A version of the sd2snes / FXPak Pro firmware with a fully translated menu, each game's box-art cover in the browser, menu themes and sounds, a cheat manager, and IPS/BPS patches applied right when the game boots. All on top of mrehkopf's original firmware.
No compiling. The full package already includes the whole firmware - you don't need to install anything official first.
⬇ Download the full package Want covers, themes and sounds? See the features ↓.zip marked full in downloads - that one's all you need.
.zip and copy everything to the card's root (replace when asked).
bsxbios.bin, dsp1.bin, dsp1b.bin, dsp2.bin, dsp3.bin, dsp4.bin, sgb1_boot.bin, sgb1_snes.bin, st0010.bin, stbios.bin.The headline is the Game Boy Color: .gbc files now run in colour on a core of their own (experimental, FXPak Pro only). And six kinds of cartridge that would not boot before now do: Seta's ST011 and ST018 chips, copy-protected bootlegs, the Super 20 in 1, Gamars Puzzle and .sfrom files. Along with it comes a tour of what's new on the first boot, which walks through each feature and lets you switch its option on right there, plus icons in the file list, shortcuts on controller 2, Dutch as the menu's eighth language and music that ships with the firmware.
Drop a .gbc on the card and it runs on a Game Boy Color core built for sd2snes+: in colour, at the right speed and with the double-speed mode. .gb files that ask for the Color go there on their own.
Preview: no savestates, cheats or in-game menu on this core yet, and some games stay on a blank screen.
On the first boot after installing or updating, the menu asks whether you want a tour: a welcome clip, then one card per feature, with a picture of what it changes on screen and its option right there.
See it again: Configuration › Tour of the new features. Your answers are saved when the tour ends.
/sd2snes/st011.rom. If the file is missing, the menu names it/sd2snes/st018.romfpga_basex.bit from the firmware package.sfrom, the ROM format of the SNES Classic, shows up in the browser and boots like any game: saves, cheats and patches work the same.sfcconfig.yml, your choices stayDD-MM-YYYY, with the time after the date?, and the translated description shows in fullOne more console and four cartridges no flashcart could open. The sd2snes programmable chip learned one more console and four cartridges no flashcart could open: the Atari 2600 (experimental, and FXPak Pro only), the SPC7110 games, the Super FX 3 from the 2025 DOOM, Bandai's Sufami Turbo and Nintendo's tournament carts. Each one has its own card below, with what works and what does not - and the detailed ones live in Features.
DD/MM/YYYY in Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian, DD.MM.YYYY in German and Russian and MM/DD/YYYY in English, with the time after the date.msu inside, press A on the folder itself and you get the info card or the game, the way you set it. Turn it on or off under Browser Settings → Open MSU-1 folders as games.pcm tracks move to the end of the list, in the right order (2 before 10).a26 on the card and it shows up in the list like any other game/sd2snes: fpga_a26.bi3 and a26_snes.bin. Copy just the firmware and the game will not open$40-4f) that 7 MB images use/sd2snes: fpga_spc7110.bi3 (Mk.III) or fpga_spc7110.bit (Mk.II) - and no BIOS at all.rtc file next to the save stands in for the cartridge battery - the Tengai clock survives a power cycle. On Mk.II that needs the fpga_spc7110.bit from the same firmware package.st dumps on the card and they show up in the list/sd2snes/stbios.bin - you provide the file yourself, as with the other chipsfpga_basex.bit from the firmware package (without it, the missing-file warning shows up)fpga_gsu.bi3; the SD2SNES (Mk.II) gets a dedicated core, fpga_gsu3.bit - both from the same firmware package.sfc dumps: Campus Challenge '92 (Super Mario World, F-Zero, Pilotwings) and PowerFest '94 (Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Kart, Ken Griffey Jr.)dsp1b.bin on the card - both carts carry a DSP-1 (Pilotwings / Super Mario Kart).pcm files - the MSU-1 soundtracks already sitting on the card next to the games - now show up in the browser, just like .spc files dofpga_sdd1), so copy the whole package to the card, not just the firmwareconfig.ymlEvery console got a folder of its own on the card: sgb/, nes/, sms/, a26/ and sft/, inside the two-letter folders. A save is named after the ROM without its extension, so until now a Tetris (USA).nes and a Tetris (USA).sfc shared one cover, one game info card and one cheat file. Open the Web Manager and hit Organize — it reads the firmware version off the card and sorts it into the right layout, including if you are coming from 2.14.
