Neo SNES / SFC Myth Flash cart brings emulation magic to your aged console
By Darren Murph 
posted March 8th 2010 5:28PM
posted March 8th 2010 5:28PM
Oh, sure -- the Wii's Virtual Console may put you in direct contact with some of the best titles from yesteryear, but for the purists in attendance, it just feels like cheating. If you've been hanging onto that Super Nintendo (or Super Famicom, as it were) and you've recently been dealing with the emulation itch, Neoflash just might have the remedy. The Neo SNES / SFC Myth cart is pretty much the most magical cart you could ever slap into your classic console, offering up ROM support for "99.5 percent" of SNES games. Better still, titles can be offloaded from your PC and onto the cart via USB, making the entire transfer process a cinch. Of course, the $169 price tag will likely offend all but the most dedicated of retro gamers, but hey, at least you'll be staying true to those "roots" you value so highly.
Was this not covered already before?
Just wait til Nintendo slaps a court order on this thing
@zyo
Don't think Nintendo is losing anything in this case since they haven't produced any games for SNES in 10+ years ^^
@mikachu
Nintendo is making money on SNES games on the Wii plus more.
The only problem with something like this is if you have an HDTV, watching this stuff in 480i is AWFUL, even if your TV de-interlaces. I dunno, it's definitely awesome, but I think there are better emulation based solutions about.
Yeah, sure it's nice to be running on original hardware, but surely a SNES USB pad + HTPC wins out
@Level 5 I have an SNES hooked up via S-Video and it looks rather nice IMO. It depends on the TV's scaler, just like DVDs.
@(Unverified)
I guess man, I can see the interlacing even in 1080i, so in 480i, it's just that much worse. Maybe my TV doesn't de-interlace 480i at all or something.
That's not emulation because there's no emulator involved.
"but for the purists in attendance, it just feels like cheating."
And this is not?
@godsAngryTesticles: Exactly what I was thinking. If you really wanted to stay true to the console, then one would simply pick up old SNES games for a couple of bucks a piece on eBay, or far less than that in job lots at boot fairs/charity shops et al.
You obviously have zero clue how much the *good* SNES games go for. If it's one of the many great RPGs, you're looking at $20 and up.
"offering up ROM support for "99.5 percent" of SNES games."
I'm guessing Starfox is part of that remaining 0.5 percent.
@godsAngryTesticles Or anything with SuperFX, for that matter.
You're better off making a small ITX-based PC with TV-out to play your emulators. ZSNES supports every SNES with all of their wacky add-on chips.
I have one with SVideo-out and use it on a SDTV (because I cant stand the way old videogames look on HDTV, even with scaling and filters). But ITX mobos with S-Video are now harder to find, as well as CRT/SDTVs in general.
You can always build a cheap PC with DVI-to-HDMI (if it doesn't already have HDMI-out) and use the filters to make the games look less-crap.
Super Mario rpg, here we go!
This thing is crap! The SNES PowerPAK from Retrozone is much better, IMO:
http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?cPath=24&osCsid=4b51a35d39585f18812771eb5ce20a29
Cheaper, and better. Just load the roms on your CF card and be done with it. No need to plug in another cart, and it probably supports as many games as this one does, as this one probably can't play any of the "special chip" carts anyway.
@illuminerdi The SNES PokerPak cant play some games as well. There is actually a chance this flash cart will play games requiring special chips as carts using said chips can be plugged into it (ex: Plug in a SuperFX-supported cart to play SuperFX games).
@GumbyX possibly - though I find it odd that they would claim 99.5% compatability instead of 100%, if that was the case. I assumed the cart slot was just for cart dumping and for bypassing the lockout chip.
While it would be nice for this thing to work with special chip games, I'm slightly doubtful, as if there were a way to make those games work via a passthrough port like this, I'd think that the makers of the PowerPAK would include it.
Even then, an extra 30 bucks for a somewhat convoluted solution that plays an extra 20 games (many of them obscure and/or japanese) just doesn't seem worth it.
If I REALLY want to play Far East of Eden Zero that badly, I'll just boot up zSnes.
@illuminerdi
Some carts like Starfox have a hardware chip inside to assist the graphics. This cartridge would not.
Ehh, I'll just buy an ipad.
@Kibbe17 Enjoy trying to press two buttons at the same time, i.e running and jumping.
@Kibbe17
Using the Konami code on the iPad will turn it into a PC.
