N64 Expansion Pack Brands?

[MFoolsRun]

Hi,

I've never owned an N64 before, but I find that I may have one soon, sans expansion pack. Looking on eBay, there are a ton of off-brand Expansion Packs for between $5 and $10, whereas the official Nintendo branded packs sell at the Nintendo Online Store for $30.

 

How good are the off-brand packs? Should I pony up and get a branded Expansion Pack?

[theking21083]

I had an off brand expansion pack since I got my N64 in 1998 and it has never given me a problem.

[Uzumaki]

Long ago I had an off brand pak, I think it was Mad Catz brand. It didn't perform well and Zelda MM was crashing a few times. I also have Nyko brand and it has worked flawlessly for the last 10 or so years now.

 

YMMV if you get the cheap ones.

[doubledown]

I've always had the official Nintendo version and no problems at all. I've heard of reports of overheating and slow-down casued by 3rd party versions. Also some of the 3rd party version are taller than the Nintendo version and don't allow you to use the expansion pak cover. So if you have one of the colored or Pikachu consoles it will look odd, but that's just a personal preference.

[KrazyKaiju]

The NYKO packs are as good as the Official Nintendo ones. The Mad Catz... not so much.

 

Personally, I wouldn't spend more than $5 for any off brand pack. I've seen N64 systems with extra controllers and the expansion pack included go for around $30 on eBay. People just don't seem to be collecting for them right now.

[Uzumaki]

The Nyko is the tall one that will look odd on Pikachu console as well as some certain color. Dark green console with red plug doesn't look appealing.

[MFoolsRun]

Well I won't have any games with it initially, so maybe I'll just watch my thrifts for a Nintendo branded pack. Thanks for the insight, though.

[SINGLE TOOTH]

Well I won't have any games with it initially, so maybe I'll just watch my thrifts for a Nintendo branded pack. Thanks for the insight, though.

 

That's excatly what I did. I did not feel like paying that price for a 3rd party pak. The ebay ones come out to around 17 after shipping.

 

Finally at the thrift i spot a bag with 2 n64s in. Through the bag, I took off the expansion cover and I discovered a Expansion pak in one.

 

I bought the bag for $25.

 

When I got it home, it had 2 N64 consoles, 1 with expansion pak, One broken controller, and a couple games. One of them was Yoshi's story 64.

 

Not bad, when the pak costs around 17 on the bay. I was just happy I found an offical pak finally.

[Ze_ro]

I've heard of reports of overheating and slow-down casued by 3rd party versions.

Yeah, some of them could overheat. In fact, even the official Nintendo one gets really bloody hot after a while. That's also probably the reason that some of them stuck out of the system... for some extra ventilation.

 

--Zero

[Prodos8]

I was gonna say I had the madkatz or some other off-brand version installed in mine since the late 90s with no problems. But, opened it up a little while ago and found its the OEM Nintendo one. I could've sworn I had an off-brand, as I'm usually a cheap-ass when it comes to just about anything (rumble paks, memory paks, av cables) except controllers, those have to be first party.

[shadow460]

Pony up for the first party pak. You won't regret it. I've had one since Majora's Mask was released and it's never given me any problems at all. No overheating, no crashing, nothing.

 

The games will crash if the contacts get dirty or loose in either the Jumper Pak, and Expansion Pak, or the memory expansion slot. I've found this is the most frequent cause of a "dead" N64, the Jumper Pak's contacts have been exposed at some point and simply need a cleaning.