SNES Powerpak is now available

[maxwell7301]

My card reader and CF card arrived from Amazon today

Just letting everyone know if you're buying your own CF card that on 1.02/1.02

PNY Optima Pro 4 GB 133x CompactFlash Memory Card P-CF4GB-133W-DVDC (20MB/Sec minimum sustained read/write speed) works perfectly out of the box on the SNES PowerPak.

Amazon had it up for sale for $15 but it seems they ran out since cheapest is $45 from tigerdirect atm >.< So, if you can find this one for cheap it's quick and it works great

Playing Seiken Densetsu III

I still don't think I've found a CF card that works 100% perfectly with the SNES Powerpak.

The first one I tried was a Sandisk Extreme III 4gb, new out of the box. I got an error message like "$01 CF Card Error", and it wouldn't boot at all. I tried formatting it in Windows XP in fat 32, and that did nothing to solve the problem. Ultimately, I returned that card back to the store, and I got my money back.

I was walking around Target a few days later, and they had a cheap Lexar 4Gb CF card for about $15. This is what I'm using now with the Powerpak. This ran games right out of the box, but everything was initially very glitchy. The text in the game selection menu appeared corrupted at times, and games only loaded and saved properly some of the time, but not consistently.

The next thing I did was open up config.txt in the POWERPAK directory with the mappers, and change DMA=1 to DMA=0. Everything has now worked perfectly for the past week or so.

So, it seems some CF cards work, and others don't. It's really hit or miss. I would still probably be happier to have a faster card that works even when DMA=1. My technical knowledge is very limited, but I understand DMA is a memory mapping mode that flash memory uses to take advantage of better read/write times.

If changing this config.txt DMA setting only affects the time it takes to load a game from the CF to the Powerpak memory, and has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of games running on the Powerpak, (my current understanding) then I probably don't need a different CF card, and my current setup is fine.

Otherwise, I would be tempted to take advantage of that Amazon sale if it still existed. I don't think Lexar is a great brand, and the performance of my CF card isn't amazing or anything. It's probably likely to fail at some point.

[eastbayarb]

I went to Target and bought a Lexar Platinum II 80x 4GB Compact Flash card for $29.99 + Tax (9.75% in my part of califorina - ouch!) which was $2.92. Works perfect with the Power Pak! Tried out about 7 games and no problems.

[schnuth]

Does anyone else have a problem loading Contra 3? I can't get it to load for me.

Mitch

I couldn't get any of the US Contra 3 ROMs to work that I've found. But the Japanese and UK versions (Contra Spirits & Super Probotector - The Alien Rebels) work just fine for me. Contra Spirits has a little bit of Japanese text in the intro that doesn't effect gameplay. The UK version however changes your guy into a robot. I guess shooting robots is better then people in the PAL territories? Has anyone found a working US version?

Aaron

[Icarus Moonsight]

Just out of curiosity. Are we finding that the confirmed good dumps "[!]" are usually working best?

I have the compressed rom archives, somewhere. But I have already unzipped good dumps at easy and immediate access.

[Nature Boy]

Does anyone else have a problem loading Contra 3? I can't get it to load for me.

Mitch

<Raises Hand>

I also couldn't get Super Castlevania IV to work - I got the same error message about it being a bad rom. Anybody else?

[MarioMania]

Wow, people are having problems with there Powerpaks..

[Mitch]

<Raises Hand>

I also couldn't get Super Castlevania IV to work - I got the same error message about it being a bad rom. Anybody else?

Super Castlevania IV works fine for me. CRC32 for my copy is B64FFB12.

Mitch

[eastbayarb]

I think a lot of woes people are having (with some exceptions) have to do with their choice of memory card.

[maxwell7301]

I think a lot of woes people are having (with some exceptions) have to do with their choice of memory card.

This absolutely appears to be the case, as I've had lots of trouble with many CF cards in the Powerpak.

I don't think any of the problems are related to build quality, and they can all be fixed with simple firmware/mapper updates.

I never had any trouble with my NES Powerpak, but the SNES Powerpak still has a decent amount of bugs and compatibility issues to be worked out. I'm actually surprised it wasn't the other way around, considering how complex the NES mapper system is.

That isn't to say that it isn't an amazing product, and it's great once you get it working. All other SNES flash carts are far more cumbersome and difficult to use, involving outdated parallel ports and such.

[jupitersj]

I'm not able to reach the SAVE battery RAM to CF Card screen on my 1/1/1 US console but I can on my US 2/1/2 console... anyone notice this problem on their 1/1/1?

I posted this over at nesdev and emailed bunnyboy about it.

