USB CopyNES and Windows 7

USB CopyNES and Windows 7
by rainwarrior on 2012-06-07 (#95188)

Edit: I have solved my problem. Anyone who needs it can find my latest build of USB CopyNES here:

http://code.google.com/p/usbcopynesblue/

=== original post below ===

I've installed a USB CopyNES in my NES and I'm having trouble getting it to work.

When I run "USB CopyNES.exe", it tells me the NES is not on and I should turn it on. I can't really get past this point; I've tried resetting the NES, toggling the power, etc.

I've tried installing D2XX drivers from FTDI, and I've tried the drivers that windows update finds. The result has been the same on two computers I've tried so far (both Windows 7 64 bit).

With the USB unplugged, plays like a normal NES. If I plug it in, the game will suspend; I understand this much is normal.

Has anyone else had this problem? Has anyone else tried it with Windows 7?

by rainwarrior on 2012-06-08 (#95190)

Okay, after a lot of fiddling with the source code I have fixed that problem. It seems weird though; shouldn't everyone using USB CopyNES have this problem? Why is it just me?

io.c line 206:

Code:
if (modemWord && 0x80)

Should be:

Code:
if (modemWord & 0x80)

The former always evaluates to TRUE.

I also noticed what looks like a bug in c_playnsf.c, line 121:

Code:
if (!WriteByte(NSF_banks[i] = header[0x70 | i]));

The semicolon looks like a mistake (there is a {} block of code just beneath it).

Anyhow, haven't really tested anything yet but at least it is running finally.

by Kreese on 2012-06-08 (#95191)

When I installed my CopyNES I had some problem. The software complaint about something when I tried dumping carts. Solved the problem by clicking and retrying. I always thought it was because I have Windows Vista.

Could you share a compiled version that has your modification in the code? I could try and compare how it works with the original software.

by rainwarrior on 2012-06-08 (#95193)

kreese: Here you can try my build.

CopyNESW_rainwarrior_02.exe (dead dropbox link removed, build available below)

Another bug I found. The PowerPakLite RAM Cart loader does not correctly identify mappers.

c_ramcart.c line ~470:

Code:
if (mapper == 0)
{
...
}
else if (mapper = 1)
{
...
}
else if (mapper = 2)
{
...
}
... etc.

This code forces everything that's not mapper 0 to use mapper 1. Obviously not what you want. Just add another = to the else if statements.

by koitsu on 2012-06-08 (#95204)

Who wrote this code? What a fucking atrocity. Seriously. Sorry for the "foul-mouthed opinion", but the same type of mistakes are being made repeatedly throughout, hence my irritation.

by tokumaru on 2012-06-08 (#95214)

Pretty basic mistakes indeed. How were these not caught during testing?

by tepples on 2012-06-08 (#95216)

Lack of resources for testing in diverse environments tends to lead to the mentality of "It works on my PC. Ship it."

by bunnyboy on 2012-06-08 (#95218)

Yup, some of those are my mistakes I am not sure why the modemWord line works on XP/2K but fails on others. Win7 didn't exist when that code was written so further testing would not have caught it.

I don't think the PowerPak Lite bug is in the final exe because UNROM works here. Or if it is nobody else in the last ~5 years has cared...

I didn't touch the NSF code so at least I can pawn that one off on someone else!

by Nessie on 2012-06-08 (#95222)

The CopyNES protocol is really simple to implement so if you're only looking for a way to play ram carts you could make your own client. Using python and pyserial it shouldn't take more than 100-200 lines to create a decent command line interface for ram carts. Other features such as bankwatch would take a bit more effort to reimplement though.

by rainwarrior on 2012-06-08 (#95229)

Well, there's no need to start from scratch, it's working fine now. Though if you happen to build a python interface for CopyNES I'd love to see it.

I'll probably publish a fixed / cleaned up build of the USB CopyNES program in a little while, after I've spent a little more time going over it.

by Nessie on 2012-06-09 (#95231)

I'll see if I can put together a CLI in python. This is for the powerpak lite, right?

by NESHomebrew on 2012-06-09 (#95232)

I'm pretty sure I've had a problem with the powerpak lite defaulting to mapper 1.

by Kreese on 2012-06-17 (#95577)

Rainwarrior: Thanks for sharing your build. Now, with your version, the program works as it was supposed to. No problems and no complaining like before...

