Weird N64 glitch - I've only seen this work with one game.

[Prometheus]

All this talk about Turok has reminded me of something strange I discovered while screwing around in the first game a long while back. It involves freezing the game in a very careful manner. The method to do so is similar to one of the ways to glitch Zelda:OoT in order to get the yellow line to appear at the top screen for the debug menu.

So since this requires a cartridge tilt, this can't be done on emulators (unless there is some cartridge tilting program I don't know about.) So here are the steps:

1. Boot up Turok 1.

2. It won't work at any menus, so start a new game or load a file. Once loaded, don't move.

3. VERY carefully, pull the left side of the cartridge out. The music and sounds glitch up but don't freeze. If it does freeze here, it won't work.

4. Now move in any direction and the game should eventually freeze.

5. Power off the system and push the cart back in. Then turn it back on. Here comes the weird part...

6. It should be in the exact same spot it was when it froze. Same level, same weapons, same ammo, same everything.

Why is this? I've tried it with the other Turok games. Doesn't work. I've tried practically my entire N64 collection and Turok 1 is the only game that does this. It's really weird.

Theoretically, you can use this trick to stay underwater forever since it resets your oxygen level but not anything else. Don't know why you would since you practically have to go out of you way to drown in this game, but it does indeed work.

You can also use this trick to view a normally inaccessible area. At the end of the game, Tal'Set defeats the Campaigner and barely escapes from his collapsing fortress. Normally, this is just a very basic cutscene, but if you do this trick, you can run around in the area like it's a part of the normal game. There's nothing to really do, but it's a neat little trick nonetheless.

[ASSEMbler]

Open a cart and see if it has a sram

[Cyantist]

Authorities often freeze ram of suspects who wipe computers in a hurry (the kind that have dead man switches). They can then find out what may have been deleted through the RAM. I guess this is whats happening here since it's beeing reinserted fast enough.

[APE]

Authorities often freeze ram of suspects who wipe computers in a hurry (the kind that have dead man switches). They can then find out what may have been deleted through the RAM. I guess this is whats happening here since it's beeing reinserted fast enough.

Why the hell would anyone put such a feature onto an N64 cartridge? "Just in case"?

The RAMBUS memory used in the N64 has a small persistence charge as a feature. This was to be used with "Stop N Swop" on Banjo-Tooie IIRC. No idea why this is happening with Turok but I'll wager Turok doesn't clear all variables in memory upon boot.

[Prometheus]

Unless I'm confusing sram with something else, isn't that for games that save on the cart, removing the need for a controller pack? Turok requires a controller pack, so why would it have sram?

EDIT: Yeah, I was getting "Stop-N-Swop" vibes the first time I found it. Later that day I tried with Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie to see if it would do something similar. Nope.


EDIT 2: Just remembered something else that might be worth mentioning.

A while back, I fiddled around with the Gameshark memory editor with Turok 1 and 2. Whenever I would change a certain value (and there were numerous ones that did this) the games would freeze and restart in the same exact way. After it restarted, all changes I made in the editor would revert back to its original state.

I'm sure other games do this, but it's just weird how Turok 1 seems to be the only one that does this due to a cartridge tilt. Not even Turok 2 does it.

[Cyantist]

Why the hell would anyone put such a feature onto an N64 cartridge? "Just in case"?

The RAMBUS memory used in the N64 has a small persistence charge as a feature. This was to be used with "Stop N Swop" on Banjo-Tooie IIRC. No idea why this is happening with Turok but I'll wager Turok doesn't clear all variables in memory upon boot.

I wasn't saying that was why it was happening (for cops). Just that maybe there was ram in the cart and it acted in the same manner.

[gladiator5]

strange, but interesting.
can you make a video of it? if possible

[Prometheus]

No, I can't. I don't have a camera so I can't do much besides explain how to do it. If anyone has a copy of Turok 1 and they want to try it out for themselves, follow the directions in my first post. It's really easy to do.

Oh, and yet another pointless update for those who care (all 5 of you). I was playing the game a couple days ago when the sound started to glitch randomly in certain spots. Then occasionally it started freezing and restarting like it does when I use the memory editor on the Gameshark. I guess I really screwed up this cart; now it glitches sporadically.

Maybe the cartridge is just haunted. Tal'Set could be angry at me for not liking Turok: Evolution, so now he's trying to ruin my experience with the game of his I do like. Or, on a more serious note, maybe I just messed with the game too much. With all the cartridge tilting and memory editing I did, I guess I shouldn't be surprised when weird things start to happen.

[DefectX11]

While cartridge tilting is fun, I would think after a while, or maybe just after once, you'll corrupt the ROM. I've seen it happen with a Super Mario 64 cart- it's permanently tilted and completely unplayable.

It's kinda like drugs- some people can take lots and not much will happen, while others will do it once and die/ become completely unstable.

[Prometheus]

Yeah, I probably screwed it up permanently. It still works, it just freezes and restarts at the same spot every once in a while. Oh well, it isn't the same copy I used as a kid, so it's not like it holds sentimental value or anything. I can always get another copy online for less than $10 if I need to.

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

On a related note, my copy of Killer Instinct Gold will only boot when there are no controllers plugged in. You can then plug them in after it's booted, and the game works normally.