Small preview of some upcoming changes. Should be out of beta after a bit more testing and when the SNES changes are ready.
Adds an autosave option for battery RAM at the saving question screen. This will save to the same file that was loaded when you started the game.
Also changes the Game Genie text file loading so it will start filling from the first unused code instead of overwriting all codes. Someone wanted to put one code per file, and have the file name be the cheat description.
Download at:
http://www.retrousb.com/downloads/POWERPAK132103b.zip
I'll try it out now. Thanks for the update bunnyboy
On trying it out it doesn't even work for me. Gets to the screen were it tells you what version the ROM and CARD version are. A couple of times it gave me a "L0 fatal card error"(When I reset the NES). Can you post a MD5sum of the archive so I can make sure what I downloaded is fine?
Hi,
Is there any new mapper support as well?
Do you have an updated list/image of the supported mappers?
The only changes are the changes noted. Should be updating the mapper list once it is official.
The nsf player won't play vrc6 or namco106 expansion audio (using the resistor mod). FDS works fine, and I wasn't able to test sunsoft 5b. Other than that nice update
Edit: Sunsoft 5b works fine.
Is this for the NES PowerPak or SNES version only?
-Xious
bunnyboy wrote:
Small preview of some upcoming changes. Should be out of beta after a bit more testing and when the SNES changes are ready.
Adds an autosave option for battery RAM at the saving question screen. This will save to the same file that was loaded when you started the game.
Also changes the Game Genie text file loading so it will start filling from the first unused code instead of overwriting all codes. Someone wanted to put one code per file, and have the file name be the cheat description.
Download at:
http://www.retrousb.com/downloads/POWERPAK132103b.zip
In the future will you think about having the L and R buttons scroll up/down by even faster speed or even scroll up/down by pages?
L/R on the dpad already scroll at double the speed as U/D, you want it even more than that?
Thanks for the update, bunnyboy. But it seems the mapper list is still not updated.
good point MottZilla.
A faster scroll with even more than the current speed would be better, indeed! It's still too slow..
An another suggestion;
- Scrolling file titles to get the full name of a game;
You move the cursor on a game and wait, after few seconds, it starts to scroll the full file name of the game.
Is this possible in the future?
bunnyboy wrote:
L/R on the dpad already scroll at double the speed as U/D, you want it even more than that?
I want autorepeat more like a PC's arrow keys or Tetris Attack. Hold up or down, and the cursor moves on frames 0, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, ... until the user releases the key. If you're confused, I can paste the code that my current project uses to implement autorepeat.
See also:
Tetris wiki: DAS
Well I must say it'd be nice to have the menu handled like tepples says, with the pointer increment in whole rows instead of just pixels, would be nice. (just look at the pirate N in 1 games to see what I mean).
Bregalad wrote:
Well I must say it'd be nice to have the menu handled like tepples says, with the pointer increment in whole rows instead of just pixels, would be nice.
And if you must have the cursor movement smooth for the sake of aesthetics, there's a way to solve that one too. Two words: leaky integrator. I can paste code if you wish.
And while you're taking menu behavior requests, please hide the '.' folder and put the cursor on the first item after '..' .
bunnyboy wrote:
L/R on the dpad already scroll at double the speed as U/D, you want it even more than that?
Which that's a life saver for sure, but on the SNES and perhaps even the NES it would be nice if the scroll speed could go even faster. Either with SNES having L and R used for greater scroll or perhaps for both NES and SNES, have the longer you hold the fast scroll buttons down they would get a bit faster after scrolling past a certain amount of items. It certainly would help if you have quite a long list. I don't think it's uncommon that people have folders that have a hundred or more items in them.
tepples wrote:
And while you're taking menu behavior requests, please hide the '.' folder
That's one I can't agree with if only because if that was the case, I wouldn't be able to read the first item on the list on my TV. If everything was moved down, it'd be fine though.
tepples wrote:
And while you're taking menu behavior requests, please hide the '.' folder and put the cursor on the first item after '..' .
great idea, actually.. but better the cursor would start from '..'
I can't get these mappers to work. After the logo it goes directly to game loading screen (where I can enter Game Genie codes etc) with all codes filled with AAAAAAAA. Apparently it reads last game info from LAST.TXT even though the file is filled with zeroes?