About Master System, NES and Atari 2600: these cores are extremely experimental and FXPak Pro (Mk.III) exclusive. Many games won't run, freeze, or show graphical glitches - the compatibility list shows what has been tested. They are here for people who want to tinker and help test - don't count on them for actual playing.
/sd2snes/savestate_inputs.yml): Donkey Kong Country, Yoshi's Island, Mega Man X/X2/X3 and Star Fox use X + R / X + L. It is a plain text file - you can add your own games to it.ips patch needs the header added to the ROM before it is applied.ips or .bps (it was 8).ips named exactly like the ROM is ignored on purpose - the Web Manager renames the old ones for you/sd2snes/info/SU/)sgb/) - no more Tetris.gb and Tetris.sfc sharing a save/sd2snes (igmenu.bin, classic.thm and the NES and Master System cores). Copy just the firmware and the in-game menu falls back to the old one and the classic theme won't load.sms or a .nes on the card and it shows up in the listEverything is built on top of the official sd2snes firmware, with extra features designed to improve your experience.
The whole firmware menu, messages and screens translated to Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian and Dutch. The original English stays available - just pick one.
As you browse, the game's official cover shows up on screen. Just drop a .cov file with the same name as the ROM in the same folder. To build the whole collection at once, the Web Manager downloads box art in bulk (and the cheats too).
Before a ROM boots, a full-screen card shows the cover, a screenshot (or an animated clip with sound) and the game's metadata - publisher, developer, year, players, genre and special chip - plus a short description. In the menu you can choose whether the clip plays (with its soundtrack) or just a static snapshot shows. The Web Manager downloads each game's info card automatically.
Plays an .spc track in the background while you browse - plus 4 navigation sound effects (cursor, confirm, back, error). Build it all in the Sound Creator: pick the .spc, preview it in the browser, swap the effects and download them ready for the card. Since 2.16 the .pcm files - the MSU-1 soundtracks - show up in the browser too: press A on one and a small player opens, with a progress bar, the elapsed and total time, and A to pause. Also new in 2.16: turn on random music and the menu draws a different track out of your music folder every time it loads - on boot and on every return from a game. In 2.16.2 an MSU-1 game folder got tidy: the tracks go to the end of the list, in order, the folder shows the game's cover and, with a single ROM inside, pressing A on the folder opens the game straight away.
Up to 2.14, the L + R + Y + ← combo paused the game and brought up the cheat list, nothing else. The combo is still the same, but it now opens a 5-tab menu: CHEATS, SAVESTATES, SAVES, GUIDES and TRAINER. Press B and you're back in the game exactly where you left off. On by default; turn it off in Configuration › In-game Settings › In-game menu. And in 2.16 the combo is no longer fixed: if it gets in the way in some game, pick another one on the IngameButtonsMenu line of the card's config.yml - any combination of 3 buttons or more works.
Save states on games with a special chip never worked on the sd2snes - until now. This release makes them work on the DSP1/1b/2/3/4 (e.g. Super Mario Kart, Pilotwings), the Super FX (Star Fox, Yoshi's Island), the OBC1 (Metal Combat), the S-DD1 (Star Ocean), the CX4 (Mega Man X2, Mega Man X3) and the SA-1 (Super Mario RPG, FXPak Pro (Mk.III) only). Save with Start + R and come back with Start + L, picking the slot in the SAVESTATES tab.
Stuck on a level with the manual sitting in a browser tab? Drop the PDF, converted to .man, next to the game's files and read it on the TV, with the game frozen: open the in-game menu and go to the GUIDES tab. The D-pad pans, A zooms 2x and L/R turns the page - and it remembers where you stopped. Each game can carry several guides (manual, walkthrough, map, insert).
