Technical Content

Currently Playing: Perfecting Nintendo's Rarest Item

Last time we recreated Nintendo’s rarest Controller Pak… but now, we perfect it. Join Jhynjhiruu and I as we walk you through new discoveries and developments! ‣ Support on Patreon: https://patreon.com/hunter_r ‣ Become a channel member: https://www.youtube.com/@Hunter-R./join ‣ Follow me on Twitter: https://x.com/xHunter_R ‣ Follow me on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/hunter-r.com DEDICATED POST WITH TECHNICAL INFORMATION: https://hunter-r.com/posts/ice-climber-pak/ COMMON QUESTIONS: — Q: If you said the hard limit for Controller Paks is 2MB, then how is the Datel Pak 4Megs? A: Datel, like many Controller Paks at the time, advertise their memory capacity in bits instead of bytes. So their “4MEG” Pak is actually four megabits, not megabytes. So, in reality, their largest Pak was 0.5MB. I use bytes in this video since it’s the more common way to describe memory in modern days. Q: Aren’t there multiple third-party Controller Paks with a higher capacity? A: There are several third-party Paks that advertise a higher memory capacity, but almost all of them are limited to 32KB in reality. This is because most of them are really just multiple 32KB Paks “glued” together, and they just use a physical switch on the actual shell to swap between those Paks. In other words, they can only have one 32KB bank exposed at a time, with all others remaining inaccessible until you move the physical switch. Thus, it’s impossible to store files greater than 32KB on these Paks, even though they may advertise them as 1Meg or 4Meg. This is why we had to build our own Pak and use Nintendo’s bank switching protocol on the software side. — ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: — • ​⁠@jhynjhiruurekrap5725 for performing voiceover and tons of research/code for this project • ​⁠@Cuyler for researching, coding tools, and adding emulation support • ​⁠@Zoinkity for their extensive coverage of the N64 and Doubutsu no Mori’s Famicom emulator • zwenergy for their work on the CPAK2040 project • Polprzewodnikowy for their work on the PicoJoybus project • naporitanPG (ナポりたん) for sharing Japanese magazine information • Yuki for their assistance with Japanese translations • Trevor for 3D-printing the shells for the Pico and Pak PCB — RESOURCES: — Further reading: https://hunter-r.com/posts/ice-climber-pak/ zwenergy’s CPAK2040 project: https://github.com/zwenergy/CPAK2040-Zero Polprzewodnikowy’s PicoJoybus project: https://github.com/Polprzewodnikowy/PicoJoybus/ N64 Programming Manual: https://ultra64.ca/files/documentation/online-manuals/man/pro-man/start/index.html Controller Pak pinout / details: https://n64brew.dev/wiki/Controller_Pak — ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE: — Japanese Animal Crossing N64 & GameCube Unboxings: https://youtu.be/nA8Yk-J6yrs?si=O-J6CqZn9uvUIn8J Datel's 4MEG Controller Pak Advert: https://youtu.be/mQS3ULZlLn8?si=96TLFnpJ-4ld-22x Zoinkity’s original Doubutsu no Mori Famicom overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XfTdp3s2AQ — MUSIC: — • Isabelle's Theme (Happy Home Designer) • K.K. Disco (Qumu Remix) • Airport Counter (New Horizons) • 7 A.M. (Animal Crossing) • 5 A.M. (Animal Crossing) • Paradise Planning Introduction (Happy Home Paradise) • Nookington's (Animal Crossing) • Tutorial (Happy Home Designer) • Never Slow Me Down (Everet Almond) • Paradise Planning - Day (Happy Home Paradise) • 5 P.M. (New Leaf) • School Event (Happy Home Paradise) • 12 P.M. (New Leaf) • Visitor Approaching (New Horizons) • Ice Climber Medley (Super Smash Bros. Melee) • Ice Climber (Super Smash Bros. Brawl) — Numerous assets and information were sourced from Nookipedia, the Animal Crossing decompilation project, and from the community megasheet. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:14 Proving the Pak Exists 0:02:44 Questioning the "Impossible" 0:05:00 iQue Speculation (Jhynjhiruu) 0:06:57 Uncovering Bank Switching 0:07:59 Nintendo's Larger Paks? 0:08:55 Datel's 4MEG Linear Pak 0:10:07 Planning out Perfection 0:11:13 Formatting the Data 0:15:56 Prototyping the Hardware 0:18:03 Building a Physical Pak 0:21:18 The Final Product 0:22:24 Acknowledgments #hunterr #animalcrossing #technical