Strange N64 occurence...

[Mr. Casual]

I just visited a site about Mystical Ninja starring Goemon for the N64, and remembered the STRANGEST thing I ever did unintentionally on a console. I played that game only as a rental and after I returned it, I came back home. Then I turned my N64 on, and for some reason, there was a list of all the recent games played on it! Even though the N64 was empty, I selected Mystical Ninja and to my surprisement, it worked without the cart!!! I got as far as the first town, then I saved the game (I guess) and turned it off. I started it back up, and I couldnt acess that strange list of games ever again.
Does anyone have a clue about what might have happened or what I did?

[XerdoPwerko]

That's something I'd never heard about. It'd be extremely cool/useful to know whether there's a way to access this regularly.

Slightly OT - I remember unintentionally doing something in an Atari game - Cookie Monster (you know, the sesame street carts with those big touchpads). When you played two player mode (which I played with my brother. He was 13 and I was probably 4), one would be the cookie monster, the other a kid. The object was to run around the maze and pick up the cookies and eat them. But somehow, there's a bug where the cookie monster eats the kid if he's in the same square. This is one of my earliest memories.

Back to the N64 topic, though... unless anyone else has other unknown bugs they have detected!

[Yakumo]

That sounds mighty odd. Are you sure you weren't smoking something that day ?

Yakumo

[sayin999]

you think that shocking, i remember that my bros mega man 2 could actually be turned into 3 with the full game if the cartride was slightly stuck out pushed down bent, though when we would boot mega man 3, it would be garbled graphics, and had to blow on the cart 2-3 times to get it to boot finaly. Though after that mega man 2 never really did play 3 again wiht that method, and as phony and fake as it sounds, it really did happen, and to this day it really baffles me, is there any explination to this, possibility of data from one cartridge going to another?

[gaming247]

I just visited a site about Mystical Ninja starring Goemon for the N64, and remembered the STRANGEST thing I ever did unintentionally on a console. I played that game only as a rental and after I returned it, I came back home. Then I turned my N64 on, and for some reason, there was a list of all the recent games played on it! Even though the N64 was empty, I selected Mystical Ninja and to my surprisement, it worked without the cart!!! I got as far as the first town, then I saved the game (I guess) and turned it off. I started it back up, and I couldnt acess that strange list of games ever again.
Does anyone have a clue about what might have happened or what I did?

I vaguely recall reading something that if you pulled a cartridge out and turned the console off-on again real fast that it would still allow you to play because some of the data was retained in the ram... but since ram erases as soon as the power is gone... I never thought much more of it other than a rumor/myth. Even IF something like that worked (which i seriously doubt it could), it wouldn't explain the "recent game list" and having the system powered off for any length of time and still pulling up the last game you played on it without the cart.

[Yakumo]

Its the actual game list part that gets me. The N64 doesn't have anything in it's BIOS that would creata list on screen does it?

Yakumo

[Mr. Casual]

I vaguely recall reading something that if you pulled a cartridge out and turned the console off-on again real fast that it would still allow you to play because some of the data was retained in the ram... but since ram erases as soon as the power is gone... I never thought much more of it other than a rumor/myth. Even IF something like that worked (which i seriously doubt it could), it wouldn't explain the "recent game list" and having the system powered off for any length of time and still pulling up the last game you played on it without the cart.
Maybe thats what I did. Keep in mind, I did this a LONG-ASS time ago. I still remember the list part, though.

[XerdoPwerko]

I have an N64 and cartridges (Maybe we all have one of these underappreciated machines) and if anyone knows of a surefire way to trigger this, I can try to get it.
Mine has the expansion pack. I'm not sure if that's a factor.

Does one have to take the cart out with the machine on? Is this not seriously harmful to the machine?

[Blur2040]

I don't know...I think your memory might be getting the best of you here...

[Chief Chujo]

I think you can bring up a save manager(for the mem card) by holding down some combo of buttons when turning on the N64.
That wouldn't explain the whole goemon working without a cartridge though.

[Hawanja]

You sure you didn't have anything else hooked up to it, maybe like some kind of backup device or something?

