My consoles are all packed away and I can't test this myself right now, so I figured I'd ask you guys. With so few 4-screen games in existence, did the creators of the 2 most famous NES flash carts bother implementing this into their designs? Has anyone tested it?
They do, but thefox's save state PowerPak mappers do not, so use loopy's or the official Mapper 4.
Good to know, thanks!
I wonder if it's possible to use different configurations from the commercial 4-screen games that were released, such as mappers other than the MMC3, CHR-RAM instead of ROM or 8Kb of WRAM along with the 4-screen. From your response it looks like the support for 4-screen is hardwired to the MMC3, which would be a bit of a let down considering that this is a feature that could technically be implemented in any cartridge.
What do you mean hard-wired? It's an FPGA. If you want a new mapper, you can make one!
I meant that it serms that 4-screen has only been implemented in the MMC3 mapper so far because only commercial games using that mapper are known to use it.
I have no idea how to program FPGAs, so if something hasn't been implemented by the flash cart creators or other hardware enthusiasts, it will remain that way as far as I'm concerned.
So to me it's the same as if 4-screen support was exclusive to the MMC3.
Not that this bothers me deeply or anything... If I do use 4 name tables it will be with the MMC3 anyway, I was simply wondering what combinations would be possible.
Great Hierophant wrote:
They do, but thefox's save state PowerPak mappers do not, so use loopy's or the official Mapper 4.
PowerMappers should support them in all (most) mappers (there might be some exceptions I forgot about).
There is also a Famicom game called Napoleon Senki that uses four-screen mirroring.
I'm curious what are the names of these MMC3 games that use 4-screen mirroring?
The only such games known in
NesCartDB are
Gauntlet (DRROM),
Napoleon Senki (LROG017-00), and
Rad Racer II (TVROM).
- Gauntlet uses CIRAM for two nametables and a 6216 (2 KiB SRAM) for the other two.
- Rad Racer II uses the first half of a 6264 (8 KiB SRAM) for nametables and disables CIRAM.
- Napoleon Senki has CHR ROM at $0000-$07FF, CHR RAM at $0800-$27FF including the first two nametables, and CIRAM for $2800-$2FFF (the other two nametables).
Gauntlet was also released on
TR1ROM, using the MMC3.
thefox wrote:
PowerMappers should support them in all (most) mappers (there might be some exceptions I forgot about).
Cool, thanks for the info.
It may be worth noting that using a NES to Famicom adapter may prevent four screen mode from working properly due to lazy adapter makers that don't connect the proper lines.
Movax12 wrote:
It may be worth noting that using a NES to Famicom adapter may prevent four screen mode from working properly due to lazy adapter makers that don't connect the proper lines.
The same way it screws up VRC6, N163 and MMC5 games whose mappers do require full CIRAM control.
tepples wrote:
The only such games known in
NesCartDB are
Gauntlet (DRROM),
Napoleon Senki (LROG017-00), and
Rad Racer II (TVROM).
- Gauntlet uses CIRAM for two nametables and a 6216 (2 KiB SRAM) for the other two.
- Rad Racer II uses the first half of a 6264 (8 KiB SRAM) for nametables and disables CIRAM.
- Napoleon Senki has CHR ROM at $0000-$07FF, CHR RAM at $0800-$27FF including the first two nametables, and CIRAM for $2800-$2FFF (the other two nametables).
Thanks!
l_oliveira wrote:
Movax12 wrote:
It may be worth noting that using a NES to Famicom adapter may prevent four screen mode from working properly due to lazy adapter makers that don't connect the proper lines.
The same way it screws up VRC6, N163 and MMC5 games whose mappers do require full CIRAM control.
Good to know.