Rumble Pak

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The Rumble Pak is a removable device from Nintendo which provides force feedback while playing video games. Games that support the Rumble Pak cause it to vibrate in select situations, such as when firing a weapon or receiving damage, to immerse the player in the game. Versions of the Rumble Pak are available for the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo DS, and the Nintendo DS Lite. A select few Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games use a similar technology built into the game cartridge. Since the introduction of the Rumble Pak, force feedback vibration has become a standard feature in almost every home video game console controller.

[edit] Nintendo 64

A Nintendo 64 controller with the Rumble Pak attached

The original Rumble Pak, designed for the Nintendo 64 controller, was released in April 1997 in Japan, July 1997 in North America, and October 1997 in Europe. It requires two AAA batteries and is inserted into the controller's memory cartridge slot, which prevents simultaneous use of the Controller Pak. This usually has little impact, as Nintendo 64 games are cartridge based and have the ability to store saved data in the cartridge, but for games that support the Controller Pak, it is possible to switch between accessories at certain points, a method known as "hot swapping".^[1]

The Rumble Pak was introduced bundled with the game Star Fox 64 (known as Lylat Wars in the PAL region) and made available as a separate purchase two months later. Rumble Pak support soon became a standard for N64 games. Launch titles Wave Race 64 and Super Mario 64 were re-released in Japan in July 1997 with Rumble Pak support.^[2][3]

Several third-party versions of the Rumble Pak, such as the Tremor Pak, followed. Some draw power from the controller instead of batteries, but the lower power makes them less effective. The TremorPak Plus allows a memory card to be inserted simultaneously, eliminating the need to switch between two accessories.^[4] The Nyko Hyper Pak Plus contains internal memory and allows the user to adjust the amount of feedback between "hard" and "too hard".^[5]

[edit] Reception

When reviewing Star Fox 64, IGN praised the Rumble Pak, stating that it "adds an unusual burst of arcade ecstasy to the game".^[6]

IGN's Levi Buchanan wrote an 11th birthday article on the Nintendo 64's Rumble Pak, describing how its influence led to rumble being "an industry standard within a single generation".^[7] He said that it is bulky and heavy when attached to the Nintendo 64 controller, but that "[t]he trade-off was actually worth it".

More recently, in TWGNews's "Top 10 Controller Innovations" article, the Rumble Pak is listed as #8, saying "the Rumble Pak added a whole new level of immersion to the fifth generation of video games".^[8]

Screwattack name the Rumble Pak the Fourth best gaming peripheral on their "Top 5 best and worst gaming Peripheral" list. ^[9]

[edit] Nintendo DS

Rumble Pak for the Nintendo DS (top) and a third party, smaller version for the DS Lite by eWin(bottom)

The Rumble Pak for the Nintendo DS is an official DS Option Pak shaped like a Game Boy Advance cartridge and is designed to be inserted in the system's Game Boy Advance game slot (SLOT-2). It was the first DS accessory to utilize the slot.^[10] In North America, it was first made available bundled with Metroid Prime Pinball,^[11] but is now available through other promotions^[12] or as a stand-alone purchase from Nintendo's online store. The accessory was released differently in Europe due to a delay of Metroid Prime Pinball in that region. Various DS games supporting the Rumble Pak (Metroid Prime Hunters, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, and 42 All-Time Classics) had been released in Europe before the accessory was available. The accessory was eventually released as a pack-in with the game Actionloop in the UK.

Although the Rumble Pak works with both the Nintendo DS and the redesigned Nintendo DS Lite, it protrudes from the Nintendo DS Lite when inserted, as do Game Boy Advance cartridges, because of the DS Lite's smaller size. For this reason, a smaller version of the Rumble Pak is available in Japan, which is flush with the system when inserted. It was initially available in just black, but other colors produced by third party manufacturer eWin, such as white (see picture), have been released. Other color variations and releases in other regions have yet to be announced.

Some flash cartridges for the Game Boy Advance (SLOT-2 flash cartridges) have a built-in rumble feature that, when used in tandem with a SLOT-1 flash card on a DS can provide rumble as if it were an ordinary rumble pak.

The Nintendo DS Rumble Pak is incompatible with the Nintendo DSi as the DSi lacks a SLOT-2. However, none of the games supporting the Rumble Pak require it for proper operation of the game, meaning that the games themselves are still compatible with DSi (some software titles, such as Nintendo DS Browser and Guitar Hero: On Tour, have SLOT-2 peripherals that are required for operation, and are hence incompatible with DSi).

[edit] Reception

The DS Rumble Pak was initially met with harsh criticism as reviewers pointed out the limited number of games compatible with the card^[13] (at the time only four were compatible). Reviewers also pointed out the annoying "squealing noise" or "electronic chirp" ^[14] that the device made when 'rumbling'. IGN stated that "Good thing it's free, because at this point we wouldn't bother buying it as an extra." as they felt it was "broken".^[14]

[edit] List of compatible games

This is the currently known list^[15] of Nintendo DS games (in alphabetical order) that support the Nintendo DS Rumble Pak. None of them require the Rumble Pak. Even if inserted, most games will require the feature to be enabled in their respective options menus before the force feedback will be enabled.

[edit] Game Boy Color games with built-in rumble

There were several games for Game Boy Color that supported rumble. Since the Game Boy Color hardware did not include native force feedback and had no extra slot for a separate peripheral, all games supporting this feature had it built into the game cartridge itself. These games that had this feature required an extra AAA battery (on top of the 2 AA batteries required to power to the Game Boy Color) that is inserted into the cartridge to power the vibrating motor. These games include:

• 10 Pin Bowling
• 3-D Ultra Pinball Thrillride
• Chee-Chai Alien (ちっちゃいエイリアン)
• Disney's The Little Mermaid II: Pinball Frenzy
• Hole in One Golf
• Legend of the River King 2\Kawa no Nushi Tsuri 4
• Missile Command
• NASCAR Challenge
• Nushi Tsuri Adventure - Kite no Bouken (ぬし釣りアドベンチャー カイトの冒険)
• Perfect Dark
• Pokémon Pinball
• Polaris SnoCross
• Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
• Star Wars Episode I: Racer
• Test Drive Off-Road 3
• Tonka Raceway
• Top Gear Pocket\Top Gear Rally
• Vigilante 8
• Zebco Fishing

[edit] Game Boy Advance games with built-in rumble

The major difference between the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games with rumble (apart from being for different systems) is that the Game Boy Advance games draw power directly from the Game Boy Advance itself and do not require an external power source. There are only two Game Boy Advance games with built-in rumble: Drill Dozer and WarioWare: Twisted!, the latter being a motion detecting game that 'rumbled' slightly when the game was tilted through use of a piezoelectric gyroscope.^[16]

[edit] See also

• Game controller
• Nintendo 64 accessories
• Nintendo DS accessories
• Sony's DualShock Controller

[edit] Notes