In this post I shan't describe the process of adding NES games to your NES Mini Classic, as it's been noted elsewhere. It's really quite simple, and if you have the wherewithal to obtain the Rom images then you will get through it without difficulty.
My intention here is to document a series of difficulties I had running the provided Windows software on my Mac. (tl;dr version first).
tl;dr
If using a Mac with Parallels (and possibly other virtual machine options) to run Windows to install the Hakchi2 hack on a NES Mini Classic, make sure to run the hack software from the virtual C: drive under Parallels.
In order to maximise compatibility and to avoid game speed issues, be sure to use American version ROMs (usually marked with "[U]" within the file name.
Full
Wine (using Winebottler) didn't like it much. The software didn't look right, couldn't access the internet to download the cover art, and couldn't install the required driver to control the Nintendo hardware over USB.
I had a Windows 8 update disc to hand. The update edition only works for a while before it locks you out, but I'd only need a few hours so I went ahead and installed the trial version of Parallels 12, and on its virtual machine went my Windows 8. Everything was going swimmingly, and when I used Parallels to open Hakchi2 it looked like a true Windows program and ran as it should - including simple drag and drop functionality from macOS's Finder.
After several hours of adding games to the list and selecting the best available cover art I ran the process to install the extra games to my NES Mini (248 to be precise - whilst it holds more I don't want all the chaff). It seemed to be going well until it told me to wait for the power light to go out to continue - the light never went out, instead blinking slowly. I unplugged the console from my Mac and tried to power it on - no luck, it was stuck in this slow blinking mode with nothing on the screen.
I trawled forums looking for a solution but all I found was examples of the same problem, all using Parallels, but no solution, so I went back to basics.
My Hakchi2 folder was on my Mac's desktop, which Parallels has no problem accessing. I copied it to the root of the virtual C: drive of the virtual machine and ran it again (the copied folder retained the game files and cover art, as well as my list within the software).
Everything went right, and after a couple of restarts I had a working NES Mini Classic with a couple hundred extra games on it!
Doing some play testing, I discovered that some games ran way too fast to be playable, and some had terrible artefacts on screen making them unplayable - though only a couple suffered his second problem.
More forum digging and I found the (simple if you know how worldwide gaming was back in the day) answer. The basic emulation within the console's firmware is based on a 60hz output, as in the USA in the pre-HD era. The games that were running too fast were European roms, which I had tended to use, being from that territory. They are programmed to run on 50hz hardware, and so in this instance we're running 20% too fast.
An easy, though time consuming, solution had me going through my games list one by one, replacing any European rom images with USA versions where applicable, and reflashing the console. I took the opportunity, given my now expert status, to increase the number of games I added to around 400, intending this to be the final
attempt (I don't want to pay €79 for Parallels after the trial!). Any games only available in Europe I simply deleted from my list - a shame, but they aren't enjoyable at that speed.
Now I have a NES Mini Classic with 440ish games installed, the vast majority of which run perfectly.
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