How the N64 Rumble Pak changed everything

4:40 The sight of MVG trying to catch a motor was hilarious...

Rumble is fun for a lot of obvious reasons, but I always like the little non-obvious applications developers come up with. The way Hudson's party games give you a little jolt when it's your turn, or the way Mario Golf gives you a buzz when your ball successfully goes through a ring in Ring Shot mode, is genuinely a nice bit of extra feedback. One of my favorite clever bits of rumble is in Getter Love, a dating-sim/party game hybrid also made by Hudson. When you confess your feelings to one of the girls, the Rumble Pak starts thumping, emulating those times in real life when you're so nervous you can feel your heart beat. It's such a cute little bit of verisimilitude.

The summer of 1997 was all about the rumble pack and Star Fox 64 for me. Really can’t overstate how big of a deal it felt at the time!

As a kid; when Naomi in MGS1 used the dual shock vibrate to massage your wrist after the torture sequence; genuinely thought that was the most immersive shit ever. I still kind of do.

I was in a mom and pop game game shop when I played Star Fox 64 for the first time. I was blown away with the visuals, but I was even more surprised when the controller shook violently when I accidentally flew into a structure. It was a feature I needed in a controller ever since.

Putting in that rumble pack felt good , the weight of it. Your controller felt powerful. Kinda like adding an ammo clip Felt cool as a kid

One thing about the "no battery rumble mod" is that it's been well documented as being able to cause the n64 to overdraw the 3.3v line if a game activates more than 2 of them at a time, which is one reason that most display kiosks with the modded rumble pak installed would only have 2 controllers... And speaking of kiosks, yeah, the no battery rumble mod was official for display kiosks so that store owners wouldn't need to swap batteries

Dual Shock on PS1 Metal Gear Solid is what changed everything the most for me. Phyco Mantis saying" Put your controller on the floor and watch me move it with my mind". Core gaming memory.

Oh god that Tremor Pak was a real "Hey bro, here's your controller" type accessory. It didn't fit snug in the N64 controller port and rattled around so bad. 😆

That VHS of StarFox 64 got me so hyped for the game as a kid. We had never seen 4 player space battles against each other ON A CONSOLE before, with a new device that made you “feel the game”. It was a brilliant marketing move that must’ve cost a lot to ship all of those VHS tapes. I must have mine somewhere still. “THIS is the Rumble Pack” I still say all the time when I find my OG Rumble Pack in my garage. It’s too bad emulation won’t let it work in an N64 controller on PC most of the time though.

Is this going to be a trilogy? You covered the Expansion Pak, then the Rumble Pak, I wonder if there's anything interesting to say about the Transfer Pak. Great video, the homebrew experiment was cool.

Starfox 64 train level with the rumble pak was rad as a kid!

The first controller with vibration was actually the Japanese Dual Analog SCPH-1150, which was presented a few days before the Rumble Pak.

It was so cool playing Starfox64 this way back then. Some of those explosions really rumbled!

I still remember the day my friend, who lived a few houses away, and I both picked up Star Fox 64 on launch day. We had watched the Nintendo Power promo VHS probably 20x before release. Fantastic game even without the introduction of the rumble pak.

I can remember going into my local Walmart Electronics and watching that Star Fox Rumble Pak promotional video. It really sold me on the N64. I just had to own one at that point. 😊

I remember getting a dual shock controller for my PS1 and playing Gran Turismo was just a different beast with it. You could feel the difference going round a corner with and without grip, and braking was heavy or not. Then in 2013 when the new Xbox One controller had haptic feedback on the triggers, for the first time I was able to play games like Forza with the ABS and Traction Control off, because you could feel through the triggers when you lost grip. I realised the other day how much I rely on it when playing Rocket League. My Xbox one controller disconnected from my PC, and it was mid match, I got it reconnected but the rumble didn't work, and I was so lost, because it rumbles harder when you're boosting, but that's also a no look feel indicator for if you've run out etc. Rumble is just awesome!

Amazing video. As someone that follows, Techmoan, LGR, Technology Connections, Tech Tangents, and the typical people you always see mentioned in these comment sections, I love how much detail and solid pacing you maintain through all of your "Here's Why/How" videos. Always less than 20 minutes as well. I did not own a 64, but as a PS1 owner, I remember the day my brother came home with a 2-Disc copy of Gran Turismo 2, and this awesome looking PS1 controller that had these weird joysticks at the bottom... I didn't get it at the time, but my jaw HIT THE FLOOR with enough force to break teeth, when I accelerated with the right stick, broke traction, and felt the motors kick on... The fact that the left or right side would rumble independently depending on which side of the car you hit... You couldn't convince me driving games were going to get better than that, when I was 8. It's cool to examine all these features and innovations 20 and 30 years after, it takes you away for a second to those better days.

I bought a third party rumble pak and followed a guide online to mod it so it was powered by the console and didn't need batteries. It worked incredibly well!

Helpful tip: The Tremor Pak uses two AA batteries it can corrupt saves even with the switches flipped right way, if just one of those batteries are low on juice.