iNES
version 1.2

by Marat Fayzullin

Contents

Disclaimers

New in This Version

History

New in iNES 1.0

New in iNES 0.7

Introduction

 iNES is a portable emulator of the Nintendo Entertainment System (aka Famicom in Korea and Japan, Dandy in Russia), written in C. The original idea belongs to Alex Krasivsky from Moscow, who also wrote the original code. I added missing CPU commands, wrote screen drivers, then rewrote the code, then did thorough hacking to make it as compatible with the real hardware as possible, and suddenly wound up with a completely different emulator of my own.

You can always get latest iNES binaries and support files from

http://www.komkon.org/fms/iNES/

At the present time, iNES successfully runs most NES/Famicom games and supports such esoteric devices as GameGenie, Family BASIC keyboard, and Famicom Disk System. Following is a list of features supported by iNES at this moment:

iNES Ports

 Because of its portability, iNES can be compiled on a wide variety of platforms: Unix, Amiga, Macintosh, MSDOS, Windows, etc. Unfortunately, it looks that for each person geniunely interested in hardware hacking and revival of the old videogame experience there is a dozen of adolescent gremlins hungry for a quick fun of playing pirated NES games on their PCs. Because of that, I decided not to release iNES source code and not to produce free versions of iNES for MSDOS or Windows. I do not want to provide free entertainment for the vermin. I do feel it necessary to apologize for inconvinience created to all the intended users of iNES. The complete up-to-date list of iNES ports can be obtained from the iNES distribution site. Following are the major ports of iNES available at the moment:

Unix

iNES-Unix is available freely in binary form for various flavors of Unix from the iNES distribution site. I am always trying to compile it on as many different Unices as I have handy at the moment.

MacOS

The Macintosh version of iNES is being developed by John Stiles. It is available from him as a shareware and can be found at the iNES distribution site.

Windows 95/98/NT

The Windows version of iNES is available from me, Marat Fayzullin, for $35US. This fee ensures that you will get you the latest full version of iNES-Windows with sound and joystick support, saved preferences, GameGenie support, and free updates via email as long as iNES-Windows is being updated. For more information about it, take a look at

http://www.komkon.org/fms/iNES/iNESWindows.html

I do not feel very good about maintaining the Windows version because people pirate it a lot and most Windows users appear to be mentally underdeveloped (judging from their email, anyway). If you do want to see Windows version being developed, please, register it by one of the following methods:

ORDER BY MAIL
Send $35US in cash, money order, or a US bank check to: 
     Marat Fayzullin
     6304 Hampton Place
     Elkridge, MD 21075
     USA
Don't forget to include your email address and mention that you want iNES-Windows, as I'm selling several other products as well. The software will be emailed to you as soon as I receive the money.

ORDER BY PHONE
Call one of the following numbers in US: 
     1-800-242-4775 (extension 15246)
     1-713-524-6394 (extension 15246)
and refer to product #15246 (iNES-Windows). This service is provided by DigiBuy. You can pay them with a credit card. Don't forget to give them your email address. The software will be emailed to you as soon as I receive the notification from DigiBuy.

ORDER ON THE WEB
Tell your WWW browser to go to

http://www.digibuy.com/cgi-bin/order.html?296825+92971131037

and use the online form to register iNES-Windows. You can pay with a credit card. They take MasterCard, Visa, Amex, or Discover. The software will be emailed to you as soon as I receive the notification from DigiBuy.

MSDOS

There are no publicly available MSDOS versions of iNES. Please, do not mail me asking for it: I won't answer to you. I won't allow anyone to do an MSDOS port of iNES either. See above for the reasons why.

Linux

Currently, iNES-Linux (ELF, GLIBC, X11) is compiled from the same source as all other Unix versions. You can get it for free from the iNES distribution site. Please, do not ask me for an SVGALib version though: I do not consider SVGALib as a viable standard and will not develop for it.

Registered Users

 If you registered iNES-Windows, please do not give your copy to anybody. And I do mean anybody. There was a couple of cases when registered users gave iNES away to their friends, relatives, or just "KeWl" guys on the Net, and then I found it pirated, put onto WWW pages, and even posted to USENET newsgroups. If I find your personalized copy of iNES being spread around, your registration gets automatically cancelled which means no support and no more updates.

