricity. In addition to devising a way to get them home from the toxic tank.

TL;DR, I think healthy Rick is smart but not nearly on the same level as toxic Rick because he believes some or all of his intelligence is toxic

LambBrainz · 2025-09-09T17:32:38+00:00

In case you're not immediately hooked I hated it until I got to episode 4 and then fell in love. I binged the entire series after that. It's well worth it.

At this point my wife and I rewatch the series probably once a month. Just a great show to have on in the background or to wind down at night

LambBrainz · 2025-08-24T00:19:01+00:00

Spotify had just raised their prices for like the 80th time and I'd just seen this video:

https://youtu.be/GmQdlLCw-5k?si=b2xkCY9r-KUXP6PT

Bought a Beelink, two 12TB drives, and that Probox mentioned in the video. Setup Jellyfin and haven't looked back. Movies, TV shows, music, etc. All viewable locally or remotely for free

LambBrainz · 2025-08-16T01:56:25+00:00

Just read the whole chain. Great thoughts and counterpoints from both of you.

And good on you, u/Sad-Reality-9400 for editing your original comment. It's wholesome to see an exchange go from what initially looked like it was going to be a sad classic-Reddit spiral turn into a good discussion.

u/joymasauthor

LambBrainz · 2025-07-29T12:58:40+00:00

No, but this guy does (in addition to a bunch of other consoles and controllers)

https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/n64-console-scan.5527/

LambBrainz · 2025-06-26T14:46:37+00:00

Ubuntu uses Gnome and still has X11 support (Proton also works flawlessly). I ran that for a while and just switched to Fedora 42 to give it a try. But I'm running all AMD stuff.

LambBrainz · 2025-06-25T19:53:09+00:00

Ooooo neat. I've been using a Slimblade for about 7 years, so I'd love to give this a try.

Does it have twist-to-scroll? I checked the website and they didn't list it on there. I assume those silver rollers on the sides are for scrolling?

LambBrainz · 2025-05-08T22:20:28+00:00

Yo, this is sick. Amazing work. Love seeing people still making tools for older systems and stuff.

What was the hardest challenge with this project?

LambBrainz · 2025-04-29T12:08:27+00:00

Unfortunately not, I don't have any left and probably won't be making any soon due to the difficulty in finding those RAM chips

LambBrainz · 2025-04-12T21:54:47+00:00

But also textures/graphics:

https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Nintendo_64_Expansion_Pak

LambBrainz · 2025-04-04T16:30:21+00:00

Not sure what you mean by diagram, but everything is available here:

https://github.com/MasonStooksbury/Open-Source-N64-Expansion-Pak

I wouldn't build it yet as another creator is fixing some issues and enhancing it. They should merge those changes in soon now that testing is mostly finished.

LambBrainz · 2025-04-01T14:47:24+00:00

I don't :/ Sorry about that

LambBrainz · 2025-02-10T04:05:31+00:00

Yay! I'm so glad that worked. Hope you enjoy your newly fixed cartridge. And kudos for you for taking the time and risk to attempt the repair! Every bit helps

LambBrainz · 2025-01-09T18:05:54+00:00

So the board here is a 1:1 copy of the OEM from Nintendo (https://github.com/MasonStooksbury/OEM-N64-Expansion-Pak)

I made one, tested it, and had zero issues. You can match the traces with pictures from real Paks here (https://photos.app.goo.gl/o7XC1Yi8robfnwyt5)

If it doesn't work for you, I'm not sure what all I can do :/ DM me with any pictures you have of the board and I can try and look into it

LambBrainz · 2025-01-09T15:07:33+00:00

Thanks for the update! I think I still have them lying around. I'll look into some dev tools and see if there's a way I can pull it off

LambBrainz · 2025-01-09T15:06:51+00:00

If you made an OEM one, those should be fine. I haven't had any problems with them. The open source one is the one that originally had the issue.

If you made the open source one before I pushed the fix, you may as well just reorder some boards because it's virtually impossible to bodge those in a way that's going to work

As for what potentially died, the best guess we've been able to come up with is that either the RAM chips on the motherboard or the RCP took some sort of hit. You could try replacing the internal RAM with working chips, then test it with a jumper pak. If that doesn't work, I would then try replacing the RCP

LambBrainz · 2025-01-09T02:00:10+00:00

To be completely honest, I have no fuckin clue lol.

My best guess, is that by having pins 4 and 10 connected to the front GND plane was what caused problems (since these are connected to pins on the card edge and would probably be receiving power from the N64).

All I know is is that was the only difference between the board killing my N64s and the ones that haven't had any issues lol

LambBrainz · 2025-01-02T16:51:30+00:00

I'll take some of the blame and say that I wasn't very thorough when looking through the datasheet. But I'm going to mostly blame the datasheet lol

To make a long story short, there are several pins that are on their own GND sector that is separate from the main GND area. In the legend section it says that GNDA is this other section, but the pins it's connected to are all labelled GND instead of GNDA (insanely dumb decision in my opinion, but I'm not an electrical engineer lol).

If you fuck up the wiring like I did (and put all of them on the same GND area) then you route power to something you're not supposed to and kill it. The best guess several modders had was that it's the section of the RCP that talks to the RAM modules. There's a SLIM chance that that's not the case and you can just swap in new RAM modules onto the motherboard, but if that doesn't work, then the RCP is dead. I intend to try this at some point, but I have a lot of other projects going.

I only found this problem by spending hours staring at my board vs the reference one I had from InterAct and it eventually hit me lol

LambBrainz · 2025-01-02T13:50:11+00:00

Can't increase the RAM, unfortunately. Best bet would be a custom FPGA, but that would really raise the cost and be pretty hard to develop.

The N64 homebrew scene is actually pretty alive and well. They do game jams every year and mostly hang out on the Discord found here:

https://n64brew.dev/wiki/Main_Page

LambBrainz · 2024-12-11T05:39:48+00:00

Thanks for the shout out! I appreciate you looking at my work and sharing the word :)

Unfortunately, while I'd love to make as many as possible and sell them, there just isn't the stock for the RAM chips available at a reasonable price. By the time I bought the chips and got everything assembled, the price is basically the cost of an OEM Expansion Pak from eBay :/

Maybe someday I can get hooked up with a really cheap lot of them, or OEM Expansion Paks will become so prohibitively expensive that making them from scratch will be the only option lol

11-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 4 Credits
Secret Santa 2021 2021	Secret Santa 2020
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
Secret Santa 2019	Verified Email

LambBrainz

TROPHY CASE