You and I may be mortal, but I think you'll find that NES never dies. Or so the makers of the new flash cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System are hoping.
It's a decade or two late, but the PowerPak has finally arrived on the homebrew scene for bedroom-based retro developers, and it looks to be fairly interesting. Basically a flash drive, players can copy games on to the PowerPak and then run them on the original NES hardware without having to use any sort of emulation software.
"When you start your NES you get a file browser to choose your game. Then you can save and load battery ram so all your saved games stay saved. Save files can also be transferred to and from your computer for use on emulators. Built in Game Genie code support lets you use cheat codes. Even better than the original Game Genie, the PowerPak has support for 5 codes at once."
Or so says the blurb at the products homepage, which also claims games can be loaded in around seven seconds and that the PowerPak is entirely updateable for the future.
The website also gives detailed support information for homebrew developers and ROM downloaders, so that they can be sure to get the most out of their new expensive piece of retro kit.
Expensive? Did we not mention? The PowerPak is retailing from the site for a hefty $135, so it probably won't be the cheapest way to play old versions of Super Mario Bros.
Still, decades later it's nice to see that some retro scenes are alive and kicking, even if it is a little heavy-handed wallet-wise.
Do you do homebrew? What's your favourite retro console? Let us know in the forums and trade ideas about what to do with old pieces of classic console hardware.
It's a decade or two late, but the PowerPak has finally arrived on the homebrew scene for bedroom-based retro developers, and it looks to be fairly interesting. Basically a flash drive, players can copy games on to the PowerPak and then run them on the original NES hardware without having to use any sort of emulation software.
"When you start your NES you get a file browser to choose your game. Then you can save and load battery ram so all your saved games stay saved. Save files can also be transferred to and from your computer for use on emulators. Built in Game Genie code support lets you use cheat codes. Even better than the original Game Genie, the PowerPak has support for 5 codes at once."
Or so says the blurb at the products homepage, which also claims games can be loaded in around seven seconds and that the PowerPak is entirely updateable for the future.
The website also gives detailed support information for homebrew developers and ROM downloaders, so that they can be sure to get the most out of their new expensive piece of retro kit.
Expensive? Did we not mention? The PowerPak is retailing from the site for a hefty $135, so it probably won't be the cheapest way to play old versions of Super Mario Bros.
Still, decades later it's nice to see that some retro scenes are alive and kicking, even if it is a little heavy-handed wallet-wise.
Do you do homebrew? What's your favourite retro console? Let us know in the forums and trade ideas about what to do with old pieces of classic console hardware.
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