That wouldn't be surprising. Snatch everything up If/when you have the chance. Hardware extensions for chiptune is super custom gear.

iirc my friend went out to Comiket last year and tried to get a TNS-HFC5/TNS-HXF4 at the venue (since the person who makes those usually shows up) and some store where they sold those things and apparently the dude ceased production.

Unless someone could prove me wrong on that :x

Dope, I'm glad about the front load thing, maybe I'll borrow my friend's NES and snatch a Powerpak. Then again wowie that tns-hfc5/tns-hxf4 stuff looks freaking gnarly; I'm thoroughly considering selling a bunch of my possessions and picking up some of that action. Anyone know how well those work with overclocked nsfs?

That mod totally works on the front load nes. The powerpak emulates the expansion chips. I don't think that it emulates them all however. So some famitracker songs with those expansion chips may not be able to play back all of your parts.
Check out that tns-hfc5/tns-hxf4 stuff if you decide to go the famicom route.
If you get a powerpak, make sure to check out everything from Neil Baldwin. It'll help you switch your mind around approaching making music. Always helps me freshen up the staleness of using one software too long.

Yo! I've found myself with a bit of spare change and a growing desire to change up my sound, so I've been thinking of getting back into Famitracker and probably buying some hardware to play my stuff on. I've been doing some research but I still have a few questions I was hoping y'all people might have some answers to.

- I found out about the engine speed trick and I'm loving the gnarly sounds I'm making with it. In regards to the Powerpak, Famitracker's wiki says "Overclocking is supported but subject to the NES's limitations (actual maximum clock speed depends on code complexity)". Anyone have any experience with how limiting this is? Is it mildly inhibiting (like how lsdj works fine until you start having 4-channel vibrato at 200+ bpm) or is it something I'd have to pay significant attention to?

- I'd like to be able to use expansion audio but supposedly this won't work on a front-loading NES. Will it work on a Famicom with a pin adapter? Or if a Famicom needs modification, are there any good tutorials for this? Will this work with a front-loader and a Powerpak?

- Anyone use an EverDrive N8 Famicom flash cart? Seems like there's no NSF support, but it looks like there are a couple of options to get around that. How well does "overclocking" work with this, if at all? Does expansion audio work differently on this? Any other considerations between the two carts I should be thinking about?