View Full Version : NES Power Pak?
369WIERDO369
03-02-2009, 02:17 PM
Is the NES Power Pak (from retrousb.com) compatible with the FC 3 Plus or the Yobo FC Game console?
Clownzilla
03-02-2009, 02:37 PM
Is the NES Power Pak (from retrousb.com) compatible with the FC 3 Plus or the Yobo FC Game console?
I don't think it is. I think the Retro Duo is compatible with it though.
369WIERDO369
03-02-2009, 02:39 PM
I don't think it is. I think the Retro Duo is compatible with it though.
Figures.
Well, thanks anyway!
CastlevaniaDude
03-02-2009, 03:06 PM
Yeah, it works with my RetroDuo. Cool machine, pick one up if you have a spare buck or two. Or thirty.
369WIERDO369
03-02-2009, 03:07 PM
Yeah, it works with my RetroDuo. Cool machine, pick one up if you have a spare buck or two. Or thirty.
Well, I have the original SNES. I just don't have the original NES.
namzep
03-02-2009, 03:39 PM
I still want to know how people are getting it to work with the RetroDuo as I've yet to have any luck. Is there anything special that you're doing to get it working?
Joe_Cracker
03-03-2009, 06:37 AM
Yeah, it works with my RetroDuo. Cool machine, pick one up if you have a spare buck or two. Or thirty.
CastlevaniaDude, just one question about your RetroDuo. I've been in contact with the guy who sells the powerpaks and this is an important question because I'm thinking about getting one myself. Is your RetroDuo the V2.0 system
Joe_Cracker
04-06-2009, 03:44 AM
Can someone post a video of the powerpak being played on the Retro Duo like on youtube or something to proof it to everyone?
Draven
04-06-2009, 08:52 PM
Deja Vu...didn't I just read this same thread but with a different title?
Joe_Cracker
07-10-2009, 10:36 PM
No Draven, this one was the original. My thread is the one that possed the question: http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130058
Right now I've decided to put up the money myself, and test the powerpak on the Retro Duo 2.0, and if my first test works it will be tapped and posted on youtube.
Frankie_Says_Relax
07-11-2009, 01:53 AM
Retro Duo is reported as compatible with the Power Pak.
I'm not really clear on what the difference between Retro Duo and Retro Duo 2.0 ... I'm not sure it's anything drastic in the way the hardware runs, or drastic enough to cause an incompatibilty with the Power Pak.
user ooXxXoo would probably be able to detail any differences in versions as I believe he's opened up a few and made adjustments, he may have seen both versions (or other internal variants).
Greg2600
07-11-2009, 10:20 AM
This is a question to any PowerPak owners.... How do you have the roms on the flash card? Do you separate every three letters, i.e. ABC, DEF, etc? Everyone one letter? The other pain in the butt is that it doesn't alphabetize, seems like it just sorts based on either when the rom was added to the card, or the age of the rom itself. Thoughts?
ProgrammingAce
07-11-2009, 03:51 PM
The NES isn't powerful enough to sort the folders alphabetically, it would take forever and there probably isn't enough ram to do it.
Greg2600
07-11-2009, 08:04 PM
The NES isn't powerful enough to sort the folders alphabetically, it would take forever and there probably isn't enough ram to do it.I know. So are the files/folders displayed by creation date?
tomaitheous
07-12-2009, 01:16 AM
This is a question to any PowerPak owners.... How do you have the roms on the flash card? Do you separate every three letters, i.e. ABC, DEF, etc? Everyone one letter? The other pain in the butt is that it doesn't alphabetize, seems like it just sorts based on either when the rom was added to the card, or the age of the rom itself. Thoughts?
http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?products_id=34
Files appear to be displayed in alphabetical order to me.
The NES isn't powerful enough to sort the folders alphabetically, it would take forever
Not that the NES needs to but, that's kind of an ignorant statement. The NES cpu isn't that slow.
Blitzwing256
07-12-2009, 08:56 AM
file manipulation is a compicated pricess especially alphabatizing for a processor not designed to do so.
I personally sort my games in gameplay groups a folder of my favorates, one for adventure one for rpg one for translations etc etc. makes it easier to find the game you want, hmm I want to play batman I'll just fire up the action folder and there it is.
TheDomesticInstitution
07-12-2009, 09:02 AM
Not that the NES needs to but, that's kind of an ignorant statement. The NES cpu isn't that slow.
I don't know about ignorant. He's currently programming a homebrew NES game. He of all people should know.
MetalFRO
07-12-2009, 10:51 AM
Anyone know why it's so expensive? I have a 256MB CF card I'd love to use for this purpose (since I don't use that old digital camera any longer), but great googly moogly, that's pricey!
jperryss
07-12-2009, 11:24 AM
Anyone know why it's so expensive? I have a 256MB CF card I'd love to use for this purpose (since I don't use that old digital camera any longer), but great googly moogly, that's pricey!
Yes. No one else is making them, so they get away with it.