From firmware 2.9 on, pick the menu theme right on the SNES - logo, colours, background and selection bar. Drop .thm files in any folder on the card and choose one in the browser. Grab ready-made themes in the gallery or build your own in the web editor. In 2.15 the sd2snes+ theme became the factory default, with Restore classic theme in the menu to go back to the old look whenever you want. In 2.16 the text outline and the anti-aliasing stopped being a theme-only thing: they are your own options under Browser Options, and they change the menu font on the spot, without reloading anything.
The sd2snes already applies cheats per game - what sd2snes+ adds is the in-menu manager: from the context menu (Y) you turn each code on or off on the console, without editing the YAML on a PC. The files live in /sd2snes/cheats; grab ready-made cheats at gamehacking.org, exporting as FXPak Pro 1.7 (.yml), or download them automatically with the Web Manager. Since 2.16.4 you can also add, edit and delete cheats with an on-screen keyboard, in the menu and in the in-game menu.
Added support for the Satellaview 8M Memory Pack slot for the Japanese games that use it - drop the pack dump at /sd2snes/saves/<BB>/<rom>.mpk (BB = the first two letters of the ROM's name, e.g. saves/DE/) and the game reads the Memory Pack contents (saved sound novels, downloaded races…). On top of that, Derby Stallion 96 and Sound Novel Tsukuru now work. On the SD2SNES (Mk.II), the Memory Pack slot and these two games use the fpga_basex.bit from the firmware package (without it, the missing-file warning shows up).
<rom>.mpkThe heart of rom-hacking: apply fan translations, hacks and fixes without altering the ROM. Drop the .ips/.bps patch in the ROM's folder, named after the game plus a suffix of your own (Zelda - PT-BR.ips for Zelda.sfc); at launch the firmware lists the patches by their suffix and applies it in memory, leaving the original ROM untouched. Pressing Y on a patch opens a context menu with the header mode and Create patched ROM, which writes a ready-patched copy next to the original - from 2.16 on, that works on both boards.
The SPC7110 is the coprocessor Hudson put in a handful of Japanese carts - Tengai Makyou Zero, Momotarou Dentetsu Happy and Super Power League 4. It decompresses graphics in hardware, does the game's arithmetic, walks a second, data-only ROM and, on Tengai Makyou Zero, carries a battery-backed real-time clock as well. The official firmware only reports the chip as unsupported; here the programmable chip of the sd2snes becomes an SPC7110 - and on both boards, FXPak Pro (Mk.III) and SD2SNES (Mk.II). Battery saves behave like in any other game, and the Tengai calendar runs on the console's time: on both boards a .rtc file next to the save keeps what the cartridge battery used to keep - including a clock the game itself stopped - so it survives a power cycle. On Mk.II the virtual battery needs the fpga_spc7110.bit from the same firmware package; with an older core the firmware spots it at load time and falls back to the console clock, without breaking anything. Making room for it is why the Mk.II core dropped the MSU-1 audio DAC - no SPC7110 cartridge uses MSU-1. No BIOS is involved, just the fpga_spc7110.bi3 (or .bit on Mk.II) that already ships in the package. The in-game menu and the cheat overlay now work here like on the other chips; save states are the one thing still missing - the decompressor's internal state cannot be captured yet. And the English fan translation of Tengai Makyou Zero now runs too: its 7 MB image adds a third chip - an expansion ROM the board maps at banks $40-4f - and the core maps it the same way.
fpga_spc7110.bi3 / .bit in /sd2snes, no BIOS.rtc) on Mk.II and Mk.IIIUp front: it does not run at the real cartridge's speed - the sd2snes programmable chip cannot match the 2025 chip. Star Fox plays at full speed, but DOOM sits at around 11 fps against the cartridge's 20, which lands on the feel of the 1995 SNES DOOM.
