NES PowerPak: a flash cart for the Nintendo Entertainment System

[CGQuarterly]

I think bunnyboy should be permitted to charge a price that allows him to make a few bucks, if not now, hopefully in the future. Hard work has value. It is obvious many many hours have been poured into this.

 

The community can be schizo about pricing IMO. In the forums things can very quickly turn negative on a project, just from perceptions, real and imagined. For bunnyboy's and his projects sake, this hopefully won't occur.

 

I kind of doubt that is going to happen here, only because bunnyboy is offering up something new that people have wanted. With the NEX it was a situation where there were already tons of Famiclones on the market, and the NEX turned out to be the little more than a prettied up version of the same old thing. Another good example would be Beggar Prince. A cool product to be sure, but the producer's lack of forthrightness concerning compatibility issues (and horribly ugly box art) turned a lot of the community against it.

 

The take home message here seems to be that the community doesn't respond well to dishonesty and marketing tactics. Be up front with us about what you are selling and there won't be a problem. If Messiah had come out and said "Here is this NES clone that we have created. It has many of the compatibility issues of the previous clones, but we tried to design the product and packaging to appeal more to the classic gamer.", then it would have been fine. If fighter team had come out and said "Here is this RPG we ported over to the American Genesis. It will not work on the following systems: A, B, C. Also, we need someone with some artistic talent to do some box art for us.", then it would have been fine.

 

My point is this. If this flash cart has compatibility problems or cases weird sound or video glitches in the game, and bunnyboy says nothing, then there are going to be problems.

 

I don't think that honesty is too much to ask, but it seems to be a real problem with some people in this community (or rather people trying to make a buck off of the people in this community).

 

Chris

[omne]

Here is this NES clone that we have created. It has many of the compatibility issues of the previous clones, but we tried to design the product and packaging to appeal more to the classic gamer.", then it would have been fine. If fighter team had come out and said "Here is this RPG we ported over to the American Genesis. It will not work on the following systems: A, B, C. Also, we need someone with some artistic talent to do some box art for us."

 

Perhaps you should offer your services writing promotional ad copy. (I kid because I love)

 

I really don't see how the NEX factors into this. I've never mentioned it.

 

There are a million opinions on the forums. All it takes one or two to start a fire. Anyone who offers something like this project to the classic gaming community needs to be aware of the fact, that if you don't write your ad copy like the above suggestions, you may get dogpiled.

 

Let me try:

 

The Smart car ForTwo is an engineering model of efficency, providing of course you do not collide with a common sport utility vehicle, as in all likelihood you will be killed.

 

Just makes you want one!

[Jagasian]

I think bunnyboy should be permitted to charge a price that allows him to make a few bucks, if not now, hopefully in the future. Hard work has value. It is obvious many many hours have been poured into this.

 

The community can be schizo about pricing IMO. In the forums things can very quickly turn negative on a project, just from perceptions, real and imagined. For bunnyboy's and his projects sake, this hopefully won't occur.

 

There are big differences between a NES flash cart and a Famiclone. Firstly, there is no other NES flash cart, while there are hundreds of brands of Famiclones. Secondly, Famiclones are relatively easy to produce, so they can be created in extremely large numbers, which drives down the cost of each individual Famiclone's production costs. This NES flash cart is being made by a single guy, bunnyboy, working out of his home, and he is most likely going to assemble each cart himself, by hand. So the production cost is going to be high.

 

The only way for bunnyboy to make his NES flash cart less expensive will be to have a large number of the carts produced. But that would require investment, so he is most likely going to try to produce an initial batch of around 100 carts. Then off of the money he makes from selling those, he will create another batch... This will be a slow process that he will eventually grow tired from, which means that there is a very high chance that these carts will be extremely rare. I just can't see him hand assembling more than a few hundred carts before he can't stand it anymore.

 

Another possibility is that bunnyboy's first batch is well received, and a more established person or company decides to partner with him to help him mass produce his flash cart.

[omne]

This NES flash cart is being made by a single guy, bunnyboy, working out of his home, and he is most likely going to assemble each cart himself, by hand. So the production cost is going to be high

 

This doesn't sound any different than any other startup project. usually the idea is to make money down the road. Some do more in promotion and flash than others, but just because there is or is not a logo, that does not mean it is or is not a home based project. I question your judgment of worthy and not worthy endeavours.

 

This one seems worthy to me, and may very well be like another Cuttle cart or IntelliCart, small batches, limited runs, for a subset of a subset of gamers. Nothing wrong with that. It could be bigger, if it has a legal use (it does) and has a userface that at least the basic computer savvy can use it.

 

He's getting shells fabbed in China. That doesn't sound like small time thinking to me. Sounds to me like he is taking a substantial $$$ risk. It would be a shame to see what we've seen before happen here, because someone somewhere disagrees with a facet of it, and has a keyboard.

