There are quite a few detailed pages here about various pirate Famicom carts, but we're missing the motherload of the "all-in-one" carts - The PowerPak. Now, I'm not sure if its one of the Famicom/NES's dirtiest little secrets or not, but it seems this community hasn't uttered a word about it since its inception. I've had mine for over a year and yet nothing has been made of it. I'd like to write up an article for JC, but before that I'd like to get some community feedback that could add to it greatly.
For those who don't know, the PowerPak is an NES-sized dev tool that accepts standard camera Compact Flash cards and can convert .nes ROMs into actual 6502 assembly that the NES/Famicom can read, literally making it theoretically capable of every Famicom, NES hack and original ever made.
In addition that, the PowerPak is capable of saving games that used a battery like Zelda or Mother. The PowerPak uses the CF card to write data do as opposed to a battery, thus making the saves almost uneraseable. It also has built-in GameGenie support, for up to 5 codes at once, 2 codes more than the actual GameGenie!
The downsides of the Pak is that so far, its capable of running somewhere between 75-80% of the entire NES/FC library, not 100%. It's possible that in the future the firmware will be updated to allow more compatibility, but even still, 80% of the vast library is still pretty damn sweet. Also worth mentioning is that it plays .nes files only, it will not play .fds.
The other downside is the cost. At $135 US + shipping, the PowerPak isn't for the cheapo gamer.
With your typical 72-60 pin converter, The PowerPak will run on any Famicom, so there's no reason to think that this is limited to the NES only. It can run your hacks, it can run your ROM translations. It can run Battle City without you having to blow into the contacts of your old dirty cart.
Anyway, I'm curious if anyone else here has one and to share their thoughts and opinions on it.
Before I forget, here's the link to where you can buy it
http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?productID=133
Cheers.
I've debated buying one of these. I might at some point. One thing: Are you sure it doesn't support .FDS? I was talking to some techie who has one. He said he can play 99% of FDS games. He also said the pak can be easily modified to play the extra Famicom sound.
I've also debated buying one of these. The site link provided says that multi disk FDS games are not yet supported; I guess that means that single disk games are. ;)
I managed to get my hands on one a couple of weeks ago and will be doing a write up for the blog soon.
I don't see the point in this, if I want to play emulated games there are far cheaper ways to do it.
I think the point is to be able to play the ROMs on the original hardware, instead of on a PC. Since I own a bunch of carts, the only reason I'd buy it is to play those rare games I'll likely never own. But I've also thought of just getting a PSP or something portable.
I wonder...does multi disk mean games that use both sides A and B, instead of just a single side?
Eh I just run emulators on my Wii. Original carts are just vastly superior imo.
Quote from: JC on December 27, 2008, 03:19:14 pm
. But I've also thought of just getting a PSP or something portable.
I use a DS and R4 , and I think that is cheaper, too.
Quote from: JC on December 27, 2008, 03:19:14 pm
I wonder...does multi disk mean games that use both sides A and B, instead of just a single side?
No, it means more than one physical disk, like Shin Onigaishima which comes on two disks (making 'four' sides in total).
When games spanning multiple disks are dumped in the .FDS format, they're stored in a single file, i.e. for a game on two disks (each disk with two sides) the .FDS dump is a single file with four sides.
Quote from: JC on December 27, 2008, 12:14:56 pm
I've debated buying one of these. I might at some point. One thing: Are you sure it doesn't support .FDS? I was talking to some techie who has one. He said he can play 99% of FDS games. He also said the pak can be easily modified to play the extra Famicom sound.
Hm, they must've updated the firmware recently. For the longest time there was no FDS support at all. I'll have to try updating mine and trying small 64k FDS roms.
I bought one a long time ago. In fact, I think I was supposed to send it back to get upgraded. But I noticed no problems playing it on my lockout chip-disabled NES. And yes, there is FDS software support, as well as NSF - I've been meaning to try these but have had little time on my hands to do so.
I didn't think we needed a writeup of this because a) it's not really a multicart; it's more of a dev-flashcart & b) it's not obscure
But I can see reason for one because it's on the expensive side & people are reluctant to buy one.
Yeah. I'll test out the FDS stuff now that I've updated mine and hopefully it'll be a little faster loading times as no actual motors are involved.