I understand that the previous paragraph may sound threating to some people, but this kind of piracy really hurts my profits and feelings. I've put a lot of effort into iNES, and can only continue working on it if people do not try to cheat on me.

It may also be a good idea to buy a real cartridge for each NES ROM image you use with the emulator. NES software is copyrighted, but as long as you own the real cartridge, you are protected by the law allowing customers to backup bought software.

What is Included

 Following files are included into the distribution: 
  ines        - iNES executable file (Unix. ines -help for options)
  ines-debug  - iNES with debugger (Unix. ines-debug -help for options)
  ines.exe    - iNES executable file (Windows)
  iNES.html   - This documentation
  CART.NES    - Sample ROM image
  headers.tgz - .NES file headers for some games (Unix)
  headers.zip - .NES file headers for some games (Windows)

What is not Included

 Absolutely no ROM images of NES/Famicom games are included. These games are still copyrighted by the companies who produced them, and therefore, I can not distribute any of them. I'm also unable to tell you where to find these games, so do not send me email asking for them. You will have to look for them on your own.

The iNES WWW page contains some links to NES cartridge copier info. Cartridge copiers can be used to dump NES cartridges into files. I can not provide you with any additional information about these copiers, so do not send me email asking for this information. Use the copier-related links at the iNES WWW page.

I'm no longer distributing the 6502 disassembler and NESLIST cartridge listing utility with this emulator. These programs are now distributed separately in the EMUTools package, also available at iNES WWW page.

Buttons

 When using FamilyBASIC keyboard, press [CONTROL]+[KEY] to access a special function of a [KEY] if it also performs a keyboard function. 
  [SPACE]    - FIRE-A button (also: [LALT],A,S,D,F,G,H,J,K,L)
  [CONTROL]  - FIRE-B button (also: Z,X,C,V,B,N,M)
  [TAB]      - SELECT button
  [ENTER]    - START button
  [BACKSPC]  - Light gun trigger (not quite done)
               Insert VS System coin
               Flip DiskSystem floppy
  [ESC]      - Quit emulation (also: [F12])
  [F2]       - Toggle soundtrack log on/off
  [F3]       - Toggle FIRE-A autofire on/off
  [F4]       - Toggle FIRE-B autofire on/off
  [F5]       - Toggle GameGenie cheats on/off
  [F6]       - Save emulation state
  [F7]       - Cycle through palettes
  [F11]      - Reset NES
  [SHIFT] and [CAPSLOCK] switch between joypads

  When compiled with #define SOUND:
  [1]-[5]    - Toggle sound channels on/off
  [0]        - Toggle all sound on/off
  [-]        - Decrease sound volume
  [+]        - Increase sound volume

  When compiled with #define DEBUG:
  [F1]       - Go into built-in debugger

  When compiled with #define MSDOS:
  [F8]       - Toggle joystick 1 on/off
  [F9]       - Toggle joystick 2 on/off
  [F10]      - Make a screen snapshot (SNAPxxxx.GIF)
  [PGUP]     - See upper part of the screen
  [PGDOWN]   - See lower part of the screen

Command Line Options

 
  -verbose <level>    - Select debugging messages [5]
                         0 - Silent             1 - Startup messages
                         2 - Illegal accesses   4 - Illegal CPU ops
                         8 - Bank switching    16 - DiskSystem
                        32 - PPU accesses
  -hperiod <period>   - Number of CPU cycles per HBlank [115]
  -vperiod <period>   - Number of CPU cycles per VBlank [30475]
  -uperiod <period>   - Number of VBlanks per screen update [3]
  -help               - Print this help page
  -cheat <GG code>    - Activate a GameGenie cheat
  -autoa/-noautoa     - Autofire/No autofire for button A [-noautoa]
  -autob/-noautob     - Autofire/No autofire for button B [-noautob]
  -pal/-ntsc          - Show 240 or 224 lines [-ntsc]
  -rkbd/-jkbd/-nokbd  - FBASIC3R, FBASIC2J, or no keyboard [-nokbd]
  -disk/-nodisk       - Emulate/Don't emulate DiskSystem [-nodisk]
  -palette <filename> - Load default palette from a file [DEFAULT.PAL]
  -palette <number>   - Choose a color palette [0]
                        0 - Default            1 - Adjusted Pasofami
                        2 - Original Pasofami  3 - NESticle 0.2
                        4 - NESticle 0.21
  -logsnd <filename>  - Write soundtrack to a MIDI file [LOG.MID]
  -cheat <GG code>    - Activate a GameGenie cheat

