FamED/NES-ED or PowerPak ? I just got my hands on a TwinFamicom and started to look at flash cards for NES. I admit that the physical FDS of the Twin Famicom is more of a novelty than anything else, although if anyone has available "backups" I may care for a couple of titles. Anyway in the past I bought ED64v2, MegaED, TurboED and SD2SNES and I have to say that although the carts work great for what they advertise, they all are kind of incomplete (say 95% to 99%). I know that I have to buy a flash cart for what it does and not for future features, at the same time I'd like to think that the "promised/hinted/rumored" features would eventually materialize. Examples: For ED64 -> support 6105 with no issues + fix for the savetypes: For MegaED -> maybe fix the few SerialRAM savestates but really just support FM sound for SMS mode (it would have been awesome if the cart would have also supported 3D glasses for 3D mode SMS games, but too late for that, unless I can simply solder the 3.5jack easily to some FPGA lines) For TurboED -> nothing as it is perfect as is although I would love to be able to pay 30-40$ more and have a Turbo ED v2 that implements also the features of the Arcade Card Pro (the extra 18MBits of RAM really) For SD2SNES -> of course SuperFX support + SA1 + S-DD1 + SPC7710 (I know this is Ikari project). Right now I am looking for a Famicom/NES flash cart and I would love to buy it from Krikzz, although unless he has given some thought to FDS emulation I am not too sure anymore, there are those 20/30 FDS only games. To support FDS whatever hardware FamED (or whatever the name is) is based on must use an FPGA with enough block RAM or use real RAM to support the extra memory required (32KB RAM + 8KB VRAM). Of course the various memory mappers with support for extra sound chips must implements correct audio outputs, that is to say the hardware must be powerful enough (if the extra sound channels are indeed implemented correctly for the various chip [say MMC5/VRC6/VRC7] it also means that Krikzz would get very good in emulating sound circuit -> hope goes up for FM support for SMS on MegaED ;-) sorry here to repeat myself I just bought a japanese SMS and a MasterED to get this FM thing out of my system ;-), I am still waiting for the MasterED to show up at my door). So far my understanding is that the NES PowerPak at 135$ supports many mappers with sound and also the sound for FDS (although not as good quality as the original hardware) so it seems to be a decent buy (I already have the converter and I know the fixes to make it work [I don't mind soldering]) So my question to Krikzz is: although you did not think too much to FDS, is the hardware for FamED (or whatever you call it) powerful enough so you can implement the support later on without a new card revision or do you think there are going to be 2 cards: one cheaper without much support and a Pro version more expensive with the extra features? I understand that not everyone needs FDS support (like with SuperED and SD2SNES, not everyone wants to spend twice as much to support only 15+ extra games). Sorry for the long post, just wanted to make sure that you understand where I am coming from and that I am already a decent buyer, I can wait if you think there will be 2 hardware versions. After all my ED64 is a v2 and MegaED came after Everdrive MD (which had a couple of revision as well), just need to wait a little longer. Thanks for any information you can provide.
to phoenixdownita: Cart has enough hardware resources for FDS I already tesed cart with sharp twin fami, works fine. Also i tested cart with some chinese clones, all of them works fine
What are these clones everyone mentions? Are they unofficial copies of the original consoles, or machines that people build themselves, like (so I read) lots of people in Eastern Europe used to do with 8 bit systems in the 80s/90s? How do they differ from the genuine console? And are they NES only, or are there clones of the SNES, Megadrive, N64, etc, too?
in eastern europe (or middle-east) all nes clones were in fact famicom clones. i haven't seen a real nes in my childhood. i am pretty sure there were megadrive clones too. but no SNES or N64 clones afaik.