I have one, too. I planned on using it for some dev stuff (and will get around to it some day). A big downside to it that no one seems to mention is that game selection screen has no sorting options. The roms are listed on the cart in the order they are written to the FAT table. I ended up writing a script to copy my roms to it in alphabetical order (as well as to ignore the ones I was sure wouldn't work, based on their mapper). I'm surprised some kind of front end software hasn't been written to help with this.
Quote from: satoshi_matrix on December 27, 2008, 12:06:36 pm
can convert .nes ROMs into actual 6502 assembly that the NES/Famicom can read
The ROM dumps are already actual 6502 assembly, there's no conversion going on :P
I've updated my firmware, added the IPS'd FDS BIOS file and yet I still can't get FDS roms to work with it. The PDF manual speaks of them needing a proper FDS header. Anyone know how I can fix this? I'm eager to try the PowerPak's emulation of FDS games.
Quote from: JC on December 27, 2008, 12:14:56 pm
He also said the pak can be easily modified to play the extra Famicom sound.
Your friend's not very smart on that part. The hardware is not there for extra sound. (It can sometimes play games where extra sound existed--the extra sound itself is not there).
Modding it for use with the Famicom.
I think that michael's referring to the fact that the PowerPak itself contains no extra sound hardware, even if you mod it to use it on a Famicom you wouldn't get any extra sound since the generating hardware is simply not present.
Quote from: nurd on December 27, 2008, 03:26:42 pm
Quote from: JC on December 27, 2008, 03:19:14 pm
. But I've also thought of just getting a PSP or something portable.
I use a DS and R4 , and I think that is cheaper, too.
I have a psp and I must say that it is PERFECT for emulation on the go. I have around 2000 various nes roms on it, about 100 snes games, 5-6 n64 games, 2 ps1 games, and about 30 or so GBA roms. And I also copied a few of my original psp games on the memory stick so I wouldn't need to carry disks anymore. Plus you can find the original psp for around 80$ used so yeah PSP is the way to go.
I dont want to get too off topic here, but I have a PSP that's version 1.50 and runs the old kernel exploits. I assume that PSP emulation capabilities have grown leaps and bounds in the two or so years since I last fiddled with my PSP. Can you point me anywhere where I might be able to learn what I need to do in order to update my PSP to allow for PS1, stable SNES and non blurry NES emulation? It might be better if you just PM me. Thanks.
Quote from: 133MHz on December 28, 2008, 10:04:06 pm
I think that michael's referring to the fact that the PowerPak itself contains no extra sound hardware, even if you mod it to use it on a Famicom you wouldn't get any extra sound since the generating hardware is simply not present.
All I've got:
Quotethe fpga connects to the expansion pins. an fpga is like super reconfigurable microprocessor. the guy used "pwm" (pulse width modulation) and some other stuff to get the audio.
Says he's got the extra audio working fine, except for some volume level issues.
EDIT: Seems the mod may not be directly to the pak but to the converter between the pak and the Famicom. Kinda like what 133 did?
Quote from: satoshi_matrix on December 28, 2008, 11:16:55 pm
I dont want to get too off topic here, but I have a PSP that's version 1.50 and runs the old kernel exploits. I assume that PSP emulation capabilities have grown leaps and bounds in the two or so years since I last fiddled with my PSP. Can you point me anywhere where I might be able to learn what I need to do in order to update my PSP to allow for PS1, stable SNES and non blurry NES emulation? It might be better if you just PM me. Thanks.
This is where I went:
www.pspiso.com (http://www.pspiso.com)
Quote from: JC on December 28, 2008, 11:26:31 pm
All I've got:
Quotethe fpga connects to the expansion pins. an fpga is like super reconfigurable microprocessor. the guy used "pwm" (pulse width modulation) and some other stuff to get the audio.
Says he's got the extra audio working fine, except for some volume level issues.
Nice. I didn't know that the PowerPak had data lines connected to the expansion pins.
The guy probably used PWM and a low pass filter (RC) on Pin 18 to generate analog sound without additional hardware like a DAC. I wonder what the volume level issues are (too loud or too soft).
Quote from: JC on December 28, 2008, 11:26:31 pm
EDIT: Seems the mod may not be directly to the pak but to the converter between the pak and the Famicom. Kinda like what 133 did?
If the digital signal is carried to pin 18 on the PowerPak, yeah.