  When compiled with #define DEBUG:
  -trap <address>     - Trap execution when PC reaches address [FFFFh]
                        When a keyword 'now' is used in place of the
                        <address>, execution will trap immediately.

  When compiled with #define SOUND:
  -sound [<quality>]  - Sound emulation quality [0]
                        0 - Off                1 - Adlib (MSDOS)
                        Values >8191 are treated as wave synthesis
                        frequencies. Default frequency is 22kHz.
  -nosound            - Same as '-sound 0'

  When compiled with #define UNIX:
  -shm/-noshm         - Use/don't use MIT SHM extensions for X [-shm]
  -saver/-nosaver     - Save/don't save CPU when inactive [-saver]
  -sync <frequency>   - Sync screen updates to <frequency> [0]
  -nosync             - Same as '-sync 0'
  -scale <factor>     - Scale window by <factor> [1]

  When compiled with #define MSDOS:
  -vsync/-novsync     - Sync/Don't sync screen updates [-novsync]
  -240/-200           - Use/Don't use non-standard 320x240 mode [-200]

Frequently Asked Questions
  1. I WANNA PLAY GAMES!!!! WHERE DO I GET GAMES???????
    I do not know. I can't give you any due to both legal and moral reasons. Please, do not mail me asking for games. I will delete your mail right away, and you won't get an answer.

  2. How do I copy games from cartridges to a computer?
    You can use a special device called cartridge copier. Pascal Felber has made such a copier. Its schematics and software are available at

    http://lsewww.epfl.ch/~felber/IO-56/

    You can also buy this copier from Pascal, either in parts or as a pre-built kit.

  3. What is NES? How its hardware works?
    Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), known as Famicom in Asia, is an old videogame console produced by Nintendo that was very popular in the eighties and nineties. It is built around a 6502 CPU. You can find details on the NES architecture at

    http://www.komkon.org/fms/EMUL8/

  4. There is no version of iNES for my Unix!
    I am trying to compile Unix binaries for as many flavors of Unix as possible, but as I do not have access to many machines, do not expect immediate support for every Unix flavor out there. Don't mail me asking for the source either: iNES source code is not publicly distrbutable, as much as I regret to say this :(.

  5. Where do I get iNES for MSDOS?
    This is explained in the beginning of this document.

  6. How do I make .NES files out of raw ROM images?
    The iNES distribution includes .NES file headers for some carts, which can be used to convert carts into .NES format. These headers are not guaranteed to work though. If you have a cartridge ROM in CART.PRG file, and a cartridge VROM in CART.CHR file, the following has to be done to create the CART.NES file: 
      
  in Unix:   cat CART.HDR CART.PRG CART.CHR > CART.NES
  in MSDOS:  copy/b CART.HDR+CART.PRG+CART.CHR CART.NES
    The size of a CART.PRG file should be divisible by 16384. The size of a CART.CHR file should be divisible by 8192.

  7. My favorite game doesn't work on iNES. What do I do?
    There may be several reasons why a game has problems running on iNES or does not run at all.

  8. Why is iNES so slow on my machine?
    Because your machine is too slow to run iNES. My experience shows that you need at least a Pentium/90 machine with fast video to run iNES at a reasonable speed. Following are the ways to speeds thing up:

  9. iNES is too fast on my machine! How do I slow it down?
    Frankly, when I started writing iNES, I never expected that it will be too fast on any machine :). But times change...

