We have a lot to thank the N64 Rumble Pak for.
It popularised force feedback functionality in home video game consoles. In fact, almost every mainstream home system has had it built in as standard ever since.
But when it comes to the N64, rumble is actually an optional extra. And there are some caveats as to when you can use it.
Never used a Rumble Pak before? Don’t worry – just check out our handy guide below. We’ve also included a full list of Rumble Pak-compatible games.
What is the Rumble Pak?
The Rumble Pak is an accessory that adds force-feedback functionality to your N64 games.
Unlike modern controllers, which typically have built-in rumble, the Rumble Pak is a separate device you have to plug in. You insert it into the expansion slot on the underside of the N64 controller.
The Rumble Pak requires two AAA batteries to work (but you can mod it to make it battery-less).
Not all N64 games support the Rumble Pak. You can check compatibility with our full list of Rumble Pak-supported games.
Are there Rumble Paks that don’t require batteries?
Yes. Some unofficial Rumble Paks don’t require batteries.
You can also modify an official Rumble Pak to work without batteries.
Third-party Rumble Paks
Numerous companies released their own versions of the Rumble Pak during the N64’s heyday.
For example, Gamester released the Basic Tremor Pak and the G64 Tremor and Memory Pak, both of which do not require batteries.
Nintendo Official Magazine UK’s Rumble Pak guide, as featured in Issue 97 (October 2000).
Unfortunately, it seems there aren’t any companies currently manufacturing aftermarket Rumble Paks.
Battery-less mod
You can mod the Rumble Pak to draw power from the N64 console instead of using batteries.
According to this post on Nintendo 64 Forever, the power supplied to the controller from the console is enough to also power the Rumble Pak.
However, it’s important to note that you can only use two battery-less Rumble Paks per system. Using three or more will draw too much power and could damage your console.
The video below contains a step-by-step guide on how to perform this mod. By the way, you’ll need to be handy with a soldering iron.
The Rumble Pak uses the same slot as the memory card – how do I save my games?
N64 games that support both the Rumble Pak and Controller Pak (memory card) will provide on-screen instructions telling you when to swap between the two accessories.
Be careful to only remove your memory card when instructed to do so. Otherwise you may lose any save data you have on it.
A small number of games aren’t compatible with the Rumble Pak, including Cruis’n USA and Killer Instinct Gold. That’s because these titles released before the Rumble Pak.
These games will mistake the Rumble Pak for a corrupted memory card. You may get a warning message, or the game just won’t load.
If this happens, just turn off the N64 and remove the Rumble Pak. When you boot the game up again, it’ll work!
List of Rumble Pak-compatible N64 games
We’ve included a full list of N64 games that use the Rumble Pak below. This includes Japanese, North American and PAL (Europe and Australia) releases.
Want to know which N64 games offer the best force-feedback experience? Then check out our list of the best Rumble Pak games.
#
- 007: The World is Not Enough
- 1080 Snowboarding
- 64 Ozumo
- 64 Ozumo 2
- 64 Trump Collection: Alice no Waku Waku Trump World
A
- A Bug’s Life
- AeroFighters Assault
- All-Star Baseball ’99
- All-Star Baseball 2000
- All-Star Baseball 2001
- Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M.
- Army Men: Air Combat
- Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes
- Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 2
- Asteroids Hyper 64
- Automobili Lamborghini
B
- Bakuretsu Muteki Bangai-O
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Banjo-Tooie
- Bass Hunter 64
- Bass Masters 2000
- Bass Rush: ECOGEAR PowerWorm Championship
- Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
- BattleTanx
- BattleTanx: Global Assault
- Battlezone: Rise of the Black Dogs
- Beetle Adventure Racing (HSV Adventure Racing in Australia)
- Big Mountain 2000
- Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.
- Blues Brothers 2000
- Body Harvest
- Bomberman 64: The Second Attack
- Bomberman Hero
- Buck Bumble
- Bust-A-Move ’99 (Bust-A-Move 3 DX in PAL regions)
C
- California Speed
- Carmageddon 64
- Chameleon Twist 2
- Charlie Blasts Territory
- Chokukan Night: Pro Yakyu King 2
- Chopper Attack
- Choro Q 64 2: Hachamecha Grand Prix Race
- Command & Conquer
- Conker’s Bad Fur Day
- Cruis’n Exotica
- Cruis’n World
- Custom Robo V2
- CyberTiger
D
- Daikatana
- Dance Dance Revolution Disney Dancing Museum
- Deadly Arts (G.A.S.P!! Fighters’ NEXTream in PAL regions)
- Densha de Go! 64
- Destruction Derby 64
- Dezaemon 3D
- Diddy Kong Racing
- Donkey Kong 64
- Doraemon 2: Nobita to Hikari no Shinden
- Doraemon 3: Nobita no Machi SOS!
- Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck (Daffy Duck Starring As Duck Dodgers in PAL regions)
- Duke Nukem 64
- Duke Nukem: Zero Hour
E
- ECW Hardcore Revolution
- Excitebike 64
- Extreme-G
- Extreme-G 2
F
- F-1 World Grand Prix
- F-1 World Grand Prix II
- F-Zero X
- Fighters Destiny
- Fighter Destiny 2
- Fighting Force 64
- Flying Dragon
- Forsaken 64
G
- Gauntlet Legends
- Getter Love!!
- Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko
- Goemon’s Great Adventure (Mystical Ninja 2 Starring Goemon in PAL regions)
- Goldeneye 007
- GT64: Championship Edition
H
- Hot Wheels Turbo Racing
- Hybrid Heaven
- Hydro Thunder
I
- Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls
- In The Zone ’98
- Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
- Indy Racing 2000
- International Superstar Soccer 2000
- International Track & Field 2000 (International Track & Field: Summer Games in PAL regions, Ganbare Nippon! Olympics 2000 in Japan)
- Itoi Shigesato no Bass Tsuri No. 1
J
- Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000
- Jet Force Gemini
- Jinsei Game 64
K
- Ken Griffey Jr.’s Slugfest
- Kira tto Kaiketsu! 64 Tanteidan
- Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
- Knife Edge: Nose Gunner
- Knockout Kings 2000
L
- Last Legion UX
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Lego Racers
- Lode Runner 3-D
M
- Madden ’99
- Madden 2000
- Madden 2001
- Madden 2002
- Madden 64
- Magical Tetris Challenge
- Major League Baseball featuring Ken Griffey Jr.
- Mario Golf
- Mario Party
- Mario Party 2
- Mario Party 3
- Mario Tennis
- Masters ’98: Haruka Naru Augusta
- Mega Man 64
- Mia Hamm Soccer 64 (Michael Owen’s WLS 2000 in UK, RTL WLS 2000 in Germany, and Telefoot Soccer 2000 in France)
- Mickey’s Speedway USA
- Micro Machines 64 Turbo
- Mike Piazza’s Strike Zone
- Milo’s Astro Lanes
- Mission Impossible
- Monaco Grand Prix
- Monster Truck Madness
- Mortal Kombat 4
- Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero
- Ms. Pac-Man
- Multi-Racing Championship
N
- NASCAR ’99
- NASCAR 2000
- NBA Courtside
- NBA In The Zone ’99
- NBA In The Zone 2000
- NBA Jam 2000
- NBA Live ’99
- NBA Live 2000
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- NFL Blitz
- NFL Blitz 2000
- NFL Blitz 2001
- NFL Blitz Special Edition
- NFL QB Club ’98
- NFL QB Club ’99
- NHL ’99
- NHL Blades of Steel ’99
- NHL Breakaway ’98
- NHL Breakaway ’99
- Nightmare Creatures
- Nuclear Strike 64
- Nushi Tsuri 64
- Nushi Tsuri 64: Shiokaze ni Notte
O
- Off Road Challenge
P
- Paper Mario
- Paperboy 64
- Perfect Dark
- Polaris SnoCross
- Puyo Puyo~n Party
- Puyo Puyo Sun 64
Q
- Quake 64
- Quake II
R
- Rally Challenge 2000
- Rampage World Tour
- Rampage 2: Universal Tour
- Razor Freestyle Scooter
- Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
- Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
- Resident Evil 2
- Re-Volt
- Ridge Racer 64
- Road Rash 64
- Roadsters
- Robotron 64
- Rocket: Robot on Wheels
- Rugrats Scavenger Hunt
- Rush 2 Extreme Racing USA
S
- S.C.A.R.S
- San Francisco Rush 2049
- San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
- SD Hiryu no Ken Densetsu
- Shadow Man
- Sin and Punishment
- Snowboard Kids
- Snowboard Kids 2
- South Park Rally
- South Park
- Space Invaders 64
- Space Station Silicon Valley
- Spider-Man 64
- Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth
- Star Wars Episode 1: Racer
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
- Star Wars Episode 1: Battle for Naboo
- StarCraft 64
- Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars in PAL regions)
- Stunt Racer 64
- Super Bowling
- Super Mario 64 Shindou Edition
- Super Robot Spirits
- Super Smash Bros.
- SuperCross 2000
- Superman 64
- Susume! Taisen Puzzle Dama: Tōkon! Marutama Chō
T
- Tarzan
- Tom & Jerry in Fists of Furry
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
- Top Gear Hyper-Bike
- Top Gear Overdrive
- Top Gear Rally
- Top Gear Rally 2
- Toy Story 2
- Transformers: Beast Wars TransMetals
- Triple Play 2000
- Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
- Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion
- Turok: Rage Wars
- Twisted Edge Extreme Snowboarding
U
- Ucchannanchan no Honō no Challenger: Denryū Iraira Bō
V
- V-Rally Edition ’99
- Virtual Pro Wrestling 2: Ōdō Keishō
- Virtual Pro Wrestling 64
W
- Waialae Country Club True Golf Classics
- Wave Race 64 Shindou Edition
- WCW Back Stage Assault
- WCW Mayhem
- WCW Nitro
- WCW vs NWO Revenge
- WCW vs. NWO World Tour
- Wheel of Fortune
- WinBack: Covert Operations
- Wipeout 64
- World Driver Championship
- WWF Attitude
- WWF No Mercy
- WWF War Zone
- WWF WrestleMania 2000
X
- Xena: Warrior Princess – Talisman of Fate
Y
- Yakōchū II: Satsujin Kōro
- Yoshi’s Story