The Super FX 3 is the chip in the new DOOM cartridge (Limited Run Games, 2025, designed by Randal Linden) and in the free patches that soup up Star Fox and Star Fox 2 - no flashcart ran this format until now. All three open and play, with Star Fox 2's battery save working, and it runs on both boards. The in-game menu, cheats and save states stay off on these cartridges.
The Sufami Turbo is Bandai's passthrough cartridge with two minicart slots. Drop the .st dumps on the card, add the base cartridge BIOS as /sd2snes/stbios.bin, and they boot - with a dialog to pick the Slot B companion cart right before the game starts, and the pair is remembered for next time. Both minicarts keep their own save, because that is what the hardware does: each cart carries its own SRAM chip, and the linkable titles (the SD Gundam Generation series and friends) exist precisely to write into the cart in the other slot. Each save is named after its own cart, so a companion cart carries its data into whatever pair you use it in next. The programmable chip got a second set of ROM and SaveRAM masks, so the two slots can never overlap, whatever sizes they declare. Save states do not work on these games - the in-game menu and cheats do. It runs on both boards; on the SD2SNES (Mk.II) it uses the fpga_basex.bit from the firmware package (without it, the missing-file warning shows up).
.st minicart dumps/sd2snes/stbios.binIn the 90s Nintendo took two cartridges on the road that were never sold: Campus Challenge '92 (Super Mario World, F-Zero, Pilotwings) and PowerFest '94 (Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Kart, Ken Griffey Jr.). Each one is a board carrying a menu chip, three games, a hardware round timer and a score screen at the end - you play the three segments until the time runs out. Here they boot as plain .sfc dumps, and the programmable chip of the sd2snes becomes the event board: the latch that picks which of the three chips answers, the menu chip's mirror, the status register and the countdown running inside the FPGA. When the time is up the end-of-round bit latches and the game jumps to the score screen - and it survives a reset, just like the real cartridge, so resetting mid-round lands on the score screen instead of buying extra time. All five circulating dumps are recognized - originals, repros and the score hacks: the menu chip carries no valid SNES header (on one of the hacks a donor game's header sits where the header would be), so the firmware fingerprints the carts by the menu program's own boot code, which is byte-identical across every dump of each board. The round length is the physical DIP switch bank of the original board: set it under Chip Options → Competition Cart timer (min), 3 to 18 minutes (6 was the event setting). It needs dsp1b.bin on the card - both carts carry a DSP-1 (Pilotwings / Super Mario Kart). It runs on both boards, inside the DSP core that already ships in the package (fpga_dsp.bi3 on Mk.III, fpga_dsp.bit on Mk.II) - copy the whole package to the card, not just the firmware. The in-game menu, cheats and save states work as on any DSP game; the timer is the one thing a save state does not rewind, because the FPGA is what counts it.
.sfc dumpsdsp1b.bin on the card - both carry a DSP-1Hayazashi Nidan Morita Shougi uses the ST011 chip, which now has a core of its own: the game boots and the computer plays against you. Copy the chip firmware to /sd2snes/st011.rom. If the file is missing, the menu names it. On both boards. No savestates or in-game menu on this core.
/sd2snes/st011.romHayazashi Nidan Morita Shougi 2 carries a 32-bit ARM coprocessor. The core includes that CPU, written from scratch. Copy the chip firmware to /sd2snes/st018.rom. On both boards. No savestates or in-game menu on this core.
/sd2snes/st018.romUnlicensed games with a copy-protection chip run from the original file, no cracked version needed. Aladdin 2000, Tekken 2, the Pokémon bootlegs, King of Fighters '98 and 2000, Soul Blade, Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha and more. The game is recognized by the file's checksum. On both boards, without savestates or the in-game menu.
The Korean Super 20 in 1 multicart opens its own menu and switches games like the real cartridge. They are NES games ported to the SNES, such as Spartan X and TwinBee. Loads as a plain dump, on both boards. No savestates or in-game menu.