  10. What are .NES files? Do you have format description?
    .NES files are used to store ROM images of NES cartridges. As NES carts may contain separate ROM, VROM, and other circuitry, it has been necessary to make a special file format for them. The complete description of the .NES file format can be obtained from the NES Hardware Architecture document at

    http://www.komkon.org/fms/EMUL8/

  11. What are .FDS files? Do you have format description?
    .FDS files are used to store Famicom DiskSystem disk images. Each disk has two sides and each side stores 65000 bytes of data. An .FDS file contains concatenated images of these sides, first for side A, then for side B. It may contain images of multiple disks, stored one after another. There are no headers or other information, just 65000-byte chunks of data.

  12. How do I use DiskSystem emulation in iNES?
    First of all, you need to have a file called DISKSYS.ROM in your current directory. This file should contain DiskSystem BIOS and have length of 8192 bytes.

    To run a program from an .FDS file, use the -disk option in iNES-Unix, or just open this .FDS file in iNES-Windows. iNES will start with the disk "removed" from the "drive". To insert the disk, press [F6] and release it. The boot-up sequence will start. Every time the program asks you to change the disk side or put a next disk, press and release [F6]: this will simulate disk removal/insertion and also switch iNES to the next chunk of data from the .FDS file. To skip to a certain disk (or side), click [F6] multiple times.

  13. What is NESLIST?
    NESLIST is a small utility which will list, verify, and possibly fix NES ROM images for you. It is highly recommended to all iNES users and has been a part of the iNES distribution for a long time. It is now distributed as a part of the EMUTools package.

  14. What is EMUTools package and where can I get it?
    EMUTools is a set of utilities which may be useful for both emulator authors and users. They allow to list and verify diferent ROM images, convert music files, disassemble and compare ROMs. EMUTools can be obtained from the iNES WWW site.

  15. Do I need to unpack GZIPped ROM images to run them on iNES?
    No, unless your copy of iNES has been compiled without #define ZLIB. iNES-Windows and most versions of iNES-Unix are compiled with this option. It allows iNES to recognize and automatically unpack GZIPped and singular PKZIPped files. To find out whether your iNES-Unix supports this feature, run it with the -help option and see if there is anything said about GZIP support.

  16. When starting iNES-Unix, ld says that libz library isn't found.
    Some iNES-Unix binaries are compiled with #define ZLIB option to make them automatically recognize and unpack GZIPped files. This option requires ZLib library which can be obtained from

    http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/zlib.html

  17. I entered registration code into iNES-MacOS and now it says I pirated it!
    iNES-MacOS will lock up if you try to "register" it without paying for registration and using the correct registration code. It will then refuse to work on your computer. If you think that you have been mistreated for a simple typing error, contact John Stiles for help.

  18. When starting iNES-Unix, ld says that some library isn't found.
    This may happen if the versions of your shared libraries are older than the ones for which iNES has been compiled. A decent way to deal with this is to upgrade your Unix. A quick and dirty way is to make a symbolic link from the existing library to a name required by iNES.

  19. When starting iNES-Unix, I get X_ShmAttach error.
    You are probably trying to run iNES-Unix on a remote Xterminal while it attempts to use shared memory for interfacing with X. Use -noshm option to tell it not to use shared memory.

  20. When starting iNES-Unix, I get X_PutImage error.
    iNES-Unix version currently needs 8bit, 16bit, or 32bit X. Neither 2-color nor 16-color Xterminals will work. 24bit Xterminals may work, but don't count on it.

  21. When starting iNES-Unix, the window stays black.
    Some other X application took over all available colors so that the emulation could not allocate any for itself. Check if you run XV, Netscape, or something similar.

  22. The sound is distorted in the iNES-Windows. How do I fix it?
    The wave-synthetized sound in iNES may become distorted on slow or highly loaded machines (no graphics acceleration, for example). There are several ways you can improve sound:

  23. Does iNES-Windows support joystick? My joystick doesn't work!
    iNES-Windows supports joystick. If your joystick does not work, go into Windows Control Panel to see if it is configured and calibrated properly. Also, some new joysticks working in esoteric standards (like GRiP) are known to have problems.

