Game Fact Friday

Donkey Kong 64

Back during a time when you had to upgrade your video game console via “Expansion Packs” (such a terrible waste of a Christmas gift, it always seemed), Donkey Kong 64 emerged on the Nintendo 64 with one already included in the box. Why were Rare being so generous with this particular game? Were they worried it wasn’t going to sell or something? Why did Donkey Kong 64 need an expansion pack anyway? What gives, man?



Turns out that, due to a fatal programming flaw, Donkey Kong 64 required an expansion pack simply to function. Not because of graphical upgrades or because it was too advanced, but because there was a flaw deep inside the game’s core that the programmers just couldn’t figure out. The only way they could think to fix the problem was with an expansion pack, which ironed out the error somehow. Rare, apparently, lost a fortune giving it away for free.