SNES Powerpak is now available

[jupitersj]

Temporarily Unavailable

[Greg2600]

So it would seem that 2/1/2 is perhaps the most compatible with the PowerPak at the moment.

I am inclined to think that the SNES jr. supplies less power to the cartridge slot than the PowerPak needs, making it not work.

That's good to hear, 2/1/2 is what I have. I got it in 1992.

[Poofta!]

Likely would need new chips. If software would be able to do the job, I doubt you'd need to get the DSP-1 chip extra.

So basically, you can play everything you'd want except Super Mario RPG, both Kirbys, Mega Man X2/X3 and all the Super FX games. A decent hit to the popular games for the system, but isn't a deal breaker.

deal breaker for me. also Mario World 2 doesnt work.

[Leo_A]

deal breaker for me. also Mario World 2 doesnt work.

Yoshi's Island is one of the SuperFX games.

The cost of all the hardware, since you'd have to cannibalize chips from games and it would make the device much more complicated and expensive to produce, just to get those last 20 US releases working on it, would cost far more than just going out and buying those last 20 cartridges. They're largely all common and pretty cheap.

Or to do something like a FPGA would take years of development and probably be even more costly in the small numbers this device will be produced in.

Plus, many of the enhancement chips were barely used in anything. What's the point with something like the DSP4 chip? Strip it from a Top Gear 3000 cartridge when just Top Gear 3000 uses it? That's idiotic. Or the CX4 chip? Strip it from one of the two cartridges that used it just to get this device playing both games? That's stupid.

The DSP1 chip made sense, was extremely common, easily available, and makes a lot of titles compatible. None of the others make sense. There's little point in including a SA-1 when there's just three games using it that people care about, or including two revisions of the SuperFX chip to get a handful of SuperFX games people care about anymore working on it (Primarily just Star Fox and Yoshi's Island, and the prototype of Star Fox 2).

It's called the law of diminishing returns. Doesn't make sense for RetroZone, and I think most of their customers and potential customers would agree that it wouldn't be worth the time and expense that would probably of torpedoed this device before it was ever released.

[Icarus Moonsight]

PowerPak + Yoshi's Island and StarFox (that I already own) = Better than traveling with or simply having to pour over a hundred carts, loose in drawer, or boxed on shelf... Oh! And english translations, rom hacks and homebrews... On original hardware! All things considered, it's nuts to not have one for those reasons alone... Well, if you play the SNES often enough.

[klausien]

PowerPak + Yoshi's Island and StarFox (that I already own) = Better than traveling with or simply having to pour over a hundred carts, loose in drawer, or boxed on shelf... Oh! And english translations, rom hacks and homebrews... On original hardware! All things considered, it's nuts to not have one for those reasons alone... Well, if you play the SNES often enough.

QFT

Terranigma alone justifies getting a Powerpak.

[Great Hierophant]

QFT

Terranigma alone justifies getting a Powerpak.

Not only Terranigma (needs a territory fix), but virtually all the great Japanese RPGs with fan translations, like DQ5, DQ6, FFV, Phantasia, Bahamut, Star Ocean (search for SF96soe.rar and add a .gd3 extension to the compressed file, works except for maybe saving). Plus it makes around 700 US cartridges totally redundant.

[Nature Boy]

Temporarily Unavailable

Rats. I actually put my order in last Thursday, and it still says "processing," but I haven't received word as to whether I'll get it or not.

I'll keep my fingers crossed!

[schnuth]

I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Keep your fingers crossed that yours actually works, as mine dosen't. I'm still waiting to have this resolved.

Aaron

[c0ldb33r]

I got mine tonight. The included CF card works perfect. They forgot to include the usb reader I paid for. The weird part involves my DSP chip. I've got two SNES consoles. One can detect the DSP and the other can't.

Two Super Nintendo consoles

One DSP chip works ("DSP1 installed")

The other doesn't ("DSP1 not installed")

Mariokart works perfectly on the DSP1 installed SNES and gives an error message on the other one. Has this happened to anyone else?

[skaar]

deal breaker for me. also Mario World 2 doesnt work.

Yes because the other 1000 games that work aren't worth it. Admit you're cheap and stop being a prat.

[Mitch]

Well, here's my latest bug report. I went to visit my brother, who lives about two hours away, today. I knew he had a SNES so I brought along my PowerPak. When I tried it on his SNES it gave me the exact same errors as on a SNES jr. His is a full size SNES, rev 2/1/3 with the molded eject button.

That was a bit disapointing since the powerpak is supposed to be compatible with all full size SNES consoles. I may email this issue in to Retrozone, though I suspect it won't be fixed until the SNES jr issue is fixed.

Mitch

[Icarus Moonsight]

Coldb33r: What PPU versions between the two?

[renejr902]

im surprised !! i read somewhere that star ocean save are working with the snes powerpak. can someone confirm that it work or not ?
thanks

[badinsults]

You know guys, if you are having problems, why don't you report them on the NESDev forums where bunnyboy might actually be able to respond to them?

http://nesdev.parodius.com/bbs/viewforum.php?f=12

[c0ldb33r]

Coldb33r: What PPU versions between the two?

how can I tell?

[renejr902]

how can I tell?

me too i want to know. i want to verify my snes version

and if someone know about star ocean save feature , its very important to me. i really bought the snes powerpak for that game


sorry for my bad english

[badinsults]

how can I tell?

If you have Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, do this trick:

http://nesdev.parodius.com/bbs/viewt...9df2b167#52646

[Purkeynator]

If you have Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, do this trick:

http://nesdev.parodius.com/bbs/viewt...9df2b167#52646

Thanks, looks like I have a 2-1-3 on my gray SNES and I can't seem to get Mystiq Quest to boot up on my older yellowing system. It is really strange, some games like FF Mystiq Quest, Secret of Mana, and Super Mario RPG absolutely refuse to boot (black screen) while others like Donkey Kong Country 2 and Super Mario World boot up fine with no problems. Anyone know what that is?

[badinsults]

Super Mario RPG won't load because it uses an SA-1 chip.

The other games should load. Like I said earlier, if you are having technical issues, post on the NESDev forums where your issues can be heard by bunnyboy!