The Famicom Microphone - Obscure Functionality

The Famicom's Controller II does not have start and select buttons, instead it has a microphone.  The microphone has a volume slider which will turn the microphone off is slid all the way to the left.  Internally, the microphone is a small condenser microphone.  The microphone is mixed with the Famicom's audio output so you can hear anything that it picks up in the TV's speaker.

In addition, the microphone can be used as an input to the CPU.  The Controllers communicate serially by sending a stream of data bits on one data line to particular memory locations in the 2A03's memory map. Each bit represents a button press or a D-pad direction.  Even though Controller II communicates with the Famicom via D0 of $4017, the microphone communicates via D2 of $4016.  Controller I communicates by D0 of $4016.

On a Vs System, the service button uses the same input as the microphone.  Pressing the service button in must Vs System games acts as an insert coin signal to the game.  So by blowing into the microphone you can insert a coin when running VS games in a Famicom, such as with a PowerPak or Everdrive.  While this does not work on every game, it is pretty neat to see the credit number increase rapidly as you blow into the microphone.  Of course, the games will look very strange because the palette entries are scrambled compared to a regular console PPU.  Some are unplayable for other reasons, but the feature is still amusing for a bit.

Here are the games I have personally confirmed work with a real Famicom and its attached microphone :

Zelda no Densetsu - The Hyrule Fantasy

This is the original version of The Legend of Zelda, released on the Famicom Disk System on February 21, 1986.  The Microphone can be used to kill Pols Voice, the enemy that looks like a rabbit and is first encountered in Dungeon 5.  I find blowing into the microphone to be the most effective method.  The NES did not have a microphone, so instead they made Pols Voices weak to arrows.  Unfortunately, they forgot to change the hint in the manual.  One arrow kills a Pols Voice in the NES version, but arrows do nothing to these enemies in the Famicom Disk System version.

Hikari Shinwa - Palutena no Kagami

This is the original version of Kid Icarus, released on the Famicom Disk System on December 19, 1986.  The microphone is used to try to persuade the shopkeeper to lower his prices.  The function works by blowing into the microphone while pressing the A button on Controller II.  Whenever I try this function at the first shopkeeper's shop in Stage 1-2, he always raises his prices.

I believe shouting something also work, but blowing hard is a lot nicer when other people are around and is definitely more effective for this game.  The game appears to be looking for a rapid series of 1s and 0s. Blowing into the microphone is the human equivalent of a noise generator.  Emulators that support the microphone often lack the ability to simulate a rapid expansion and contraction of the microphone. In the NES version, A and B on Controller 2 perform the same function.

Zelda no Densetsu 1 - The Hyrule Fantasy

This is the official Famicom cartridge port of the Zelda no Densetsu - The Hyrule Fantasy, released on February 19, 1994 at the very end of the Famicom's life.  It and Wario's Woods are the last Famicom cartridges Nintendo released.  It takes the NES cartridge port and reinserts the Japanese text (except for the introductory story).  It microphone functions identically to the Famicom Disk System version.  Unfortunately, despite the Famicom AV's release, they did not make Pols Voice weak to arrows in this version.

Raid on Bungeling Bay

In the 2-player mode of this game, the first player controls the helicopter and the second player can control the enemy forces.  The second play can rotate and fire the enemy canons with his controller.  If he blows into the microphone, the screen will show a microphone icon.  Keep blowing into it and it will turn red.  This will cause jets to attack the first player, although when they appear seems a bit random.  The microphone function works on both the Famicom and NES version of the game.

Other Games and Microphone Support

Other NES games it may work in include Kid Niki: Radical Ninja and Star Soldier, but the areas where they were tend to be far into the game.  Several Japanese-exclusive Famicom games use it but due to the language barrier most of these uses are unconfirmed.  Considering that 1,050 or so official licensed cartridges and 200 or so licensed disk system games exist, the true number may never be known.