Was there anything wrong with the game, like was the music missing or graphics messed up?

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

The fact is, dreams are very often confused with real memories. Probably most of us have at least one memory that's actually a dream. And then as that "memory" is recalled, our brains secretly fill in the blank parts to create a more complete story. It's very common, and I'd wager that that's what's happeneing here for both Mr. Casual and sayin999. I don't mean to question your guys' sanity, I know that people often get very defensive when their memories are questioned, but these things you're describing just aren't possible. They also have some of the telltale characteristics of dreams, like how sayin999 did something just slightly different and created an entirely new effect, that's very common in dreams. I could also imagine why you guys'd have dreams about these things, after renting Mystical Ninja and playing it endlessly like we do with rented games it would make sense to have a dream about it, especially with such an engrossing game (I still say the Goemon games are some of the best and most under-appreciated games on the N64).

Anyway, that's my theory. I may be wrong, but...come on.


You sure you didn't have anything else hooked up to it, maybe like some kind of backup device or something?
Now *THAT* would be funny: "Oh yeah, I had a Z64 on my system and I did back up the game before returning it. Could that explain it?" Heh.


...word is bondage...

[KuKzz]

Does anyone have a clue about what might have happened or what I did?
Yeah, drunk too much beer (or something else :)) :)


I think you can bring up a save manager(for the mem card) by holding down some combo of buttons when turning on the N64.
Only on some carts that supports it, and by holding down START on turning on system.

[Divine Evolution]

The only strange thing I've done with an N64 is intentionally cause it to misload levels in Mario64.
It all started with a group of us passing the controller around and playing Mario64 and my good friend Danny being pissed he died in a cheap way. I was talking sh*t while taking the controller and he threw his shoe at the console while I jumped into a level.
The level loaded with Mario laying on his side halfway into the ground curled the same way he does when climbing a tree. The music was very fast and distorted and when you made Mario jump his body twisted all around and contorted in crazy ways!
The game still played normally and after collecting a star and being kicked back out into the castle the music and Mario's stance returned to normal.
We made a sport of hitting the N64 when a level loaded and called it Super Twitchio 64!
~Krelian

[link343]

The only strange thing I have done with my N64 is this cart trick with Zelda 64. I started the a new game and went to the exit of the village and did the cart trick and it let me pass throught the guard with nothing on me. Its preaty cool but I would think that you people here at Assembler's would know about it already.

Back on the Subject, that seems preaty weird. Maby it was a dream or you brought up the memory cart mangement.

[retro]

http://www.nida.nih.gov/MarijBroch/images/parentfact5.gif

Hehe!

Seriously though, the menu wasn't like any of these?

http://www.success-hk.com/success/cd64/x3.jpg

http://n64.icequake.net/mirror/www.z64.co.uk/images/shot9.gif

Can't find a V64 screenshot... can't be bothered to drag mine out.. its basically a black screen with white text!

Those suggestions are all good ones... you were on the waccy baccy (or have been since!), you dreamt it and your dreams seem like reality, or you had a backup device. There is no such thing built-in, I'm sure.

[Hawanja]

Maybe he had some kind of refurbished N64, or some model we don't know about. Was your N64 second hand? Maybe the previous owner modded it in some way (although I don't really know how one could in order to produce the menu you're talking about. Just a suggestion.)

[Paulo]

Someone fill in the bit about him playing the game for at least one? whole level... would the n64 even have enough memory to keep that stored?

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Someone fill in the bit about him playing the game for at least one? whole level... would the n64 even have enough memory to keep that stored?
That's the thing. Even if you did have some kind of list of recently played games and even if the memory didn't get wiped when you turned the power off, there wouldn't be a whole level in memory and playable at once. On a Playstation it might be possible (look at Ridge Racer, that entire game gets stored in memory at one time and whole levels of other games are often loaded into memory and just read from there while the disc is ignored or playing redbook aduio). But since the N64 is a cartridge based system, its memory usage theory is totally different. It doesn't load entire sections of the game at once and then ignore the cartridge until it needs to load another large section. Instead it constantly seeks and retrieves from the cart as things are needed. I'm not sure exactly what would be resident in memory at any given moment if you froze things, but I'm sure it wouldn't be enough data to actually play much of anything, let alone an entire level.


