SNES Powerpak is now available

[Leo_A]

The other flashcarts out there, outside of the excellent Cuttle Cart 3 & AtariMax ones, seem to have serious drawbacks.

Don't forget the Cuttle Cart II, that's the most amazing one of them all in my opinion. The entire Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 library with POKEY sound for the 7800 releases that utilize it, 7800 high score save support, 2600 Supercharger support, etc. Basically, everything except Pitfall II works on it.

Adding new games to it is a pain though, wish all that was more simpler like some of these more recent ones.

[Troglodyte]

Come to think of it, I have a feeling that the reason Jeopardy!, for the SNES, has graphic display problems, when played on the PowerPak, is because it uses the special Hi-Res mode of the Super Nintendo to achieve partially digitized graphics. This was basically a trick that, to my knowledge, only a few SNES games ever used, for various reasons (I would assume mainly frame rate and the inability to do certain graphic effects simultaneously). But in comparison to many other SNES games, Jeopardy! uses very simplistic graphics, sound, and game play. So I can see why this would have been an almost perfect opportunity for the developers to take advantage of this trick.

I would be interested to see how other games, that have confirmed user of digitized graphics / Hi-Res mod, perform when played on the SNES PowerPak.

I assume, but have no way of confirming, that the Hi-Res mode trick, changes the way the memory addressing / speed of accessing the RAM is achieved.

[badinsults]

Come to think of it, I have a feeling that the reason Jeopardy!, for the SNES, has graphic display problems, when played on the PowerPak, is because it uses the special Hi-Res mode of the Super Nintendo to achieve partially digitized graphics. This was basically a trick that, to my knowledge, only a few SNES games ever used, for various reasons (I would assume mainly frame rate and the inability to do certain graphic effects simultaneously). But in comparison to many other SNES games, Jeopardy! uses very simplistic graphics, sound, and game play. So I can see why this would have been an almost perfect opportunity for the developers to take advantage of this trick.

I would be interested to see how other games, that have confirmed user of digitized graphics / Hi-Res mod, perform when played on the SNES PowerPak.

I assume, but have no way of confirming, that the Hi-Res mode trick, changes the way the memory addressing / speed of accessing the RAM is achieved.

I'm sure that isn't the problem. In all likelihood, this is a hardware issue. Perhaps it requires a certain version of the lockout chip. I don't have a picture of the PCB, so I can only guess.

[badinsults]

I discussed this issue with a SNES software expert, and if you want Jeopardy to work, you must pad the rom using this command:

nsrt -pad

[Mitch]

I discussed this issue with a SNES software expert, and if you want Jeopardy to work, you must pad the rom using this command:

nsrt -pad

OK, I just tried that and it didn't do anything to the file.

Mitch

[badinsults]

OK, I just tried that and it didn't do anything to the file.

Mitch

So? Try it out and see if it fixes the glitches!

[Mitch]

So? Try it out and see if it fixes the glitches!

It didn't fix it.

Mitch

[badinsults]

It didn't fix it.

Mitch

I discussed this with the author of NSRT, and though he states that the ROM image needs to be padded, the latest version of NSRT does not have the capability to fix the game to be playable on the SNES without glitches. I guess the only option is to play the actual cart!

[skaar]

Oh noes!

... still waiting on mine.

[MachineGex]

I ordered one of these a few days ago. Anyone have some good suggestions as to what games I should load? Anything you guys discovered since you started trying yours?
Just looking for names of the gamesNot roms). S. Famicom games to try? Anything?

[Greg2600]

I certainly wouldn't cry over Jeopardy!, I think I have that cart myself, and it's nothing great. That said, the NES powerpak didn't work on several games, but over the years updates have gotten them to work. If it's a software glitch, I think it will get fixed eventually.

[jeffg]

I started playing the decompressed version of Star Ocean last night and it works great. Along with Secret of Mana 2 translated, along with all 3 Fire Emblem translations, Treasure Hunter G translated, Bahamut Lagoon, and Rendering Ranger.

Those are some good games to play that you would normally not get to play here in the US.

[eastbayarb]

Terranigma is another one that is great that wasn't released in the USA.

[jeffg]

yeah but terranigma you need a system that can play PAL games though even with this thing.
I have a 50/60hz modded system so I can play it but only when i change to 50 HZ mode

[badinsults]

yeah but terranigma you need a system that can play PAL games though even with this thing.
I have a 50/60hz modded system so I can play it but only when i change to 50 HZ mode

Not if you use this patch:

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/541/

[Mitch]

I discussed this with the author of NSRT, and though he states that the ROM image needs to be padded, the latest version of NSRT does not have the capability to fix the game to be playable on the SNES without glitches. I guess the only option is to play the actual cart!

OK, so what you are saying then is that it is a bad dump.

While Jeopardy isn't a terribly exiciting game I am more interested in whether there was a bug in the SNES PowerPak or not. If it was a bug then it should be reported as it might affect other games. Since it seems to be a bad dump, it's not a big deal.
Though I'll have to keep an eye out at flea markets for Jeopardy now and see if I can redump it.

Mitch

[badinsults]

OK, so what you are saying then is that it is a bad dump.

While Jeopardy isn't a terribly exiciting game I am more interested in whether there was a bug in the SNES PowerPak or not. If it was a bug then it should be reported as it might affect other games. Since it seems to be a bad dump, it's not a big deal.
Though I'll have to keep an eye out at flea markets for Jeopardy now and see if I can redump it.

Mitch

The ROM image is not bad, it is just that the flash cart doesn't have support for mirroring, which Jeopardy appears to require.

[Mitch]

The ROM image is not bad, it is just that the flash cart doesn't have support for mirroring, which Jeopardy appears to require.

OK, so why are we talking about patching the ROM if it's a bug in the PowerPak?

Mitch

[badinsults]

OK, so why are we talking about patching the ROM if it's a bug in the PowerPak?

Mitch

Because padding the ROM is essentially the same as mirroring.

Either way, things won't get fixed unless one of those two things happen.

[renejr902]

i just bought this snes powerpak too the 20th november. always in processing. Cant wait to play star ocean and seiken 3 (secret of mana 2)

so all games in pal format (E) dont work on a US/Canada snes powerpak ?