One well-known game is Takeshi no Chosenjou, (Takeshi's Challenge).  This game was designed in part by Japanese comedian and later auteur filmmaker "Beat" Takeshi Kitano.  The game requires you to do all sorts of odd and often extremely repetitious tasks.  Some commentators have suggested that Kitano was trying to use Andy Kauffman-style humor by frustrating players with such goofy goals as hitting a button 1,000 times or leaving the controller alone for an hour.  There is a karaoke mini-game that requires you to use the microphone to "sing" (make noise) in time with the music.  There is also a lot of physical violence, another Kitano trademark, for a story of a salaryman trying to escape the humdrum of everyday life.

Here is a list of games which have been known to support the Microphone and a link to a description of their microphone usage, where known :

Apple Town Monogatari - Little Computer People (disk)
Atlantis no Nazo (a.k.a. Super Pitfall 2 prototype)
Bakushou!! Jinsei Gekijou
Bakushou!! Jinsei Gekijou 2
Doraemon
Hikari Shinwa - Palthena no Kagami (disk)
Kaiketsu Yancha Maru (a.k.a. Kid Niki: Radical Ninja)
Kamen Rider Club
Raid on Bungeling Bay
Star Luster
Star Soldier
Super Chinese 2 - Dragon Kid (a.k.a. Little Ninja Brothers)
Takeshi no Chousenjou
Zelda no Densetsu - The Hyrule Fantasy (cart and disk)

I have read on Wikipedia and elsewhere that Takeshi no Chosenjou removed the kareoke mini-game in later versions and other games would allow you to use the Select button in place of the microphone.  I believe these statements are wholly unfounded.  Takeshi no Chosenjou was released on December 10, 1986 and as far as I have seen, there is only one version of the game.  Moreover, every official iteration of Nintendo's hardaware, the Famicom, the Sharp C1 Famicom Television, the Sharp Twin Famicom and the Sharp Famicom Titler had the microphone on their hard-wired Controller II until the Famicom AV was released on December 1, 1993.  I sincerely doubt that game makers were anticipating that Nintendo would be ditching the microphone when every version of the hardware included it. Note that the microphone is read at the same memory location as the data from Controller I, so any claim that you should press select on Controller II (which does not have Start and Select buttons), is very dubious.

The Nintendo Family Computer/Famicom - The NES before there was a NES

Which one of these systems is playing the game?  Bonus if anyone notes the oddity regarding the game shown.

The Nintendo Family Computer, released in 1983, was the console which kick started console gaming in Japan and revitalized console gaming in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System.  The Famicom had 1,056 licensed cartridge games released for it.  The system was directly supported for over eleven years with games.

The original console, of which Nintendo sold millions and millions, gets shortchanged these days.  People seek Famicom AV's for their detachable controllers, video quality and relative age.  People want top loaders because their cartridge slot is more reliable than a front loader.   Interest in front loaders is present due to the prices of the other systems and the easy obtainability of cartridge connectors.

Design decisions

The original hardware developers included items like the eject lever and the microphone, even though they were not strictly necessary.  A great deal of force is not required to remove cartridges from the slot.  The eject button made its way to the Super Famicom and the SNES, and it was equally unnecessary there as well.  The eject mechanism also makes it a bit cramped for modding purposes.

The microphone was intended as a novelty feature.  Using the microphone, you can hear a distorted version of your voice from your TV speakers.  However, it would later be used in games, mostly in a non-essential way.  Gaining the microphone meant losing the start and select buttons on controller II, so no Japanese game is likely to respond to Famicom AV's controller 2 start and select button input.  The Famicom AV was released in 1994 just as companies were no longer making games for the Famicom.  The holder of controller I has all the game select and game start/pause authority when playing games.

