ToToTEK.COM

[smalz]

Okay so mappers are one of the biggest problems when making a NES flash cart. Is it possible to produce a mod chip that you install into a NES control deck along with a flash cartridge to hold the roms. Basically, a flash cart to hold the games and a mod chip to play the games. I'm sure some1 has thought of this already. Just thoughtI'd throw the idea out there.

[MottZilla]

Modchip is a horribly vague term. They already said the real problem is because of the many different boards (memory mapper chips really) that exist for the NES. Visible to the NES is 32KBytes of Program ROM, I forget how much SRAM and something else called EXRAM, and visible to the CPU is 8KBytes of VRAM or VROM. But the Program ROM depending on the mapper could be much bigger than 32KB (atleast one game contains 1MByte of PRG-ROM). And as kyu already said, it can be memory mapped/bankswitched in various ways, as can VROM/VRAM I imagine. I've been working on my own NES emulator to gain a better understanding of the NES and mostly for fun but I haven't gotten to emulating anything other than NROM games (16k or 32k of PRG, 8k CHRROM/VROM). Mappers can be relatively simple bankswitches or really complex with IRQ/Interupts, Timers, extra sound channels.

Basically what made the NES/Famicom so great also made it such a pain in the ass to emulate wether through software or hardware. =)

I like many others would love to see a NES/Famicom cart that supports atleast the majorly used mappers such as UNROM (simple bank switch), MMC1, and MMC3. I'd want AUROM for Battletoads though. It just seems like a very lengthy and indepth project.