The unlicensed Taiwanese puzzle game Gamars Puzzle has a memory map of its own and now boots as a plain dump. On both boards; on the SD2SNES (Mk.II) it uses the fpga_basex.bit from the firmware package.
fpga_basex.bit).sfrom, the ROM format of the SNES Classic, shows up in the browser and boots like any game: saves, cheats and patches work the same. The Web Manager and the GamesDB identify the game by the ROM stored inside the file, so cover and game info are the same as for the .sfc.
.sfcThere is a programmable chip inside the sd2snes, and it has learned to become other consoles: a Master System, a NES and - new in 2.16 - an Atari 2600. Put a .sms, a .nes or an .a26 on the card and it shows up in the list like any other game. All three have sound - the NES and the Master System got theirs in 2.16, and the Master System's PSG plays through the cartridge's own audio channel - and all three take an in-game pad combo to reset the game without touching the console, plus a service combo that repaints the palette if it ever comes out wrong. This is a preview, not a finished feature: compatibility is low and plenty of games freeze or come up with picture glitches (the compatibility list shows what has been tested). On the NES a battery-save game runs but does not save, and the Master System does not write to the cartridge. The Atari 2600 runs 2K and 4K carts and the F8, F6 and F4 bankswitching schemes (including the Superchip variants), NTSC only: E0, 3F, FE, FA, DPC, Supercharger, paddles and keypads are not in yet. Both joysticks come out on the two SNES pads - holding Start presses the console's RESET switch and holding Select the SELECT one, X flips between colour and black-and-white and L/R are the difficulty switches - and Chip Options lets you pick the picture width between 160 (1:1), the native one with bars on the sides, and 256 (wide), which fills the screen. It only works on the FXPak Pro (Mk.III) - they do not fit in the smaller chip of the SD2SNES (Mk.II) - if you are not sure which one you have, the FAQ shows how to tell. It is here for people who want to tinker and help test.
.sms, .nes and .a26 filesDrop a .gbc on the card and it runs on a Game Boy Color core instead of the Super Game Boy one - in colour, at full speed, including the double-speed mode. .gb files whose header asks for the Color console go there too; the rest keep using the Super Game Boy. In Configuration › SGB Settings, Game Boy Color mode picks between Auto, Prefer SGB (only the Color-only games leave the Super Game Boy, the rest keep the SGB border and colours) and Prefer GBC, and Game Boy Color sync between Genlock (the default: the Game Boy frame is locked to the SNES one) and Exact (the real Game Boy clock, skipping a frame now and then). Battery saves and the cartridge clock work (.srm and .gtc, next to the Super Game Boy saves), and SameBoy's open-source boot ROM comes in the package - no BIOS needed. This is a preview, not a finished feature: screens that change the palette on every line (the “hi-colour” intros of a good part of the library) are now drawn as a full picture in the right colours (with Genlock sync, the default), but animated ones can lose smoothness or show bands while they refresh; with Game Boy Color stretch on, these screens fill 256×192. There are no savestates, cheats or in-game menu on this core yet, 8 MB cartridges do not run, the sound has not been measured against a reference, some games stay on a blank screen, and it has not been tried on the first Super Famicom consoles (SHVC-CPU-01 board), whose CPU can hang with what this core does every frame. It only works on the FXPak Pro (Mk.III) - on the SD2SNES (Mk.II) the core does not fit the chip, and .gb and .gbc keep opening on the Super Game Boy: only games that also run on the original Game Boy work, and without the Game Boy Color's colours. It is here for those who want to play around and help test.
.gbc files (and .gb with a Color header).srm saves and .gtc clockFrom the browser's context menu (Y), delete the selected file or just the ROM's save (.srm) - right on the console, without pulling the card out or turning on a PC. In 2.16.2, deleting a ROM also removes its box art, info card, guides, cheats and patch settings - saves and savestates stay. And with Show sd2snes folder on under Browser Settings, the card's own files (saves, savestates, covers, info cards) are listed and can be deleted one at a time; the firmware and the menu show up, but with no Delete entry.