ProgrammingAce
07-12-2009, 04:32 PM
Anyone know why it's so expensive? I have a 256MB CF card I'd love to use for this purpose (since I don't use that old digital camera any longer), but great googly moogly, that's pricey!
Aside from the fact they're the only game in town as stated above, the cart is damn complicated.
In order to support all of these mappers, they had to use something called a "field programmable gate array. Basically this is a chip that can be reprogrammed on the fly to emulate other chips. It's a fairly new technology, and rather expensive.
I'm not fond of the price either, but these things are hand assembled in small quantities using expensive components. I don't think they have much wiggle room on the price.
As for listing the games in alphabetical order, listing the folders isn't really the issue. The NES could alphabetize 26 or so folders in a fairly short period of time. The problem comes when someone dumps 3,000 roms in one folder and expects those in alphabetical order. The system just doesn't have enough memory to hold that many file names. It would take forever to split it into smaller chunks.
Blitzwing256
07-12-2009, 08:57 PM
if you want to put your COMPLETE GOONES ROMZ-R SET in there I think you're missing the point, the trick is to put them in there a couple files at a time so they end up in alphabetical order (or whatever order you prefer) the smaller your lists, the faster it loads. and for the price its an amazing piece of techniology, one that can also be upgraded and improed. the nes is a very hard system to duplicate with all the differnt chips, you're getting a steal for the price.
tomaitheous
07-14-2009, 12:17 AM
I don't know about ignorant. He's currently programming a homebrew NES game. He of all people should know.
Ehh?
ProgrammingAce: What are you working on? (or just pm me a link to site/page/thread?)
Edit: Nm. I see the thread.
Jorpho
07-14-2009, 12:26 AM
I know. So are the files/folders displayed by creation date?I reckon they might be sorted by FAT "filesystem order", which might be the order you added them.
There are some defrag utilities that can sort filesystem entries alphabetically, but offhand I wouldn't be able to name one. Here's what Google turns up:
http://hem.passagen.se/chsw/fatsort/index.html
http://www.jetman.dircon.co.uk/software/foldersort.html
ProgrammingAce
07-14-2009, 04:40 PM
http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?products_id=34
Files appear to be displayed in alphabetical order to me.
BTW, take another look at the list..
Dragon Warrior is before Balloon Fight and 10 Yard Fight should be up with 1942 instead of down at the bottom. So someone tried to put them in order, but it didn't work out quite right.
Greg2600
07-14-2009, 07:28 PM
I reckon they might be sorted by FAT "filesystem order", which might be the order you added them.
There are some defrag utilities that can sort filesystem entries alphabetically, but offhand I wouldn't be able to name one. Here's what Google turns up:
http://hem.passagen.se/chsw/fatsort/index.html
http://www.jetman.dircon.co.uk/software/foldersort.html
I just did a quick test, and you are correct, it is sorted by file system order, aka, order in which you add the file. Though that is not technically a sort. I assume timestamp sorting would be no different than alphabetical, aka not available.
So if you add almost all the roms, in folders for each letter, at first, it would be in order. If you had to add a new rom later, you just have to take all that would be after it out, and put them back. Or use one of the programs you mention. I'll try them once I decide which roms I am putting on it. I am currently sifting through tons of hacks, Japanese, Euro releases.
Jorpho
07-14-2009, 08:21 PM
So if you add almost all the roms, in folders for each letter, at first, it would be in order. If you had to add a new rom later, you just have to take all that would be after it out, and put them back.The problem with doing it that way is that the order in which the files are listed in Explorer is not necessarily the order in which they will be copied.
Mitch
07-15-2009, 02:14 PM
I use DriveSort to alphabetize the files. Works great.
Mitch
Greg2600
07-15-2009, 06:59 PM
I use DriveSort to alphabetize the files. Works great.
Mitch
I intend to as well, plus Mitch knows his stuff.
bucky
07-16-2009, 11:50 PM
This is a question to any PowerPak owners.... How do you have the roms on the flash card? Do you separate every three letters, i.e. ABC, DEF, etc? Everyone one letter? The other pain in the butt is that it doesn't alphabetize, seems like it just sorts based on either when the rom was added to the card, or the age of the rom itself. Thoughts?
I have each to their own letter.
It'll sort them by when they're added, so what you can do is make sure they're all alphabetized before you add them on. Then add them all at once. If you go back and add one rom later it'll be out of order, but you should be okay if you do them altogether. I've wound up with a backwards alphabet but everything in proper older within their folders by letter.
edit: Whoops, didn't see that you already figured that out. :)
Retro Duo is reported as compatible with the Power Pak.
I'm not really clear on what the difference between Retro Duo and Retro Duo 2.0 ... I'm not sure it's anything drastic in the way the hardware runs, or drastic enough to cause an incompatibilty with the Power Pak.
user ooXxXoo would probably be able to detail any differences in versions as I believe he's opened up a few and made adjustments, he may have seen both versions (or other internal variants).
I have Retro Duo v2.0 and the PowerPak doesn't work on it... so it must be something with version 2.0 as compared to the first RD. :?