Hey guys, I'm a member over at Digital Press and thought I'd bring up a "bug" I'm encountering with my PowerPak

With over 20 different games good (U)! dumps I have not been able to reach the SNES PowerPak Saving battery RAM screen. Holding RESET for 5 seconds keeps the game playing until I let go in which that time the game resets like it would normally do with a real cartridge. Thus, I am unable to update Battery RAM onto the CF card. This problem is repeatable over and over for me on PowerPak(NTSC CIC DSP1 Installed) 1.02/1.02 on an NTSC US v1 SNES rev 1/1/1.

I am using a properly setup(with DMA=1 working fine) FAT32 PNY Optima Pro 4 GB 133x CompactFlash Memory Card P-CF4GB-133W-DVDC with premade 8kb .srm files from the Retrousb site.

This problem however does not exhibit itself on my US NTSC v1 SNES rev 2/1/2. During holding of RESET the screen immediately switches to black with my proper video 2 channel indication(as I'm assuming from change of resolution) instead of the game continuously playing. Upon release of RESET I'm greeted with the Save Battery RAM to CF Card screen as I should be.

So... bug for rev 1/1/1 systems for the time being? Anyone else here have a 1/1/1 system to test this on? I believe pre 1.02 there were DMA/HDMA problems with 1/1/1 systems?

Greatly appreciated,

jupitersj

[maxwell7301]

jupitersj, you should try opening the config.txt file in the POWERPAK directory on your CF card, and change DMA=1 to DMA=0.

This might help with the problems for accessing the "save battery ram to CF" screen.

It could be an issue with CF card compatibility.


EDIT: I reread your post, and you said that DMA=1 works fine. So I'll assume that you tried this already.

[jupitersj]

It's not, as it works on my 2/1/2 system flawlessly.

[maxwell7301]

It must be a compatibility issue of some type, then. I know there were problems with the Powerpak working at all on some system revisions, and the 1.02 mappers release fixed it to some degree.

I think I have a 3/1/2 system, as I bought it in early 1994, bundled with Super Mario World.

I experienced problems with the save screen showing up, but not letting me select "yes" or "no" for saving the ram to the CF card.

Setting DMA=0 fixed this, and it hasn't happened since.

This is with Lexar Platinum II 80x 4GB, which apparently works perfectly for eastbayarb, even with DMA=1. I wonder if eastbayarb has a different SNES revision, since all other variables would be the same.

[schnuth]

I think a lot of woes people are having (with some exceptions) have to do with their choice of memory card.

I'd say. I wish there was a official list of compatible Compact Flash cards.

The first 2GB card I got from RetroUSB would not work and appeared to be corrupted. I bought a Sandisk Ultra from Wal-mart that wouldn't work either. The replacement one I got from RetoUSB would work on and off. One day a game would work, then the next day it would throw an error. I then bought a Dane Elec 4GB card off eBay (which is the brand of the other two I got from RetroUSB) and it works perfectly without a hitch. I'm glad too since I was starting to get extremely frustrated with the Powerpak.

Aaron

[renejr902]

GREAT NEWS

i find a way to get the Nightmare Busters rom to work on the SNES POWERPAK

when you load the rom , all the screen become black and freeze. BUT IF YOU RESET THE SNES WITH THE RESET BUTTON NIGHTMWARE BUSTERS WILL LOAD AND WORK.

i played with it it work correclty

note : it doesnt work when the snes powerpak load it the first time, but the game load after you reset the snes, dont power off and power on it wont work. just reset it.

[Nature Boy]

Super Castlevania IV works fine for me. CRC32 for my copy is B64FFB12.

Mitch

Just checked, and that's what mine is too.

I decided to try padding the header with NSRT, and got the game to load after hitting Reset at the blank screen, but the graphics are scrambled and it's totally unplayable.

So far that and Contra III are the only games I've thrown at it that haven't worked. I haven't done an exhaustive test run by any means, but it definitely seems like Castlevania IV is the exception, not the rule for me.

[Greg2600]

I have a 512MB PNY CF card for my nes powerpak, and I read someone bought a XGB PNY and it works on the SNES. When you are finding cards that don't work, do they work on the NES powerpak?

[renejr902]

i read all the snes powerpak problems . and i have none of them

MY SNES POWERPAK WORK PERFECLTY NORMAL WITH the included 2gb card i bought with it.

people are not lucky here.

castlevania 4 work perfeclty.

[eastbayarb]

i read all the snes powerpak problems . and i have none of them

MY SNES POWERPAK WORK PERFECLTY NORMAL WITH the included 2gb card i bought with it.

people are not lucky here.

like i said, i think a lot of probs people are having are due to the CF card they are using. There are plenty of examples in this thread of CF cards that work.

[jeffg]

has anyone got this to work ok on an FC Twin??