  24. iNES-Windows starts, but then quits immediately!
    Check the pathname to wherever your iNES is located. It should not contain spaces. For example, "C:\Program Files\iNES" is a bad place for iNES, while "C:\iNES" will work. This bug is caused by an old version of C compiler I am using. I hope to get rid of it when I switch to a new compiler.

  25. Colors are all screwed up in iNES-Windows!
    When running Windows in 256-color mode, it will try to approximate colors to existing ones, but it won't always get an exact match. I'm working on fixing this. For now, switch Windows into 16bit graphics to get perfect colors.

  26. Black window in iNES-Windows!
    If you are running Windows in 256-color mode, then this is most likely the cause of a problem. Try switching Windows into 16bit screen mode.

  27. Command line options don't work in iNES-Windows!
    They shouldn't. The demo version of iNES-Windows supports no command line interface at all. The full version will only accept the .NES file name at the command line, but no options. All configuration is done via Setup Panel and iNES.INI file.

  28. Volume control works strangely in iNES-Windows!
    It is a result of the volume control being shared between iNES and other Windows applications. You can usually restore normal volume by leaving iNES window and then activating it again.

  29. Will iNES-Windows work on Windows 3.xx?
    It may, but I can't guarantee it. iNES-Windows has never been tested on Windows 3.xx. Maybe it is time to upgrade.

  30. I'm a registered iNES-Windows user and some games no longer run!
    It is quite possible that your iNES.INI file no longer works with the new version of iNES. It is my suggestion to delete iNES.INI every time you get a new version of iNES. You can still use some ASCII editor (Notepad or DOS Editor) to migrate some of your old settings into new iNES.INI.

  31. How do I save and load emulation state during the game?
    The emulation state can be saved by pressing [F6] button. The resulting data file will have the same name as your .NES file, but its extension is going to be .STA. This state file will be loaded automatically next time you start iNES. The same state file is not guaranteed to work for versions of iNES running on a different hardware. State saving is not perfect yet, so for some games state may not be correctly saved.

  32. What are those weird Fxxx and SMxxx files?
    Those are most likely files produced by the Front Far East copier. Each such file has a 512-byte header (which you need to get rid of), an optional 512-byte trainer (which you probably want to retain), a ROM, and an optional VROM, all stuck together into a single file. Simply cut off the FFE header, add a .NES header, and modify it to reflect the correct number of pages, mapper type, etc.

    It is necessary to note that even those FFE ROM images which do not have a trainer were very often modified to work with the FFE copier. Although iNES has support for several types of FFE images, it is strongly recommended that you only use clean, unhacked ROM images backed directly from the cartridges you own, instead of FFE images.

  33. What are the interleaved NES ROM images?
    Interleaved NES ROM image is a file which contains the ROM data in each even byte, and the VROM data in each odd byte. You will have to write a program to separate such file into ROM and VROM, and then glue them together with a .NES header to produce the .NES file.

  34. What is that "Mirroring" flag?
    In the real NES/Famicom cartridges, either A10 or A11 line of the address bus can be connected to VRAM. Depending on it, video memory may either contain two screens at addresses $2000/$2400 mirrored at $2800/$2C00 (Vertical Mirroring), or two screens at $2000/$2800 mirrored at $2400/$2C00 (Horizontal Mirroring).

    The games which only use one screen do not care about the mirroring. The games using two screens require an appropriate mirroring though. Be aware that many bank switches allow to switch mirroring from the program. Other cartridges contain additional VRAM and have both A10 and A11 lines connected. Mirroring has no meaning for such cartridges.

  35. What are those "HPeriod" and "VPeriod" options?
    The -hperiod controls how many CPU cycles it will take to refresh a single scanline of display (including HBlank).

    The -vperiod controls how many CPU cycles it takes to refresh the entire screen (including VBlank). The VPeriod/HPeriod value should never be less than 256 to give VBlank interrupt handlers enough CPU cycles.

  36. What is the "512-byte Trainer"?
    The 512-byte trainer mentioned before is something implemented in the Front Far East copier for the NES. When this trainer is present (its code precedes the ROM contents in the .NES file), it is loaded into $7000-$71FF, and then control is passed to it at some points of the program execution.
© Copyright by Marat Fayzullin (fms@cs.umd.edu)