YEAH .... I guess I will wait for the FamED/NES-ED before buying anything. Given it has enough hardware there's hope ;-). Good to know you tested on Famicom Twin, but I wanted to point out that AlecRob post was about Famicom Box and Sharp Famicom Station, which seems to be locked to a few games only, you can check out some details here http://famicomworld.com/system/other/famicombox
What exactly is the difference between a NES and a Famicom? I've never used either, as consoles didn't become too common over here (England) until the SNES/Megadrive generation, sadly, so many of us missed some great machines at the time.
NES was released in Europe and US. Famicom was released in Japan. also their cartridge slot is different too. Famicom includes extra sound channels and a famicom disk accessory can be attached to it. google will be more helpful for the full list of differences. i think the best version is AV Famicom. the new famicom that was released in Japan. that is only me, though.
I'm not sure what part of England you're from but to say the NES wasn't common is a load of old crap. In the late 80's 8-bit consoles like the NES & Sega Master System may not of been in every household but if you were over the age of 6 you would of played on one.
There are cracks for the 2 6105 games that had issues (JFG and Banjo Tooie). I would rather see him just offer on the fly patching of these roms to work on 6102/7101. Which are much more common and easier to come by. If this was implemented would there really be a need for full 6105 support besides just to say it can? I agree I would like to see some of the hinted feature materialize, but I think some of the features you ask for are a lot of work for very little reward. Time is money. If adding a feature only 3% of most people care about takes awhile to implement its probably not worth the time unless you really have nothing better to do. I know this was for KRIKzz and I am not speaking for him, but the EverDrive-FC uses the same hardware as the ED64v2 and the MegaED I believe. So my guess is the power is there. Really I would not want to see a Basic and Pro version in this case (same with TurboED). It just complicates things. There is already enough confusion between the EverDrive-MD and MegaED and the SuperED and the SD2SNES. I don't know final price, but if hardware is same as ED64v2 my guess is that it will be cheaper than $135 for cart with shell, board and label. Which is basically all you get with the PowerPak as well. We will see once he announces pricing for boards.
Yes it would. It would mean I can play untouched games no fix, no crap etc...etc... BTW I own both of them so that is not the point. I can play them direct on cartridge if I want to but I grew lazy and although I have to press the reset button I don't want to swap cartridge. I was hoping that 100$ would get me closer to that than it did but maybe a fix is in the air. Well but then again it would look like short term quick bucks it is all that matters. Take MegaED, I like how fast it loads but other than that and the fact that it can act as a SegaCD/MegaCD save cart you are going to be hard pressed to justify the extra 50$+ it commands .... unless you take into account the extra hardware available for some wild project (I really wish there was already a VHDL for the FM chip so it would just be a matter to get it going). So maybe some features are only 3% of what the people cares about until of course they get it and then realize it is cool that it all works without the need of yet another gizmo/console/piece of converter or what-have-you. Here you kind of open a can of worms because if ED64 and MegaED have the same hardware then it is hard to justify why one is almost 50% more expensive than the other. I will say no more on the subject, I respect Krikzz work and I wish I could program FPGA on my own so I would implement the features myself but that is not the case. Actually I think being clear what is and what is NOT supported would be so much nicer rather than having to wade through tons of spec and future possible features and hard to decrypt compatibility numbers. What does it means ED64 is 99% compat ... it is not only 2 games that need tinkering, I would prefer to have the list of known issues in the product specs so I can decide (with all the games that don't work without crack or need manual save type adjusted and so on). Also having more than one version may actually be beneficial. Take the TurboED, a Pro ... sorry let's call it Arcade ... version would be awesome and it is fine if it costs 30/40$ more as that is the price for the Arcade card anyway and if you don't care about Arcade CD support then you don't have to spend the extra cash at all. So for the EverdriveFC (or whatever the name is) I'd like to know if Krikzz would do FDS in this cart or it plans to have another one (Pro?) ... again not everyone cares about FDS, and who does wouldn't mind to pay the extra cost and wait for it to become a reality. If the cost is around the ED64 then we are on the same page. I will wait for the man (krikzz) to finish his work and communicate a price. I