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Maybe I'm missing something, but my PowerPak doesn't seem to work on my Famicom AV console (with Yobo adapter). The PowerPak works fine on my top-loading NES, but when I try it on the Fami AV, I get a gray screen with red squares. Any help would be appreciated.

Might be that the yobo adaptor routes a line wrong. I've also noticed that powerpak can be a bit picky about the cart connector. Your best bet -> try another adaptor or clean the connector.

Jeroen wrote:Might be that the yobo adaptor routes a line wrong. I've also noticed that powerpak can be a bit picky about the cart connector. Your best bet -> try another adaptor or clean the connector.

Yeah, my next step was to get a new adapter, but unfortunately, the only non-Yobo one I can find is $40.

You get what you pay for; stay away from Yobo adapters. The $40 one works perfectly. It's translucent black with white text, for anyone else looking.

gutsdozer wrote:You get what you pay for; stay away from Yobo adapters. The $40 one works perfectly. It's translucent black with white text, for anyone else looking.

It works well, but not perfectly. Games that map their own VRAM will not work properly because two pins are tied together on the converter as they are on 98% of commercial cartridges. They must be separated for the 2% (Gauntlet, Rad Racer II, After Burner, all MMC5 games) to work properly. With alot of scraping and some soldering, I was able to get these games to work properly with real cartridges but apparently destroyed its ability to work with the PowerPak. Now it displays severe graphical glitches from menu to game.

The family converter, as seen here, will work perfectly with all commercial cartridges, including all games listed above. They will also work with the ROMs which work with the PowerPak (no MMC5).
http://www.jandar.net/famiconv/ I am not a fan because of its exposed board, which is too thick and does not actually rest on the system case.

Great Hierophant wrote:

gutsdozer wrote:You get what you pay for; stay away from Yobo adapters. The $40 one works perfectly. It's translucent black with white text, for anyone else looking.

It works well, but not perfectly. Games that map their own VRAM will not work properly because two pins are tied together. (Gauntlet, Rad Racer II, After Burner, all MMC5 games). With alot of scraping and some soldering, I was able to get these games to work properly with real cartridges but apparently destroyed its ability to work with the PowerPak. Now it displays severe graphical glitches from menu to game.

The family converter, as seen here, will work perfectly with the PowerPak.
http://www.jandar.net/famiconv/ I am not a fan because of its exposed board, which is too thick and does not actually rest on the system case.

Does the Family Converter play MMC5 games, or is the same deal as the others?

gutsdozer wrote:

Great Hierophant wrote:

gutsdozer wrote:You get what you pay for; stay away from Yobo adapters. The $40 one works perfectly. It's translucent black with white text, for anyone else looking.

It works well, but not perfectly. Games that map their own VRAM will not work properly because two pins are tied together. (Gauntlet, Rad Racer II, After Burner, all MMC5 games). With alot of scraping and some soldering, I was able to get these games to work properly with real cartridges but apparently destroyed its ability to work with the PowerPak. Now it displays severe graphical glitches from menu to game.

The family converter, as seen here, will work perfectly with the PowerPak.
http://www.jandar.net/famiconv/ I am not a fan because of its exposed board, which is too thick and does not actually rest on the system case.

Does the Family Converter play MMC5 games, or is the same deal as the others?

Yes, but only on real cartridges (above post edited).

Hong Kong, China, the product of many things'

gutsdozer wrote:You get what you pay for; stay away from Yobo adapters. The $40 one works perfectly. It's translucent black with white text, for anyone else looking.

Where did you get the Non-Yobo "$40" adapter? I've been looking for one that is known to be compatible with the PowerPak on the Famicom...

Link please?

-Xious

Digging up this old topic just to say that thanks to the description of what the "good" adapter is supposed to look like, I was able to find one on eBay for about $25, and now my PowerPak works on my HVC-001 model Famicom.
Unfortunately expansion audio doesn't seem to work, but at least it's an improvement over the Yobo adapter that only gave me a white/red/orange screen when used with the PowerPak.

I use an adapter from "HKDOCTOR" that looks like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Adaptor-Convert ... 1297315250

It works for most things. There are a few games it has trouble with, like 3D World Runner uses the CHR address lines in a way that isn't supported by the adapter, for instance. This can be addressed by modifying the adapter, if needed, but the few games it doesn't run weren't an issue to me.

If you want expansion audio to work, you need to mod it (cut the audio return loop, and basically connect the appropriate exp pin to the audio loop just like the audio mod you would have to do to your NES).

Anyone knows how to open one of these things without breaking the case? I'm talking about an adapter that looks something like this:



There are no visible screws. I tried using a knife to pry it open, but that didn't work (like I said, I don't want to force it open at the cost of damaging the plastic).

It is probably glued or welded shut, unfortunately.

It's actually screwed together. The screws are hidden behind the rear label so you'd either have to damage the label or use a hair dryer to remove it.