The color scheme of the Famicom, red and white, was intended to make the system look attractive to children.  Nintendo gave the controllers a touch of class with their metal face plates.  Those face plates did not hold up well over time against sweaty Japanese thumbs.  They have a tendency to show tarnish and wear unlike NES controllers.  The white plastic will become discolored by exposure to UV light.  Retrobright may be useful to restore the original color, but the stickers and decals may suffer from being submerged in oxyclean and peroxide.  My Famicom has been severely discolored from UV exposure, but the resulting color is something like a burnt orange and rather appealing.  The SNES is far worse.

Like the face plates, making the controllers hard wired and routing the cables through the rear of the console is another design decision straight from the 1970s.  Consoles released in the 1970s connected their controllers in the back and were frequently hard wired.  The idea was to reduce cable clutter and eliminate those "I can't find my controller" moments.  Because the controller cables were so short, instead of having the controller cables across the living room, the whole Famicom had to be pulled away from the TV, leaving the power and RF cables visible and frequently strewn across the room.  The NES introduced detachable controller ports located on the front of the console and every subsequent console since then has followed.

The controller cables were short because Japan is far more urbanized than the US.  Japanese gamers were accustomed to living, on average, in more confined circumstances than their US counterparts, so Nintendo believed they did not need to make long cables.  Even the Famicom AV controller cables are about half the length of the US version of the controller.  The NES revised controllers (dog bone) have a cable length of 93.25", and the regular NES controller has a length about 2" shorter.  The Famicom controllers have a cable length of just 29.25", and you loose 8.25" if you account for the width of the Famicom because the controllers come out of the back of the console.

The Famicom does not have a power LED, when you flip the power switch on, there is a little orange sticker that appears, showing you that the console is on.  Thankfully the power switch is not spring/latch operated like on the NES.  The reset button does not protrude above the enclosure, making it less likely that someone will press it accidentally than the NES's button.

The dust flap is unconnected to the eject mechanism and has no springs, so it has a cheap feeling.  It is just a piece of plastic that swings 180 degrees.  The NES's lid has a little tension in it, making it appear less cheap.  The Famicom Disk System RAM Adapter sits completely flush on the Famicom, whereas it has a slight overhang on the Famicom AV.  Even so, the Famicom is not that much larger than the Famicom AV.

The Famicom and the Famicom AV use the same power adapter, 10VDC, 850mA, center-tip negative.  Sega Master System and Sega Genesis Model 1 Power Adapters work perfectly and are easier to find in the US than Nintendo Famicom power adapters.

Inside the Famicom

Unlike every other iteration of Nintendo's 8-bit hardware, the Famicom's PCB is screwed into the top half of the shell, not the bottom half.  However, like the NES, the chip side of the PCBs face the ground.  All screws are Phillips head screws.

All Famicoms come with two PCBs, but the earlier Famicoms connect their PCBs solely by a ribbon cable. The smaller PCB houses the power conversion circuitry and the RF unit.  The larger PCB has the CPU, PPU and the rest of the chips needed to function.  The later VCI Famicoms have the smaller PCB sturdily connected to the larger PCB because the metal RF shielding on the smaller board is soldered to the larger board.  The larger PCB has the expansion port and a pair of headers for the controllers to plug into.

Hardware wise, there are roughly three generations of Famicoms.  First come the square button Famicoms.  These have rubbery square buttons on their controllers, smooth bottoms and are the least reliable of all the Famicoms.  Some may have survived the 1983 recall.  They also tend to have early and buggy revisions of the CPU and PPU.  They are pretty much museum pieces.

Next come the round button Famicoms.  They have solid CPU and PPU revisions and round plastic buttons on their controllers.  The bottom half of the case shell has a rough matted surface.  If treated properly, these will run well, but the video output is noisy and will show jailbars even without an AV mod once you know what to look for.

Sample video quality (does not capture the jailbars well)

Finally come the VCI Famicoms.  They have more robust RF shields, a metal shield fitted over the cartridge connector and more filtering capacitors.  They also have the power switch connected to the main PCB instead of the RF PCB as found on the non-VCI Famicoms.  VCI Famicoms can be distinguished from non-VCI Famicoms by the labels on the bottom of the case.

