Nintendo NES PowerPak
For some gamers, playing downloaded ROMs on emulators just doesn’t cut it. They need the real experience, it it’s truest form.
Whether it’s playing an Atari 2600 on the worst possible blurry RF Signal, or holding that questionably shaped Nintendo NES Pad in your hands, or even hearing the loud screams of the Sega Dreamcast’s laser moving around. These are some of the things that really fuel our love for Retro.
After all, one of the main reasons we play Retro games is to recapture that experience we once had years gone by.
Unfortunately, some of those memories come at a high price or are really tough to track down. The nostalgia you’d like might not be as accessible as it should be. Thankfully, like the previous post on Zaku we have other individuals/groups working hard in their spare time to remove those boundaries for gamers.
In the spotlight today, we have the latest product released by RetroZone. A small company based in America, run by a diehard Nintendo fan. RetroZone are already quite famous in the community for releasing the Nintendo NES PowerPak.
The Nintendo NES PowerPak was a NES Cartridge with a built in Compact Flash card reader, which allowed the direct booting of ROMs on an original NES via an on-screen menu.
Despite being a few years old, RetroZone are still supporting the PowerPak today. Every now and then an upgrade to the PowerPak is put up on the website improving the compatibility of the games.
Power up!
SNES Power Pak Front
A few years later, RetroZone have now shifted their focus over to the Super Nintendo. The SNES PowerPak was born, the SNES equivalent of the NES PowerPak. Something gamers could finally load their SNES ROMs onto and play in their original form.
An announcement was made across various Retro Gaming forums on the 5th November, stating its availability. Unfortunately though, these threads ended up becoming a minefield of unanswered questions and confusion. RetroZone by no means are to blame here, you could say the blame lies with the Super Confusing Nintendo.
How so?
Super Nintendo DSP-1 Chip
Nintendo are always looking for new ways to expand on their systems pushing the most out of them as possible (where as Sega, as we know liked to release new add-ons that were rather pricey). Nintendo began introducing new chips into their cartridges, to allow new types of games to be played without altering/upgrading any hardware. The obvious example here is Starfox/Starwing, one of the first SNES games to be released with the Super FX Chip. A chip placed within the cartridge allowing primitive polygons models possible on the Super Nintendo.
So quite obviously here, the questions thrown out into the open were:
Does game A work? What about games that use Chip A or Chip B? etc…
For someone such as RetroZone to recreate a SNES cartridge that covered every SNES chip ever made (All 16 of them) would become a mammoth task and very expensive for the gamers. In the end, the chip available to the SNES PowerPak is the DSP-1 chip which is possibly the most commonly found extra chip amongst Super Nintendo games (e.g. Super Mario Kart, Pilotwings).
Enough about the history, is it any good?
The good, the bad and the glitchy
SNES PowerPak with CF Card
At first, there nearly wasn’t a review to provide today. My first experience with the cartridge was an unfortunate one.
I took the CF Card from the NES PowerPak, backed up the NES files and gave it a format. Following the instructions online I built up the Card with the neccessary files ready for testing, placed on the CF Card, Super Mario Kart (as advertised as working on the website) and booted it up.
All seemed fine until the game loaded. The graphics were horribly glitched, sound was crackly and half of the in game menus were replaced with black screens. Not a good start…
I managed to find another CF Card to test with, which quickly remedied all the problems above. But for readers looking to get one of these PowerPak’s, check up on the forums as to which CF Cards are confirmed to work. I’ll state now that the Lexar Media CF Card (256MB) does not work, but a Maxell CF Card (128MB) works a treat.
Once up and running, the menu booted up almost identical to the NES PowerPak. The contents of your CF Card are visible in a long list that almost resembles a DOS Prompt in places.
The first thing you will notice is that none of your ROMs or Folders have been sorted alphabetically. The PowerPak doesn’t sort the ROMs as it would add an extra bit of time to the initial load, something RetroZone wanted to avoid. If you’re rather adamant you want them sorted from A-Z, you can look into using this drive sorting software (untested, so comment back with your results!).
The interface is rather easy to use. Navigate through your folder structures to your desired ROM, select it with B, add Game Genie codes if required and then you’re off. ROMs take anywhere between a second or two, to half a minute to load (such as the big games like Tales of Phantasia). Once they have loaded up, if you hid the cartridges, you couldn’t say whether the SNES was running off a real cartridge or the PowerPak.
Compatibility, what works and what doesn’t?
Going by the long list of Chips mentioned above, you can already rule out the games in this list provided by RetroZone. Keep in mind that some of these will work, if you select the DSP-1 chip when purchasing the cartridge (these are stated in that list).
RetroGameDepot can confirm the following games do/don’t work:
Super Mario Kart – Working
Super Mario World – Working
Castlevania Dracula XX/Vampire’s Kiss – Working
Zelda: Parallel Worlds (ROM Hack) – Working
Mario Odyssey (ROM Hack) – Locks up on the first level, will test latest version later
WOZZ (With Fan Translation Patch) – Working
So far so good, with 5/6 games working I’m rather impressed. It doesn’t surprise me that the one that didn’t work was an unofficial game, one that was programmed solely for Emulators.
It’s looking like the PowerPak will be capable of loading almost any official Super Nintendo Game (that isn’t on the incompatibility list).
Should I buy the PowerPak?
Without a doubt! If the SNES is one of your favourite consoles, then the PowerPak is a must buy.
Not only are you getting the ability to play the SNES gems we all know and love, you can now boot up the Super Nintendo Test Station cart if needed, or even M.A.C.S. the Army training unit.
To make the deal even sweeter, there is a vast array of brand new versions of your favourite games to play. ROM hacks of Zelda offering new Quests, new versions of Super Mario World and many more worth checking out.
The PowerPak is a godsend, allowing SNES fans to relive their nostalgic memories cheaply and conveniently, while offering them a whole load of new ones.
Buy one here: http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=84