Thursday, July 19, 2012

Our Plans for PowerFest

Many people have contacted me through the site or on message boards asking what the plans are for the cartridge, if we will dump the ROM, if we will make a reproduction, etc. Here is what we plan to do with the cartridge:

1) Take some very high quality photos of the cartridge from all angles and the circuit board as well and release these into the public domain.

2) Make a high quality video of the gameplay and release it on YouTube.

3) Make a reproduction of the game so other gamers can enjoy it. Instead of just two people being able to play the game more people should have the chance to enjoy it. The owner of the other cartridge, who has owned it longer than me, has already started the ball rolling on this. If this falls through we are ready to jump in and make it happen.

4) Bring it to some retro game conventions to let people play and or see the real thing. We want to make sure the game is secure though so we have to work out the details on how this would work. We would love to let other collectors and gamers play the original if possible.

5) Dump the ROM from the high score screen. Because the two versions of PowerFest use a different scoring system. The ROM with the scoring on it is one-of-a-kind. If something were to happen to that data on that ROM it would be lost forever.

People have asked if we plan on dumping the ROM so the game can be played on an emulator. There are no plans for this because the game would not work on any standard emulators. It has 4 ROM chips that contain the data for game and a standard emulator wouldn't be able to combine them into the single game correctly.

When it is not being used for one of the above plans it will be kept in a safe deposit box at a local bank. I have a two sons, 3 and 11 months, I don't want the cartridge lying around the house. I've seen what kind of mischief they can get into.

17 comments :

Unknown said...

Since I can never hope to get one, I'd love to get my hands on a reproduction cart!

Will you keep a picture or something for your gaming room just to know you have it and show it off a bit? It's a bit sad to have it sit alone in a safety box but I understand.

Xkeeper said...

You should still release the ROMs; even if you claim it wouldn't be able to emulate properly, I'm sure someone like byuu would love to add it to bsnes.

If it runs on an SNES, it can run on an emulator.

Anonymous said...

Just jumping on the boat to say that you should still dump the roms. Someone, somewhere will make it playable on emulators.

JJ Hendricks said...

Thanks everyone for your feedback about dumping the ROM. My personal preference is to play retro games on the original consoles instead of the computer. So I will still do the reproduction first but I will consider dumping the ROM at some point as well and hope someone changes the emulators to work with it.

MechaGai said...

Honestly, get in touch with the people running MAGFest. I think it'd be a perfect fit.

Anonymous said...

Look up bsnes, this WILL work on that.

Anonymous said...

http://byuu.org/ - This guy WILL make it work on his emulator bsens. He can also put you in touch with people who would be capable of making physical reproductions of the cartridges themselves. I realize you've invested a significant amount of cash into this, but not dumping the ROMs would be pretty selfish. I could easily see an emulator modified to support this game in a large tournament style over the internet.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure once the ROMs are dumped, it would be trivial to get it to work on the SD2SNES flash cart as well (if you want it played on a real SNES). All that would be needed is a detailed scan of the PCB to understand how the mapping would work.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure that the difference in score for Ken Griffey is not just a dip switch setting, rather than an actual change in the game?

JJ Hendricks said...

@anonymous - that is a good thought about the dip switch seetings, but the dip switches only change the time allowed for play before it stops.

LuigiBlood said...

I'm sure that byuu can actually dump that thing fast by himself.

Anonymous said...

Can I suggest something about showing it to others at conventions and what not. How about you partner up with the Videogame History Museum? Of coarse not handing them the cart but maybe asking if you can join them in their various trips across conventions such as E3. Well that's just a thought.

JJ Hendricks said...

@anonymous - Good suggestion about piggybacking with Video Game Museum and their exhibitions. I will talk to them about that at the Classic Gaming Expo in two weeks.

Felix said...

Cant wait to have a repro!!!!!!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I'm interested in a reproduction cart,please keep me in mind.

Anonymous said...

Great story. Interested in hearing any further developments!

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