The Famicom has a comparatively minimalist design compared to the NES' PCB.  The NES PCB has an expansion slot which was never used, separately mounted power and reset buttons, separately mounted controller ports, a U-shaped cartridge connector, internal RF shielding for the top and bottom of the PCB, a tray-loading mechanism and extra circuitry for the lockout chip.

My Famicom works fine with the Everdrive N8 Famicom Edition.  The Everdrive is a bit of a tight fit inside the cartridge slot.  Square-button vintage Famicoms may have trouble with these devices. The NES PowerPak and NES game cartridges work with an adapter, I recommend this one :

Early CPU and PPU Revsisions

My Famicom is a round button non-VCI version, and it uses 2A03E and 2C02E chips, just like the first NES consoles. Its PCB is marked with HVC-CPU-07. The rev E CPU and PPU chips appear to be used in many of these non-VCI Famicoms, but I have seen revision A, B and D PPUs and revisionless CPUs.  The revision G chips appear to be the most common of all the CPU/PPU revisions Nintendo used in its products, but I have only seen them in VCI Famicoms.

Revisionless 2A03 CPU will be found mainly in square button Famicoms, but there are some later square button Famicoms with 2A03E CPUs.  The revisionless 2A03 lacks the short-period noise feature of the 2A03E and its successors.  Short period noise has a very metallic sound can be heard in Fire Man's stage in Mega Man 1 and Quick Man's stage in Mega Man 2.  Without short noise period the noise will sound like more typical white noise.  the It can also be heard at the end of the game over tune in Balloon Fight, but this may be unintentional.

The 2C02E and its predecessors lack the ability to read sprite data through a particular register.  Micro Machines uses this reading function to position graphics on the title screen and menu screens.  As a result, these graphics will look glitchy on a Famicom or a NES with a 2A03E or lower PPU revision.  This added ability was rather obscure and the timing was touchy.  There are no known instances of other games, licensed or unlicensed, using it in such a way as to cause noticeable visual differences as with Micro Machines.

The RF Output

The Famicom uses RF only-output, and it can be something of a pain to get working with US TVs.  The design of the RF unit is somewhat in between an Atari 2600 and a NES.  All three have the RF signal generating circuitry inside their respective consoles.  The Atari uses a TV/Game switchbox with a large sliding switch to select the game's signal or the antenna/cable signal.  The Famicom has the TV/Game switch integrated into the internal RF unit and has the physical switch on the rear of the console.  The NES has an automatic switch box where turning the console on acts as the TV/Game switch.

Options, options...

The Famicom did come with an external RF adapter.  This RF adapter is very, very odd by US standards because it requires you to strip cables to connect to the proper adapter.  Let me try to describe its operation.  The box has three screw terminals, one thin wire with the RCA plug and one thick wire with no plug.  The thin wire with the RCA cable, underneath the RF switch label in the photo above, goes to the Famicom.  That is the easy bit.  The thick wire is a 75 ohm coaxial cable which goes to the TV.  Some Japanese TVs will accept a bare cable, shown as #3.  In this situation, the ground wire mesh is held in place by a metal clamp and the thick signal wire is wrapped around one of the VHF terminals like a speaker wire.

If you do not have this kind of setup, something may have to go on the other end.  Owners could be expected to strip wire, something that would be intolerable today.  You can use a straight through F-type twist on connector, shown as #4.  Nintendo advised using a right-angle box that will fit the bare wire, shown as #1.  If your TV had only the 300-ohm split lead antennal terminals, then you would have to attach a 75-300 ohm converter, shown as #2.  Nintendo used to include ones in the Famicom's box where you could just snap the wire in.

