Powerpak game suggestions?

SatoshiMatrix · Post by **SatoshiMatrix** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 4:48 pm

Hey all. I recently wrote a review of the Retrozone Powerpak, and thought I should write a follow up article for first time buyers.
You can read my review here. http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2010 ... ak-review/

Since top NES game lists are dime a dozen, I think I should narrow the field to specialty games that the Powerpak excels at playing. I'm thinking of a top 25 or so list of hacks, improvements, homebrew, and fan translations that no powerpak owner should be without. Basically anything that you couldn't get unless you paid for reproduction cartridges. Suggestions MUST be playable on the powerpak using the newest firmware.

Can I get some suggestions guys?

I've already got a short list of:

Super Mario Bros. 256 Worlds (glitch exploit hack)
Rockman 5 Endless (hack)
Metroid 23rd anniversary graphics (enhancement hack)
Sweet Home (translation)
D-Pad Hero (homebrew)
Earthbound (abandonware)

Looking for about 20 more suggestions.

Post by **tepples** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 5:27 pm

Tooting own horn: LJ65 (homebrew) if you like Tetris

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:44 am

The powerpak is good for FDS games as it's fast at swapping "disks" automatically, and the loading times present on all emulators somehow are skipped.

However, for all other games it's pretty much the same as playing under an accurate emulator with NTSC filter turned on.

SatoshiMatrix · Post by **SatoshiMatrix** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 11:01 am

this is all true. I'm not new to the Powerpak myself, I'm simply writing an article for those who are. Please read my initial post. Looking for unique homebrew, fan translations, or really good hacks and links to all of them. I want to create a list for people who get a Powerpak and have options other than simply dumping the entire library to their CF card.

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 12:25 pm

The best NES homebrew is currently NESnake2. I'm sorry but I don't know where you can download it, but you should do some search.
Other than that, only really simple games or technical demos were made by people from NESdev.

Because it's really subjective what is a good hack or a bad hack, it's hard to recommend you some. Just go to www.romhacking.net to find the most common NES hacks.

SatoshiMatrix · Post by **SatoshiMatrix** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 3:04 pm

thanks for the reply. I know romhacking.net well, but I was hoping for a list of worthwhile hacks translations and homebrew to get people started. The more the better. I'll check out NESnake2. Any personal recommendations for hacks and translations?

Post by **Memblers** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 3:25 pm

I got a PowerPak not too long ago. Being a fan of River City Ransom, the first translation I tried on it was this one. But I was annoyed to discover the PowerPak won't let you save your game. It just doesn't ask about writing the .sav file. Same thing happened to me with Basewars. They are both MMC3 games. Saving stuff on PowerPak is kinda painful process to begin with, but I think maybe it's broken as well (in the latest release AFAIK). So I'd recommend watching out, and maybe try an older firmware version if you run into trouble (I haven't tried downgrading just for that game, but there must be more that are broken).

never-obsolete · Post by **never-obsolete** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:33 pm

There are some roster updates to Tecmo Super Bowl over at the Tecmo Repository. TSB uses the MMC3, so whatever problem Memblers was having might apply.

thefox · Post by **thefox** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:06 am

Memblers wrote:I got a PowerPak not too long ago. Being a fan of River City Ransom, the first translation I tried on it was this one. But I was annoyed to discover the PowerPak won't let you save your game. It just doesn't ask about writing the .sav file. Same thing happened to me with Basewars. They are both MMC3 games. Saving stuff on PowerPak is kinda painful process to begin with, but I think maybe it's broken as well (in the latest release AFAIK). So I'd recommend watching out, and maybe try an older firmware version if you run into trouble (I haven't tried downgrading just for that game, but there must be more that are broken).

Try setting the "battery backed SRAM" bit in the iNES header (http://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/INES#Flags_6). I'm pretty sure that's the only thing that PowerPak uses to detect whether to display the save menu or not.

EDIT: Also the latest release version of PowerPak mapperpack MMC3 is infact little bit broken gfx wise, M.C. Kids shows some weird garbage on its title screen for example. I *think* the one from loopy's website works fine.

SatoshiMatrix · Post by **SatoshiMatrix** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:09 am

These are good ideas. What about hacks? Anyone have some favorites? I plan on including links to .ips patches, so please provide links. I have a number of favorites myself, but I'm looking for broader opinions.

Jedi QuestMaster · Post by **Jedi QuestMaster** » Fri Aug 27, 2010 3:32 pm

I'll toot my own horn now:

Japanese Contra (Translated):

http://www.box.net/shared/m63eyiu04j

SMB256 (I don't have a link, but I can put mine up :/)

And does the hacked VS Super Mario Bros. not work well on the Power Pak?. I remember someone saying something about "noise."

Edit: Oh yeah, that's another thing you might want to add, Satoshi - hacked VS games, if they work.

joe1088 · Post by **joe1088** » Sat Aug 28, 2010 7:31 pm

Fire Emblem Gaiden is a really good SRPG game. Recently a 100% translation was released that is well done. I was really into that game, but never beat it. I'm sure there are other great games not mentioned yet, I just can't think of any others.