Nesdev Mmc5

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Dallas Querry

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Aug 5, 2024, 12:30:20 PM8/5/24

to ciotinide

Ionly know of the Action 52 multi-cart. I googled for an "Action 52 NES flash cart"...no dice. I never knew of any NES flash carts other than the EverDrive and PowerPAK. It'd be nice to see one someday, that has the same compatibility as a good NES emulator.

I have a Kazzo. Got it a few months ago, with the intention of dumping a repro cart I own, of which there is currently no publicly available ROM. De nada. It's not quite as user friendly as the experience as ripping a CD or PS1 CD-ROM. I tried, but found the guide I used inadequate. Also the documentation that would help me get it done, lacking. I'm gonna see if there's a shot that the NES/Famicom ROM dumper, CAH4E3 (check out the Fami Dumping Project hosted there especially), would be able to maybe walk me through it. He's already willing to dump it if I end up sending one of the two repro carts I own of the game.

I successfully dumped the 8-bit Music Power and Kira-Kira Star Famicom games by Columbus Circle using this device, neither of which will dump properly on a Kazzo. Due to dodgy PCB, they seem to work on clones but real hardware (except AV Famicom with Rev H CPU/PPU) is a crap shoot. Funny both carts work on my AV Famicom, 8-bit Music Power works on AVS but not NES side loader, and Kira Kira Star ironically works on NES side loader (with adapter) but not AVS. CopyNES contains plugins for most commercial licensed and unlicensed mappers, and the CopyNES Blue v5.01 contains fixes allowing the software to operate properly on 64-bit windows PC.

Also you can peek and poke by making writes to the cart bus in order to trigger the bankswitch hardware, then download individual banks from a ROM in the event the mapper is undocumented. The banks can then be assembled into an NES ROM in a hex editor. NES-Dev have documents on the RetroUSB and Memblers flash mappers which may come in handy if attempting to back up homebrews, strictly for personal use of course...

What seems to really have bugged the two of you and which I'm still puzzled over, is my mention of how I'd love to see some work done with the remastering for the SuperNes as well. I'm not sure what was so awful with mentioning that this is neat and impressive that he was able to implement some of the enhancements from Super Mario All-Stars to the originals, but that in a somewhat similar vein, I would also love to see a talented homebrew programmer like this author tackle the remake as well. Especially since at least for myself, I was never completely satisfied with job that was done with Super Mario Bros. and the Japanese exclusive sequel in it.

Taking away most of the individual character for instance from the 'Lost Levels', by just borrowing the graphics from Super Mario Bros. which isn't how the Famicom original handled it at all and which just seems lazy now that we're more familiar with the source material than we were back in 1993. Or how suddenly the blocks are grass covered ground in the first two games, where as SMB2 & 3 stayed more faithful to the source material while still enhancing the graphics. Or implementing the e-Reader levels from the GBA port of the All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. 3 with a new World 9 composed of that material.

Yeah I agree with you about SMB2j. It was said that they didn't release it in the U.S., as they felt it was too difficult for American gamers. Like a Billy Mitchell or a Steve Wiebe, and many others holding world records for those games a gen before the NES?! Now those games were truly barbaric in difficulty.

Anyways, Japan got the "more difficult" sequel. Which was a game equivalent in innovation as an average one of thousands of SMB ROM hacks out there. It took a step forward, but not the major leap that SMB 2u took. We got the better sequel. The game was radically as different as Mario Bros. was to Donkey Kong, as Super Mario Bros. was to Mario Bros.. It may have started out as Doki Doki Panic!, but Shigeru Miyamoto saw that it certainly would work perfectly as a proper Super Mario Bros. sequel. It's definitely one of my favorites in the whole Mario saga.

I wouldn't call them "Barbaric." Clearing the first loop of Donkey Kong counts as clearing the game in many circles, especially if you play with the Japanese stage order. In fact many arcade games it is possible for even novice players to eventually get good enough to clear the first loop with practice. Ditto with many arcade games that feature a single stage or group of stages that repeat ad infinitum with increasing difficulty. You've played all four stages in Donkey Kong and seen all the cutscenes? Guess what, you've experienced the entire game. Now all that's left is to improve your top score. In Tetris, experiencing the game would involve clearing a few rounds and scoring a few quad lines before you game over.

You don't have to be Billy Mitchel or Thor or some world class speed runner type and reach the kill screen to experience an arcade game. Games like super Mario Bros which have a clear beginning and ending were designed to challenge the player, but the end goal becomes beating the actual game, ie defeat final boss and rescue the princess. The goal with NES era and later games is pre-defined. Completing the game becomes more important than improving your score or enduring an infinite onslaught with only three lives or simply improving your top score.

Sadly many games during the 8-bit and 16-bit era were punishingly difficult. NES is still my favorite platform but I know that some games are too frustrating to be worth the effort of playing, including legendary series such as Megaman. My friend and I worked our asses off to beat Megaman 2, and even using Game Genie codes for infinite health / lives / weapons did not prevent "instant death" spike traps featured in later Wiley stages. With the cheats, it was still one of the toughest experiences we faced. And some gamers consider it easy compared to the likes of Ninja Gaiden or Battletoads.

No wonder modern developers "dumb it down" persay. Many classic games were frustrating as heck! That's not that I believe modern games should play like "interactive novels / movies" but I think a balance should be struck somewhere. Many retro games as well as indie titles start off easy and can be quite enjoyable for a few stages even if I never get good enough reach the final boss mush less beat it.

including legendary series such as Megaman. My friend and I worked our asses off to beat Megaman 2, and even using Game Genie codes for infinite health / lives / weapons did not prevent "instant death" spike traps featured in later Wiley stages. With the cheats, it was still one of the toughest experiences we faced. And some gamers consider it easy compared to the likes of Ninja Gaiden or Battletoads.

What...??? You and your friend must have been seriously lacking in game skills. I beat MM2 the day I got it, and I wasn't a power gamer at the time. I was disappointed that it was soo easy. It wasn't "easy compared to".. it just was easy. Ninja Gaiden and Battletoads are in the brutal range, but still beatable.. but MM2??? How old were you in during this time? 7?

Nice. Gonna have to pick one of those up. The Kazzo is seemingly messy, and not user friendly. I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to dump the cart. The dev stated that there's no copy protection in the cart, and it can be dumped pretty easily. Well not if it depends on me and the Kazzo.

Too bad neither the PowerPak nor the Everdrive support this. It seems both RetroUSB and Krikzz have taken the path of least resistance and considered the mmc5 mapper a done deal once they got Castlevania III running flawlessly on it. I needs to play this on real hardware...

Anywho, speaking of RetroUSB, they don't like to restock often, huh? I'm really wanting a CopyNES. I have a cart I've been wanting dumped for years. This Kazzo I bought is about as helpful to me as trying to dump the cart with my Keurig.

Mappers can be a nightmare, especially if undocumented. I can't dump undocumented mappers with copynes but if the mapper is documented on nesdev, I can use peek/poke in copynes to change the banks and dump them individually, then reassemble in a hex editor. I still need to finish dumping that "adult" AV Pachinko Famicom cart I own, as previous attempts got a corrupted chr.