please recommend USER FRIENDLY genny/snes flash carts

[Soviet Conscript]

well, a few months ago now i decided it would be great to play those english translated roms of games i had on the acual hardware. i also thought a device that could do this could also let me save games with no fear of eraseing and without the hassel of battery replacement. well a few hundred dollers later and alot of frusteration heres my story.

i decided to go with a game doctor sf7 for my snes needs and a MD-PRO for my genny needs. first the md-pro. the cart itself seemed to work but for the life of me i could not get new games onto the cart. was it a broke writer? wrong cable? incorect setting up of IPP or whatever protocall...i dunno, who knows. anyways as for the sf7 its still not working. with the help of this forum i have managed to figure out it needs a new floppy drive but after looking over Ucon64 and playing with the program a i'm completely lost on the whole notion of converting, splitting, transfering files

i understand these things are not being developed by big companies that want to make it widely user friendly and i understand the idea is that if your useing these things you should be fairly proficient with a computer but does it have to be so archaic?

i have a digital camera...first one i ever had. it took me all of 2 minutes to figure out how to take a picture, put the card in the computer and transfer files back and forth. why can't they make these devices as simple? maybe i'm just frusterated or its been a spot of bad luck and i apolagize if i ramble here but i'll finally get to the point.

is there any genny and/or snes flash carts that are simple, user friendly and idiot proof? i know someones gonna mention modding an xbox, i considered it but i really would rather play on the origional hardware. i was looking at some kind of card that looks like you just put your roms on a SD card and sliped it into the genny cart and it was ready to play but i'm a little skeptical now. i'm sure it requires so archic transfer utility and a parallel cable that hasn't been manufactured for 10 years.

thanks for any advice and thanks to the people that helped me out here in the past.

[djsquarewave]

The reason the MD-PRO feels so archaic is because the ancient protocols are easier for the small operation that makes them (Tototek) to implement, manufacture, and keep consistent between different products -- or so I'd assume.

The SF7 feels archaic because it's a bootleggy piece of Chinese grey-market hardware made over a decade ago.

I use both of these things from time to time when something strikes my fancy. Hardly had any problems with either, most of those being the initial ones (bad floppy drive in the SF7, figuring out how to split the ROMs, getting the parallel transfer working on the MD-PRO).

Rule on splitting ROMs for the SF7: If it's over 1MB (8 megabits) you'll need to split it. If it's over 4MB (32 megabits) you're screwed unless you have a memory upgrade. Play around with the switches in uCon a bit, it's not too difficult to get working if you've got some idea what you need to do.

As far as I know, the Tototek carts are the easiest ones to use. I believe they make an SNES cart now, too...but don't quote me on that.

[shadowkn55]

Unfortunately, what you are looking for doesn't exist. All of them use the parallel port for programming. The tototek cart or the gd7 is the best its going to get without resorting to emulation. If they had something simple like a cart that took sd cards, people would be all over it.

[Soviet Conscript]

The reason the MD-PRO feels so archaic is because the ancient protocols are easier for the small operation that makes them (Tototek) to implement, manufacture, and keep consistent between different products -- or so I'd assume.

The SF7 feels archaic because it's a bootleggy piece of Chinese grey-market hardware made over a decade ago.

I use both of these things from time to time when something strikes my fancy. Hardly had any problems with either, most of those being the initial ones (bad floppy drive in the SF7, figuring out how to split the ROMs, getting the parallel transfer working on the MD-PRO).

Rule on splitting ROMs for the SF7: If it's over 1MB (8 megabits) you'll need to split it. If it's over 4MB (32 megabits) you're screwed unless you have a memory upgrade. Play around with the switches in uCon a bit, it's not too difficult to get working if you've got some idea what you need to do.

