Topic: SNES Mini

@Lroy You're welcome, no problem. And if you come across any issues, just post them here. Don't know if I can help you out with all of them, but I think I've already tackled most of them myself, so I think it's fair to say that I'll probably be able to help you out 9 out of 10 times, unless you come across something REALLY exotic...

@ThanosReXXX Ha! Ha! Let's hope not. Think I'm likely to just add some more SNES games that hold significance for me to beef up the pre-installed roster. I may or may not add NES games depends if RetroArch is a necessity for that, if so, I'll just stick to SNES games. I can already play NES and many other systems on a soft-modded Wii or Raspberry Pi so installing another emulator on the SNES Mini might be overkill for me personally. We'll see. I know you mentioned some SNES games don't run on the inbuilt emulator 'Canoe'? Guess it will just be a case of trying each game I would like to add to my personal SNES Mini Collection and see if they run or not. I am quite interested in the custom boarders/bezels you can add so again, if that's only possible with RetroArch, I'll have to have a think/play about with it.

Getting me excited though, I enjoyed my soft-mod Wii project and my Raspberry Pi/RetroPie projects so some of the fun is simply tinkering about getting this SNES Mini set-up. Roll on birthday for me 😂

Nintendo has been taking ROMs down lately, it took me forever to hunt down Mario Tennis and a few other SNES games.

I'm guessing Pokemon is doing the same thing, had trouble finding Crystal.

@Lroy In that case, you can just do the same that I did, because I also wanted only SNES games on it: install hakchi, but do also install RetroArch, for maximum compatibility AND for region free gaming (which by the way also supports fan-translated ROMs) but do not install anything other than the extra space mod and the RetroArch SNES emulator. Those two things are the most useful for a "SNES games-only" mod, and it keeps the system free of any unnecessary software. (which will save you precious space for all those save slots!)

So, if you install RetroArch after you've done the original hakchi mod, just select the extra space option at the top and the one that says "snes9x_2010" (could also be a version from a later year, since I haven't updated hakchi or RetroArch anymore, but the emulator name should be the same) and make sure all the others are unchecked, and then proceed with the upload to the console, as explained in that video.

After that, you can add and test games. By default, any games from another region that don't work (some do, for some reason) and as mentioned, the fan-translated ones, should be designated to work with the RetroArch emulator.

@ThanosReXXX Ah cool, RetroArch might be more of a necessity than I realised as it sounds like I might be able to play some Super Famicom only games if I can hit upon an English translation? Not delved deep into that side of things up to now but the possibility of playing some earlier FIRE EMBLEM titles that never reached these European shores is very appealing.

@Joeynator3000 Last I checked, they are all still very much available on the sites I mentioned, or at least definitely on one of them, by using the term GoodSNES in any search, you'll be able to find a complete set with ALL ROMs ever released, in all regions. One of the first results Google should find, should also be a link to a download of that set available on a trusted archive site.

My rom site has been removing download links for a lot of Nintendo games, I know they're still out there, but Nintendo is just making it more difficult.

@Lroy Oh, it's definitely necessary. I forgot to mention that part of that better compatibility is also about screen ratio: for some reason, certain European/PAL games, such as Cannon Fodder and Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing don't fit the screen with the built-in emulator, no matter what option you choose, leaving you with parts of the game screen not being visible on your TV, because the image is either too stretched or too big to fit the screen.

If you use RetroArch, they are either displayed in the right aspect ratio by default, or you have the menu, which has WAY more options than the Mini itself has.

And most of these translated ROMs are in that set, including Fire Emblem, but you can also download them separately from those sites I mentioned. The download page for the ROM should mention which version it is. If it just says "JAP" after the game's name, it probably isn't translated. Which by the way isn't a problem for some games, such as beat em ups and racers, because these use very little Japanese text (mostly only in intros), and actually often have English text on screen and in the menus, such as in the excellent Iron Commando, pretty much a must-have, if you like this type of game:

@Joeynator3000 I know, they removed quite a bit of first party stuff in the last couple of years, but like I said, you can still find individual ROMs and the complete ROM set, including all first party games, on The ISO Zone.

Meh, I'm fine anyways. lol

It was the first link on Google. I found it, it's there.

...shrugs

I just suck at searching then, I kept running into links that let to spam and crap. lol

@Joeynator3000 That's exactly why I've never used Google very often to search for ROMs: much too convoluted and riddled with links to spam sites. Back in the day, I myself was actually pointed towards the sites I mentioned earlier by other people on GBATemp, Reddit and other forums, and I've always been able to find everything there.

There's also a search engine to find old games, which offers direct links to many archive sites where you can find and browse stuff to your heart's content, without ever coming across a single piece of spam or other nasty stuff.

@ThanosReXXX
Hey Thanos, I’ve got questions.
I hacked me SNES mini already but I’m thinking of adding retroarch for GBA etc. Does that stop the rewind feature from working? How much space does each 4 save spot use (I use em all). Will I lose my saved games?
Also, if I backup what I have now, is there a video showing how to go back to what I had. I’ve looked I can’t find one.
I’ll not hold you liable if the whole thing bricks, honest

Yeah I've messed with ROMs before, I'm just bad at searching new places.

@Joeynator3000
Yeah that site sucks. Some of the most popular YouTube video tutorials have links to full rom sets, that’s your best bet.

Please let's stop talking about where to find ROMs.

@Fandabidozi Haven't tried GBA games. I only installed RetroArch for more compatibility on SNES titles myself, so I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you. Guess you gotta try and see how it goes. If you follow the instructions in the videos exactly as explained, nothing can go wrong.

As for those save slots: each game has 4 save slots, as you might already have noticed, and each save slot is 2MB, so you would need 8MB for all 4 save slots per game. But, as I have mentioned in an earlier comment, there isn't a need to have save slots on EVERY game. Fighters or racers, for example, are more of a quick play session type, so personally, I typically use save slots for RPG's, RTS games and other adventure type games, because that makes more sense to me than making a save for Street Fighter 2...

Also, before you install RetroArch, I'd advise to refresh your hack with the latest version of hakchi. Always better to eliminate any potential incompatibility issues between versions before they even happen...

@Yosheel No offense, and genuinely curious: the site rules state that you can't link to any illegal content, or download sites, and I haven't done that, other than those videos, which are now once again approved and restored by the other mods, so those are apparently allowed. (Octane and Ant looked it over and then decided the comment could be restored, so you could check with them)

It feels a bit strange if one mod decides that my comments are okay, and another somehow doesn't and stuff is randomly ripped out of my comments, and even more so while it is perfectly fine for the site itself to post articles mentioning hackers, hacking, hacking programs, and those very articles even citing links to sites like Reddit and what not, sources where you can actually find WAY more information than I'm giving here.

A heads up before hand, so that I myself can edit my comments, would be far more appreciated (and fair), instead of someone else butchering my comments without me knowing it...

Talk all you want about mods and games.

Just please don't tell other users where to download illegal roms.

I've only removed the names of the sites and rom packs. If someone wants to get roms (cough, Joey, cough), they'll have to do their homework on their own.