Hey List,
I figured I'd send 2007 off and enter 2008 with some Turbo-Related posts.
Here goes.
I got the PCE Flash card in the mail the other day. I can't thank BT enough
for his efforts in coordinating this effort. Almost 20 years since the PCE
was introduced and we're still doing things like this. Amazing!!!
Obviously this thing wasn't packaged or documented by someone who speaks
english as a first language, but all things considered it's not bad. It's
just a little...confusing as to what to do first. I ended up installing the
NEO Power Kit and then the Power PCE v1.0 program, followed by the USB
driver for a SlimLoader IV - which is apparently what we got. I'm not sure
what NEO power kit does, as I can't get it to do anything - but the PCE
program seems to load roms. Of note - I can't have them zip'd like
MagicEngine supports, so I'll have to unzip all my stuff. But once I
unzipped a few sample roms and put them in a directory, it then asked me for
a format for the load (I picked TG16 since I have a US Duo sitting here
hooked up), it wrote the roms, and said "done". I tried moving the Loader
to another USB port and it asked me to find new hardware again - so I'm not
sure what's up there.
Then I took the cart to my Duo - plugged it in. Got a basic menu where I
could pick which Rom to load. Picked Neutopia and ... BAM! "da da da
da...." Neutopia! Flawless as best I can tell. I also tried SF2 and that
worked flawless as well. I still say the PCE version is the best version of
SF2:CE ever made.
I then picked some more ROMs - apparently I can't get a list of what's *on*
the card - so it can't pull anything off one as best I can tell, it just
erases and rewrites the card every time. Good for piracy efforts, but I
would like to know what I already have on there and be able to append vs
overwriting - but that's not a big deal since it doesn't take long to load
the ROMs. I had a few ROMs that wouldn't play at all - I'll need to try
them in MagicEngine and see if they work there or not.
Overall, first impressions are VERY positive. Even the artwork on the card
is sweeet! I'd like to see some more features and "friendliness" in the
loader frontend, but it gets the job done. And documentation could be
better. But the product works as advertised as best I can tell. And being
able to play all my PCE games with one HUcard vs digging them all out of the
closet is REALLY nice. Plus I imagine anyone developing any games could
post the ROMs for the list to beta-test...and who knows if we'd be able to
easily load translated Japanese games. There are so many possibilities!
Anyway - that's it. I just wanted to write and post my impressions. Again,
thanks to BT for coordinating the effort and for everyone who contributed.
Here's to another year of Turbo!
Landis