Retrozone's PowerPak

[UglyJoe]

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.

[L___E___T]

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?

[manuel]

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.

[L___E___T]

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.

[UglyJoe]

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.

[FAMICOMfag]

Does anybody know what's the difference between the powerpak and the powerpak lite ?

Thanks

[UglyJoe]

The PowerPak Lite requires a CopyNES.

[nintendodork]

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?

[133MHz]

 !!!

Also, when choosing the lockout, if I have just a regular NTSC system, does that mean I need to choose the NTSC lockout?

Exactly.

[UglyJoe]

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.

[nintendodork]

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.)

[MarioMania]

I prob get the NES & SNES powerpak down the road..I'm on a tight budget with game stuff

[nensondubois]

I might get both sooner or later.

[b1aCkDeA7h]

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.

[manuel]

!!!

Exactly my thoughts!  !!!!!
This one looks pretty sweet.
I just wish it would use SD cards and not CF.