It worked in Vista before, but it always complained like this (all the time):

After pressing OK the program continued, and it worked. But I had to press that OK button like 3-4 times to dump a game. I assumed that it was because it wasn't made for Vista...

Please let us know if you fix any other bugs and update your build.

bunnyboy: Perhaps you should update this program on retrousb.com, to the fixed version. (At least when Rainwarrior thinks he has fixed all the bugs.)
http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.ph ... ucts_id=36 - Are there many USB CopyNES sold? Mine is installed on a PAL (B) NES. I have bought a PowerPak Lite too, but haven't tried it yet.

by rainwarrior on 2012-07-23 (#97068)

I've started an open source repository for this. The binary at the moment is the same as the one I put on my dropbox a while ago, but if you're interested in the particular changes to the source, you can follow the commit logs (so far changes are minor). I will continue to maintain this as I find problems.

Binary: http://usbcopynesblue.googlecode.com/files/usbcopynesblue500.zip
Code project: http://code.google.com/p/usbcopynesblue/

Re: USB CopyNES and Windows 7
by dashv on 2014-02-13 (#125503)

Thank you rainwarrior and others who maintain this code.

I do not know much about hardware but I have my USB CopyNES working on my Windows 7 box thanks to you guys! Your hard work and willingness to share what you've learned and done with others is greatly appreciated!

Re: USB CopyNES and Windows 7
by Quietust on 2014-02-14 (#125512)

If you're still using "USB CopyNES Blue", I would recommend trying CopyNESW 3.0, since it includes a few other bugfixes and provides support for both USB and Parallel Port CopyNES on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows.

Also, you've just resurrected a thread from nearly 2 years ago, and nearly all of your other posts have been doing the same thing for no good reason...

Re: USB CopyNES and Windows 7
by tepples on 2014-02-14 (#125515)

Quietust wrote:
Also, you've just resurrected a thread from nearly 2 years ago, and nearly all of your other posts have been doing the same thing for no good reason...

People who watched the short film "Posting and You" (SWF), which stresses the use of a search button, are more likely to necro.

Re: USB CopyNES and Windows 7
by Quietust on 2014-02-14 (#125520)

tepples wrote:
Quietust wrote:
Also, you've just resurrected a thread from nearly 2 years ago, and nearly all of your other posts have been doing the same thing for no good reason...

People who watched the short film "Posting and You" (SWF), which stresses the use of a search button, are more likely to necro.

To be fair, that video was intended for the Steam Users' Forums, not this site.

Re: USB CopyNES and Windows 7
by rainwarrior on 2014-02-14 (#125522)

Yes, I presume Quietust's CopyNESW project has had better maintenance than mine, and most users should probably use that. USBCopyNESBlue at this point is really just a personal fork that I play with when I want to try something new with my CopyNES, which is not very often.

I made some improvements to the VRC7 patch tuner, but really that was just to take another pass at matching the internal VRC7 patches. There's not really much point for anyone else to use it anyway, unless you think you can improve the patch accuracy further. The patches I made are available here.

I also added an APU stream player, but that's another thing that's probably not much use to anybody but me. I create register write logs using NSFPlay and then play them back as a stream sent over USB. I've mostly used this to test the audio behaviour on expansion carts. Probably most people wouldn't get much out of it (especially since it can't do DPCM samples).

Re: USB CopyNES and Windows 7
by dashv on 2014-02-14 (#125531)

Quietust wrote:
Also, you've just resurrected a thread from nearly 2 years ago, and nearly all of your other posts have been doing the same thing for no good reason...

Thanks for the heads up. I've only recently become aware of the indie/home brew scene. So I've been using google and forum searches to get up to speed.

As an engineer am fascinated and impressed by what folks have managed to accomplish with equipment pushing 20 years old.

Knowing (from other threads I've turned up in searches) that there's some ungrateful haters out there that have pushed some folks from the scene I thought I'd give folks some kind words and encouragement when the work they've done or documented helps me out.

I apologize if I have adversely affected anyone's forum viewing by doing so. At the time I thought I had good reason.

Re: USB CopyNES and Windows 7
by rainwarrior on 2014-02-15 (#125540)

I didn't see a problem with the bump.

Re: USB CopyNES and Windows 7
by zombie343 on 2015-02-04 (#140562)

Putting this link here: https://code.google.com/p/usbcopynesblue/

I was able to compile the source in Visual Studio 2013 (and run the binaries provided there, as well).

I'm waiting for a USB copyNES to come in the mail to do some testing.

Edit: spelling.