I'm just wondering what everyone uses their PowerPaks and EverDrives for. Please select all options that apply in the poll above. Also, if anyone has comments they'd like to share about what they love or hate about either product, I'd love to hear them.
Significantly more homebrew/development than playing commercial games.
I don't have any NES/Famicom hardware at all, but if I did, I would probably use such a cartridge for all the purposes listed (if I could easily buy a game cartridge though I probably would do that instead; I may still want a copy of the ROM image though if I want to try to modify it though).
I expect all of these uses would be common among people who have such cartridges, although I do not know.
Wow, I'm floored by the quick response to the poll! Thank you all for your input. I don't have one of these devices either, and the main barrier to entry for me is the cost. Personally I think I'd use it for all of the above, but experience has taught me that many toys I buy don't get their intended uses. I'm trying to get a feel for what features real users actually use.
Thanks again!
The #1 reason I bought it and use it for is definitely just to play games. Both US released titles as well as Japan-Only titles. But it's also handy for homebrew development/testing and other things.
Development is the single reason that I bought a PowerPak for, but now that I have it I also use it to play other homebrew and regular NES games, though most of the time I'd rather play on an emulator. I really only have an NES to make sure that my NES code really can run on the machine, and also to suss out the remaining obscure APU implementation details.
I have mine simply to play games.
I don't own it, but if I did it would be probably used for testing on actual hardware. Emulators are enough to play games
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I use a powerpak to run roms on actual hardware to help with my emulator's compatibility.
I only use my Flash carts for commercial games if I'm playing with other people, when I'm alone I prefer emulators. No need to wire/plug anything plus the convenience of save states wins. If I lived in a bigger place where I could have a game room I'd leave my consoles permanently plugged in and would most likely play with them more often.
I bought a PowerPak.. And then I randomly decided to begin an NES collection.
Now I just use it to quick-test code for the guys on IRC.
Funny how that works
Thank you everyone for your responses! I hope to be able to show you all something cool I'm working on in a month or two regarding this.