SNES PowerPak

[bunnyboy]

Enhancement chips are simply not happening.

By you or anyone? XC2S30 again?

I would bet by anyone with limited space and hardware multiplier. That is why some chips would be better in a PIC, and things like the FX are just out. Someone will eventually put them on a huge chip but not something affordable for general products.

[bunnyboy]

I am curious what is the CIC inside it ? Not that i really care as I have a CIC re-rooter I always use to play non-PAL SNES games, but I guess it wasn't reverse-engineered, was it ?

Uses real CIC chip, no Super Ciclone yet The CIC only matters for the console, not for the games, so you can play across regions (with the usual 50/60Hz problems).

[mic_]

The CIC only matters for the console, not for the games, so you can play across regions

There are a few games that does a SW region check. I've never understood why since Nintendo themselves didn't do this, so it can't have been imposed by them.

Anyway, this is really cool. I'm getting a bit tired of my 64 Mbit SuperFlash cart with its LPT interface so I've placed an order for a SNES PowerPak.

[Jeroen]

Cool once I get money i'll surely buy this. Hopefully we wont have a resistor fix incident this time

[Hojo_Norem]

Looks nice, and costs less than what my SF7 setup cost (main unit, extra ram, parts for building CD-ROM, replacement floppy drive, etc).

I'm a little disappointed at no prospect of SFX or SDD1 support (the SFX was developed on a FPGA btw according to Wikipedia) but I suppose we cant have everything...

There is one thing that confuses me a little, why the need to supply pre create BRAM files for saves? I can understand that the NES has little resources to deal with this sort of thing but the SNES, even after loading the largest game out there there should be enough RAM left over on the cart to hold some slightly more advanced filesystem code. Perhaps once you release the relevant sourcecode somebody else could do it? If simple microcontrollers can do it (RAM is tight there) then it should be possible for the SNES.

One last thing, good to see that the bootrom is socketed Looks like the only carts I'l need now are Yoshi's Island, my Frankensteined StarFoxCompetition2 cart... and this one. Expect to receive my order soon... once I figure out how rich I currently am. ^_^

PS. About DSP1 support, I have a donor cart but there arent any instructions on how to install it. I'm guessing that theres a socket on the pcb it'l solder straight into and does it get completely disabled for non DSP games?

[cybertron]

Ah fuck it, now I have no desire to work on my own >: (

[kyuusaku]

I would bet by anyone with limited space and hardware multiplier. That is why some chips would be better in a PIC, and things like the FX are just out. Someone will eventually put them on a huge chip but not something affordable for general products.

Well what is the FPGA? XC2S15? Even that should be able to fit the PicoBlaze core (~40 MIPS).

[MottZilla]

Ah fuck it, now I have no desire to work on my own >: (

Well I suppose not if it does everything you were aiming to do yourself. It certainly raises the bar from doing it at all to doing something superior. Sorry that bunnyboy beat you to it.

This was really a surprise so quickly after those pictures had been discovered. Can't wait to get one. I have a GDSF7 which I use with a laptop now but a single cartridge with massive CF card would be a much nicer setup.

[naI]

Ah fuck it, now I have no desire to work on my own >: (

Hey, don't sweat it. It seems that neither flash cart could have every little feature, and there could certainly be a place for yours, even with the SNES PowerPak available. Didn't the code for loading files off of the SD card also have code for live patching of ROMs? (Or am I thinking of a different project?) Anyway, that's currently something the PowerPak couldn't do.

Your cartridge could have its own focus within the SNES clique. After all, one who wants a development cartridge will be looking for different features than one who just wants to play games. There's still plenty of ground to cover.

[bunnyboy]

I would bet by anyone with limited space and hardware multiplier. That is why some chips would be better in a PIC, and things like the FX are just out. Someone will eventually put them on a huge chip but not something affordable for general products.

Well what is the FPGA? XC2S15? Even that should be able to fit the PicoBlaze core (~40 MIPS).

Yup xc2s15. I don't know if software multiplier would be good enough for the 16x16+ needed, but certainly something to look into in the future. Chip is around 60% full depending what you look at so space may be an issue. FPGA config is on the CF card so it can be added later.

[bunnyboy]

There is one thing that confuses me a little, why the need to supply pre create BRAM files for saves? I can understand that the NES has little resources to deal with this sort of thing but the SNES, even after loading the largest game out there there should be enough RAM left over on the cart to hold some slightly more advanced filesystem code. Perhaps once you release the relevant sourcecode somebody else could do it? If simple microcontrollers can do it (RAM is tight there) then it should be possible for the SNES.

That is probably something I should add, but file name entry is also annoying. RAM and other resources aren't really an issue here, its just more of the FAT file system to deal with.

PS. About DSP1 support, I have a donor cart but there arent any instructions on how to install it. I'm guessing that theres a socket on the pcb it'l solder straight into and does it get completely disabled for non DSP games?

Desolder from game board, solder onto SNES PowerPak board, done

[bunnyboy]

Your cartridge could have its own focus within the SNES clique. After all, one who wants a development cartridge will be looking for different features than one who just wants to play games. There's still plenty of ground to cover.

Just like I am still looking at the Quickdev16. Except for the curiously sloooow file loading it looks very good for developers. When it loads at SRAM speeds instead of flash speeds it will be very nice for homebrews.

[bunnyboy]

This was really a surprise so quickly after those pictures had been discovered.

Those pictures were from the first proto board and had been posted since March A few other people claimed to have seen them but didn't post. Was fun to swap out the picts, but damn Google was too slow to update cache or read the take down request!

[MatthewCallis]

Your cartridge could have its own focus within the SNES clique. After all, one who wants a development cartridge will be looking for different features than one who just wants to play games. There's still plenty of ground to cover.

Just like I am still looking at the Quickdev16. Except for the curiously sloooow file loading it looks very good for developers. When it loads at SRAM speeds instead of flash speeds it will be very nice for homebrews.

Did you try the new bootloader? It's supposed to be faster.

[leonk]

So I had some old photos from March sitting around, and people happened to find them just a few days before it is all public

Hey Bunnyboy! Congrats on this new product!!! I can't wait to read some reviews on it.

Is there a limit on how big of a CF you can support? Also, about the FX1 chip, any hopes of getting support for it in the future?