I'm using this version:
http://www.retrousb.com/downloads/POWERPAK132103.zip
EDIT: Bleh, my bad, it always tries to load info if START is pressed on intro screen, any other key goes to the menu. Although I must say some of these UI choices are not to my taste. =)
Scrolling acceleration is a good idea, and likely a simple addition for both NES and SNES.
Full name display probably isn't happening, would need far too many boot ROM changes.
Hiding the '.' folder also won't happen, and one reason has been mentioned. It helps with the TV safe area
Moving the cursor might be a possibility.
My biggest complaint about the interface is that the cursor scrolls one(?) pixel at a time, instead of skipping directly to the next entry in the list. I fail to see when it would be useful to place the cursor in between two entries.
Maybe there's some button-combination to get around this that I've missed?
Would it be possible to reset to the menu from a game using a button combination like A+B+Select+Start? Many GBA games do this. It would be a nice touch.
mic_ wrote:
My biggest complaint about the interface is that the cursor scrolls one(?) pixel at a time, instead of skipping directly to the next entry in the list. I fail to see when it would be useful to place the cursor in between two entries.
I fully agree.
Also, if the SNES PowerPak could play SPC it would be a NICE touch, and if the Power Pak NSF player would support extra audio it would be great as well (I tried the music of CV3 and Gimmick japanese by their respective sound tests).
mic_ wrote:
My biggest complaint about the interface is that the cursor scrolls one(?) pixel at a time, instead of skipping directly to the next entry in the list. I fail to see when it would be useful to place the cursor in between two entries.
Same here..
joe1088 wrote:
Would it be possible to reset to the menu from a game using a button combination like A+B+Select+Start? Many GBA games do this. It would be a nice touch.
I totally agree! It'd be great. I got bored resetting the console all the time..
joe1088 wrote:
Would it be possible to reset to the menu from a game using a button combination like A+B+Select+Start? Many GBA games do this. It would be a nice touch.
You'd have to start being like Pro Action Replay and hooking a routine like the NMI routine to do that which would break compatibility with certain games. Besides is it that hard to press the reset button?
There are reports that the latest mappers on retrousb.com break Crystalis menus and put repeating garbage on the title screen of M.C. Kids.
Said this on IRC already but in case you missed it...
Code:
22:11 <+thefox> bunnyfood, i think there's a bug in the last.txt handling in the latest mappers
22:12 <+thefox> bunnyfood, it seems it's not loading the save file if it's saved in last.txt, tested with zelda1
22:14 <+thefox> i.e. i load zelda1, select a empty save file, play some, reset, save, power off, power on, press
start on intro screen, save file and rom is automatically displayed, i press start game but the
save file isn't loaded
Are you doing the auto save or file pick save? Have you checked if the save file is actually saved?
bunnyboy wrote:
Are you doing the auto save or file pick save? Have you checked if the save file is actually saved?
If I select the save file manually ("file pick save") it loads OK.
tepples wrote:
There are reports that the latest mappers on retrousb.com break Crystalis menus and put repeating garbage on the title screen of M.C. Kids.
bunnyboy, could you please, check it?
tepples wrote:
There are reports that the latest mappers on retrousb.com break Crystalis menus and put repeating garbage on the title screen of M.C. Kids.
Same MMC3 has been used starting with v1.3, nothing about it was changed for the last few versions. Is there a previous version that works for you?
NovaYoshi reports that after I upgraded the mappers on his CF card for him, the games worked less well than on the version that he had been using. MMC5 stopped working too. He didn't remember exactly what versions of the menu and mappers he was using, but he mentioned something about having used loopy's mappers at one point. Do you want me to try anything like the following procedure next time I have access to his CF card?
1. Delete the /powerpak/ folder.
2. Reinstall a given version of the menu and mappers.
3. Photograph the screen of each affected game.
I can confirm I'm having the graphic issues with Crystalis too, but I'm also unable to save in-game. I save, then go to check in the menu screen and nothing has been saved. This is with 8 different dumps, including a known good one. Perhaps the two issues are somehow connected? Does anyone else encounter this issue?
It's not an issue with saving in general, as all my other games save fine, both in game and on the Powerpak.
I'm thinking something small might have been changed with this mapper release, and perhaps Crystalis does something unusual that has caused this? (or maybe it never worked at all?)
I am also unable to save in Crystalis. I'm not experiencing the graphical glitches, though...