how to play rom hacks on original hardware

Not as malicious as it sounds, actually.as you know I'm an avid collector of the hard-copy of the game, but there are some custom roms or even prototype roms that I will never in my life be able to afford or find (like the Starfox SNES beta or Mortal Kombat II for NES). The bottom has dropped out of the console copier market so it's a great time to pick one up. If accuracy if your thing then that's a good route to take. The one advantage that console copiers have over emulation is that the games are 100% because they are the original code running on the original hardware with the original controllers. I'm pretty sure anything from the Xbox/PS2 forward can emulate the NES/SNES with virtually no problems. Just stick a mod chip in your Xbox and download any of the dozens of emulators.

If you decide to go the emulator route, people have already done the work for you. but I know it (and many of the other older flashcarts) requires a parallel port which can take some configuring to get working. The Z64 uses zip disks and the other two read roms from CD (I own all three). For the N64 there are three common copiers (Z64, CD64, V64) and one flashcart (V64 Jr.). My favorite is still the Super Wildcard series. The biggest problem with copiers at this point is that a lot of them weren't built great and they are starting to die. For the SNES you can either go Flashcart or just pick up a copier like you mentioned. Remember with NES you are dealing with mappers (sometimes custom ones) so compatibility is always an issue.

The RetroZone NES Flashcart is probably the best NES choice.

If you want to play on the original hardware, you'll want to pick up a console copier or a flashcart. Just to break it down, you need one of two things: a console copier for the original console, or an emulator for a newer console.

How to play rom hacks on original hardware