A short reset can drop you back in the menu already inside the folder of your last game - or right on the ROM you were playing. Pick it in In-game Settings → Reset to menu: Off, On, Folder, ROM - or Duration, new in 2.16 and the only mode that leaves the console's own reset button behaving the way you expect: a short press restarts the game, a long one (hold it, or press twice quickly) brings you back to the menu, in the game's folder with the ROM already selected.
From firmware 2.11 on, every settings option shows a line explaining what it does, right on screen - in Portuguese, English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian and Dutch. It's easy to understand each setting without a manual.
Every row of the file browser starts with an icon for what it is: folder, SNES, NES, Master System, Game Boy, Game Boy Color or Atari 2600 game, .spc music, .pcm track, theme or plain file. A folder that opens as an MSU-1 game shows the SNES controller instead of the folder, so you can tell at a glance which folders are games. Y on that folder shows its ROM's context menu (cheats, favorites, delete…). And in the key hints of the footer, each button name is drawn in green, in the menu and in the in-game menu.
Some games use special chips (DSP in Super Mario Kart, Super FX in Star Fox, SA-1, S-DD1, OBC1, CX4, Super Game Boy, BS-X…) that need support files on the card. From firmware 2.11 on, if one is missing, instead of freezing or booting a broken game, the menu shows which file is missing and returns to the menu without resetting the console.
The first boot after installing or updating asks whether you want a tour: one card per feature, with a picture of what it changes on screen and, where the feature is an option, its setting right there - A picks an answer, and everything is saved when the tour ends. It opens with a short welcome clip, and each release adds its own cards at the end: after an update the tour comes back once, showing only what is new. See it again any time under Configuration › Tour of the new features.
When a game freezes for no clear reason the question is always the same: is the cartridge broken, or is it the firmware? Main menu → Memory test lets the console answer that on its own - no serial cable, and no flashing the separate diagnostic image. A runs the test (~30 s): first it walks the data and address lines of the PSRAM and of the 4 Mbit SRAM looking for open, stuck or shorted lines, and names the chip by its silkscreen - U501: check data line D3; then, if the wiring is sound, it writes and verifies every cell and reports the first bad address if it finds one. The screen goes dark and the console resets while it runs - that is expected, the FPGA is loaded with the test core meanwhile - and the menu comes back with the result on screen.
fpga_test on the card (it ships with the firmware package); without it the test simply declines, leaving the running console aloneThe TRAINER tab of the in-game menu searches the console's memory while the game sits frozen. Type the number you can see on screen - lives, coins, HP - and it lists every address holding that value. Go back to the game, lose a life, reopen the menu and filter again: the list shrinks until only the right address is left. When the number is not on screen, start an Unknown search and filter by changed, unchanged, increased or decreased - that is how you hunt an invisible value, like a boss's hidden counter. Works on 8-bit and 16-bit values.
Once you pick an address you can see what it holds right now, write a value once, or freeze it so the game cannot change it back. Freezing pins the address without creating a cheat: up to 4 frozen values at once, kept out of the CHEATS tab and the .yml; they obey the cheats' master switch and are gone when you load another game. To keep the address for good, SAVE CHEAT writes it to the list as a cheat.
The firmware is the only download - it applies the translation, the covers and the IPS/BPS patch. Covers and game info come from the Web Manager, which runs in your browser (nothing to install) and pulls everything from the community GamesDB. All free and open source.
v2.15 · fw
1.11.2
v2.12.2 is built for the official 1.11.2 firmware - it already includes the covers, the translation and the IPS/BPS patch. Grab the full package (everything ready) and extract it straight onto the card.
.zip already contains the /sd2snes folder. No official firmware needed./sd2snes folder. This applies to the official firmware too. They are: bsxbios.bin, dsp1.bin, dsp1b.bin, dsp2.bin, dsp3.bin, dsp4.bin, sgb1_boot.bin, sgb1_snes.bin, st0010.bin, stbios.bin.What changed in each sd2snes+ firmware release - pulled live from GitHub.
Loading releases…
Drop your e-mail and we'll let you know when a new firmware version ships, plus other sd2snes+ news. That's it.
