NP Re-Writeable SFC/GB Carts - Writing to them Nowadays?

[wayultratech]

The Nintendo Power flash RAM carts were white-colored Japan-exclusive Super Famicom / Game Boy cartridges you could buy, then write games to using in-store NP copier kiosks, similar to how players would load games onto the iQue. My question is does anybody have any info on whether there's working NP copier kiosk hardware or similar devices (FX-32?) floating around out there, or are they extremely scarce/rare?

Or is there any DIY method of loading ROMs onto these carts?

[Satoshi_Matrix]

This is a question probably better posed to well known retro collectors in Japan such as lukemorse1, but my hunch is that what you seek is literally almost impossible. Nintendo Power Data Cartridges themselves are exceedingly rare, especially with certain desirable titles written to them.

I own one that has Super Famicom Wars, and it's the jewel of my SFC collection. I wish you luck, but I wouldn't expect much success.

[wayultratech]

Thanks for the info, yeah i was kinda thinking that this little niche of SFC software/hardware is extremely difficult to locate/acquire. But damn do those carts look awesome. There's some Youtube vids ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn9ljKSB7yE ) showcasing a device known as "World Com FX-32" that could copy/write games to floppy discs, but i have no idea how difficult it'd be to get one of these. Sure looks cool though, and in the video there's a glimpse of potentially a save state option which would be rad. Although kinda obsolete with all those SD card loading solutions.

It would be amazing if an owner of the original Nintendo Power cart writer hardware was ever willing to load up other peoples carts, giving a little more functionality to those super-rare cartridges. But alas, finding that type of situation will most likely happen when pigs fly!!

a DIY method for writing to these white-colored plastic gems would be amazing, but again....probably will happen when pigs fly.

[Koa Zo]

I have a few of these for Gameboy and SFC.

The internal battery concerns me. If I replace the battery will it erase the games on the cartridges?

[goob47]

Hmm... Did some searching, and I found this post from two years ago. Seems like it would be worth trying if you had a blank cart or something. http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?150180-If-you-had-a-Retrode-would-it-be-able-to-write-to-a-Nintendo-Power-SFC-cart

I always did want to own one of these, but the prices just shot up about a year ago. :|

[wayultratech]

Thanks for doin some digging, yeah that thread somewhat confirms it, and the dude from SNES Central (badinsults, i think?) said it best in saying that nobody has bothered to put serious legwork into modding/forcing a DIY rewritable option, especially given the abundance of SD card loading carts nowadays.

[Natty Bumppo]

I have a few of these for Gameboy and SFC.

The internal battery concerns me. If I replace the battery will it erase the games on the cartridges? I have a copy of super famicom wars with a dead battery - not a big deal since you can play through the game without it easily. But the game still loads up although it won't save - so my guess is that changing the battery shouldn't hurt the game data - I would use heat sinks to be on the safe side whilst changing the battery (I am assuming those were soldered in place for those units.)

[Koa Zo]

I have a copy of super famicom wars with a dead battery - not a big deal since you can play through the game without it easily. But the game still loads up although it won't save - so my guess is that changing the battery shouldn't hurt the game data - I would use heat sinks to be on the safe side whilst changing the battery (I am assuming those were soldered in place for those units.)
Nice, thanks for the info!

[Kiddo]

I always did want to own one of these, but the prices just shot up about a year ago. :|

A friend of mine ended up with corrupted games in a NP cart. Perhaps this is a trend. It would explain a rise in prices.

[badinsults]

It would probably be very hard to do without the actual Nintendo Power hardware. But quite frankly, why would you bother? There are plenty of flash cart solutions out there. If you want to have something writable the NP cart casing, just throw one of them in there.

[wiggyx]

This is a question probably better posed to well known retro collectors in Japan such as lukemorse1, but my hunch is that what you seek is literally almost impossible. Nintendo Power Data Cartridges themselves are exceedingly rare, especially with certain desirable titles written to them.

I own one that has Super Famicom Wars, and it's the jewel of my SFC collection. I wish you luck, but I wouldn't expect much success.

The white carts? If so, they are FAR from rare or expensive at this point.

[SparTonberry]

Yes, it depends on the content of the cart.

But I've seen many sellers don't list the contents.

What Kiddo said, if he's speaking of the same person I heard from. Says he spent maybe $200 to get a couple games in a Japanese shop with desirable NP exclusives on them, turned out they'd display the title screen fine but then get corrupted after entering gameplay. I'd be mad too.

I'd imagine it's like the Famicom Disk Writer. Since the games could be overwritten, a lot of people that still had the exclusive games after the service was cut off were likely those who wanted to keep them for themselves. People who didn't like the games probably just took their cart back and had it rewritten.

[wayultratech]

Ahh, interesting.... hopefully corruption isn't a trend in these carts!! I agree with the convenience of flash carts, i suppose i am simply enamored by the OG concept/hardware and the carts themselves.

Apparently you could load these carts up via this (http://www.ign.com/articles/2000/06/01/the-lawsons-experience), a kiosk called LOPPI in Lawson convenience stores in Japan. Now that would be a hard thing to track down, one of these kiosks (although you'd almost certainly never be able to find a functional LOPPI)

There's a NP GB cart on eBay right now (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Nintendo-Power-Game-Boy-Cartridge-with-onboard-flash-memory-RARE-/190910053880?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c73203df8), $80 SB, but of course the seller omitted the actual cart contents.

[BlastProcessing402]

There's some Youtube vids ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn9ljKSB7yE ) showcasing a device known as "World Com FX-32" that could copy/write games to floppy discs, but i have no idea how difficult it'd be to get one of these.

That's just one of many of dozens if not hundreds of console copiers that were around back in those days. The ones I have work with both SNES and Genesis, but I haven't touched them in over 10 years, the whole floppy thing just got to be too much of a hassle as emulators got better and easier to use.