SNES PowerPak

[lifeixie]

to Eyedunno


*8
-----------------------------------NO----------------------
SFC1(japan)------CPU = 02 PPU1= 01 PPU2 = 03 (not 90 weight loss
)
SFC2(japan)------CPU = 02 PPU1= 01 PPU2 = 03 (not 90 weight loss
)
SUPER nintendo------CPU = 02 PPU1= 01 PPU2 = 03 (UNV PAL,Hong Kong??Europe not run,,,have pal 50/60)
-------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------OK--------------------
SFC3(japan)------CPU = 02 PPU1= 01 PPU2 = 01 (90)
SFC4(japan)------CPU = 01 PPU1= 01 PPU2 = 01 (90)
SNES1(USA)-------CPU = 02 PPU1= 01 PPU2 = 03
SNES2(USA)-------CPU = 02 PPU1= 01 PPU2 = 03
JR-----------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------

locking NTSC.

[Zoigl]

@bunnboy
Is it possible to add a auto-load function, too?
it would be nice if the powerpak would look in the same directory (where the game is stored) for an "romname".srm. Also It should be possible to change the selected srm file if the the auto-load function is enabled.

And 8) what about making the powerpak-software open-source? Some poeple could build other cool stuff for the powerpak, too

[Snespowerpak]

Hi this is my first time posting on this forum. I have a classic snes bought in America during the mid 90s. I decided to buy a snes powerpak because I thought it looked fun and would be easy to get working. It has been two weeks now of me trying unsuccessfully to get this useless $160 paper weight to work. I have tried no-intro roms, using NSRT, .sfc files, everything but I always get this same black screen whenever I try to load a game. I'm sure it is some little thing that is stopping me so if you have any advice pleeeaase give it to me. In fact I'm not even asking I'm begging for a slight bit of help anything would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Njaifoo]

All my games turned up garbled with my new Kingston 8 GB 133x...

But I got my other Kingston card to work!

I had another Kingston 4 GB standard that once worked for my powerpak NES lying around but both powerpak turned it down as bad format. New format didn't help.

This is what I did to bring the bad format back to life:

Deleted the partition on the CF-card
Made a new primary partition on 4 GB
(Quick) format in FAT32 default cluster size
Copy POWERPAK folder as the first thing to avoid card busy


To delete the partition i used windows enabler 1.1 in disk management on my xp machine

Now to experiment with partition and cluster sizes. It think its wierd that the manual states powerpak uses the first logical partition... I think you need linux to do such tricks with the cf card.

I haven't touched the games with any tool (verified roms)

ps. don't go buying kingston 4 GB standard just because my works, kingston probably uses random chips on each batch

UPDATE: Using the same procedure I got my Kingston 8 GB 133x working as well - first try it started garbling up again because I partitioned to 8 GB... It seem to work best with 2 GB. Maybe its the cluster size as I just chose default - now to see if it will continue to work. UPDATE: According to MS clustersize is always 4 KB up to 8 GB. Bah it started acting funny again trying different stuff... The CF is just generally unstable - guess the format only helped a little. I tried a 8 GB 133x from kingston last fall and I remember that it worked ok in my nes powerpak, they must have changed chips ok I remember wrong...

[MottZilla]

Hi this is my first time posting on this forum. I have a classic snes bought in America during the mid 90s. I decided to buy a snes powerpak because I thought it looked fun and would be easy to get working. It has been two weeks now of me trying unsuccessfully to get this useless $160 paper weight to work. I have tried no-intro roms, using NSRT, .sfc files, everything but I always get this same black screen whenever I try to load a game. I'm sure it is some little thing that is stopping me so if you have any advice pleeeaase give it to me. In fact I'm not even asking I'm begging for a slight bit of help anything would be appreciated.
Thanks

Best advice if you are having problems is to try a different SNES console (be sure it works) and/or try a different CF card.

[Banshaku]

It may be a little bit off-topic but related to the snes powerpak. I may have missed the reason in all the messages that was posted but want to know: what make it so hard to make the powerpak work on many snes revisions compared to the game doctor that seemed to work on any machine? I'm just curious.

[whicker]

It may be a little bit off-topic but related to the snes powerpak. I may have missed the reason in all the messages that was posted but want to know: what make it so hard to make the powerpak work on many snes revisions compared to the game doctor that seemed to work on any machine? I'm just curious.