...word is bondage...

[arsenal]

Thanks to reading this trhread I think I dreamed of this happening with my n64 last night :p

Has anyone considered maybe his n64 was a special custom debug console that he unknowingly ended up with?

[sayin999]

well ive never tooken illegal substance in my life, but it did happen. Still i would not be shocked that its possible to access the memory card without a game that supports it, after all wouldn't it be needed to erase stuff before using it to save on other games that require more space.

[Paulo]

Also why did you turn the n64 on without a game in?

[AntiPasta]

That's the thing. Even if you did have some kind of list of recently played games and even if the memory didn't get wiped when you turned the power off, there wouldn't be a whole level in memory and playable at once. On a Playstation it might be possible (look at Ridge Racer, that entire game gets stored in memory at one time and whole levels of other games are often loaded into memory and just read from there while the disc is ignored or playing redbook aduio). But since the N64 is a cartridge based system, its memory usage theory is totally different. It doesn't load entire sections of the game at once and then ignore the cartridge until it needs to load another large section. Instead it constantly seeks and retrieves from the cart as things are needed. I'm not sure exactly what would be resident in memory at any given moment if you froze things, but I'm sure it wouldn't be enough data to actually play much of anything, let alone an entire level.


Well actually, if memory serves it was actually quite common for N64 games to load code (ie the actual 'program' + data) into RAM during gameplay, partly for speed reasons and to save space - the cartridge would only contain compressed data. I think this is what Goldeneye does, for instance, and it explains the screen going black for several seconds before starting a level. Heck, the '64 has 4 meg, some of which used for the framebuffer and audio but that still leaves plenty. I don't have any doc ready to back this up but I'm pretty sure accessing the ROM is several times slower than the RAM.

[A. Snow]

The answer to this is quite simple. He's a witch!!! BURN HIM!!!

[kammedo]

Well actually, if memory serves it was actually quite common for N64 games to load code (ie the actual 'program' + data) into RAM during gameplay, partly for speed reasons and to save space - the cartridge would only contain compressed data. I think this is what Goldeneye does, for instance, and it explains the screen going black for several seconds before starting a level. Heck, the '64 has 4 meg, some of which used for the framebuffer and audio but that still leaves plenty. I don't have any doc ready to back this up but I'm pretty sure accessing the ROM is several times slower than the RAM.
Righto.From what i recall, the N64 ROMs are quite slow...unfortunately i dont have any docs here :/ - anyway, i tried the trick with some other games (Winback, F-Zero X), didnt work for me. The only logical explanation for that is that you were using a copier, because _all_ the games you played on it would NEVER fit in that machine, the heck, it was a miracle they fitted a single game on those carts....

[Mr. Casual]

I vaguely recall reading something that if you pulled a cartridge out and turned the console off-on again real fast that it would still allow you to play because some of the data was retained in the ram... but since ram erases as soon as the power is gone... I never thought much more of it other than a rumor/myth. Even IF something like that worked (which i seriously doubt it could), it wouldn't explain the "recent game list" and having the system powered off for any length of time and still pulling up the last game you played on it without the cart.

I guess my memory is getting the best of me, now. I think thats what I did, and I think the game froze in the middle of the village. However, I had to select the game off of a strange list to play it. That really happened, and no I dont do drugs nor do I drink. Come on, I was like 12 or 13 years old at the time. It wasnt a dream, because my mind doesnt work like that. I did dream that TS4 came out a few nights ago, and the main bad guy from TS3 came back looking something like interlink 6 from Spawn!
http://www.spawn.com/toys/spawn/series18/interlink6/images/series18_interlink6_photo_01_dp.jpg
I have nightmares. I think its because of all the spawn toys I have.

BTW, I bought that N64 new, and is now long gone. Im pretty sure it wasnt a test, either. Eventually, I'll buy another one and try it out, again.