Super 8 Compatibility List

[pcmantinker]

I realize that a compatibility list may exist somewhere for Famiclones, but I couldn't find one for the Super 8. The Super 8 is superior to a bunch of more modern Famiclones since it has been confirmed to run Castlevania III with MMC5 mapper support built into the NOAC. I'm not sure about other MMC5 games, but they may work given that Castlevania III plays.

I received my Super 8 in the mail yesterday and it works nicely! Each of my NES games work without a hitch. I still need to do the mods to get rid of the jailbars and allow SNES games with co-processors to be played.

I can confirm so far that these NES\Famicom games work with the Super 8 without issue:

• Super Mario Bros. \ Duck Hunt
  Super Mario Bros. 2
  Super Mario Bros. 3
  Tengen Pac-Man (gray case)
  Mario Bros. Arcade Classics Series (5-screw)
  Donkey Kong Classics
  Nintendo Tetris
  Othello
  Caesar's Palace
  The Legend of Zelda
  Home Alone
  Dr. Mario
  The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout
  The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle
  Duck Tales
  Castlevania
  Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
  Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
  Road Runner
  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II The Arcade Game
  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III The Manhattan Project
  Gryomite
  Metroid
  Galaga
  Rad Racer
  Rad Racer II
  Akumajou Densetsu
  Space Invaders
  Life Force
  Kirby's Adventure
  Pinball
  Back to the Future Part II & III
  Super Off Road
  Rockman 6 in 1 Famicom pirate
  Contra
  Super C
  Mega Man 1 - 6
  Jeopardy 25th Anniversary Edition
  Game Genie

List Last Updated 5/12/13

I will update this list as I add more NES\Famicom games to my library.

[MottZilla]

Try Gauntlet or Rad Racer II. They use Four Screen mirroring.

Try Afterburner as it maps name tables to CHR-ROM.

Other than that just try a variety of mappers/hardware configurations. I'm not sure there are many games that won't work.

[Bregalad]

Rad Racer doesn't use 4-screen mirror, but Rad Racer II does.

As for MMC5, Castlevania III only sparcely uses it's features. Try Just Breed or Uchuu Keibitai SDF to see if the MMC5 is really supported.

[pcmantinker]

I'll look at getting those games soon. I'm currently bidding on Rad Racer and Rad Racer II on eBay. The Famicom games may take quite a while to receive if they are imported directly from Japan. Sometimes I can find US sellers, but only on more common games.

[MottZilla]

Rad Racer doesn't use 4-screen mirror, but Rad Racer II does.

I had looked it up, and yet I forgot to add the number. Fixed.

[Memblers]

I'd be surprised if there is something that doesn't work. Also I kind of remember someone saying the PowerPak, which supposedly doesn't work on any Famiclones, does work on the Super 8 (I can't confirm).

[pcmantinker]

I can confirm that both Rad Racer and Rad Racer II (4-screen mirroring) work. I had to give my Rad Racer a new shell due to the fact the guy I got it from on eBay didn't open the cart properly to clean the cart edges and ended up breaking the plastic supports inside that keep the PCB from moving around. I will look at super gluing the broken pieces back to the plastic.

As far as the PowerPak, I remember seeing on a YouTube video that it's not currently supported, but that may have changed with a recent firmware upgrade. The Everdrive N8 has been confirmed to work on clones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcYs6h_0LwY

I plan to get an Everdrive N8 with a shell from Stoneage gamer when they become available again. I could buy just the board and put it in a shell of my own, but I hear that Famicom shells are pretty difficult to open without the proper equipment. Another option would be to put it into a game case like Gyromite or another game with the Famicom converter. However, I would want to have the full expansion audio support on the Super 8 for translated Japanese Famicom titles. I'm not sure if expansion audio is played from the NES cartridge slot on the Super 8. I could always mod my NES to play expansion audio too.

[MottZilla]

In theory a jumper wire somewhere between the 72 and 60 pin cart ports might allow for expansion audio input.

[pcmantinker]

Which pin from the 72 pin connector to the 60 pin connector would need to be connected for this to theoretically work? I don't quite understand the differences between the pinouts and which pins carry the expansion audio. It might be something worth looking at if there isn't wiring already there for expansion audio on the 72 pin connector.