As far as I know, the Tototek carts are the easiest ones to use. I believe they make an SNES cart now, too...but don't quote me on that.

yhea, acually i'm haveing trouble splitting roms. i'm also a tad confused as i was told 64Megs of ram in a SF7 could handle anything although if i ever did figure it out i could upgrade.

as for the MD-PRO its seemed simple but i can't get the thing to communicate with my compter. i went through 3 parallel port cables and i still don't know if its a crapped out writer the cable or my port/software. the flash cart itself runs good.

[djsquarewave]

yhea, acually i'm haveing trouble splitting roms. i'm also a tad confused as i was told 64Megs of ram in a SF7 could handle anything although if i ever did figure it out i could upgrade.

Well, the stock SF7 comes with 32megs of RAM. Unless you specifically bought an upgrade, yours probably has 32megs as well.

I've done the splitting stuff before, if you still need help I can go look up the command you need to send it to split it properly. Then you'll just need to make sure you have plenty of working floppies.

as for the MD-PRO its seemed simple but i can't get the thing to communicate with my compter. i went through 3 parallel port cables and i still don't know if its a crapped out writer the cable or my port/software. the flash cart itself runs good.

It's probably the mode your port is set in. To get mine working I had to change the communication mode for the parallel port in my computer's BIOS (AFAIK there's no other way to change this). This was a while ago, though, so i can't remember what I set it to specifically, though I'm pretty sure I just tried all the different ones until it worked. You might do better asking on (or maybe even just browsing) the Tototek forums, they were pretty helpful when I bought my MD-PRO.

Incidentally, I never was able to get the parallel communcation working with the SF7...

[MarioMania]

Can someone just make a USB Cart for "Insert System" just do a drag & drop...It's to complex

[DefaultGen]

.....

[djsquarewave]

Speaking of that, why isn't there an NES copier that I know about? I know there was an early fami-one IIRC.

Short answer: Mappers.

Long answer: There are dozens of different ways the hardware and memory mapping on an NES cart can be laid out, and it's a herculean task to handle all of this in a generic piece of hardware.

[Soviet Conscript]

You might do better asking on (or maybe even just browsing) the Tototek forums, they were pretty helpful when I bought my MD-PRO.

they have a forum? i couldn't find on on there page or through a search. maybe i'm just blind.

i have gotten a 32meg GD7 to run just fine. as for my 64meg unit i'm posative now its a bad floppy drive so maybe i'll get around to getting one one day. i did figure out rom splitting. funny thing is ucon will convert it but freezes when i try to split anything so i have to use a seperate utility for that.

i did go into my BIOS for the MD-PRO and played with settings. set it to EPP mode and all. still no luck with that one.

thanks for the help though

[PsychedelicShaman]

Alright guys, two links:

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/ Down at the moment, but they are working on an SNES, genesis, and N64 flash cart which is supposed to use USB and have the option to use a flash card through a game boy advance flash cart (strange idea i know). They released a crappy version of the sega genesis flash cart which uses parallel and only has 32mb. However, these have been in the works already for at least a year with no end in sight. Dr. Neo has a ton of projects and unfortunately the market for the gba and ds flash carts seem to push the vintage devices to the back of the line. I do believe that eventually they will come, but in the mean time I'm going to purchase the tototek versions.

http://www.nespowerpak.com Here it is, the one we've all been waiting for; at the risk of flooding the demand for these, the nes flash cart. Uses a compact flash, the mappers are on the flash card so they are easily upgradeable, and the bios itself is upgradeable through the vendor. I know it looks like a joke, and I can't say with 100% certainty that it isn't a joke, but it's been in development for quite some time. The threads are over at the nes dev forums. Best part is, it's actually coming soon, 100 boards have been made, he's just waiting on the cases. Most of the major mappers have been finished besides MMC5, so he claims it will work with all but like 10 games.

Sorry that the one link doesn't work, and the other is only preliminary, but everything I've stated so far is as accurate as I remember it.