Improper 3.3V to 5V CMOS logic level translation.
Lack of testing.
One-man design.
A focus on minimum component count versus a robust circuit.
Chinese CF Card chicanery.
Everyone's old decaying hardware.

[Banshaku]

I see. So there are many cause in this. But is the others ones like the myth (?) one have the same issue? Did the game doctor, super wild card (?) etc had those issue in the past too?

[MottZilla]

I'm not aware of the Game Doctor or other copiers having these issues. Ofcourse those devices were much more expensive and likely developed by more than 1 person and probably tested pretty extensively. No clue about the Myth cartridge.

[whicker]

I see. So there are many cause in this. But is the others ones like the myth (?) one have the same issue? Did the game doctor, super wild card (?) etc had those issue in the past too?

I don't know about the Neoflash myth.

Floppy drives are mediocre in terms of reliability and speed. And yes, copiers have their own unique quirks (DRAM expansion, power adapters, incompatible floppy formatting) AND went through a back and forth battle with copy protection. Depending on the copier model, one must even patch certain game images so they'll even run instead of displaying a scary warning screen.

I still firmly believe the flash-based or memory card based carts are the way to go now... I mean, unless you absolutely love parallel ports and floppies.

[Banshaku]

I still firmly believe the flash-based or memory card based carts are the way to go now... I mean, unless you absolutely love parallel ports and floppies.

Nah. I had one in the past for snes and megadrive. I'm not touching those floppy thingy anymore. I may invest in one of those flash based one someday when I feel like developing for it. It just would suck to buy one and it doesn't work because of X hardware. I don't know if there is many issue with the Japanese models yet.

[MottZilla]

Depending on the copier model, one must even patch certain game images so they'll even run instead of displaying a scary warning screen.

I don't think it was so much a back and forth. There are only 3 different copy protections atleast for SNES that I'm aware of. ROM Mirroring used in Mega Man X, and I think another or some other Capcom games. Some Copiers didn't mirror the ROM image or didn't do it properly which could be detected. SRAM size detection, some copiers mapped the full 64kbytes of SRAM reguardless of what the game actually contained. The GDSF7 has neither of these two problems.

The third is additional hardware in the cartridge like SA-1, Cx4, SuperFX, DSP1. ROM mirroring protection was used on few games, SRAM on more including very notable titles. I suppose this sucked for those backing up their own games or ones they rented or borrowed but for those that downloaded from BBS places they could easily get a patched/cracked one as the pirates from the Far East would surely do that, or someone else out there.

I totally agree, Flash memory cards for storage of ROMs and Saves are the way to go today.

[Memblers]

I never had any of the copy protection screens come up on the GDSF7. I did have just a couple that froze at a black screen, but I patched them myself. It was a little challenging to combine a CD-ROM with their bizarre 2 or 3-letter filename convention (SF999xxx.078 or SF999xxA.078). And why the files need still need to be split to load all-at-once off a CD-ROM is something I don't even want to wonder about, heh. It's a pretty nice system though, other than that.

Flash is so much nicer, my only use for a floppy drives is because I was putting my .SRM/.BRM files there, and because I have an Atari ST with a floppy drive. The disks all fail miserably on everything.

That Quickdev16 would be a great alternative for any of these, if you're inclined to do development. Stuff like that, or an EPROM emulator, is more convenient for instant testing than anything else out there.

[MottZilla]

I never had any of the copy protection screens come up on the GDSF7. I did have just a couple that froze at a black screen, but I patched them myself.

The SF7 shouldn't trip any copy protections unless you have a bad ROM image. You could purposely trip them by doing something like altering the internal rom information to change SRAM size or something.

The CD-ROM for the SF7 is something I really wanted but was always too expensive and then the SNES PowerPAK came out and it became irrelevant. Before it was expensive but useful with advantages over a laptop + parallel link. After SNES PowerPAK it couldn't compete.

These days the SF7 is still a great device but can be cumbersome to use.

[Link83]

It may be a little bit off-topic but related to the snes powerpak. I may have missed the reason in all the messages that was posted but want to know: what make it so hard to make the powerpak work on many snes revisions compared to the game doctor that seemed to work on any machine? I'm just curious.

Improper 3.3V to 5V CMOS logic level translation.
Lack of testing.
One-man design.
A focus on minimum component count versus a robust circuit.
Chinese CF Card chicanery.
Everyone's old decaying hardware.

I thought the problem was due to different SNES revisions using different brands/models of static RAM chips, causing timing issues?

Also, i'm curious to know if the issues mentioned above have been completely resolved now?