6 Increasingly Interesting Facts About the N64's Rumble Pak
An ode to a feature that changed gaming controllers forever.
Friends: It’s easy to take your vibrating controllers for granted.
There are plenty of us, though, that remember the feature’s seismic arrival in gaming 28 years ago, when the Nintendo 64 debuted the Rumble Pak. The removable device, which was inserted into the back of the controller, was the first to offer haptic feedback when you took damage or found yourself near a colossal machine like, say, a mile-long spaceship.
Since I currently have a minor obsession in replaying Star Fox 64, the game that debuted the Rumble Pak, I’ve come to appreciate it more than ever. (Also, SF64 is the N64 game that I believe has aged the best, in terms of sheer playability. But that’s another newsletter.) It’s stirred some fond memories—as well as frustrations—of how these devices brought an immersive, new component to home gaming. And it’s inspired me to a half-dozen bits of trivia I’ve learned about the Rumble Pak since 1997, with factoids ranging from “Oh, that’s neat” to “Wait, really?” (Fact-checked this week, of course, since I was 11 when it hit shelves.)
OK, rumblers: Let's get rumblin’:
These things took two AAA batteries to function. In 1997, the magazine GamePro reported that the “general life span of the Rumble Pak is about 50 to 60 hours of straight rumbling. Use any non-rechargeable brand-name alkaline battery for the best rumbling effect." That’s enough time to beat The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time twice.
Here's the annoying thing, though: At first, the controller's slot was also used for Controller Paks, which acted as memory devices and were required by some games. Developers had to get creative and allow single players to use both. Some games allowed the Controller Pak to be used in a second controller, while using the Rumble in the primary controller. Another remedy, per GameSpot in 2000: “To allow Rumble Pak games to be saved onto a memory cart, Nintendo has made it possible for companies to add in a point in the game where players can ‘swap’ the Rumble Pak for a memory cart and vice versa. The safety screen will undoubtedly keep the prices of third-party Rumble Pak games low and still allow players to save progress and scores.”
As mentioned, Star Fox 64 was the first game to feature Rumble Pak technology. They were actually packaged together for a time. (You could also buy the device on its own for $19.95 at the time, which was considered quite reasonable by gaming media.) Star Fox 64 had many uses for the peripheral, including signifying crashes, blasts, and larger, nearby spaceships.
Image source: eBay Of course, there were imitators. The third-party Tremor Pak had its own innovation: One version allowed for another device, like a Controller Pak, and the Tremor Pak Plus allowed folks to "Rumble" or "Save" with a single device, using a switch. IGN said at the time that the added slot and use of AA batteries did make the controller pretty heavy, though. InterAct, the company behind the Tremor Pak, was famous for the DexDrive—another third-party device, which allowed players to save memory pack data to and from a PC. (This was a big deal at the time.)
Though Star Fox 64 ushered in the Rumble craze, some of its signature uses came from other games, including …
⦾ The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Finding hidden grottos in the ground or fishing.
⦾ F-Zero X: The Rumble actually gave you a sense of when grip was increasing or lessening, allowing players to learn how to best navigate the game’s tracks.
⦾ Super Smash Bros.: Every hit had an extra oomph, especially the knockouts.
⦾ Goldeneye 007: The beauty of the Rumble in this game is that each gun behaved in its own way, from the staccato of pistols to the pulsation of the RCP-90.One more thing about the unlicensed devices to land the newsletter Arwing here: The company NUBY had their own slate of products, which include the NUBY Reality Vest 64. Yes; it's a rumbling vest. It required 2 AAA batters for a controller connector and 4 additional AA batteries for the vibration packs on the vest itself. It ran about $75 at the time, too.
