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Some information on rebuilding a PWP. It's also the same the drive as used on the Famicon system in Japan.

http://www.cromwell-intl.com/t...

There's a more active Famicon hacking scene around... you might look into a famicon drive and fdsloader.

http://www.tototek.com/phpBB2/...

-R C

I'm sure the GP doesn't actually own the hardware, but I'm very fond of my Game Doctor SF7. I dump all my own original cartridges with it. They're surprisingly not that hard to get even in this day and age.

Atari 2600: Cuttle Cart 2 (although it requires a 7800, it supports 2600 images as well)
Game Boy (Color): any of the numerous GB Xchanger-type copiers
SMS: Tototek SMS-PRO
Genesis: Tototek MD-PRO

As far as I know, the only one of those consoles that doesn't have some sort of flash memory, is the NES. The problem, of course, is mapper support. I do seem to remember someone working on a flashcart with support for the most common mappers, but I haven't heard anything recently. Even then, a common cart containing the desired mapper can be modified to accept EPROMs (although this is admittedly harder that merely downloading a ROM to the cart).

Atari 2600: Cuttle Cart 2 (although it requires a 7800, it supports 2600 images as well)
Game Boy (Color): any of the numerous GB Xchanger-type copiers
SMS: Tototek SMS-PRO
Genesis: Tototek MD-PRO

As far as I know, the only one of those consoles that doesn't have some sort of flash memory, is the NES. The problem, of course, is mapper support. I do seem to remember someone working on a flashcart with support for the most common mappers, but I haven't heard anything recently. Even then, a common cart containing the desired mapper can be modified to accept EPROMs (although this is admittedly harder that merely downloading a ROM to the cart).

ToToTEK sell flash carts for the Megadrive, Master System and a few other machines. Gameboy flash carts used to be widely available (and were the reason Nintendo shut down the original Lik-Sang) but I don't know where you can get hold of them nowadays.

You can buy a copier off of Ebay, www.tototek.com, and many other places. Use Google.

ToToTEK may be helpful for people who want to copy Super NES, Sega Genesis, or Game Boy Advance cartridges, but it fails it for NES Game Paks. Which Google keywords should I use if Google buy nes copier and Froogle nes copier fail me?

It is easy to find the older versions of these games in used game stores, Ebay

If one does not have a suitable used game store within bus distance, then one must use eBay. How can I distinguish the old version of MechAssault from the new version (after bugfix but before Platinum Hits) based only on the item description on eBay? Are most sellers willing to look for an item number and answer truthfully?

Your friend has what is called a "copier". You can read up on these copiers here. Today, console piracy involves mod-chips or flash carts. In fact, there is even a flash cart made for the SNES, which lets you read ROMs from SNES carts and write ROMs to the flash cart so that they can be played on a real SNES.

It is not copyright infringement if you rip your own carts. Tototek sells a SNES flash cart and transfer tool that lets you rip carts to your PC, and burn them to a flash cartridge for play on a real SNES.

Emulation is NOT better than the original system in many aspects. I emulate allot of systems on my Xbox, but if I had an option to go with the original system via a flash cart or backup system, then I would much rather use that than an emulator. Emulator often times fail to recreate the game that the designers intended. Colors are off, as well as aspect ratios, sounds, music, and even slight timing differences in gameplay.

Many systems also don't have good controller adapters for using accessories on a PC. The N64 is the only exception, as it there is a USB device known as the "Adaptoid", which supports every N64 peripherial: controller, memory modules, force feedback modules, etc... The PS1 and PS2 come in second place, as they have some quality USB adapters which allow the use of a controller but not all peripherials.

For the NES and SNES, there are no good USB adapters that support peripherials other than the game controllers. No Zapper or Super Scope support, no Power Pad support, no R.O.B. support, etc... You gotta go with the real thing for that. Personally, for he SNES, I use a Flash Cart, which lets me transfer games from my PC to a SNES cart which I can play on a real SNES with all of the standard peripherials. That beats ZSNES and SNES9x any day!

Most emulator-gamers don't know these things because they never compare their emulator to the real thing, or have long since forgotten what the real thing is like.

With regards to the NES, there will soon be a solution, as a guy is recreating the NES from the hardware logic gate level. Hence it will be a cycle-perfect recreation, yet will be able to play games from flash cards (MMC or Smart Media or something like that). It will also be able to use the original peripherials of the NES and Famicom (Jap NES). Depending on how you look at it, this new retro-console system can be viewed as a recreation or as an extremely low-level perfect and accurate emulation.

My beaf is with inaccurate emulation. If it was perfect emulation that allowed use of native system peripherials, I would have no beaf.