Finally, the Famicom RF box required the same thing if you wanted to route an antenna or cable signal through it.  The two side-by-side terminals were for the 300-ohm split antenna leads.  The third screw terminal was to hold a 75 ohm cable in place and provide a connection for the ground mesh, and the signal wire wrapped around one of the two side-by-side screw terminals.  If your TV had 75 ohm inputs, all you had to do was to remove any connector from the cable wire and screw it as shown on the label.  Later Japanese Nintendo devices used the same RF switchboxes as the NES, making life a heck of a lot easier for many people.

The Famicom can use Japanese TV channels 1 and 2. Japanese Channel 1 uses the FM band in the 90-96MHz range, and channel 2 uses 96-102MHz.  In the US, the 87.9MHz-107.9MHz band was allocated for FM radio.  Later, cable channels 95 and 96 were allocated the frequencies used by Japanese channels 1 and 2.  In fact, the audio from the Famicom's RF unit can be heard in theory if you set your radio to 95.7 or 101.7 and touch the radio's antenna with an RCA cable from the Famicom's RF unit.

You can use Nintendo RF switchboxes with a Famicom.  However today it is easier just to use a thick RCA cable and a coaxial adapter, like an Atari 2600, unless for some reason you want to daisy-chain devices to the coaxial input on your TV.  I had little difficulty in setting my two CRTs to channel 95 or 96, but you may have to manually add those channels.  Keep your remote and TV manual handy.  I found that channel 95 was fuzzy on my TV while channel 96 was sharp, so I use channel 96.

US game consoles would often allow players to choose between channel 2, 54-60MHz, channel 3, 60-66MHz or channel 4, 66-72MHz.  A choice was almost always given because the user's area would often broadcast one channel more strongly than the other, giving for less interference with the weaker broadcast signal.  If your FM radio stations are particularly strong at the 95.7 and 101.7 frequencies, your picture quality may suffer.  However, where I live there is no strong 95.7 radio station but the 101.7 radio station is very clear.  This is counter-intuitive, but on Channel 1 (which overlaps the 95.7 signal) the video is fuzzy but on Channel 2 the video is much sharper.  There are more interference patterns on the Famicom RF than the NES RF, otherwise the video quality appears pretty close.

Castlevania II and Metroid - Best Ending Advice

Castlevania II and Metroid were two of the few NES/Famicom games that use the time the player takes to beat the game to determine the ending.  The better the time, the better the ending.  Getting the best ending in both games is something of a challenge, but in this blog post I would like to share some tips and general guides so you can save time as you try to get the best endings for these games.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest/Dracula II : Noroi no Fūin

As the second game in the Castlevania series for the NES/Famicom, CV2 sticks out for a couple of reasons.  First, its gameplay is non-linear, unlike its predecessor.  Second, there are RPG elements like acquiring hearts to buy items and level up by killing enemies.  Third, there is a total absence of difficult bosses and the lethal areas other entries in the series were known for.  Fourth, death in this game is merely an inconvenience and at times it may be advisable to lose all your lives.  As a result, CV2 is not quite the heralded classic as its bookend games, but it was popular in its time and has a strong legacy as the precursor to the Metroidvania-style of gameplay later firmly established in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

If you approach CV2's challenge as acquiring the best ending, things become much more challenging.  In order to obtain the best ending, you must beat the game in seven days or less.  You start the game at 12:00 (noon) on day 1.  CV2 uses 24-hour time notation.  Mornings begin at 06:00 and evenings begin at 18:00, each time period lasting for twelve hours.  When you restart a game, you start at 12:00 on the day were you last left off, regardless of the actual time left in the day when you ended your game.  

Each second of real time equals four minutes of in-game time.  Each day will take six minutes.  The in-game clock does not run when you are inside a town building, have brought up the menu screen or inside a mansion or castle.  During the morning, monsters take fewer hits to kill and typically yield small hearts and sometimes half hearts.  During the evening, monsters usually take double the hits to kill and yield half hearts and sometimes full hearts.  Also during the evening, zombies are present on the town streets, the town buildings cannot be entered and the townspeople are not present.  