already bought all my everdrive from his store anyway, just 2 weeks ago the MatsterSystem Everdrive to play with a Japan SMS just for FM (I was recently in Taiwan and got a Japan SMS for 135$ and given I didn't have to pay for postage as I was there anyway, the price was not half as bad). On a side note to StoneAgeGamer I really thought that the value added by "just carving a shell" was not worthy of what you charge. I have to say after going thru the moves for ED64 + SD2SNES + MegaED I am not that asshole-ish about it anymore. It is time consuming, grunt work ... it ends up taking 1h or 2h after all is said and done ... so in all honesty I have a newly found respect for your work. If I may suggest some way to expand your business is to carry custom made AC/DC converters (like RetroGameCave) and maybe hook up with Console5 for all the mods/capacitor kits etc... just my 2 cents ... it's your business and you do what you please with it, I would just love to have one stop shop for all my retro console compulsion needs (flash carts, AV mods kits, AC/DC power bricks, AV jacks etc...etc...) Peace out and to Krikzz and SAG keep up the good work ;-) also the same goes to Ikari and byuu (after all the SD2SNES support for MSU1 invented by byuu is pretty awesome)
Many EverDrives already patch ROMs for region right? So if it patched JFG and Banjo Tooie to work with 6102/7101 I don't see the difference. I am not talking about using the cracked ROMs I am talking about the EverDrive64 cracking/patching the regular ROM to work with a 6102/7102 on the fly. I guess KRIKzz would have to address if that's possible or not. It has nothing to do with the short term buck, it has to do with whats most important in the list of priorities. No one said anyone had to spend the extra money for the Mega EverDrive. However the Mega EverDrive outsells the EverDrive-MD (at least on my site). Now this is partly because there have a already been a lot more EverDrive-MDs sold so the market is more saturated. EverDrive-MD still sells at a steady pace as well. I am not arguing against these features of course, being a retailer the more features the better, assuming the cost stays the same, but I am pointing out that there are bigger fish to fry than FM sound. Hopefully someday, but my guess is not right now. The cost of something is not just the sum of its parts, but also labor and demand. Also in this case its also a case of not wanting to compete against yourself. There is already the EverDrive-MD. He already produces 8 flash carts, 7 of which he developed. 2 more are on their way in EverDrive-FC and EverDrive-NES. Making tons of different configurations complicates things significantly for the manufacturer, retailer, and in some cases the consumer as well. The unfortunate issue with these flash carts is that they are a niche market (flash carts) of an already niche market (classic gaming). Now if you take into consideration the TurboED, then you are talking an even more niche market. Genesis, SNES, and NES are signicantly more popular than the TG-16. There is not a huge advantage to making 2 or 3 different configurations of the same cart. Its best to pick the configuration that will would generally sell the best. If there were a huge market for these type of items I would agree with you. This is just my experience with selling these flash carts for over 2 years now. Just to be clear though, I am not really arguing against you either. There's actually a lot I do agree with you on. I am just arguing from the other side of the coin. I have stated before that after the FC/NES carts are released I would like to see KRIKzz go back to current carts and add lacking features to the current line of flash carts. Maybe take 8 months to a year just doing that, no more new flash carts during that time. Just continue to produce the current line of carts. I do think some things would help sell more flash carts. Some stuff like just cheat code support on some of the carts that are lacking it and even some of the features you have mentioned, etc. Thanks, its funny because I contract out some of my Deluxe Editions now because it was just too much for me to handle alone. The contractor was here for 3 days training and after the first batch of carts we made he said "I had no clue how much work actually went into making these, I now understand the price a lot more." For anyone interested we did actually post a photo album of the 100th Mega EverDrive Deluxe from start to finish here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.529932317023180.136499.136116593071423&type=3 Of course this isn't an exact representation of actual production because we do way more than 1 at a time, but gives you an idea. We are actually re-launching the site (hopefully) in February and we have really begun to look into getting some of our own products produced as well as contacted people who make such products already to try to get them on the site. We hope to expand the site with more of these unique products in 2013. I have also seen the AC adapters and RetroGameCave and thought it would be a good item to carry items like that.
