Right after the Christmas of 1994 I attended HoHoCon, the first “modern” hacker con that later inspired DefCon and HOPE (Link). I remember seeing a lot of cool things that weekend, but one of the coolest was a console copier. As I watched DrunkFux (the founder of HoHoCon) and several members of the Cult of the Dead Cow demonstrating the unit, I knew I had to have one. Tracking down a console copier was not as simple of searching eBay back then. After a few months of searching, in the Spring of 1995 I tracked down Anthrox (a SNES demo group) who connected me with Fairlight, the infamous C64/Amiga/PC cracking group. For several years Fairlight was reselling console copiers. During the transaction I was informed that Fairlight was going to stop selling console copiers, and that I was receiving the very last one. A couple of weeks later, my Super Wildcard DX arrived.
The Super Wildcard DX was made by Front FarEast (FFE), and shipped with 32 megabits (4 megabytes) of RAM, expandable up to 96 megabits. The top of the unit contains a female cartridge port for inserting SNES cartridges. The left hand side contains the floppy drive. The bottom of the unit contains the male cartridge port that inserts into the Super Nintendo.
When powered on, the unit launches into a graphical menu. Each of the menu’s 8 items lead to sub-menus:
Through the menu system, dumping cartridges to floppy disks is simple. Games larger than 1.4 meg are automatically split, and users are prompted to insert additional floppy disks as needed. Loading games is just as simple — games can be loaded from the main menu or, if a disk is in the drive when it is powered on it will autoload, bypassing the main menu completely. The loading screen contains a progression bar, showing users how much of the game has loaded. Once the game is completely loaded, it is stored in the SWC’s RAM and stays there until the unit is powered off. If the SNES is reset, the game remains in RAM and will simply restart. The SWC does have a port for a power adapter but does not need one, as it can be powered from the SNES cartridge port.
It should be noted that dumped games end up in .SWC format, which is identical to the .SMC format (same headers). That means ROMs dumped with the SWC will work on any Super Nintendo emulator. This also means the inverse is true; any ROM downloaded from the Internet in SWC/SMC format will load and play on the Super Wildcard.
The Super Wild Card DX is my all time favorite console copier. It’s fast, simple to use, and reliable. Its memory editing capabilities and password features greatly expand the functionality of the SNES, and it’s high compatibility means almost anything can be dumped and played.
where can i buy this thing
Hi, I’m trying to find a Super Wildcard myself and I located one that the seller claims he hasn’t tried using and that it has “Japanese symbols” on it. I was wondering if you knew if it was for the Super Famicon and if so, if it would work on a US SNES. Thank you
correct email: (removed so you don’t get spammed to death)
Excelent comment and blog. I have this informativ site bookmarked. Thanks Kfz Versicherung
If anyone’s looking for copiers, I have about ten of them for sale. A Super Wild Card, a Super UFO, a bunch of Game Doctors, and more. Email me for more information: lefthandedgrass@gmail.com
I don’t know how to input action replay codes. If I type in a code nothing happens, can anyone help me?