powerpak keeps loading

powerpak keeps loading
by log in on 2011-12-13 (#87447)

I just picked up a powerpak of a local ebay and i wonder if its broken?

I picked it up to help me with homebrewing.But it seems to have a loading problem.

Lets start from the beginning.
I downloaded the file from retrousb i unzipped it and it becomes powerpak 134105 .Open that file and see 2 files _macosx and powerpak.
Those files i put on my compact flash card in that order(not unzipping more)+the 8kbsave.sav

Added some homebrew games in .nes files on the card.

I put the nes on and i push left or right and i see the _macosx and powerfiles + the nes roms.Pick a game .
Then i push start and im back to the powerpak screen .when i push a or b there is no save file found(wrong input from me)push start again and i get the game genie screen and i can push start to play the game.
(but the bottum screen says play tetris?)

Anyway.. when i push start the game keeps loading forever.

Im using a 128 mb compact flash card.

Did i buy a broken powerpak or am i doing something wrong?

by 3gengames on 2011-12-13 (#87448)

Try another card and make sure it's formatted properly.

by tepples on 2011-12-13 (#87449)

Are you pressing Start to load the game or pressing A to load the game? A lot of the PowerPak menu uses Start as the back button.

by log in on 2011-12-13 (#87457)

3gengames wrote:
Try another card and make sure it's formatted properly.

The card is whipped clean before using and set at 32.
Im using a flash card of 128 mb.
I used 2 flash cards before that of 4k that where 30 mb.
I read in a old nesworld review that the new 4 kb/30mb card could not be used.

This card is 1 of the nesworld models used so should work.

by log in on 2011-12-13 (#87458)

tepples wrote:
Are you pressing Start to load the game or pressing A to load the game? A lot of the PowerPak menu uses Start as the back button.

powerpak is turned on and i press left to get this list.

// powerpak
//macosx
pong.nes
battlekid.nes

i go to 1 of the nes roms(that work on emulator)

when i press select ,b or a
ill get a SAVES FILES NOT FOUND message

when i press start ill go to the start screen.
pressing start there will get me to the game genie screen and when ill load the game its says loading game...and never does anything again.

by tepples on 2011-12-13 (#87460)

Does it work with games that don't use a save file at all (battery bit turned off)?

Some things to try:
Check that the ROMs' file sizes match the sizes in the header. I've seen loading get hung up when the actual file is smaller or larger than the loader expects based on the header. Do you want me to write a Python program to verify this?
Make sure that the file system itself doesn't have any inconsistencies. Plug the CF writer into a Windows PC and run chkdsk.
Back up all files from the CF card to a hard drive, reformat the CF card on a Windows PC, and put the files back.

I recommend Windows because Microsoft has tended to define FAT by how it is implemented in Windows operating systems. (The wording is to the effect "anything on which chkdsk reports no errors is a valid file system".)

by thefox on 2011-12-13 (#87467)

If you press START on the intro screen, it will try to load the information of the previous game from LAST.TXT, which in your case is full of zeroes.

Are you sure you're getting "SAVE FILES NOT FOUND" when selecting a game from the list? Seems like user error.

by log in on 2011-12-13 (#87473)

thefox wrote:
If you press START on the intro screen, it will try to load the information of the previous game from LAST.TXT, which in your case is full of zeroes.

Are you sure you're getting "SAVE FILES NOT FOUND" when selecting a game from the list? Seems like user error.

Nope im getting no zeroes ,it tries to load tetris im guesing its from the laast game played on the cart before?

Im 100% sure im pressing a or b and it says save files not found.
im going to a game with the dpad press a or b and it goes black with the text in white at the bottum.

ps: would it help to try other software from here instead of the files i downloaded from retrousb?

by log in on 2011-12-13 (#87485)

tepples wrote:
Does it work with games that don't use a save file at all (battery bit turned off)?

Some things to try:
Check that the ROMs' file sizes match the sizes in the header. I've seen loading get hung up when the actual file is smaller or larger than the loader expects based on the header. Do you want me to write a Python program to verify this?
Make sure that the file system itself doesn't have any inconsistencies. Plug the CF writer into a Windows PC and run chkdsk.
Back up all files from the CF card to a hard drive, reformat the CF card on a Windows PC, and put the files back.
I recommend Windows because Microsoft has tended to define FAT by how it is implemented in Windows operating systems. (The wording is to the effect "anything on which chkdsk reports no errors is a valid file system".)

found the problem. I unzipped the nes roms to the core and i had to keep them in there folders.played some homebrew(munchie attack) and some unreleased games and they work fine.Now i can test my own stuff

by LocalH on 2011-12-13 (#87507)

The _macosx file should be unnecessary, probably isn't wasting a lot of space on the card but it's an extra entry on the file list that you can get rid of.

by johannesmutlu on 2011-12-18 (#87639)

log in wrote:
tepples wrote:
Are you pressing Start to load the game or pressing A to load the game? A lot of the PowerPak menu uses Start as the back button.

powerpak is turned on and i press left to get this list.

// powerpak
//macosx
pong.nes
battlekid.nes

i go to 1 of the nes roms(that work on emulator)

when i press select ,b or a
ill get a SAVES FILES NOT FOUND message

when i press start ill go to the start screen.
pressing start there will get me to the game genie screen and when ill load
the game its says loading game...and never does anything again.

that,s what i also have sometimes,when i load a game like a pirated version of 2 in 1 street dance,it just keeps loading forever withoout doing anything,i ,m affraid that the game is just too big for the powerpak,becouse it,s 1,5 MB in size.
another issue i have is many games like ducktales,digduck,castlevania1 and 2,ninja gaiden 1 and 3 megaman 1 etc,,supermario 2 j should work but i just get a massage wich say's bad map,what,s the point?? are these roms damaged,corrupted or something? they just work fine on nestopia emulator, am mean they are too supposed to work on the powerpak!!
Likely despites retrousb still dit NOT have implement mmc5 support yet,but loopy dit it, so you can finaly play castlevanai 3 on it,,also loopy implement many pirate mappers so you can finaly play pirate versions of incomplete supermarioworld,super donkeykong 2 ,pirated aladdin and more,wich i allway's dit wanted,this is great concidering finding those cartrides is pretty much impossible.

by tepples on 2011-12-18 (#87646)

Any game with a PRG ROM bigger than 512 KiB is too big for the PowerPak.

"Bad mapper" may mean your ROMs are corrupted with "DiskDude!" or the like. This will be easy to spot by opening a ROM in the hex editor. There are tools to clean "DiskDude!" garbage from all ROMs.