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It was originally believed that the only reason the game needed the Expansion Pak to run was because it fixed a game-breaking bug that caused the 4 megabyte game cartridge to randomly crash. Rare couldn't find any other solution, so they bundled the Expansion Pak with the game, costing them a lot of money. They still don't know what caused the bug. According to software engineer Chris Marlow:
However, developer Mark Stevenson claimed that while there was a game-breaking bug, it only affected one hardware revision of the Nintendo 64 that would be resolved on later models. He claims that the actual reason the Expansion Pak was required was because Rare's management instructed the game's developers to support it early in development to accommodate advanced graphical effects like dynamic lighting. Stevenson speculated that these two stories were likely conflated into one, creating the memory leak rumor that persisted for years.
Ultimately, Simon Craddick, one of the four engineers who worked on the Expansion Pak's implementation into Donkey Kong 64, claimed in a Facebook group that the only thing the Expansion Pak actually did was add vertex lighting to the levels.
"There was a bug that caused the game to randomly crash that only occurred in the 4meg-only version ... and they couldn't find out what it was, so they had to shift with the memory card in it for free and it cost them a fortune."
However, developer Mark Stevenson claimed that while there was a game-breaking bug, it only affected one hardware revision of the Nintendo 64 that would be resolved on later models. He claims that the actual reason the Expansion Pak was required was because Rare's management instructed the game's developers to support it early in development to accommodate advanced graphical effects like dynamic lighting. Stevenson speculated that these two stories were likely conflated into one, creating the memory leak rumor that persisted for years.
Ultimately, Simon Craddick, one of the four engineers who worked on the Expansion Pak's implementation into Donkey Kong 64, claimed in a Facebook group that the only thing the Expansion Pak actually did was add vertex lighting to the levels.
Conker's Bad Fur Day Director Commentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgtAXCaSlpk#t=2m58s
NintendoLife article:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/11/feature_donkey_kong_64_devs_on_bugs_boxing_and_20_years_of_the_dk_rap
GamesRadar interview:
https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/making-of-donkey-kong-64/
Simon Craddick Facebook Group screencap from 2022:
https://imgur.com/a/ENjggIj
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgtAXCaSlpk#t=2m58s
NintendoLife article:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/11/feature_donkey_kong_64_devs_on_bugs_boxing_and_20_years_of_the_dk_rap
GamesRadar interview:
https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/making-of-donkey-kong-64/
Simon Craddick Facebook Group screencap from 2022:
https://imgur.com/a/ENjggIj
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