The "techie" here. Ya he used the pwm and a low pass filter or something along those lines. Some of you should really learn your stuff before you say it "lacks the hardware" cause the whole idea of powerpak is that its reconfigurable hardware ;-)
edit: it wil also not work with the mapper pak on the retrousb website. You need to download the latest version. Which is on loopy's website. (go to nesdev.parodius.com forums and look around you'll find him) go to his acount on nesdev and click his website link.
edit2: the audio output pin is pin #54 on nes side. You cut the bridge on your nes game to famicom adaptor pins #45 and #46 (make sure its really cut) bridge them with a 10k resistor then you lead a 10k resistor from pin 45 to pin #54 on the nes cart connector. (the one over pin #45 and #46 should be 10k but you might want to see what value sounds correct to you for the resistor going to pin #54 on the nes cart slot)
Quote from: Jero32 on December 29, 2008, 11:53:08 pm
Some of you should really learn your stuff before you say it "lacks the hardware" cause the whole idea of powerpak is that its reconfigurable hardware ;-)
It can have a whole 2C33 on board, but if it isn't linked to pin 18 (or 54), it's useless.
Quote from: 133MHz on December 29, 2008, 11:57:14 pm
Quote from: Jero32 on December 29, 2008, 11:53:08 pm
Some of you should really learn your stuff before you say it "lacks the hardware" cause the whole idea of powerpak is that its reconfigurable hardware ;-)
It can have a whole 2C33 on board, but if it isn't linked to pin 18, it's useless.
I was mostly refering to micheal who called me "not very smart". You should at least try and do some research before well......slightly insulting someone (i'm not horribly offended here but stil)
I understand the reconfigurable hardware. I ASSumed it didn't have the connections. My apologies. I thought about deleting my original post, but since it just makes me look stupid in the end, I'll leave it.
It's cool. It's not like i'm super angry or something. I do stupid stuff all the time :P
now to get back to designing my portable nsf player.
Quote from: Jero32 on December 30, 2008, 11:18:48 am
now to get back to designing my portable nsf player.
You mean Rockbox? ;D
Quote from: UglyJoe on December 30, 2008, 12:14:05 pm
Quote from: Jero32 on December 30, 2008, 11:18:48 am
now to get back to designing my portable nsf player.
You mean Rockbox? ;D
actually the idea is to use an actual 2a03. Emulation sucks ;-)
BUMP
I had a question about this...
Do people make unofficial updates for these? Such as mapper updates? Because it seems it will take a while for Brian to make all of his planned mappers compatible. Does anyone have any more compatible mappers for it?
I have some unofficial mappers, but they only apply to playing NSFs, as far as I know:
http://nesdev.parodius.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?p=38920#38920 (http://nesdev.parodius.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?p=38920#38920)
Okay, well I'm looking really just for mappers that he has planned or that he has labeled as buggy, because some of the best pirates can't be played without them!
It must be said that while the powerpak has great potential it's not very user friendly.
You'll need to fiddle with things here and there and there'll be some trial and error involved. Having said that, it's nothing more than what's needed for running homebrew on a PSP I think.
People like 133Mhz will have no problem obviously, but I think for most peopl it'll take a little setup to get it right. I still haven't got FDS games to work, I think I've placed the mapper (or w/e) in the wrong directory, and many of my pirates and a fair few licensed games get a 'bad header' message but it's worth it just for what I have so far and the NSF music, especially as I know what it's capable of.
I do wish it wasn't so frickin' ugly though!
Quote from: nintendodork on February 17, 2009, 05:40:46 pm
Okay, well I'm looking really just for mappers that he has planned or that he has labeled as buggy, because some of the best pirates can't be played without them!
I wouldn't get your hopes up for the pirate mappers. Making these mappers takes a good amount of work, as far as I know, so the pirate mappers that only apply to one or two (terrible) games are going to be very low priority.
I guess they are a low prority for me, as they all run on my Wii and PSP, which I honestly think plays NES and Famicom games way nicer than the original hardware I'm afraid to say.
Speaking of which, has anyone gotten ANY FDS games to work on the powerpak? Mine freezes each and every time, which is a total shame. Any help would be appreciated.
