Pirate Discussion > Famicom/NES

miscellaNEouS files

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forgotusername:
Recently, I did a large study on "educational computer" Famiclones. As part of this research, I ripped many ROMs from various educational computer systems and cartridges.

Many years ago, I attempted to rip some of the educational computer games as standalone ROMs; though I dubbed almost all of them "bad roms", as they would display glitchy graphics in every emulator. As it turns out, however, I simply...didn't understand how the coding of the games worked. On almost every educational computer device, the internal programs read all graphic data off of the PRG rather than using an additional CHR chip. In my older extracts, I had unknowingly copied decoded graphic data to the games as separate CHR data, which FCEUX places as additional (often incomplete) code in its hex editor. With this in mind, I was now able to extract the ROMs without issue.

It is still rather obtuse to run some of these via single-rom extracts, given the multitude of different inputs required between programs. Most games use a Subor keyboard and either a "3x8-bit mouse" or a "24-bit mouse". Fully 24-bit mouse-based games also work with standard NES controllers, but often have an issue where the cursor will dart to the top-left corner of the screen; I'm unsure what causes this, though it's an issue with the educational bootlegs in general rather than these extracts. Additionally, many ROMs have a second program (or more) built into them; in some cases I was able to separate both games from the file, while in others I could not. Some games also had to be physically decoded to run as separate extracts.

There are around 175 ROMs here total, including variations. These are mostly English and Spanish-language programs, with a handful of Russian ones; Chinese programs are much more difficult to rip (mainly as they use ~224k of data just for the font), though I did rip a few for testing. As a side note, I retained all documentation for this process, but I didn't include it here (as it's kind of a giant mess...); I can provide it if that's something people want.

forgotusername:
As further torture a bonus, here is a set of NROM conversions of most of the Action 52 games. Additionally, I have a custom sprite hack of sorts here that requires a bit of explanation.

A couple attempts of Action 52 rips have been done before; though generally, they run on the native Action 52 "mapper 228", due to each game using one extra sprite bank for text screens (menus, score counters, etc). As with the aforementioned educational computer programs, Action 52 often combines two or three games into one file; however, the Action 52 code is quite well documented by this point, so decoding every game was trivial. However, due to how resourceful the Action 52 code is - with enough hacking - 46 of the 52 games can run as standard mapper 0 files, without the need for the extra sprite bank. Absolutely no visible sprites have been removed in these conversions; with the sole exception of the copyright notice on Ooze, which was removed for space. I also ripped a "prototype" copy of French Baker, and a modified ROM of Ooze starting on an unused "Level 8".

Now comes the more intriguing part. In 2011, a crappy little reproduction cart called "Cheetahmen: The Creation" was released. This literally $200 USD cartridge is a badly cut-up copy of an otherwise-undumped Action 52 prototype build, which featured a different game at slot #52. However, half of this ROM is some other scrapped Action 52 game, which is not accessible through the Cheetahmen: The Creation cart whatsoever. Of course, since it is from that overpriced abomination, the graphic data for this unused game is not present; though you can get a general idea of how the game plays with some junk data in its place.

I previously released the unaltered, unused game ROM on The Cutting Room Floor, though I have also mirrored it here. In addition, I have created a simple hack called "Here & Hare" with custom graphics; which almost certainly looks nothing like the game was supposed to, though it makes it much more playable.

Y2K05:
Excellent work again, thank you!

NewRisingSun:

--- Quote from: forgotusername on December 12, 2023, 05:29:30 PM ---Recently, I did a large study on "educational computer" Famiclones. As part of this research, I ripped many ROMs from various educational computer systems and cartridges.
(...)

--- End quote ---
"xue si dian nao (dr. pc jr., unknown input).nes" needs the PS/2 keyboard that the Doctor PC Junior takes. If you want to run it in its native environment, place the attached DRPCJR.BIN into the BIOS subfolder of your NintendulatorNRS folder. Run any normal NROM game, like Super Mario Bros., in NintendulatorNRS, then select Game->Machine Type->Bung->Doctor PC Jr. (*) At the Doctor PC Junior boot screen, insert the attached GAMES.IMA 1.44M disk image via "File->Load 3.5" disk...". Select file TTOK for the typing tutor. Set Scroll Lock so that all keyboard keys register instead of being interpreted as emulator control keys. You will also find the native form of the FC7005 "cartridge".

(*) This treatment as a "plug-through device" may seem awkward but is technically correct, since the Doctor PC Jr. has a cartridge slot, and its BIOS sits between the cartridge slot and the CPU. It only seems awkward because while NintendulatorNRS must have something in its "cartridge slot", a real Doctor PC Jr. will run its BIOS with an empty cartridge slot.

forgotusername:
I see the files on the disk are just custom-headered NES ROMs... the old "Development Page" states that the other programs can't be run on standard NES architecture; is that truly the case, or the result of less information on the NES hardware existing circa 2001? Other disc images seem to use proper computer-like data (with .bin/.dat/.cmd files and whatnot), I assume those can't be compiled into a .nes file?

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