Mapper wizard

Welcome

This wizard will help you find the most cost-effective Nintendo mapper for your NES project.

Begin

© 2012 Damian Yerrick
Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is, without any warranty.
Originally based on a decision tree by Bregalad.

Cartridge

Do you plan to make cartridges from your software? yes no

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PowerPak

Do you plan to run your software on a PowerPak, an adapter to use CompactFlash memory in an NES? yes no

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Target another platform

You're making a PC game that runs only in emulators, using the NES as a virtual machine. It's fine to make a game that runs in a virtual machine, but it'll probably be easier for you if you choose JavaScript, Java, or .NET as your virtual machine.

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CHR ROM

Do you need to switch a large page of tiles rapidly? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 2 3 4 5 7 34 66 119 180
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CHR RAM

Do you also need to do pixel effects on individual tiles? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 3 4 5 66 119 180
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TQROM

You have chosen TQROM (iNES mapper 119). This board uses the MMC3 mapper. It has up to 128 KiB of PRG ROM, no PRG RAM, and the unusual feature of both CHR ROM (up to 64 KiB) and CHR RAM (8 KiB). Unfortunately, you will have to destroy a copy of Pinbot or High Speed to make a cartridge of your project.

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CHR RAM

Do you need to do pixel effects on individual tiles? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 2 3 4 5 7 34 66 119 180
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MMC5 features

You will use CHR ROM. Do you need any of the following features: more than 256 KiB of CHR data, more than 8 KiB of work/save RAM, or a vertical split screen with independent scrolling? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 3 4 5 66
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MMC5

You have chosen E*ROM (iNES mapper 119). These boards use the MMC5 mapper. They have up to 512 KiB of PRG ROM, 32 KiB of PRG RAM, 512 KiB of CHR ROM, and several features inspired by the Game Boy hardware. Unfortunately, you will have to destroy one of Koei's later turn-based strategy game or Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse to make a cartridge of your project, and these tend to run expensive.

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MMC3 features

You will use CHR ROM up to 256 KiB, and you don't need big PRG RAM. Do you need any of the following features: PRG ROM bigger than 256 KiB, CHR ROM bigger than 128 KiB, CHR ROM banks smaller than 4 KiB, or a scanline counter to do raster splits? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 3 4 66
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MMC3

You have chosen T*ROM (iNES mapper 4). These boards use the MMC3 mapper. They have up to 512 KiB of PRG ROM, 8 KiB of PRG RAM, 256 KiB of CHR ROM, and a scanline counter. Some of these are expensive, especially the ones that have PRG RAM.

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MMC1 features

You will use PRG ROM up to 256 KiB, CHR ROM up to 128 KiB, PRG RAM up to 8 KiB, and no scanline counter. Do you need any of the following features: PRG RAM, PRG ROM bigger than 128 KiB, CHR ROM bigger than 32 KiB, ability to switch mirroring at runtime, or ability to switch the 4 KiB pages at $0000 (background) and $1000 (sprites) separately? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 3 66
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MMC1 with CHR ROM

You have chosen SKROM or SLROM (iNES mapper 1). These boards use the MMC1 mapper. They have up to 256 KiB of PRG ROM, 8 KiB of PRG RAM, 128 KiB of CHR ROM, and a scanline counter. Some of these are expensive, especially the ones that have PRG RAM and a battery backup circuit.

S*ROM compatible boards are available from RetroZone.

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Discrete boards with CHR ROM

You will use one of the discrete boards with CHR ROM.

NROM and CNROM compatible boards are available from RetroZone. GNROM requires a donor.

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MMC3 features

You will be using CHR RAM. You can have a scanline counter to do raster splits, or you can have PRG RAM, but you can't have both (at least without destroying a Japan-only game). Which do you need? scanline counter PRG RAM neither

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TGROM

You have chosen TGROM (iNES mapper 4). This board uses the MMC3 mapper. It has up to 512 KiB of PRG ROM, no PRG RAM, and 8 KiB of CHR RAM. Unfortunately, you will have to destroy a copy of Mega Man 4, Mega Man 6, or Ninja Crusaders to make a cartridge of your project.

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SNROM or SUROM

You have chosen SNROM or SUROM (iNES mapper 1). This board uses the MMC1 mapper. It has up to 512 KiB of PRG ROM, up to 8 KiB of PRG RAM, and 8 KiB of CHR RAM.

S*ROM compatible boards are available from RetroZone.

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Mirroring

So you will be using a board with CHR RAM, no scanline counter, and no PRG RAM. What kind of nametable mirroring will your program use? vertical horizontal 1 screen all of the above

Remaining: 1 2 7 34 180
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SGROM

You have chosen SGROM (iNES mapper 1). This board uses the MMC1 mapper. It has up to 256 KiB of PRG ROM and 8 KiB of CHR RAM.

S*ROM compatible boards are available from RetroZone.

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AOROM

You have chosen AOROM (iNES mapper 7). This board uses a discrete mapper with 32 KiB PRG switching and 1-screen mirroring. It has up to 256 KiB of PRG ROM, up to 8 KiB of PRG RAM.

A*ROM compatible boards are available from RetroZone.

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Discrete boards with CHR RAM

You will use one of the discrete boards with CHR RAM. All support up to 256 KiB CHR ROM and 8 KiB CHR RAM. They differ in what parts of PRG ROM can be switched.

Boards compatible with these mappers are available from RetroZone.

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MMC5 features

You will use CHR ROM or CHR RAM. Do you need more than 256 KiB of CHR data or a vertical split screen with independent scrolling? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 2 3 4 5 7 34 66 180
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MMC3 features

You don't need huge CHR data or a vertical split. Do you need more than 512 KiB of total PRG + CHR data or a scanline counter to do raster splits? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 2 3 4 7 34 66 180
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Size #1

You don't need a scanline counter. Do you need more than 256 KiB of PRG ROM or more than 384 KiB of total PRG + CHR ROM data? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 2 3 7 34 66 180
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Size #2

You don't need a scanline counter. Do you need more than 256 KiB of total PRG + CHR ROM data? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 2 3 7 34 66 180
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PRG RAM

You don't need a scanline counter, and your data is 256 KiB or smaller. Do you need PRG RAM? yes no

Remaining: 0 1 2 3 7 34 66 180
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Mirroring

So you will be using a board with no scanline counter, no PRG RAM, and 256 KiB or smaller PRG ROM. What kind of nametable mirroring will your program use? vertical horizontal 1 screen all of the above

Remaining: 0 1 2 3 7 34 66 180
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Size #3

So you don't need a scanline counter, PRG RAM, ROM bigger than 256 KiB, or switchable mirroring. Is either PRG or CHR bigger than 32 KiB? yes no

Remaining: 0 2 3 34 66 180
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