When you start the game, you have three lives.  You can lose a life by losing all your health or by drowning in water.  Once you lose all three of your lives, you will go to a game over screen.  Here you will have the option to Continue or to Save Game/Reveal Password.  If you continue then, you will return to the area in which you died but without all your hearts or accumulated experience.  Existing levels earned will be kept.  If you decided to continue using a saved game or password save, in addition to the above you will start back at the first town, Jova.  You will always keep the items you have found, including the consumables : laurels, garlic and the stake.  

In order to shave time off your game, you should avoid the obvious.  Do not talk to townspeople outside unless you have to.  Fall off ledges instead of using stairs when the area below is known to be safe.  Avoid fighting monsters when you don't need to and don't chase after them.  Use maps to find the most direct routes to where you want to go.  Pause the game by bringing up the submenu.  Avoid backtracking when possible.  Unlike Metroid, it is easy to avoid a lot of backtracking in this game.

In the Famicom Disk System version, once you beat the game you can continue where you left off with all the items you had acquired.  So it is easy to get all items in the second game.  However, you pay for it with frequent loads (every town and mansion) and disk flipping toward the end of the of the game.

Here is the basic efficient path through the game :

Town of Jova
White Crystal
Holy Water
Thorn Whip

Berkeley Mansion
Dracula's Rib

Town of Veros
Chain Whip

Dabi's Path
Sacred Flame (optional)

Town of Aljiba
Blue Crystal

Rover Mansion
Dracula's Heart

Braham Mansion
Golden Knife
Dracula's Eyeball

Town of Aldora
Red Crystal

Town of Oldon
Morning Star

Uta Lower Road
Flame Whip (only if you purchased a Morning Star)

Bodley Mansion
Dracula's Nail

Laruba Mansion
Magic Cross
Dracula's Ring

Town of Doina

Town of Yomi

Castlevania

In the above list, all whip upgrades are quite optional.  However, enemies take more hits with the regular leather whip than with the stronger whips, and eventually the game gets quite tedious.  However, if you forgo the whip upgrades, you will not have to accumulate hearts beyond those required to purchase the holy water.

When you begin the game, immediately buy the White Crystal.  Unfortunately, it will almost certainly be night time on Day 1 before you can earn 50 hearts to buy the Holy Water.  While it may be tempting to fight the Mermen on the South Bridge, stay in Jova Woods until nightfall.  You do not want to risk precious lives by getting hit and falling into the water.  Then go to the Town of Jova and fight zombies on the top floor for hearts.  If you stay just above the platform where the White Crystal merchant walks, you can get zombies to come at you from left and right by moving a little to the left, then a little to the right.  Zombies can be killed in two hits and often leave half hearts.  Between Jova Woods and the Town of Jova, you should be able to earn 150 hearts for the Holy Water and Thorn Whip.

If you are pushing closer to 200 hearts, then bypass the Thorn Whip and head to Veros to buy the Chain Whip.  You should have earned enough hearts on the way there.  Alternatively, if you are a little more shy of 200 and want to save up for the Chain Whip, head to Berkeley Mansion.  Either way, if you go for the Chain Whip, there will be a little backtracking.

Every time you enter a Mansion, the in-game time stops completely.  You can stay in the Mansion and earn hearts as long as you wish.  However, you will not continue to earn experience after a certain point if you stay in one area.

On the way to the Town of Aljiba and Rover Mansion, you can easily get the Sacred Flame from Dabi's Path without having to waste much time.

When you get to Rover Mansion, you may have a difficult choice, depending on how many times you died.  If you have a lot of hearts, you may want to brave the long journey to the Town of Oldol for the Morning Star.  If you do not, then die and save the game and get a password.  When your game is restored, you will be at the Town of Jova again, much closer to the Ferryman.  If you save and restore, then farm hearts in Braham Mansion in order to get the Morning Star.

