SNES Powerpak firmware

[SunGodPortal]

I really have no idea what section this belongs in but...

Does anyone know if any of the files included in ManuLöwe's version of the SNES Powerpak firmware are useful to someone who does not have the equipment to alter the data on the boot ROM chip? For example: He mentioned having ported an SPC player over from somewhere and I know which file contains that (and it's one of the files that belongs on the CF card) but I thought I would attempt to ask someone about this first, just in case there's any risk of fucking up my Powerpak (which I feel is priceless).

I'd like to ask the actual author himself but I can't seem to find any easy way to get a hold of him.

[Ziggy587]

Did you know that you no longer have to remove the boot ROM in order to flash his CFW? You don't need a programmer. Just put his v2.00 firmware on your CF card and it will flash the boot ROM for you, then upgrade to the latest version after that (currently v2.02 as of this post).

He's not hard to contact, he posts semi-often on the NesDev forums. That's how I learned of his CFW, specifically this thread (his handle is Ramsis).

He does say that removing the boot ROM to reflash it is the safer way to install his CFW, since an unsuccessful flash will brick your PowerPak. That's true, but it wouldn't be a permanent brick, you'd just have to send the boot ROM out to some one so they could reflash it for you. Or, if your boot ROM is socketed, there's plenty of places you can get the chip pre-flashed for you. DigiKey offers this service, and stocks the SST39SF010A (older SNES PowerPaks used AT29C010A, but that part has been phased out as far as I can tell).

All I can say is that I've used his v2.00 software to flash my PowerPak and it worked perfectly. I immediately upgraded to v2.02 and couldn't imagine ever using the stock menus again. In fact, I have a hard time using my NES PowerPak now. I wish some one would come along and do to the NES PowerPak what Ramsis did for the SNES PowerPak.

[SunGodPortal]

Wow. I didn't think anyone was ever going to reply to this.

I didn't know that about 2.0. That's cool. I'll probably use that method but I'll have to think about it for a bit (summon my courage). If it bugs out and destroys my Powerpak... I will die... I can't live without it! When I got my NES and SNES Powerpaks I sold all of my 100+ games for them (except for Castlevania III) because carts are outdated, problematic and take up too space. I'll never go back to them.

[Ziggy587]

Yeah, I hear ya, I had to summon some courage before I flashed mine. But like I said, you wont destroy your PowerPak from a bad flash. You'll just render it temporarily unusable. And if your boot ROM is socketed, I wouldn't even worry about it.

If you need a nudge to push you over the edge, Ramsis said in February that a new version should be released soon. You can see some of the planned changes here: http://manuloewe.de/snestuff/powerpak/firmware-v2-WIP-changes.txt

Although, he said that auto SRAM creation will likely be dropped from the next release, he was having difficulties implementing it.

[TheUnderfaker]

Flashing my Snes PowerPak with his CFW was the best thing I ever did, his new menu looks awesome!
If only Bunnyboy would give him access to his NES Powerpak files, I'm sure something nice could be done with that too.

Although, he said that auto SRAM creation will likely be dropped from the next release, he was having difficulties implementing it.

I read that, damn shame.