Indeed I'd sure like to consider myself DONE with attempting to mod myself. Already sent in an N64 long ago to fix a screw up of mine, and GC is going soon. If I have an idea cash won't persuade someone to tackle in this miserable economy... I probably don't need it as much as I thought. My Neo Geo plans haven't gone anywhere useful.
And yet I was over the age of 6 and never played on one. Atari 2600, yes, Spectrum, yes, C64, yes, CPC, yes, BBC Model B, only at school, Atari 8 bit computers, yes, Atari ST, yes, Amiga, yes, but never a NES. A mate of mine had a 2600, and for Christmas 1983 I got a Spectrum 48k, and over the following years I owned several other Speccys. Most of my mates had Spectrums or C64s, a couple had CPCs, and one by one we all went down the 16 bit routes with either (or both) an ST and Amiga (I bought an ST, my biggest gaming regret is not getting an Amiga - the ST was great, but the Amiga was better) .No one I knew had a console, it was always computers, until the SNES and Megadrive came along. I never saw a NES, or Neo-Geo, or PC Engine, or Sega Master System.I suppose it's possible that a friend of a friend had a NES (or PC Engine, etc) and that I played on it and have since forgotten about it (which would be no reflection on the machine, we all remember just a tiny minority of things we've seen and done) but certainly neither I nor my regular friends had any console (other than one with the 2600) prior to the SNES or Megadrive. In my circle it was always computers, maybe because piracy (which I imagine in those days was all but impossible on the NES/Neo-Geo/etc) was such a huge influence on what machine people bought.
back in the day being a kid in the uk i was lucky that i owned a master system and a nes. i didn't have a huge library of games though. back in the day it was easy to purchase a game from a catalogue or electrical shop and play and or complete it and a few days later say it wernt suitable and send/take it back and exchange it. this is probably hard to believe just how often my uncle and i were doing this but things wernt so cut throat in the world of retail back then until they moved the goalposts in that respect. i'm sure the reason most 80's uk kids ended up with spectrums and commmodore 64's instead of superior gaming consoles is the amount of budget cassette games on offer which were way cheaper than console games and parents shopping for kids xmas present knowing the kids wanted to play the latest games didn't think so much about the quality at all and most parents were misinformed regarding what gaming was all about back then. an example of price difference could be rather extreme, local retailers were selling master system games for £25 and upwards meanwhile cassette games for commodore/spectrum were being sold for £1.99 regardless of the title and it seemed that even huge big box more expensive releases would be repackaged after a few months into the standard cassette and case format and sold for £1.99. don't get me wrong the commodore and speccy was some fun back in the day and had some great games but some of my mates were playing for example wonderboy on the c64/spectrum then when they saw the master system version they were like wow. same can be said when comparing a lot cross platform games. also when i played suiper mario bros with my mates usually they were like... i wish my mam and dad got me a nes instead of the c64/spectrum.
Will the Everdrive-NES have some kind of spring load or lever to get the SD card out? Or will it load at the side? The NES cart case is very long as you know.
I'm from the UK and I'm telling the truth when I say Sega ruled Nintendo in both the Master System and Mega Drive age. Just look UK sales for each console. Sega's British TV adds ruled back then.
Im also from the UK, and can state that when I was akid, you either fell into the Nintendo or Sega fanboy club! Few kids back then had both consoles, probably because gaming wasnt as strong an industry as it is today. Personally, i was a Nintendo kid through and through, and loved playing my Nes and every Nintendo from then on, however most of my friends were Sega kids. Correct me if im wrong, but i think both the Megadrive and Master System were released before their Nintendo counterparts, and as such were probably bought by parents for their kids who were then unlikely to fork out for another console in the form of Nintendos. I loved playing the Sega's, but i was always happy to come home to my Nintendos!