--PS

[Soviet Conscript]

Alright guys, two links:

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/ Down at the moment, but they are working on an SNES, genesis, and N64 flash cart which is supposed to use USB and have the option to use a flash card through a game boy advance flash cart (strange idea i know). They released a crappy version of the sega genesis flash cart which uses parallel and only has 32mb. However, these have been in the works already for at least a year with no end in sight. Dr. Neo has a ton of projects and unfortunately the market for the gba and ds flash carts seem to push the vintage devices to the back of the line. I do believe that eventually they will come, but in the mean time I'm going to purchase the tototek versions.

http://www.nespowerpak.com Here it is, the one we've all been waiting for; at the risk of flooding the demand for these, the nes flash cart. Uses a compact flash, the mappers are on the flash card so they are easily upgradeable, and the bios itself is upgradeable through the vendor. I know it looks like a joke, and I can't say with 100% certainty that it isn't a joke, but it's been in development for quite some time. The threads are over at the nes dev forums. Best part is, it's actually coming soon, 100 boards have been made, he's just waiting on the cases. Most of the major mappers have been finished besides MMC5, so he claims it will work with all but like 10 games.

Sorry that the one link doesn't work, and the other is only preliminary, but everything I've stated so far is as accurate as I remember it.

--PS

*rise from the dead*

yhea, well some time has passed so i've dug up this semi decayed thread and now i have a few questions about these two things...like are they real

the NES power pak looks great but i never ever have seen these things avalible on the retrogamer site. is it a finished product? did they acually make a limited number and then sell out?

also seems to be a tad of confusion with that neo 3in1 thing. now my understanding is you use the flash cart they already have out there for GBA/DS and you put that in special shells that make it compatable with genesis/snes/n64? and the transfer from pc to cart is through USB? now as far as i can tell this isn't released yet but i keep finding posts about how people are suprised there not finding them in stores (in the UK) so am I missing something and these were released already?

[scooby105]

*rise from the dead*


the NES power pak looks great but i never ever have seen these things avalible on the retrogamer site. is it a finished product? did they acually make a limited number and then sell out?

The PowerPak came out. The first run sold out. There are delays on getting the next run. It's a pretty sweet device.

also seems to be a tad of confusion with that neo 3in1 thing. now my understanding is you use the flash cart they already have out there for GBA/DS and you put that in special shells that make it compatable with genesis/snes/n64? and the transfer from pc to cart is through USB? now as far as i can tell this isn't released yet but i keep finding posts about how people are suprised there not finding them in stores (in the UK) so am I missing something and these were released already?

It's not out yet. You've got the gist of it. This thing's been in development for a long time though. Who knows if it'll ever come out. NeoFlash seems to concentrate on making sub-par DS flash carts instead of making things people actually could use.

[Soviet Conscript]

ok, thanks for the info. i'll just have to hope they do a second run of the power pak but at least i know its out there.

[Soviet Conscript]

i thought i would just update this with my progress in case someone is haveing the same problems/questions and comes upon this thread.

i finally got the MD-PRO to work!!!!!

and it was so simple to. the Dreamwriter program i was useing on my PC was an older version (ver. 1.1) i beleive its the version on the Tototek site. anyways, i was reading a review over at sega-16 and the reviewer mentioned the version of the dreamwriter software. so i updated the program, played around with the printer port setting s little bit and VOILA!

works like a charm.

[kazuo]

That's good to hear. In case you didn't already notice, TotoTek makes a SNES/SFC flashcart. Works similiar to their MD-PRO.

Other than that, NEO team is working on a SNES cart, but who knows when it will be out... they also allegedly released their parallel-port-based MD/Genesis flash cart, but no one has actually seen the thing.

On a personal note, I recently bought a PowerPak, and the damn thing doesn't work... just sent it back today to bunnyboy to see if he can fix it.

[Soviet Conscript]

i was looking at the snes flash cart last night. i'll probibly try it out once i have some extra cash.

i bought the powerpak as well once i found out it was avalible. its a great little device and i found it very easy to use. sorry yours wasn't working, i know what its like to get something like that and it just doesn't work.