So the other day I dug out my copy of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (arguably the best Zelda game ever) and when I read what’s on the box I noticed, or was reminded rather, that the game required an expansion pack. See picture attached below (if I can figure out how to do that).

As most of you would remember, adding the N64 Expansion Pak to your Nintendo 64 console increased the available memory from the standard 4MB to a total of 8MB - thereby doubling the awesomeness of an already awesome console. While some games like Majora’s Mask required the Expansion Pak to play, other games like Turok 2 (one of the best FPS ever) are written to utilize the additional memory the expansion provides to enhance graphics and game-play (man Turok 2 was awesome).

With all that said, my question is why don’t consoles these days have similar upgrade provisions? For example, if Sony desinged in the passiblity of expanding the memory of the PS3, they could have expanded its memory when they realised how limiting the available PS3 memory was. Wouldn’t consoles these days be better if they had expandable capabilities?For example, what if the Wii U had expandable capabilites that once PS720 came out, Nintendo could just double the awesomeness of the WiiU?

Anyways, let's discuss.

DaRev

Obvious Nintendo bias is obvious.

I "expanded" my Ps3 harddrive to 1 tb last year. When I had my 360 I "expanded" it's harddrive from 20gb to 120gb.

Not sure what you're not understanding.

How often the N64-expansion was purchased and affected it sales of games that depended on it?

theres a diffence between adding more space to save your game and doubling the amout of ram a game can use.

@ OP i dont now why they dont do it any more it seams like a good idea but when you do something like it you split the market  for game so develapers have to choses whether or not to devolpe for it or not like  Wii motoin plus 

Only a handful of people would buy it so nobody would develop a game using it.

The fact that the N64 was built with a memory expansion port shows that Nintendo had plans to force customers to buy an extra accessory from the very start. One does not expect to have to buy an "upgrade" to their current console to play games later in the development cycle. Luckily very few games actually required the thing.

Also the memory addition from the expansion pack was actually slower than the main system memory. It did not simply "double" the "awesomeness". It allowed for some minor upgrades.

Don't get me wrong I loved the N64, but this thread is ridiculous.

really? I thought if a console could getter better looking games because of expanded memory, as like Turok2, then developers would love it, especially coming down to the end of a console generation. Oh well.

Couldn't it be that Nintendo was trying to keep the initial price down, so they released the Expansion pack later - you know they are lways concerned about the cost of their hardware. But I get what you're saying for games that couldn't work without the Expansion Pak.

i agree with the memory expansion thing and i dont think games would suffer if you can play them without the expansion..

Turok 2 I always mention that game in almost every FPS discussion and no one has played it ..its probably the best FPS of all time..and each level is so fu**ing BIG you need literaly days to finish just one level on the first try..story is great,graphics are awesome the music is perfect and even the AI is good when compared to todays standards.

the game deserves some kind of award or atleast a remake its totally forgotten..

100% Agree. You reminded me of how huge Turoks 2's levels were. I remember taking around 3 hours to finish certain levels - absolutely huge. The weapons were awesome as well, like the Cerebral Bore and the Razor Wind. Simple fact is that the Expansion Pack made games better, and Turok 2 was a perfect example of that.