FDS games work fine for me. Make sure you get the fds bios from a rom site, apply the IPS patch that retrozone supplies, and make sure it's named FDSBIOS.BIN and place it in the POWERPAK directory. Your FDS roms also need to be unzipped and need to have headers (but there's really no reason for them not to have headers).
is there a way to ensure they have headers? I'm not sure if mine do or don't.
Open the file in an hex editor and check that the first three bytes say FDS.
You can also check the file size. If it ends with 16, it's got a header. If it ends with 00, it doesn't.
So this ROM of SMB2j has a header?
Fds: Disk 1 Side A: 50k in 8 files..
Fds: file: "KYODAKU-", id: 0, size: 224, index: 0, address: 0x2800, type: NMT
Fds: file: "SM2CHAR1", id: 1, size: 8192, index: 1, address: 0x0000, type: CHR
Fds: file: "SM2CHAR2", id: 16, size: 64, index: 2, address: 0x0760, type: CHR
Fds: file: "SM2MAIN", id: 5, size: 32768, index: 3, address: 0x6000, type: PRG
Fds: file: "SM2DATA2", id: 32, size: 3631, index: 4, address: 0xC470, type: PRG
Fds: file: "SM2DATA3", id: 48, size: 3279, index: 5, address: 0xC5D0, type: PRG
Fds: file: "SM2DATA4", id: 64, size: 3916, index: 6, address: 0xC2B4, type: PRG
Fds: file: "SM2SAVE", id: 15, size: 1, index: 7, address: 0xD29F, type: PRG
You don't need to extract the files out of the FDS. I meant the size of the FDS disk image.
A single side of an FDS disk can hold 65500 bytes. So, the size of the FDS file will be a multiple of that (depending on the number of sides/disks the game uses) plus a 16 byte header.
It just says 50k in 8 files on the image info
Whatever you're using to check the file size -- don't. Just right-click the FDS file in explorer and choose properties. It'll tell you the size.
Ok...
Size: 65,516 bytes
Size on Disk: 65,536 bytes
AWESOME
Size is the one you want. Ends in 16, so you have a header.
Size on disk is larger because of how your file system works.
Sorry to ask this most noobish question, but what IS a header?
I wasn't aware that games wouldn't run without one, is there a way of adding these ourselves?
A header is typically information about file type and stuff placed at the beginning of a data file, when I understand it right.
Whether you can add or edit it by yourself, that I don't know.
I guess my question is, I don't see why half the files I have do have headers and the others don't. I didn't pull all of these from my unofficial database though, so I'll try that. I haven't tinkered with it much so far. I keep on ending up spending more time playing the games lol.
It depends on who dumped the disk images and how they did it. The header is not part of the disk -- it's something extra that is added for the sake of the emulator.
Since FDS games don't have expansion chips (ie, they all use the same mapper), most emulators should be able to play them with or without the header. The header simply mentions that it's an FDS game (which the emu can assume by the file extension) and how many disks/sides the game has (which the emu can assume by the file size).
My assumption is that the PowerPak's loading routine always check the header, regardless of the type of game (cart / disk). It's not smart enough to assume things like that. It may also be a hardware limitation (ie, getting the filesize may be too much to ask of the NES's hardware).
Adding the headers are trivial if you know how to use a hex editor. There's probably a utility to add FDS (and iNES) headers out there, but I don't know of one offhand. I could write one if there really isn't one out there.
Does anybody know what's the difference between the powerpak and the powerpak lite ?
Thanks
The PowerPak Lite requires a CopyNES.
http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=84
The future...is here.
Also, when choosing the lockout, if I have just a regular NTSC system, does that mean I need to choose the NTSC lockout? Or would it be the opposite?
:o!!!
Quote from: nintendodork on November 04, 2009, 06:08:40 pm
Also, when choosing the lockout, if I have just a regular NTSC system, does that mean I need to choose the NTSC lockout?
Exactly.
Neat. Although, I'd think the SNES cart would be easier to make than the NES one, since there's a relatively small numbers of SNES games that use custom chips.
Yeah. He provided a list towards the bottom of the page of all the games that require some kind of special chip. (Only one of which is currently supported, the DSP1.) I'm glad that he also included options on both PowerPak pages to include CF card readers and 1GB CF cards (Which are reasonably cheap compared to what Amazon is selling.)
I prob get the NES & SNES powerpak down the road..I'm on a tight budget with game stuff
I might get both sooner or later.