One last thing, that Legend of Zelda speed demo that has been floating around is crap. A buggy emulator was used to make it. I saw the guy not getting hurt by his own bomb exploisions and numerous other bugs. Pretty lame because those bugs don't exist on the real system... but then again, like I said, more and more people these days are starting to forget what the real game is like because all they know is the inaccurate emulation of it.

My vote goes to the SNES. I still play mine today, but this time I use a Flash Cart. I own over 30 carts, and the flash cart lets me play the rest on a real SNES. The SNES really popularized console-style RPGs. Sure they appeared first on the Atari 2600, but the SNES had a high number of high quality RPGs.

It was also good for fighting games. It had the best Street Fighter II ports at the time. It also had the best version of the original Sim City. It wasn't overly complicated like its sequals, but it added just enough to the original Sim City to make it the best version. However, my favorite game for the SNES, one I still play today, is Super Mario Kart, especially battle mode!

Thanks for the plug :o) but when I get time to take on a new system I'm hitting the Genesis next. I'm a huge fan of those old Yamaha FM chips and I recently was informed about this flash cart which will make it easy to get code up and running on the real thing.

SNES flash carts are hard to get (but a random google search yields this: :Something like $76 for a 64 MBit SNES flash cart). GBA flash carts are much easier to find.

http://www.tototek.com/

Older gaming systems had very little power, so programmers would code the games in low-level machine language, and they would use many different hacks, tricks, and some games even time things based on counting CPU cycles and precise timing delays between different hardware subsystems. So it shouldn't be a surprise that games developed for these consoles play best on the original console.

The SNES is probably the best example of this because it was probably the most complicated and powerful game console, which was still programmed using low-level machine language. The aforementioned link describes inaccuracies in the best SNES emulator, ZSNES. Further comlicating matters is that some SNES games have separate co-processors built into the cartridge, and so the emulators must also emulate these separate processors, which have their own instruction set, protocol, timing delays, and communication bus. Since SNES games were written in assembler, developed soley for one fixed hardware platform, and then only tested on that system... it shouldn't be a surprise that the games play best on a real SNES.

Yet most gamers have never actually compared a real SNES to emulation. Some games are emulated better than others, but some are just downright bad. Of course, emulation is always improving, and in the distant future, when the real SNES's are all dust, emulation will be the only option. Hopefully it is perfected by then.

Of course, you can cheat and use a Flash Cart or Game Copier
(2), (3), with a real SNES, so that you get the best of both worlds: tons of SNES games on a real SNES with real SNES controllers all hooked up to a TV in front of a comy sofa!

Older gaming systems had very little power, so programmers would code the games in low-level machine language, and they would use many different hacks, tricks, and some games even time things based on counting CPU cycles and precise timing delays between different hardware subsystems. So it shouldn't be a surprise that games developed for these consoles play best on the original console.

The SNES is probably the best example of this because it was probably the most complicated and powerful game console, which was still programmed using low-level machine language. The aforementioned link describes inaccuracies in the best SNES emulator, ZSNES. Further comlicating matters is that some SNES games have separate co-processors built into the cartridge, and so the emulators must also emulate these separate processors, which have their own instruction set, protocol, timing delays, and communication bus. Since SNES games were written in assembler, developed soley for one fixed hardware platform, and then only tested on that system... it shouldn't be a surprise that the games play best on a real SNES.

Yet most gamers have never actually compared a real SNES to emulation. Some games are emulated better than others, but some are just downright bad. Of course, emulation is always improving, and in the distant future, when the real SNES's are all dust, emulation will be the only option. Hopefully it is perfected by then.

Of course, you can cheat and use a Flash Cart or Game Copier
(2), (3), with a real SNES, so that you get the best of both worlds: tons of SNES games on a real SNES with real SNES controllers all hooked up to a TV in front of a comy sofa!

The Atari 2600 scene has seen lots of activity in game development recently. They even go as far as to mint actual carts with labels, manuals, and boxes for their games. Even better, they tend to do the labels and packaging in the same style as the late 1970s Atari games. You can buy these games from sites like Atari Age.

Another company, VG Wiz provides cart minting services, and even has a NES flash cart under development. Tototek recently made flash development carts for various old console systems: Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Turbo Graphics 16, and even the SNES. These carts are great for playing ROMs on the actual console system.

Hopefully Grand Theftendo sees a similar fate as the Atari 2600 homebrews, and gets minted to an actual cart with PCB, plastic enclosure, label, manual, and box. The NES scene has been needing some full fledged fan developed games for a long time now.