[MottZilla]

There isn't a standard pin for the Audio Expansion on NES cartridges. The PowerPAK I believe follows the MMC5's supposed pin use I think. One of the EXP pins that goes to the cart slot connects to one of the other Expansion Port pins. But the idea for the Super 8 would be to use a wire to jumper from one slot to the other. But I wouldn't do this unless you're certain. Plus only unofficial carts are going to use the audio in 72pin carts. Only 60 pin carts ever actually used it. And a limited selection of those were ever made.

[pcmantinker]

I most likely won't worry right now about modifying my Super 8 for expansion audio from the 72-pin slot. It's theoretically possible like you said, but I'd rather not risk breaking the system. The Super 8 is more of a novelty item and plays Famicom expansion audio beautifully out of the 60-pin slot.

One of the things that makes the Everdrive N8 attractive is that it works in clones (the Powerpak doesn't work on the Super 8 at least) and supports expansion audio in Famicom and Famicom clone systems without modification. I know it's possible to get expansion audio from the Powerpak with modifications to the NES, but I'm more interested in the Everdrive N8 for the time being.

On another note, my Rockman 6-in-1 pirate cart arrived yesterday and plays nearly perfectly on my Super 8. There are some minor issues that I've noticed in Rockman I though. In areas with lots of enemies I notice a temporary sort of an input lag and overall game slow down. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that the pirate cart uses some intense bank switching for being able to play all six Rockman games on one cart, mapper incompatibility with the Super 8 related to system timings not being exactly like the Famicom, or if the pirate cart just behaves this way no matter if it's NES, Famicom, or clone. This is not a huge deal as each of the six games still play very nicely.

I noticed with Rockman III, Rockman always starts out with 30 lives. I'm guessing that some of the games were hacked to help increase ease of play. I haven't played through much of Rockman IV, V, or VI so I'm not sure if they were enhanced with built in cheat codes. These games are very hard without some aid from cheat codes.

[tepples]

On another note, my Rockman 6-in-1 pirate cart arrived yesterday and plays nearly perfectly on my Super 8. There are some minor issues that I've noticed in Rockman I though. In areas with lots of enemies I notice a temporary sort of an input lag and overall game slow down. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that the pirate cart uses some intense bank switching

You might be seeing two issues. First, Capcom's programmers were inexperienced in the Mega Man 1 days and didn't know quite as many optimization tricks. Second, Mega Man 1 used UNROM, whose bank switching requires fewer cycles than MMC3. It had to be patched to use MMC3. Mega Man 3 through 6 use MMC3, and Mega Man 2 uses MMC1 which is already slow so patching doesn't really slow it further. It'd probably be just as slow on an authentic Famicom.

[pcmantinker]

That's pretty interesting about the patching Mega Man 1 and Mega Man 2 to MMC3. Also, it's understandable that Mega Man 1, one of Capcom's first games, might have some optimization issues; although, that didn't stop them from selling nearly 30 million copies. None the less, this Rock Man 6-in-1 cart is a nice oddity to have in my collection.

I'm an avid collector so I've also purchased the original Mega Man 1-4 and am looking at getting 5-6 soon. I bought Mega Man 1-4 for $100 from eBay, but Mega Man 5 can easily go for at least $50 and Mega Man 6 at about $30 or more. I may wait a little before attempting to add Mega Man 5 and 6 to my collection, but it's great to see classics maintain and increase their original retail value for over 25 years.

[MottZilla]

The pirate multi-cart version indeed has additional slowdown issues due to the slower MMC3 bankswitching. Mega Man 1 is the main one affected. Mega Man 2 might behave slightly differently. 3 to 6 will work fine as they are unchanged.

[pcmantinker]

After playing all of the original Mega Man 1-6, I can conclude that the pirate multi-cart versions of Mega Man 1-2 indeed suffered slow downs due to the MMC3 bankswitching. My Game Genie works well with almost every game in my library. There are a couple of games that just won't boot for some reason with my Game Genine, but it's not a huge deal. I have my NES for playing that super small percentage of games that won't run on my Super 8. The Game Genie is certainly helpful on games like Castlevania and Mega Man. Platformers were very difficult back then. I think that was de to the fact that levels weren't very long to begin with. The difficulty was to make the games seem longer.

I will be ordering the Famicom version of the Everdrive N8 this week and I'll report back on compatibility after I receive it. I know that there is a NES version that just came out, but I prefer the Famicom version since I'll be able to play translated VRC6 games with expansion audio without the need to modify my NES. The Famicom version of the Everdrive N8 has been confirmed to work with clones so I'm hoping that it works with the Super 8.