Individual N8 Mapper Updates (unofficial)...

[goombakid]

So far, some awesome forum members here have have been helping by improving some mappers. I'm setting this as the sticky for now. Any updates for mappers are encouraged to be linked in this thread.

Special thanks to Necronomfive and Slamy for their work.

Currently have the following available. As always, please use caution when using these.

Sunsoft 5B:
http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=3245.msg32176#msg32176

Konami VRC6:
http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=3391.msg32231#msg32231

Konami VRC7:
http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=3374.0

If I missed any, just post the link in this thread.

[aloram]

Thanks. I got my Everdrive N8 a little over a year ago, so I'm not sure exactly how mapper updates work. Will they be added to the next OS update, or will we always have to manually load them ourselves?

[Slamy]

Thanks. I got my Everdrive N8 a little over a year ago, so I'm not sure exactly how mapper updates work. Will they be added to the next OS update, or will we always have to manually load them ourselves?

The mappers are binary configuration files for the FPGA. If you load a game the adequate binary file will be loaded.
Just overwrite the specific RBF file inside EDFC/MAPS/ with the custom one.
If they shall be included in the official package is a good question.... if not maybe we can assemble a "community package" optimized for the various NES types if needed.

[butfluffy]

the only worry i have with custom mappers is if any games that used to work will get broken. i'm sure i read in one of the threads that a game which used to work on krikzz's mapper stopped working on a custom mapper.
 i think we need a list of troublesome games and whats working and whats not using official and custom mappers.
 and i said this in another thread that is would be great if the guys working on these improved mappers and krikzz could come to an understanding so the best most compatible mapper versions could be released in official OS update packages all good to go or otherwise things may get a little confusing for us noobs if loads more custom mappers are made.
 it would also be cool if there was a list of troublesome games in general stating the issues and when a game is fixed it can be checked off the list, low gravity man has been fixed with an hack for example.
 i read in a thread that death race don't work properly and also crash test dummies has problems despite mappers for these games being supported.
 it's great that people are working hard to make the N8 even better than it already is and from what i gather the nes can be a pain compatibility wise with all the different mappers and so on but hopefully one day compatibility can be almost perfect for what is already a great flash cart.

[Slamy]

By demand i added more volumes to my mapper. Here is a graphical summary of all currently available versions:



Download it here. https://sites.google.com/site/slamyselectronicslab/24VRC6ModXtra.zip?attredirects=0&d=1

[KRIKzz]

little hint about custom mappers instalation:
Some .rbf files may handle few mappers, for example 022.RBF contains implementation for mappers 21,22,23,25,85. So, if you just replace the file, all other mappers will not work anymore. I offer use some unused mapper number for custom mapper, and retrace mapper 22 to new file. To retrace mapper to another file, just need to write new mapper number in MAPROUT.BIN. Let say we will use 224.RBF for alternate implementation of mapper 22, then we need write 0xE0 (224 in hex) at offset 22 in MAPROUT.BIN, after that OS will use 224.RBF for mapper 22, instead of 022.RBF

[Necronomfive]

Developer request to KRIKzz... ;-)

Since the FPGA has more than enough HW multipliers, I would suggest to implement an 8-bit volume setting into the next OS revision. This way, the user could match the volume setting much more precisely to their HW setup.

little hint about custom mappers instalation:
Some .rbf files may handle few mappers, for example 022.RBF contains implementation for mappers 21,22,23,25,85. So, if you just replace the file, all other mappers will not work anymore. I offer use some unused mapper number for custom mapper, and retrace mapper 22 to new file. To retrace mapper to another file, just need to write new mapper number in MAPROUT.BIN. Let say we will use 224.RBF for alternate implementation of mapper 22, then we need write 0xE0 (224 in hex) at offset 22 in MAPROUT.BIN, after that OS will use 224.RBF for mapper 22, instead of 022.RBF

[Great Hierophant]

I put together this list to help out game-tech.us, but if you want to know which iNES mappers are affected by each ED N8 ###.RBF file, here they are :

RBF  - iNES Mapper #

000 - 0, 3, 7, 11, 13, 15, 34, 36, 38, 66, 70, 71, 72, 75, 77, 78, 79, 87, 89, 92, 93, 96, 97, 101, 113, 144, 146, 148, 150, 151, 152, 164, 184, 185, 202, 212, 219, 227, 232, 234, 241, 242, 243
001 - 1
002 - 2, 40, 41, 42, 57, 58, 61, 86, 91, 94, 99, 107, 133, 178, 180, 188, 193, 200, 201, 203, 231, 240, 246
004 - 4, 220
005 - 5
009 - 9, 10
019 - 19
022 - 21, 22, 23, 25, 85
024 - 24, 26
028 - 28
032 - 32
033 - 33, 48
064 - 64
065 - 16, 18, 65, 67, 68, 73, 76, 80, 82, 88, 95, 112, 154, 206, 207
069 - 69
090 - 90, 211
118 - 12, 41, 47, 74, 115, 118, 119, 158, 182, 189, 191, 196, 205, 245

[mrpopsicleman]

iNES mapper 31
http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=3288.0

[retro_fan]

Regarding expansion audio and mapper tweaking, do you guys test music and sounds just using your hearing? I have found this method at superuser.com for checking differences between two audio recordings in an objective manner:

"If you truly want an objective measure, load both files into a tool that can do basic effects processing and mixing (Audacity for instance), and then invert one and mix them together. What ever is left is the difference between the two files - if they were identical, only pure silence should remain."

by Derek Charles

Maybe this method or any other audio analysis could help to improve expansion audio on Everdrive N8 even further?

[manorock850]

Just looked at this the other day the only problems that I'm having are with games like Uncharted Waters

[Asaki]

Pretty sure Uncharted Waters is MMC5, which is only partially supported.

[polyh3dron]

By demand i added more volumes to my mapper. Here is a graphical summary of all currently available versions:



Download it here. https://sites.google.com/site/slamyselectronicslab/24VRC6ModXtra.zip?attredirects=0&d=1

Any idea which one I should be using with my AV Famicom for the best sound mix?

EDIT: finally found the right answer and that's the 75_70 one. What a huge improvement from the stock mapper. Thanks, Slamy!

The PCM still sounds really dull unfortunately, but the VRC6 synth channels sound much closer to the way they're supposed to. I can actually play Akumajo Densetsu without getting furious at the terrible sound mix now.

[GadgetUK]

I wondered if someone could clarify the process on installing these new mappers.  I understand that just replacing the mapper files is all that's required, or is there another file that needs updating to?  I noticed that some of them have a different name - ie. the mapper name number, rather than just a number plus extension.  Is some renaming required?  Ideally I would like to add all of the new mappers in the earlier part of this thread, but I don't want to lose any other mappers.

[Great Hierophant]

First, you download the official OS and put it on your SD card.  Then you download the mapper zip.  In the archive there will be a file called xxx.RBF and sometimes a file called MAPROUT.BIN.  Copy them to the MAPS subdirectory.

In the case of Mapper 24, you must select the appropriate file, depending on the relative volume mix you want, and rename it to 024.RBF. 

The RBF tells the FPGA how to configure itself to emulate the mapper in question.  The MAPROUT.BIN file tells the firmware what mappers are supported on the system.

If you are concerned about losing mappers by overwritng the existing MAPROUT.BIN file, you can hex edit the MAPROUT.BIN file to add the missing mappers back in.  The file is 512 bytes and each byte in the first 256 bytes refers to an iNES mapper and the RBF that supports it.