Retrozone's PowerPak

[satoshi_matrix]

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.

[JC]

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.

[ericj]

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. 

[Lorfarius]

I managed to get my hands on one a couple of weeks ago and will be doing a write up for the blog soon.

[son_ov_hades]

I don't see the point in this, if I want to play emulated games there are far cheaper ways to do it.

[JC]

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?

[son_ov_hades]

Eh I just run emulators on my Wii. Original carts are just vastly superior imo.

[nurd]

. 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.

[133MHz]

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.

[satoshi_matrix]

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.

[Jedi Master Baiter]

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.

[satoshi_matrix]

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.

[UglyJoe]

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.

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

[satoshi_matrix]

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.

[michaelthegreat]

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).