Wow, the SNES powerpak totally puts Tototek's flash cart kit to shame. Oh well, at least I managed to get my Tototek kit for cheap.
Quote from: 133MHz on November 04, 2009, 06:15:09 pm
:o!!!
Exactly my thoughts! :o !!!!!
This one looks pretty sweet.
I just wish it would use SD cards and not CF.
I think CF cards are fine, since he provides the option for you to include one with your order (at a very nice price!). He also gave a good reason as to why he doesn't use SD cards. He says the CF cards make it possible to browse directories and load games faster.
If it was sd, it'd take forever to load.
Is speed really that important?
Loading a game of 4 or 8 megabytes shouldn't take so long.
Only browsing might be marginally slower I assume.
In the end I wouldn't worry too much, either way. I have some unused SD cards, so I always choose devices with SD card slots naturally. (Plus, my PC has an SD card slot. For CF cards i'd have to pull out my old cardreader)
But if I bought this it wouldn't kill me to buy a CF card in addition.
I think he said that it would be like...as long as 1:10 seconds to load.
QuoteGames load very fast, average around 7 seconds. This means a quick cycle for homebrew development on any mapper. Now you can see your game on real hardware instead of relying on emulators. FAT16 or FAT32 format is used so there is no special software to load games onto the card. Organize your games in folders any way you want for faster browsing. Compact Flash is used instead of something else like SD for maximum speed. The NES processor is the bottleneck so the parallel CF card is more than 10 times faster than the serial SD card.
Wow, I wouldn't have expected such a big difference in speed.
CF cards are parallel and SD cards are serial. The speed difference really is that much, because of the clear advantages of parallel data throughput vs serial. Not only that, but the electrical specifications of CF cards are very closely related to ATA hard drives, as you may already know it's possible to turn a CF card into a solid state hard drive with a simple pin adapter!
In the domain of professional digital cameras, CF cards are almost exclusively used for picture storage because the camera needs to dump a ton of raw data into permanent memory at high speeds, SD simply doesn't cut it.
Last but not least, for a console gaming related reason for CF over SD, the NES and SNES use parallel ROMs for game storage, using a parallel CF card makes for a simple and straightforward interface. Using a SD card would require complex serial to parallel converting circuitry which would introduce delays and slow everything down even more.
I wasn't aware of the parallel vs serial difference when I said the above.
Thanks for the explanation. This way even I get it. :D
Now I also understand why all those high-end cameras in photo studios use CF cards.
I thought it was a parallel vs serial thing ;D
OT, but why then is it that SATA is faster than PATA -- and why doesn't SD have the same advantage over CF?
Quote from: UglyJoe on November 11, 2009, 09:20:57 pm
OT, but why then is it that SATA is faster than PATA
Mostly because of several indirect improvements like a higher clock rate than PATA, the use of efficient data encoding techniques and application specific enhancements. You could theoretically boost PATA in the same way and end up with 8 times the throughput of SATA, but at those high clock rates there would be too much crosstalk and interference between the data lines which would make the data link unusable. SATA can get away with this because (in a rough way) if you've got only one data line you don't have to worry about interference with adjacent data lines because they just don't exist :P.
Quote from: UglyJoe on November 11, 2009, 09:20:57 pm
and why doesn't SD have the same advantage over CF?
SD was designed to be slow from the ground up. It runs at a slower clock rate and uses a less efficient protocol. CF was designed with speed in mind.
Bump because everyone's talking about it. 8)
....
*Cough*
Quote from: Lorfarius on December 29, 2008, 04:04:16 am
Quote from: satoshi_matrix on December 28, 2008, 11:16:55 pm
I dont want to get too off topic here, but I have a PSP that's version 1.50 and runs the old kernel exploits. I assume that PSP emulation capabilities have grown leaps and bounds in the two or so years since I last fiddled with my PSP. Can you point me anywhere where I might be able to learn what I need to do in order to update my PSP to allow for PS1, stable SNES and non blurry NES emulation? It might be better if you just PM me. Thanks.
This is where I went:
http://www.pspiso.com (http://www.pspiso.com)
God dammit, that site destroyed my computer. Curse you javascript advertisements!
Hey guys, update time! I installed the new Powerpak firmware 1.32 and now all issues I had getting FDS games to run have vanished. I however have noticed that the FDS distinctive sound isn't present. I've read through this thread about the possibility of adding it back in.
