this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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Incorrect, at least in DK64's case.
Donkey Kong 64 was intended to run on the stock N64. There are no features in the game designed to require more than 4MB of RAM. But, they found a game-breaking bug that would crash the system, it seemed to be a memory leak, and they couldn't identify and fix it. So at great expense they shipped every copy of the game with an Expansion Pak, and then tried to turn lemons into lemonade by playing that up in marketing, "You have to upgrade the system just to play it!"
Compare DK64 to Banjo Kazooie and tell me why one game needs a RAM expansion and the other doesn't. Compare DK64 to Conker's Bad Fur Day and tell me which of the two requires twice as much RAM to run.
Majora's Mask did require the Expansion Pak, not really for higher poly models but to have more entities or enemies on screen at once, to enable longer draw distances, and to allow for frame buffer effects like the blurring and such. It allowed for the frame buffer effects (all the blurring and swirling it does during mask transitions etc.) plus it allowed them to have longer draw distances and more NPCs/enemies on screen at once without resorting to that pre-rendered mounted swivel cam thing they did in Ocarina of Time in Castle Town.
Mark Stevenson, lead artist of DK64, has already said in an interview with Nintendo Life that the use of the Expansion Pak to fix a bug was just a myth. This kind of bug did exist but was fully outside of the context of the Expanion Pak:
Source: Nintendo Life - Feature: Donkey Kong 64 Devs On Bugs, Boxing And 20 Years Of The DK Rap
Stevenson later in an Games Radar Interview explained that the Expansion Pak was used for having bigger maps as well as being able to do more advanced lightning techniques:
Source: Retro Gamer - How the N64 "confidently signposted our way into the 3D future"
Huh. I wondered why that was the only instance where the camera was in the center of the scene. Thanks for sharing.
It isn't the only instance where it does that; it also happens in several other places like most shops and minigame houses, the barn at Lon Lon Ranch, Dampe's shack and most house interiors, including Link's House, the very first location in the game. Castle Town is the largest and most prominent, and you easily spend the most time there, so you notice it there more. Some of the locations I mentioned aren't required and you might completely miss them, but not Castle Town.