SNES powerpak from retro zone!!!

[Unleaded Logic]

Looks like this cart won't work on the SNES mini at the moment:

"After a week of feedback and debugging, the SNES PowerPak is now working much better with early revision consoles. The problem of black screens has been solved. This means any system in the original case style will work great.

Unfortunately there is some hardware difference in the second case style, the SNES mini. There is a small possibility of a software fix later but for now it is on the incompatible list and will not run any games. If you want to cancel your order because of this, please contact me asap!

Thanks for being patient, always interesting to see what issues appear that made it through testing. Orders will resume now!

Brian Parker
The RetroZone"

I don't have a mini SNES, but I thought I'd share for those who do and are thinking of picking one up.

I'll be doing a video review of the cart as soon as I get it.

[Hobie-wan]

Looks like this cart won't work on the SNES mini at the moment:

"After a week of feedback and debugging, the SNES PowerPak is now working much better with early revision consoles. The problem of black screens has been solved. This means any system in the original case style will work great.

Unfortunately there is some hardware difference in the second case style, the SNES mini. There is a small possibility of a software fix later but for now it is on the incompatible list and will not run any games. If you want to cancel your order because of this, please contact me asap!

Thanks for being patient, always interesting to see what issues appear that made it through testing. Orders will resume now!

Brian Parker
The RetroZone"

I don't have a mini SNES, but I thought I'd share for those who do and are thinking of picking one up.

I'll be doing a video review of the cart as soon as I get it.

That's refreshingly honest and forthcoming of them.

[Ziggy587]

So I asked Retro Zone about running the 96Mbit version of Star Ocean on the SNES PowerPak, he responded with...

A video of it running is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy4SFfoT5LY

So confirmed. The 96Mbit version is a little hard to find, so I'll post the links here for any one interested...

http://www.neviksti.com/StarOcean/SF96soe.rar

http://www.neviksti.com/StarOcean/SF96son.rar

[Unleaded Logic]

So I asked Retro Zone about running the 96Mbit version of Star Ocean on the SNES PowerPak, he responded with...

A video of it running is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy4SFfoT5LY

So confirmed. The 96Mbit version is a little hard to find, so I'll post the links here for any one interested...

http://www.neviksti.com/StarOcean/SF96soe.rar

http://www.neviksti.com/StarOcean/SF96son.rar

I know I could google this but for sake of forum discussion, what are the improvements with the 96 mbit version?

[Ziggy587]

None.

Star Ocean is one of two SNES games that use the S-DD1 chip. The chip decompresses data on the fly. Star Ocean is a 48Mbit game because a lot of it's graphics are compressed. Obviously, the original ROM wouldn't work on a flash cart or backup unit because of the special chip, so Neviksti made a hack that removes the need for the S-DD1, it expands all the compressed graphics making the ROM 96Mbits.

So, no improvements. In fact, there might actually be some graphical glitches but I haven't confirmed this. The only point of it is to be able to play the ROM on real hardware where it'd otherwise be impossible because of the S-DD1 chip.

[Unleaded Logic]

None.

Star Ocean is one of two SNES games that use the S-DD1 chip. The chip decompresses data on the fly. Star Ocean is a 48Mbit game because a lot of it's graphics are compressed. Obviously, the original ROM wouldn't work on a flash cart or backup unit because of the special chip, so Neviksti made a hack that removes the need for the S-DD1, it expands all the compressed graphics making the ROM 96Mbits.

So, no improvements. In fact, there might actually be some graphical glitches but I haven't confirmed this. The only point of it is to be able to play the ROM on real hardware where it'd otherwise be impossible because of the S-DD1 chip.

That makes sense, I saw a few versions of the rom saying compressed and was wondering that the deal was. Thanks for clearing that up, Ziggy!

[Ziggy587]

Not a problem. There isn't a lot of info about this hack, and it's a little hard to find a download for it. I wonder why no one has ever submitted it to RHDN? Maybe I'll message the author and see if he minds if I submit it.

edit: He gave me permission to make and upload patches for it. Now I'm just waiting for ROMhacking.net to approve my account.

NEW: RHDN approved my account and the patches. I had to change them to xdelta patches because ips patches were too large (about 10MB each).

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/614/

[Unleaded Logic]

Not a problem. There isn't a lot of info about this hack, and it's a little hard to find a download for it. I wonder why no one has ever submitted it to RHDN? Maybe I'll message the author and see if he minds if I submit it.

edit: He gave me permission to make and upload patches for it. Now I'm just waiting for ROMhacking.net to approve my account.

NEW: RHDN approved my account and the patches. I had to change them to xdelta patches because ips patches were too large (about 10MB each).

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/614/

Thank you sir!