The Powerpak readme states "To hear expansion audio, put a 47k resistor between pins 3 and 9 of the NES expansion connector."
I'm running the powerpak through a high quality 72-60 pin converter on my Overclocked and Zapper supported AV Famicom. As far as I remember, unlike the NES, the Famicom does have the ability to access external sound, so I'm a little confused as to what's up.
What do I need to do in order to hear the proper FDS audio for my setup? I plan on asking 133Mhz of course, but I thought I'd post here in case others have the same question and community suggestions.
Your adapted will have to modified with the resistor as well.
wait a minute! did you say "... about the possibility of adding it back in."? You just answered yourself. FDS audio has been removed and it is not stated anywhere on http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=34
You should probably direct your questions to everybody, of course. :P
The 72 to 60 pin adapter needs to be modded huh? Okay. What size resistor will I need?
I would guess that you need a 47k ohm, as you mentioned above.
Okay. Which "side" of the 72-60 pin adapter do I mount the resistor to, the front (facing the power switch and controller ports) or the back (facing the power and video connections)
I'm guessing it's the front. I've put links to high res pics of my adapter. can someone please indicate exactly where to solder the resistor? Thanks.
front
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30701966@N04/4349808366/sizes/l/
back
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30701966@N04/4349821130/sizes/l/
I had the expansion sound working perfectly for months, but when I upgraded the boot rom on the powerpak to 1.11, it stopped working. I replaced the resistor and tried everything, but I can't get it working again. has anyone else had this problem or know how to fix it? any help would be greatly appreciated.
I bet you could send it back to retrozone and have them fix it. only thing it should cost you is to ship it, and if you live in the continental us that really shoulnd't be much.
I'm still looking if anyone knows how I can add fds expansion audio via the powerpak into a cartridge connector for my AV Famicom. Thanks.
Gimme some time and I'll get you the relevant info about which pins you need to tap on to get enhanced audio. ;)
Do you guys know if Kirby's Adventure works? Does Little Nemo: The Dream Master still have graphical glitches?
Thanks.
Kirby's Adventure does work. I haven't tried the other game though. I would, but I don't have access to my PowerPak right now. I'll let you know sometime during the week if someone else doesn't get to it first.
Hey! I found a guy on nes dev that has figured out how to get the PowerPak to produce FDS expansion audio and successfully transfer it through an NES to Famicom 72-60 pin connector to any Famicom, just like what I want to do.
He says to cut the bridge between pins 45 and 46 on the Famicom input and solder a 10k resistor between them. After that, you solder another 10k resistor from (I'm assuming?) Famicom pin 45 to NES pin 54.
He's also got a blurry video up on youtube. Here's the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsfUviciKxs
I'm not nearly as technically inclinded as many, and I post this to ask for help in understanding the subject matter.
Really, here's just my logical (?) understanding of what to do.
I know there are a total of 60 Famicom pins and 72 NES pins, meaning there are 30 Famicom and 36 NES pins per side of the NES to Famicom adapter. If Famicom pin 1 is on the "front" of my adapter, pin 45 and 46 is on the "back".
Since Famicom Pins 45 and 46 are the only pins that are connected together and they are on the "back" of my adapter, I know that Pin 1-30 must be on the opposite side, the "front".
I also know to play NES games on the Famicom, you always have to put the games in backwards with the labels facing away from the front of the console. Based on that, am I correct in assuming that NES pins 1-36 are on the "back" of my adapter, which is the reverse side of where Famicom pins 1-30 are located?
If that's true, then pins 37-72 are on the "front" of my adapter along with Famicom pins 1-30. He says to solder a 10k resistor between pins FC 45 and NES 54. Since those pins are psychically on opposite sides of the adapter, once again am I correct when assuming I can place that resistor in between the closest via to pin 54?
Thanks as always!
I was able to solve the problem on my own. I'll make a blogpost on it for others who might want to do the same mod.
Sounds interesting, but I'm not gonna put solder on my powerpak in a hurry for a couple extra bleeps here and there.
You wouldn't be touching your PowerPak at all. You'd be modding the 72-60 pin converter or your NES console.
For the record, Little Nemo and Kirby's Adventure both work perfectly on the PowerPak now.