@godsAngryTesticles
You forgot the other 29 that come with it.
@Kibbe17 no tactile buttons is blasphemy!
@Cydoniac actually, the iPad can handle 11 simulatenous inputs via multitouch. So you could use all 10 of your fingers plus a toe, before it will stop detecting inputs.
Not that i'm saying the iPad will be very good for gaming anyway. I have an iPhone and I still prefer my DS and PSP, mostly due to the "revolutionary" and "magical" features those systems have called "buttons".
@illuminerdi I know it's multitouch, but it's basically a flat surface with no pushable buttons. It's hard enough playing emulated games on an iPod touch/iPhone, let alone an iPad.
@Kibbe17
lol he's going to buy an overpriced iPod Touch for gaming instead of the best gaming console of all time...
Hooray for nostalgia!!
$170? I'll pass and use an emulator with one of these little devices: http://hackaday.com/2009/06/19/usb-reader-for-snes-game-carts/
It's technically legal: the device takes your pre-existing cartridges and allows your device to see the cartridge as a mass-storage device with the ROM on it.
@dragonfli Oh, and apparently the "Retrode" as it's currently called has *100%* compatibility with all games on the market.
American engineering 1; Chinese engineering 0.
AAAAAAAAND it supports MegaDrive, Atari, AND controller support for up to 4 original controllers. All for $85 or so.
@dragonfli 100% maybe, but not quite 100.0%. SMRPG and Virtua Racer just don't work (and probably won't, unless someone provides me intimate knowledge about the special hardware used therein). Otherwise you're absolutely right: German engineering 1, American engineering 0 ;-)
What exactly is being emulated here?
I'm supposed to pay $170 for a Super UFO? I don't think they cost that much back when the SNES was new.
I would only buy it if you still had to blow into the game or the console!
I like the idea, but I'm not too crazy about the price.
they have had stuff like this for the past 20 years.
thanks for up to the minute reporting though
Jeez. We had stuff like this back in the late 80s, except that they used floppy disks instead of flash memory.
Today's emulation fan should be smart enough to get a Dingoo, and then use the TV output to play their games.
LOL, I have two Super UFOs (technically a FX32 and a Turbo Fighter X) laying around to fix, I just picked up nicad batteries from Jameco. I hate dealing with 3.5" floppies, though.
I really don't feel like registering with the site to find out, but what is the capacity of this thing?
@DeAthWaGer
nvm, I see from the loader pic that it's 256Mb (that's megaBITS, folks), so that's only 32 8Mb games, 16 16Mb games, etc. Not too bad, but in this day and age couldn't some sort of flash media (like SDHC) be implemented?
@DeAthWaGer
The Wii can handle SDHC cards up to 32GB aybe even further) plus all the games are legal.
Plus not only you can get legal copys of SNES games you can also get NES N64 megadrive master system turbographex & arcade systems.
Not only a wide verity of systems & games with the Wii but the most importanly they all leagal.
@kawaiipikachu
I know you're all about legality, but the fact is most of us can't afford to re-purchase all the games we already own on cartridge.
A lot of us actually purchased games ON CARTRIDGE back in the day for $50-$70 EACH. That was 15-20 years ago, so add a few bucks to that per game for today's rate.
I will gladly pay for a game when it's worth it, but unless the game gets an HD treatment, I'm not shelling out $5-$10 (or more) for a game I can just toss in my old system or load up on an emulator.
Games that don't have any such treatment available on a virtual console version should cost LESS than if I go on eBay and buy the damn cartridge.
This device is used for backing up your own cartridges. As is the intended use for many other such devices.
Game companies are getting upset that these devices exist because they make zero dollars when someone goes to a yard sale or on eBay and buys a game for 50 cents, brings it home and copies it, then plays it on an emulator.
Meanwhile, Johnny "sold his nintendo back in high school" will go throw his money into his Wii account and re-purchase all his old memories on VC.
I want technology to help me play on the original system, because using the actual old console and old controller is nostalgic and allows you to play the game exactly how it was intended. I would just like a convenient method to play all my games on a big selection screen.
BTW, Nintendo is by far the worst company at preventing piracy. I can still go to my local mall and buy a bootleg 100-in-1 NES in a controller for $20. They sell like mad during the holiday season. And yes, I HAVE reported them to Nintendo before several years ago when I still gave a crap, but they just pop up again like a bootleg DVD stand.