Are Everdrives worth it?

[Protoman]

I've been contemplating ever so carefully, what if I sold my FC/SFC cartridges. My reasons would be to get money, because I never have a really "safe" place to live so I tend to move every few years which is harder to do with a lot of possessions, and I'm a bit afraid of cartridge death, I don't want to sit on 300 games when they become coasters.
IF I were to do that, I would replace them with everdrives or equivalent. But I'm not well versed with those at all. I read a little bit on one website selling them, and some things sound a little worrying.
*They have load times before a game starts
*Not all games might be compatible
*Sometimes I might have to go download some update or mapper or something to get a game to run
*If you put a US game on a Famicom everdrive, it won't start if you use it on a Famicom(is this even true?)

Thoughts?

[P]

This is my view on "flashcartridges" (which is really a bad name, because most modern "flashcarts" are RAM-based rather than flash-based, we can call them "programmable cartridges" as a more general term).

The main appeal of programmable cartridges IMHO is that it allows you to easily load up the ROM image of a game and play it on real hardware, be it hacked games, homebrew, prototypes or commercial games. As I like to develop homebrew myself and I like to try out homebrew that others made, it is a very comfortable alternative to building your own EPROM devcart.

Rare games, including prototypes and very expensive commercial games, is another reason programmable carts are great. I'm not endorsing piracy, but there are many expensive games like Recca not produced anymore that I'm not going to hunt for if I can avoid it. There are exceptions like Gimmick! and Akumajou Densetsu which doesn't run well on programmable carts, so don't sell your copy of those (see below).

The ability to easily backup and load any save file is another appeal. If I have a physical copy of a game I would normally play that rather than playing it on a programmable cart, but if the game uses a battery to hold the save with, I might be playing it on my Everdrive instead. Especially if it's an RPG or other longer game, and I don't want to be paranoid of loosing the save file. You need to make sure to backup the save files though, or they will not be any safer.


Programmable carts doesn't really replace normal carts though. I like the boxart and the instruction booklet, so I still collect the games if they are not too expensive. If you have a very large collection, and is looking to reduce it, a programmable cart may be a good alternative. Just make sure you keep your most priced games, and games that doesn't work well on any existing programmable cart.
I wouldn't be too worried about cartridge death though, as cartridges are very robust. The software resides on mask ROMs (a chip with the software integrated as part of the physical production, it can never be deleted or corrupted as long as it's not physically damaged) and the mapper chip is also very robust compared to tapes, floppies and Quick Disks used by the FDS. The weakest part is probably exposed metal parts (like the edge connector pins) which are prone to oxidation. As long as those chips are intact, you could technically reproduce the whole cartridge and the game will work like normal.

*They have load times before a game starts

This is really short on most Everdrives and other modern programmable carts since they use RAM, and it will probably still be faster to browse the SD card and launch the ROM image than getting a cartridge out of the shelf and insert it. Flash-based programmable carts (real flashcarts) however do take some time to program the flash ROM. Once it's programmed, it will boot fast until you want to play another game and have to reprogram it with another ROM image.

*Not all games might be compatible

True, especially for Famicom where there are a lot of mappers. I advice you to not sell any expansion audio games, because the expansion audio generally don't perform well on programmable carts. There is a new Everdrive N8 Pro that supposedly has better expansion audio capabilities, but I can't verify that as I don't have it. FDS games are an exception, because you can use the FDS RAM Adapter and an FDSStick and play all FDS games in a 100% authentic way hardware-wise (you will only be missing the physical feel of the disks). All the required hardware is in the RAM Adapter, and the disk drive is only for occasionally reading and writing the physical disk with.

Some systems doesn't have such a large variety of cartridge boards (AKA "mappers") as the Famicom/NES has. The PC-Engine, Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance and all cartridge-based Sega systems have very few variation in their cartridge hardware, so almost all games will work in any programmable cartridge right from the start. The Game Boy also doesn't have that many mappers (called MBCs) and most of them (but not all) are supported by Everdrives.

*Sometimes I might have to go download some update or mapper or something to get a game to run

The programmable logic in the cartridge can usually be updated, and this is needed because programmable carts usually have bugs and doesn't support everything they could support from the start. Normally it's enough to download the latest system update for the cartridge. Everdrives generally have very good support and are updated quite often with new features and bug fixes. They are often poorly documented though, and often you have to search the Everdrive forum for answers to your questions. I had very little problem with any Everdrives though.

*If you put a US game on a Famicom everdrive, it won't start if you use it on a Famicom(is this even true?)

False, there is no difference between a US NES game and a Famicom game. Most programmable carts are totally region-free, but due to differences in the hardware between NTSC and PAL consoles, you normally need a PAL console to play PAL games properly and an NTSC console (Japanese or North American doesn't matter for most systems) for NTSC games to run as they should. It's still possible to load the game on the wrong region, but for example NTSC games will run very slow on a PAL machine. So there is no different from running a game on the wrong region using a region adapter.

[Protoman]

Thanks for the reply. In any case I would have to get the everdrive/s first and test them fully before selling anything, if I should decide to go there.

Disc-based games I'm not even thinking of, because I don't think emulation is reliable enough(I hate when bin/cue isn't enough and I need "tracks" for the music etc).

[schnuth]

My short answer is yes, they are awesome. Especially the Everdrive N8 Pro. It's everything I've ever wanted in a Fami flashcart. Definitely worth the price of admission.

[P]

Disc-based games I'm not even thinking of, because I don't think emulation is reliable enough(I hate when bin/cue isn't enough and I need "tracks" for the music etc).

I don't believe I said anything about optical discs, but they are also less robust than cartridges, although better than magnetic disks.
If you mean the Famicom Disk System you should get an FDSStick if you don't have it already. It's just a disk drive replacement, so no emulation, no compatibility problems or anything like that. You still need the FDS RAM Adapter to use it. You get access to all FDS games (about 200 games plus the unlicensed ones, the prototypes and all homebrew) and you don't have to deal with broken disks or broken disk drives.
I'm starting to sound like an advertiser...

[Protoman]

Disc-based games I'm not even thinking of, because I don't think emulation is reliable enough(I hate when bin/cue isn't enough and I need "tracks" for the music etc).

I don't believe I said anything about optical discs, but they are also less robust than cartridges, although better than magnetic disks.
If you mean the Famicom Disk System you should get an FDSStick if you don't have it already. It's just a disk drive replacement, so no emulation, no compatibility problems or anything like that. You still need the FDS RAM Adapter to use it. You get access to all FDS games (about 200 games plus the unlicensed ones, the prototypes and all homebrew) and you don't have to deal with broken disks or broken disk drives.
I'm starting to sound like an advertiser...

I know you didn't mention discs, I just said it because my collection as mentioned before, is not exclusively made up by cartridges.

[P]

Ah I see.
Optical disc systems generally doesn't have as neat solutions as cartridge systems do. There are ODE type of solutions, which is basically like the FDSStick but requires to open the console. So no emulation needed there, but loosing the ability to play real discs isn't a very attractive solution, and connecting the optical disc drive over and over again would be too tiresome.