Two tools sit next to the firmware: a browser app that sets up your SD card for you, and the community database that feeds it. Both are optional - the firmware alone already plays everything; these just make your library look its best.
Open it in your browser, point it at your SD card, and it does the rest. It scans your ROMs, identifies each game by CRC32 and downloads the box-art (.cov), the game info card (with a preview of the game screen and clips with sound) and cheats automatically - nothing to copy by hand. It can also tidy files on the card and pull the latest sd2snes+ firmware.
Works in Chrome / Edge - it uses the File System Access API, so nothing is uploaded and your files never leave your computer.
The open, community-moderated database behind the covers and the game info card. It keeps each game's box-art, screenshot, short video and metadata in one place - and the Web Manager pulls straight from it. Anyone can pitch in: suggest a missing cover, a sharper screenshot, a video or corrected info. Curators review every submission, and once it's approved it ships to everyone's firmware and the Web Manager.
Pick a theme right on the console, grab ready-made ones in the gallery or build your own - logo, colours, background and selection bar.
From firmware 2.9 on, the menu reads .thm files from any folder on the card (no specific name needed): open it in the browser and press A on a theme - the menu reloads with the new logo, palette, background and bar. Grab ready-made themes in the gallery or build your own in the web editor: upload a logo with transparency, pick the colours and download the .thm.
The Font Editor draws the menu's 8×8 glyphs and exports the PNG sheet the firmware build uses. Unlike themes and sounds, a new font needs a firmware rebuild - it is a tool for people who contribute to the code.
Retro gaming creators trying out the translation, the covers and the sd2snes+ improvements.
sd2snes Mk.II, sd2snes Mk.III or FXPAK PRO STM32).fpga_mini.bit. The SD2SNES (Mk.II) (older, with less firmware memory) loads the FPGA bootstrap from the SD card and reports boot errors through the LEDs; the FXPak Pro (Mk.III) (newer) keeps that bootstrap baked into the firmware and always shows on-screen messages (see "black screen + blinking LED"). To be sure, open the cartridge shell and look at the largest chip on the board (the FPGA):
XILINX · SPARTAN (Spartan-3, e.g. XC3S400).
ALTERA · CYCLONE IV (e.g. EP4CE…).
ALTERA · CYCLONE II in a BGA package (square, no legs) instead of the Spartan-3. It is still a SD2SNES (Mk.II) - do not mistake it for the CYCLONE IV of the FXPak Pro (Mk.III).firmware.im3) and the FXPak Pro (Mk.III) Rev.D uses an ST STM32F401 (firmware.stm; it shows up as "FXPAK PRO STM32"). Both have the same Cyclone IV FPGA and run everything in sd2snes+ the same way - the release package ships both firmwares and the cartridge flashes the one that matches your board automatically; you pick nothing. The microcontroller looks like this:
NXP · LPC17xx (e.g. LPC1756).
ST · STM32 (e.g. STM32F401)./sd2snes/saves/SU/Super Mario World.srm instead of /sd2snes/saves/Super Mario World.srm. It sounds silly, but it is what makes a game open instantly on a card holding thousands of files - the firmware used to sweep the whole folder every single time.sgb/, nes/, sms/, a26/ and sft/. A save file is named after the ROM without its extension, so before this a Tetris (USA).nes and a Tetris (USA).sfc shared one cover, one game info card and one cheat file. Coming from 2.14 you do both steps at once: the Manager reads the firmware version off the card and organises it for the layout that console reads.| Feature | SD2SNES (Mk.II) | FXPak Pro (Mk.III) |
|---|---|---|
| Menu, covers, game info, themes, music, patches, cheats, trainer and guides | ✓ | ✓ |
| Save states on DSP, Super FX, OBC1, S-DD1 and CX4 games | ✓ | ✓ |
| SPC7110, Super FX 3, Sufami Turbo and Competition Carts | ✓ | ✓ |
Community cartridges (ST011, ST018, bootlegs, Super 20 in 1, Gamars, .sfrom) |
✓ | ✓ |
| Save states on SA-1 games (Super Mario RPG) | — | ✓ |
| MSU-1 on SA-1 games* | — | ✓ |
| MSU-1 on SPC7110 and Super FX 3 games** | — | ✓ |
| Memory Pack on SA-1 carts (Itoi Shigesato no Bass Tsuri No.1, SD Gundam G NEXT) | — | ✓ |
| Super Game Boy with MSU-1* | audio only | ✓ |
| Master System, NES and Atari 2600 (experimental) | — | ✓ |
| Game Boy Color in colour (experimental) | — | ✓ |
green ↔ red = no SD card. Insert a card and power-cycle.
