So after seeing the mega man 9 capcom limited edition cart with the cd inside I got to thinking.  Since the graphics of mega man 9 are no differnt from the original nes.  Is it possible to reproduce the game and put it on nes cartridges? 

This has been discussed quite a bit, in multiple threads.

To paraphrase, no.

To elaborate, only data hacks of earlier MM games (likely 5 or 6) are possible, and it would only look and sound like MM9. Clever game genie-type-tricks can modify some of the physics, but the core program would need to be rebuilt from the ground up.

In theory yes, though an engine would have to be made from scratch. The likes of which would be a huge project.

Graphics would need simplification in some areas. They only mimic the NES look, but some sprites I've seen are odd sizes and some things clearly use too many colors to be feasible.



Sprites like Galaxy Man and Jewel Man would be okay on their own, but others like Tornado Man would need some colors taken out.

I wonder how much the limited MM 9 cartridge cd case would fetch after capcom sells out.

Hmmm....yes, Enemies colors are a killer....

It could be done, But wouldn`t look as good, Because the NES is limited in speed and colors, And their 8B engine probably puts ALOT of thing up on the screen, And that would slow the NES Hack down, But their engine probably just runs faster when it happens, So in some parts, The NES version would probably completely suck comapred to capcom`s because of what the 360 is capable of....

It would be cool to have someone make something that resembles it, But that`s a bit far away.

It'd be better then super mario world snes ported to nes.......but like that it has to have some things removed.

Hey, There`s a new inventin in 8-Bit computing called On board bak switching. Believe it or not, the NWC cart used it! OMG, and you can atually put like, well, TONS more game ROM on 1 board! O.M.G.!

http://www.capcomdigital.com/blog... Wouldn't this look nice on the shelf with the rest of the series.

Old news....

So, Anyone figure out what Bank Switching is yet?!

bankswitching is using a special circuit in a cartridge to add more memory basicly.....usuallly these chips also have special functions.

I may be wrong, but I don't think bankswitching would overcome the inherent color limitations of the NES architecture.

Regardless, we're all looking forward to your Mega Man 9 port, Fitty.

no it wouldn't also it's not new (started reading above) it's been around since well atari days.

I know, I was seeing if anyone else knew. And if we got special cases made, The games can be as big as you want them to be, and you guys don`t understand that...

Again, I may be wrong here, but I think you (Fitty) don't really understand what you're talking about. It's true that custom mappers, bankswitching, etc. can increase the size of a game in respect to its graphics information and actual program code. However, there are architectural limitations inherent to the NES, at the machine level, that won't be fixed by those schemes. To use another example, bankswitching won't allow you to create additional sound channels or buff up the audio quality of the NES. It could give you more code space for songs, but it doesn't change the hardware itself.

Perhaps a better programmer could chime in here, but I'm not sure it's worth their time...

^ and also, cost is a limitation. Bigger eproms / more chips from which to bankswitch will require custom boards, and your price goes sky-high.

$1.50 doesn't have to worry about money or cost cause he wouldn't be the one fronting all the dollars on the front end. I really never see a project his massive getting off the ground for the NES.
~~NGD

Here's some further info on mappers (for those interested, clearly fitty knows it all). MMC5 does allow more detailed use of palettes in backgrounds, but not sprites. Further colours can be added to sprites by sticking multiple sprites on top of each other, but then you start to run into the limits of total number of sprites and sprites per line.

http://nesdevwiki.org/index.php/C...

Oh ya forgot all about mmc5. Ya that allows some limted extra colors.....however. Since mmc5 is about the most complicated mapper around. It can't be reproduced easily like for example mmc1 so this game'd have to be made on donor carts. (And mmc5 carts are hard to find!)

Doesn't the graphics stacking eventually start to eat up processor power and cause slow down?
I've seen it done on RPG's to add extra colors to enemies (like in Final Fantasy or Wizardry), but it's not like that gives you access to colors beyond the very limited palette native to the NES hardware.

Indeed, colours are limited, here's a rough guide to the available colours (actual tv colours may vary slightly):

http://artofwar.free.fr/images_si...

The problem with stacking is you may go over the 8 sprites per scanline limit, which then forces you to flicker the sprites. Slowdown isn't specifically related to stacking, but more to do with a lot of calculations going on each frame. Moving all 64 sprites on the NES isn't too complex each frame, but if you start to throw in some simple physics, simple ai, player control etc, the amount of processor time left starts to dwindle.

Well, that's why nobody does physics calculations in an NES game. You use table lookups instead...at least you SHOULD if you want good performance.

Is the screen refresh fast enough to "spoof" extra colors by "mixing" palettes? I thought I'd heard of that being done before, but again, you have some major limitations.

^ this was played with in Hellraiser. I never worked. The refresh isn't fast enough to fool the eye, it just looks jarring and blinky.

I thought it might. You would need to be pushing 60Hz or more to really fool somebody. Once you have an onscreen refresh that high, you probably aren't worried about color depth anymore.

 And on Atari Age, There paying $150 for games they make allready........

 Lol, I don`t. All I know is that TONS of colors aren`t needed, just the basics....

 And I don`t know anything about the mappers. JTLYK.

 But keep in mind, The NES DOES have a background that doesn`t flicker if I`m correct. Can it be sprited And have the non-Bakcground have a nice front that scrolls? That`s a good idea to mess around with.....

Well, I guess the NANWC's did go for more than $150...so do special edition carts.

With the market being what it is, I guess if you made a sick game that needed some expensive sick technology, you could charge that much for it. It would be hard to repro so you'd have the market locked up, too.

But the big problem is, with Wii now pretty well available and MM9 costing only $10 on wiiware, the price people would pay for a cartridge copy is limited. At a certain point you just need to say "screw this I'm bidding on a used Wii." Collectible cartridge, or not.