Anyone know how to change NES ROM mapper info?

[ventrra]

I have a few hacks and a homebrew on my HD that are supposed to use one mapper, but emulators show a different one for some reason and refuse to run the games.

Anyone else had this problem?

[ventrra]

Nobody? Anyone know of any resources then that maight help?

[scooterb23]

I used to have a program, albeit a couple of years ago...I think it was called something like cajoNES...it ran in DOS, but it could choose between a few different types of mappers...sorry I can't help more...it's been too long ago.

[zektor]

As for changing a mapper info, I really can't tell you. Have you tried any other emulators? Which ones have you used so far? WHat rom is it that you are trying to run? I may have it and it may run fine under something else. Let me know.

[ventrra]

Thaks for the help guys. Believe it or not, scooterb23, looking for the program that you were talking about led me to a program to do what I was looking to do. I wound up at Zophar's Domain's NES Utilities page http://<a href="http://www.zophar.ne...sutil.html</a> where there were a few tools (including cajoNES, by the way).

@zektor: I sometimes think that I have every NES emulator ever made The list of emulators that work on my PC include: FCE Ultra, JNES, NEsticle95, NESten, NEStron, Nintenulator, NNNEsterJ, RockNESX, and SMYNES. There are quite a few that don't work for me. The thing is that I like to use the emulators that I feel have the best GUI : SMYNES and RockNESX. There were a few hacks that I have (i.e.: Super Mario Destination, Super Castle Mario, and a few others) that, for some reason, wouldn't run. Strangely enough, it seems that the problem really is that the headers are wrong (well, wrong for the emulators that I'm using, anyway).

[zektor]

But you don't have the BEST nes emulator (at least in my opinion)

VirtuaNES:

http://virtuanes.s1.xrea.com/

Supports lightgun emulation (crosshair w/mouse) and a ton of mappers. It has the highest compat rate as far as I have seen. Try it out man...

[ventrra]

But you don't have the BEST nes emulator (at least in my opinion)

VirtuaNES:

http://virtuanes.s1.xrea.com/

Supports lightgun emulation (crosshair w/mouse) and a ton of mappers. It has the highest compat rate as far as I have seen. Try it out man...

I managed to get the emulator even though the site link doesn't seem to work. Not bad. Seems a little odd setting up, but it works. Thanks, Zektor.

[zektor]

It is my favorite NES emulator as of now. If you put a disksys.rom in the same directory as the emulator you will be able to play FDS games as well. Be sure to use the launcher (ctrl-l) and let it scan your rom directory. Then, from then on, use it to select your games. Much faster than the emulator having to scna the roms directory every time you change/load games. So, it did work with your strange mapper roms?

[ventrra]

If you put a disksys.rom in the same directory as the emulator you will be able to play FDS games as well.

I already had the disksys.rom. I had a few FDS games (27 of them), but this DOES seem to work with them pretty well.

Be sure to use the launcher (ctrl-l) and let it scan your rom directory. Then, from then on, use it to select your games.

That was one of the first things that I did I much prefer to use a GUI rather than a "load" box.

So, it did work with your strange mapper roms?

Some of them, but for others IT has a pop-up that tells me that the headers aren't correct. A good example of this is a hack called "Super Duper Bros". It says it uses mapper 64, but since it's only a SMB graphics hack, it should use mapper 0 like it does.
The pop-up reads a bit funny, though. It says:

Because a NES header is illegal.
there can be the thing that doesn't work normally.
Do execute?

I've noticed a bit of an oddity about the light gun system on it. It seems (at least on my PC) that it targets just a bit behind the object that I'm shooting at. I.e.: If I shot at a duck in Duck Hunt, I actually have to aim just behind it to hit it.

[ventrra]

BTW: Are there any other really good emu's for other systems that I might not have heard much about?

[Immutable]

I'm currently trying to change a IREM-G101 Mapper 32 to a Mapper 4. Any help would be appreciated.

[Tanooki]

Well you can do it with a hex editing app for your computer.

Long ago I was very good at this, my memory on it is gone but I wrote a document in the late 90s that's still up on gamefaqs.com under the NES hardware area as a mapper info doc. It shows which bit does what, how to change it, and what changes can be done and what they do. I'd look it up so you can clear out that mapper and place the proper one.

[SparTonberry]

ASM hacking. You need to know how both mappers work, then if it's possible you replace with the mapping code in the ROM.

[XYXZYZ]

Its funny that this thread should show up, at the moment I'm trying to get Salamander (Japanese Life Force) to run on a Powerpak. it has an unsupported mapper (MAP49) that seems to have something to do with HUD scrolling. I found one dump (Salamander (J) [hM02].nes) that runs, but the HUD scrolls along with the background making it very difficult to play.

And I think this is a record necrobump, this thread is 12 years old...

[Immutable]

Well you can do it with a hex editing app for your computer.

Long ago I was very good at this, my memory on it is gone but I wrote a document in the late 90s that's still up on gamefaqs.com under the NES hardware area as a mapper info doc. It shows which bit does what, how to change it, and what changes can be done and what they do. I'd look it up so you can clear out that mapper and place the proper one.

Thanks for the tidbit! I was able to create an English translation, so I'm more than happy to tackle the ASM code!

[SparTonberry]

Its funny that this thread should show up, at the moment I'm trying to get Salamander (Japanese Life Force) to run on a Powerpak. it has an unsupported mapper (MAP49) that seems to have something to do with HUD scrolling. I found one dump (Salamander (J) [hM02].nes) that runs, but the HUD scrolls along with the background making it very difficult to play.

And I think this is a record necrobump, this thread is 12 years old...

Probably was a low priority as Salamander was the only game to use that mapper (VRC3) and (I assume) the western version works because its' UNROM, one of the simplest mappers there is.

[Tanooki]

I've read a few stories before about that one. Is there really any difference between the NES and Famicom Salamander/Life Force games? I know the NES and Arcade are very different. I had considered picking that up when I was grabbing Konami Famicom games months ago but never did as it wasn't clear.

[Immutable]

I've read a few stories before about that one. Is there really any difference between the NES and Famicom Salamander/Life Force games? I know the NES and Arcade are very different. I had considered picking that up when I was grabbing Konami Famicom games months ago but never did as it wasn't clear.

Here's a comparison of every version of the game released.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b1AyKHtr7M

[Tanooki]

Well it's only most of stage one, but it appears nothing other than the title. I'd think there would have been something since they used a special chip for the game but it looks and sounds the same on that one which is disappointing.

Spoke too soon, read some more of that thread. FC and NES games from this post: Another Salamander fun fact: there are actually a few differences between Salamander FC and Life Force NES. The most major one is that you can have up to three options in the FC version, but there are also occasional minor graphic differences (the FC version's power bar taking up the whole bottom of the screen is probably the most noticable.) The FC version also has a credit scroll instead of the bland "presented by Konami" you get at the end of the NES version (nes has 2.)

[SparTonberry]

I want to guess the HUD was changed in Life Force to avoid putting P2's powerup gauge so close to the bottom of the screen to risk being eaten by overscan. (I can remember when I was a kid I had to screw with the settings on my old TV just to make the HUD sort of visible in Gradius III)

I am not surprised to see that VRC3 uses IRQs (most certainly to set the HUD) while UNROM has to resort to Sprite 0 hit to indicate where on the frame to draw the HUD (that is, it places an almost-invisible sprite on the screen to indicate the screen split.) Since the Japanese version doesn't do that since its mapper supports a more advanced means, that is probably why that hacked ROM version is glitchy.