green ↔ yellow = fpga_mini.bit is missing from the card. Re-copy the release files into /sd2snes/ and power-cycle. The FXPak Pro (Mk.III) is unaffected and still shows the on-screen messages./sd2snes folder (menu/firmware). Your ROMs and saves on the card stay put. Even so, it's always good to back up the card first..cov right next to each ROM automatically - nothing to install, nothing to copy by hand. In the firmware menu, toggle covers on or off under Show covers..cov file per ROM, with the same name. The Web Manager processes the whole folder (and subfolders) at once, so in practice it's one pass for the entire collection..cov), the game info card and the cheats automatically - nothing to install. It also tidies files on the card and updates the sd2snes+ firmware. Nothing is sent to a server: it all happens on your computer (File System Access API)..ips or .bps) in the same folder as the ROM and use the game name as the file prefix. For example, Kaizo Mario World [!].ips has to become Super Mario World (USA) - Kaizo Mario World.ips - that is, the name has to start with the ROM name, which in this case would be Super Mario World (USA). When you start the game, the firmware lists the patches available for it and applies the one you pick in memory; the original ROM on the card is untouched. Great for translations and romhacks..thm files to any folder on the card - it doesn't need a specific name, just one that shows up in the browser (/sd2snes is hidden, so it won't work). In the menu, open that folder and press A on a theme; the menu reloads themed. Grab ready-made themes in the gallery or make your own in the creator. To go back to the default, use Configuration → Browser Settings → Restore theme in the menu.m3nu.bin editor)..spc file at /sd2snes/menu.spc. The 4 navigation effects are sfx_*.pcm files (MSU-1 PCM) in the same folder - a default set ships with the firmware. To customize them, the easy way is the Sound Creator: pick the .spc (with an MP3 preview via Zophar), swap the effects, listen in the browser and download a .zip ready for the /sd2snes/ folder. Turn it all on in Configuration → Browser Settings → Menu music / Menu sounds. You can also pick the music without renaming anything: press Y on any .spc in the browser and choose Set as menu music (and Restore music brings back menu.spc)..spc, that is, a complete music program running on the Super Nintendo's sound processor, exactly like a game's soundtrack. The firmware hands the file over and the sound processor takes it from there..spc itself on the next tick - it is playing the music and touching those registers all the time..spc is to reset the sound processor, and on this console that means a reset of the whole console - which clears the video memory. It would wipe the card you just opened and it would have to be drawn again from scratch. The browser's .pcm player does exactly that reset, precisely because it is going to replace the whole screen anyway; the info card cannot, because it is already drawn.
I'm a passionate 34-year-old programmer from Brazil, and I've been coding since I was 8 - all self-taught. That's two decades of programming that grew into a career as a Software Developer, focused on automation and systems optimization.
I see myself as a true fullstack dev: I go from the back end to mobile, with Node.js, Angular, MySQL, Mongo, Redis and especially Ionic/Capacitor (iOS and Android). On GitHub I maintain some popular Capacitor plugins as well as pt-BR localizations of retro firmware - like sd2snes+ for the sd2snes/FXPAK Pro and GBS-Control.
Away from code, I'm a maker at heart: I'm into 3D printing, Arduino, game development and collecting video games.
sd2snes+ stands on a lot of great work. Below is who did what, and under which license - from the base firmware to the tools and themes.
Did we miss someone, or is a credit wrong? Open an issue and we'll fix it.
Which feature is having the problem?