 

Have you made a Wikipedia entry for it yet Jag?

[BLarry71]

Has the flash cart been tested to work with the NEX?

Will it have an integrated ROM booting menu or will you need to download a special program to the CF card in order for it to work?

Will the same cart work on NTSC and PAL Nintendo systems?

Will in-game save files be written to the CF card or written to some kind of on-board memory?

Will it have upgradeable firmware?

[Great Hierophant]

If someone wants to quibble about the price, let him think of the $$$ he will save in not having to track down and buy rare carts. Unfortunately, some people will be disappointed regardless because their game doesn't work. A game may not work for one or more of the following reasons:

 

1. It is using an unsupported mapper.

2. It is using a common mapper in an unusual and unsupported way.

3. There is a bug in how the mapper is currently supported, causing the game not to work.

4. The game is too large for the cart to handle or otherwise could never be supported by the cart.

5. The ROM uses an unknown mapper.

6. The ROM file used is a bad dump.

7. The ROM file has an inaccurate header.

8. The ROM only works in an inaccurate emulator.

9. The user cannot figure out how to get the software working correctly.

 

On the plus side, it shouldn't support too many games that do not work in a NESclone, so NES and NESclone owners alike should queue up for a chance to own one.

[Jagasian]

I am not affiliated with the project, but let me tell you what is publically known.

 

Has the flash cart been tested to work with the NEX?

 

It is unknown exactly how much the cart has been tested. Again, the project has not been official announced yet. Just a few details have been leaked. However, considering that the NEX and other unlicensed clones don't work correctly with many official NES carts, it will be a good idea to make sure that the cart is tested on the specific kind of system that you intend to use it with before you buy it.

 

Will it have an integrated ROM booting menu or will you need to download a special program to the CF card in order for it to work?

 

There is a boot ROM that is on a special chip built into the flash cart. However, the details of exactly what the boot ROM does are not known.

 

Will it have upgradeable firmware?

 

Rumor has it that the firmware can be upgraded, but the upgrade requires a CopyNES. However, as rumors go, that may not be true at all. A firmware upgrade may be possible without a CopyNES. Other people are very interested in the upgradability of the firmware, so expect a definite answer sometime in the future.

[Jagasian]

bunnyboy just released a few more details:

 

1. The flash cart does NOT work with NOAC based Famiclones such as the NEX, Yobo, FC Twin, and others. This is not surprising considering that these clones don't work with many official carts, especially carts with more sophisticated circuitry such as MMC5 based games.

 

2. The boot ROM is upgradable, but since it does not contain the code used for supporting mappers, it most likely will not need to be upgraded. However, bunnyboy said that he would offer an upgrade service if some critical bug was found in the boot ROM.

 

3. Mapper support can be upgraded via files loaded on the CF card. This is important as game compatibility problems will be due to mapper support.

Edited April 18, 2007 by Jagasian

[Uzumaki]

Someone get a bucket and a mop and start cleaning up my drools.

 

I've missed out a few other flash carts like Cuttlecart. But I will cheat, lie, and steal to get this one! As long as I don't need to take out second mortage to buy it.

[Great Hierophant]

bunnyboy just released a few more details:

 

1. The flash cart does NOT work with NOAC based Famiclones such as the NEX, Yobo, FC Twin, and others. This is not surprising considering that these clones don't work with many official carts, especially carts with more sophisticated circuitry such as MMC5 based games.

 

2. The boot ROM is upgradable, but since it does not contain the code used for supporting mappers, it most likely will not need to be upgraded. However, bunnyboy said that he would offer an upgrade service if some critical bug was found in the boot ROM.

 

3. Mapper support can be upgraded via files loaded on the CF card. This is important as game compatibility problems will be due to mapper support.

 

All these things please me, in different ways of course.

[Bruce Tomlin]

So basically this is a CC2 for the NES. $120-$140 is a good price, seeing as how the CC2 sold pretty well at $200 until the end of the second run. And fresh clear cart shells? Someone shelled (ha ha) out the bucks to make new shells? Some folks might be interested in buying a couple hundred shells.

 

Shame about famiclone incompatiblity, but is it general incompatiblity, or just that the usual games won't work? If it's a general incompatiblity, then this isn't for me. Not only do I not have The Love[tm] for the NES, but my main unit is a SNES Tristar, which presumably counts as a typical famiclone.

 

I think you've posted to the wrong thread.

 

Regarding the NES Power Pak, the cart shells are new, and one of the intents of bunnyboy is to get tons of shells made for homebrew developers, as has been done for the Atari 2600 community.

 

(argh)

[pepeart]

where do I sign in to order one? the site neopowerpak its down!!

[PsychedelicShaman]

where do I sign in to order one? the site neopowerpak its down!!

 

It's never been up. Click on the 2nd link in the original post and post a message there. They aren't out yet, but apparently that's the "line".

[pepeart]

kool thanks