nesdev.org

Will Powerpak affect your coding-habits on the NES or are you going to use it for gaming only?
Myself I'm really looking forward to it, would be awesome to be able to run my own code on the real thing and I will for sure code alot more for the NES.

Hopefully this will make me start coding more for the nes again, as I feel it was sort of a let down to not be able to test my code on the real machine before. =/

What is this?

Hopefully soon I'll be able to afford one (I'm so broke that it's ridiculous). I'll just use it for gaming mostly, or to take my games and demos on the road, and maybe play around with the FPGA a bit.

I'm too spoiled by my ROM emulator, so I'd continue to use that and my Squeedo prototype (and sometimes my ROM emulator with my Squeedo prototype, heheh) for development. Having to swap memory between a cart and programmer gets old really fast. I like to run every test cycle on the hardware, and only use emus for debugging when I'm stuck.

Fx3 wrote:What is this?

Are you serious? A giant thread about the PowerPak has been going on since april and you haven't noticed?

I can't afford a PowerPak right now and may have to wait for the second batch three months later. It may make NES development more difficult for me if other members refuse to test my programs on hardware on grounds that I should have bought a PowerPak when I had the chance. I hope people on this board will remain as understanding after the PowerPak as they were before it.

Congratulations, tepples, you wrote your fist non "ultra technical" post since you're on this board.
And don't worry, I'll have to wait the second run too, as I just cannot buy on the net right now. Additionally, getting one power pak right now could be bad for my exams coming in 2 weeks, if you see what I mean.

Other than that power pack just allows much easier handling for testing on real hardware, but I'd still test on a real cart before claiming anything accurate, exept maybe for NROM and simple discrete logic mappers (wich can hardly have fake hardware emulation, exept maybe when it comes to bus conflicts, that anyone should have coded in order to avoid them anyway).
I'll still test things on emulation, and test on the real hardware here and here when I'm motived to do thing (there is no need to test EVERY change on the real hardware, as I'm ususally changing a lot of little things once at a time when I'm coding). I think I'll use Power Pak a lot for gaming, especially with RPGs wich are succeptible to loose saves on a real cart, but not on power pak since the compact flash can hold saves. Also a great thing is the ability to transfer saves from the PC to the cart and vice-versa, wich is GREAT !
You can then play on your PC a game, then contine to play it with the power pack using your last save, and then if you're having a hard time, transfer the game back to the PC and use emulator savestates to beat a boss or something. This has never happened before.

tepples wrote:It may make NES development more difficult for me if other members refuse to test my programs on hardware on grounds that I should have bought a PowerPak when I had the chance.

I really doubt that something like this will happen... You are more likely to get more people to test your programs now, since the PowerPak makes it all easier for everybody.

The only way I had to test NES programs on hardware was reprogramming my flash chips and using them with one of my devcarts (I only made NROM and UOROM so far), but getting and setting up the EPROM programmer was so much trouble that I almost never did it.

With the PowerPak, I expect to use my NES much more, for both developing and playing. In fact, I'll probably keep the PowerPak permanently attached to the NES, and only swap the CF card! =)

Bregalad wrote:Also a great thing is the ability to transfer saves from the PC to the cart and vice-versa, wich is GREAT !

This would make it possible to use level editors and other game tools coded for the NES itself and then read and use the created data on the PC.

This would make it possible to use level editors and other game tools coded for the NES itself and then read and use the created data on the PC.

Oh, I have never trought of this, but effectivly this will become possible, and will become cool.

I think Celius made some tools that worked like this, and AFAIK he was the one that came up with the idea. For people who are more comfortable with 6502 ASM than anything else, this is good.

I'm considering coding tools like that, with the use of the lightgun to simulate basic functions of a mouse. It will not be possible to drag things, but "clicking" over an object and then over the desired destination works just as well.

Before the PowerPak, this could only be done easily with emulators. Maybe with the CopyNES, but I'm not sure. I really think the NES development scene will be divided in before the PowerPak and after the PowerPak.

tokumaru wrote:I think Celius made some tools that worked like this, and AFAIK he was the one that came up with the idea. For people who are more comfortable with 6502 ASM than anything else, this is good.

That, or I should write a set of macros that turn 6502 assembly into C

I'm considering coding tools like that, with the use of the lightgun to simulate basic functions of a mouse.

And it would cost about $15 to solder a Super NES Mouse (bundled with Mario Paint) to an NES controller cord and have the real basic functions of a mouse. Heck, if you wanted, you could solder it into the same plug because the mouse uses only D0 and the Zapper uses only D3 and D4.

Before the PowerPak, this could only be done easily with emulators. Maybe with the CopyNES, but I'm not sure. I really think the NES development scene will be divided in before the PowerPak and after the PowerPak.

Just as the GBA/DS scene was divided into before and after the hacking of the GBA Movie Player, right?

tepples wrote:That, or I should write a set of macros that turn 6502 assembly into C

Wow, that'd be crazy! O_o

And it would cost about $15 to solder a Super NES Mouse (bundled with Mario Paint) to an NES controller cord and have the real basic functions of a mouse.

Oh, please, no more spending money! The PowerPak, CF card and card reader already left a big hole on my budget! Plus, I prefer to stick to the standard hardware... I always hated when people made cool things for customized items that no one else had but them. Standard stuff can be used by everyone.

We already had the lightgun/mouse conversation before... =)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against innovation or anything, I just don't think it is the first answer for everything. I think new things should be invented only when the current possibilities are not enough... And I do believe that simple editors can be controlled just by clicking around.

Just as the GBA/DS scene was divided into before and after the hacking of the GBA Movie Player, right?

If you say so... I'm not into the GBA dev... =)

I, like most people on the forum, will use the powerpak for both gaming and my own code. As Tokumaru said, it will be so much faster for development testing. Plus, no more worrying about some of those less than reliable prom burners The thought of having hundreds of NES games on 1 carts is just explosive

Other than that power pack just allows much easier handling for testing on real hardware, but I'd still test on a real cart before claiming anything accurate

The PowerPak is a real cartridge!