When bunny released the power pak years ago I decided I would look into it

At one point my collection spanned 200 carts (1994-2005) then I went into hiding to resurge at 65 carts (2008)

Both the power pak and everdrive present a way to play games and try hacks and homebrews.

The way I see it is that a repro is (25.00) by Leon K. (nesreproductions.com) and I currently have 7 repros and hacks.

By having the everdrive it basically pays for itself  in the first 2-4 months of ownership.

My example is the following I only have the everdrive for hacks.
- SMB 3 Mix (25.00)
- SMB 3 Chaos Control (25.00)
---------------
Right there is 50.00 if I would have had the repros made vs the 118.00 now

Its a very nice tool that in my opinion detracts very little from collecting.

Whats your take on it? Is it worth it?

After my comments in another thread a few minutes ago, I'm probably going to start sounding like an Everdrive salesman, but I promise I'm not. I have every Everdrive except for the Game Gear Everdrive and I love all of them. They are worth the cost of admission for sure. I slowly purchased each one over a period of time and waited for sales to help keep the overall costs down. I still plan to get GG model, but since it's the one I would use the least, I'm not in a rush. Krikzz is close to finishing the GBA Everdrive, and I am very excited about that one as well.

My plan is to eventually get a flash cart for every system I own that has one available, even if it's not an Everdrive brand (Harmony cart for example).

OP is correct and that is how I looked at it when I got my everdrives. I looked at the cost of games like a Gimmick repro and some translated games like Sweet Home/EarthBound zero and the ED basically pays for itself.

I still need to get a Genesis ED that is next on my list. I currently own one for Turbo, Nes, and Snes and couldn't be happier with them.

I don't own an Everdrive so I don't have an opinion about the device itself, but I would like to say that it feels good supporting the community by purchasing their hacks or repros. I was once on track to purchase the PowerPak at RetroUSB.com, but got distracted by the homebrews and spent that money getting Battle Kid II, Mad Wizard, and Study Hall. I see these flash carts as more of a tool and not a solution, strictly due to ethical reasons. I wouldn't free right running John Riggs' Balloon Fight: Iwata Edition on a flash cart, given that he sells it. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RiggdGa... Being a musician I've seen this scenario before. Luckily this community is so supportive, I don't see it paralleling the music industry.

I totally get where you are coming from and from my own use with the everdrive it has not stopped me from buying original games at all.  It has made me more patient for deals but I still get plenty of new stuff.  I agree with you if someone created a homebrew they should be compensated but games like sweet home, etc I have no issue putting that on the flash cart.

 

Good points.  As a general rule of thumb, I don't use flash carts for games that are currently available for purchase (which for the NES is pretty much just homebrews).  For the same reason, I haven't even considered flash carts for the Nintendo DS or 3DS.  At least not yet.

 

I totally recommend it. I use mine for all my NES gaming even though I have an almost complete collection. You don't have to bother changing carts. One of my favorite aspects of it is that save states work really well. It sort of blurs the line between real hardware and emulation. This is awesome for busy people who don't have time to play for extended periods to still make progress all the way through a game. I also like that you can play a game, shut it off and then the next time just hit start and it'll load the last game you played.

I have a Power Pak too, and that can do save states too but needed a special mapper pack by TheFox, and they didn't work nearly as well as in the Everdrive. IMHO my current setup is the best possible "real hardware" NES playing experience - "AV Famicom" + Everdrive!

I enjoy both the Everdrive N8 and the Powerpak (for my PlayChoice 10). I basically play all my homebrew games in my NES TV, but all the translations and hacks get played on my A/V Famicom with the Everdrive N8. Perfect addition to my collection.

For the SNES I used the SD2SNES which is heads above the Everdrive as it allows you to play games with CD quality audio. I'll never go back!

What problems did you have?

 

I love my everdrive

krikkz is a god and I support him as well

I currently have Famicom N8, Turbo Everdrive and Everdrive MD

Need to get a Super Everdrive and a GB one

I have an sd2snes and I <3 it. Best purchase ever.

Oh wow, it's been too long to remember specific examples.  I think mostly audio glitches and more games that wouldn't save at all (they don't all work in Everdrive either).

Don't get me wrong, I think it's amazing that you were able to add save state functionality to a device that was never intended to do it, but I've had a much better overall experience with the Everdrive.



 

OK, hard to say based on that what caused the problems. It's not always the mappers, sometimes e.g. bad headers in ROMs can cause problems.

I was not offended, of course, just genuinely interested in what problems people might be having, since I don't generally get that much feedback about the mappers.

I'm glad because I was a big fan of your work back when PowerPak was all I had :-)  I was just trying to make a comparison between the two carts.


 

My personal opinion is that I love it and recommend it to anyone really. If you're not going for a full set or even if you are. Just a big convenience.