nesdev.org

Is there currently a table which specifies all of the following things? Mapper number and name. Compatibility in both Powerpak and N8. Other comments like, number of games uing the mapper, examples of games using the mapper, importance of the mapper. All of this information is available separately in various places, but as far as I've been able to find, not in a single compiled list. I'm considering compiling such a list if it doesn't exist.

I'll start by suggesting sources for this document:

• Mapper compatibility should be on the PowerPak and N8 support sites. Are you also seeking emulator mapper compatibility?
• The NesCartDB has a list of games using each mapper, which you can download as an XML document.
• The "importance" of a mapper is the sum of importance of games using the mapper, which in turn is subjective. Do you mean sales figures? You could use an old rarity guide or a price guide from NintendoAge. Importance is also localized. For example, someone who doesn't read Japanese is unlikely to be interested in Japan-only games with Japanese text that never got a sequel in the West. And depending on how you define importance, adoption as the basis of an Internet meme can bring new importance. See, for example, Dian Shi Mali (which led to the Fortran/PRESS START TO RICH meme) and the Bio Force Ape prototype (which was associated with the Dur Butter/Eat Communism meme that inspired a BFA fan game before the prototype was dumped).

Thank you for the links. I'm not aiming to step into sociology and invent an objective importance index, but to offer any kind of commentary about a mapper that you can base an opinion on. A quick chart like this one doesn't really offer any information about the individual mappers.



Emulator compatibility might be easy to add, but isn't as crucial as you won't be basing a purchase on it.

If the goal of the list is to tell why one flash adapter might be better than the other, one thing you'll need to include is the cost of buying an NES to use with it. Many popular clones don't work with a PowerPak, which I'm told is one advantage of competing adapters.

The PowerPak is compatible with VRC6a, but not VRC6b. Honestly, WTF ?!

Getting all the VRCs right would require NES 2.0 submappers, and those are still not finalized for every mapper that needs them.

EDIT: semicorrected

I have compiled a compatibilty list focused on the Everdrive N8 but it also list Powerpak support. It is nothing that can't be known by looking at bootgod's database but it seem some people find that too much trouble. Maybe this will be helpful to you: http://skinnyv.com/misc/Everdrive_N8_Co ... OS_V9).pdf

tepples wrote:That'd require NES 2.0 submappers, and those are still not finalized for every mapper that needs them.

(captain pedantic reporting, sir!) VRC6 doesn't, only VRC4 and some configurations of VRC2.

More applicably, Madara and Esper Dream both seem to be RPGs, and so neither very playable without translation.

But both have been translated in 2006 (for 8 years) ! I've started a "serious" game on Esper Dream 2, so far it's a very good game I have to say but I can't paly in on my Power Pak.

Madara doesn't look quite as good from a first look but I might be wrong, I don't know.

If someone was able to get mapper 24 working, it should be something like a single extra line of code to make mapper 26 work as well (just flipping 2 adress bits on mapper writes). Unfortunately, Power Pak buyers are not provided with ways to compile new mappers in VHDL, this suck very much and is the worst point of the Power Pak in my opinion.

Well I could of course hack the ROM from VRC6b to VRC6a, that'd an extremely trivial thing to do (actually I belive the NSFs had to be hacked, because the NSF format only support VRC6a, doesn't it ?), but still, I am frustrated to be FORCED to do it.

Open sourcing the PowerPak mappers would make the PowerPak a more valuable device, in my opinion, but perhaps bunnyboy and Loopy feel otherwise?

lidnariq wrote:(captain pedantic reporting, sir!)

Someone out-tepples'd tepples

Pretty sure that PowerPak compatibility grid is as old as the cart itself.

Yes, and the mappers that comes with it are ALSO as old as the cart itself.

Let's manifest until the mappers are open-sourced (and re-compilable so we can play with MAPPERZZ) !

Bregalad wrote:Let's manifest until the mappers are open-sourced (and re-compilable so we can play with MAPPERZZ) !

The CNROM example mapper has been released since the very first day PowerPak was released. Several people have been able to compile it, including at least me, loopy and kyuusaku. loopy also released the Verilog source of his mappers (including MMC3, VRC6 and others) here on the forums, which can serve as a good starting point for new mappers.

(The CNROM example is based on schematics and only exposes some of the internal signals to the mapper module, so it needs a lot of tweaking to get anything usable out of it and thus isn't a great starting point. I tweaked it for my Save State Mappers but I wouldn't recommend that to anybody since loopy released his sources.)