When you arrive at Bodley Mansion, if you have the Morning Star you should get the Flame Whip before tackling the Mansion.  Although this involves a small amount of backtracking, it is worth it.

Items I recommend avoiding are the Knife, which costs 50 hearts in the Town of Veros, the Silver Knife, which is given if you drop garlic (costs 50 hearts) in Carmilla Cemetery, the Diamond in the Jam Wasteland (requires going to a dead end past Braham Mansion), and the Silk Bag in the Storigoi Graveyard (requires going to a dead end past the Town of Aldora and using garlic).

One spot that can give players a bit of concern are the marshes.  You have to cross Belasco Marsh to get from the Town of Jova to the Ferryman.  Youl also have to cross Joma Marsh to get to Laruba Mansion.  If your level is not around 2, then you should invest in some laurels for these crossings.  You can find laurels to purchase for 50 hearts (quantity 2) in every town except Jova, Veros and Yomi.  A guy in Laurba Mansion will also give you laurels for free.  If hearts are not meaningful, just wade through quickly.

Towns with churches are Jova, Veros, Aldora and Doina.  Churches and leveling up are the only ways to restore your life, but the churches in Jova and Aldora are on the top floor, making them time consuming to get to.

Defeat Death and Carmilla with a whip and Dracula with the Golden Knife.  If you are quick, you can kill Dracula with the knife before he has a chance to attack.  Alternately, the Sacred Flame will stun Dracula.

Metroid

Metroid needs no introduction.  It is one of the first known platformers to encourage exploration.  It is also one of the first non-linear NES games.  Its item acquiring, corridor and shaft structure and isolating experience has made it legendary.

In order to get the best ending in Metroid, you must beat the game in under one hour.  In order to get Armorless Samus, you must beat the game in under three hours.  Otherwise after you get an ending you will restart as Armored Samus.  After the ending you can play a new game with all the powerups you have accumulated except for Energy Tanks and Missile Containers.  If you cannot get under an hour on your first game, you should be able to on your second.

Metroid saves the number of energy tanks you have, your current number of missiles, you maximum number of missiles, and which powerups and beam weapons you have acquired.  It also saves the destruction of each missile door and each Zeebite destroyed in Mother Brain's chamber.  It will save when the mini-bosses Kraid and Ridley are defeated.  Finally, it saves the amount of time you have spent in the game.  Shaving time off that last value is what this guide is all about.

Unfortunately, the one thing Metroid does not save is the current amount of health you have.  It also starts you off with only 30 life, even if you have six energy tanks.  You can die easily early in the game if you are not cautious and do not grab energy balls, but getting your energy up this way is time consuming.  However, once you acquire a few items it gets much easier to survive.

Time passes in Metroid whenever you can control your character.  This does not include when you pause the game, collect a special item, energy tank or missile container, go through a door or up or down an elevator.

Basic Path

Brinstar
Maru Mari
Missile Container (near Norfair elevator)
Long Beam
Energy Tank (near Bomb)
Bomb
Ice Beam
Varia
Missile Tank (near Varia)
Energy Tank (near Varia)

Norfair
Missile Container (right door at the end of the shaft with the elevator to Brinstar)
Missile Container (right door at the end of the shaft with the elevator to Brinstar)
Missile Container (near Ice Beam)
Missile Container (near Ice Beam)
Missile Container (near Ice Beam)
Missile Container (near Ice Beam)
Missile Container (near Ice Beam)
High Jump
Screw Attack

Mini-Boss Hideout II
Missile Container (above door in corridor to the right of the shaft with the elevator to Norfair)
Energy Container (watch out for the trap)
Missile Tank (a hard jump, optional)
Ridley
Energy Tank (the 10-missile door beyond Ridley's room)

Mini-Boss Hideout I
Energy Tank (2nd door on the left of the shaft with the elevator leading to Brinstar)
Missile Container (1st door on the left of the shaft with the elevator leading to Brinstar)
Missile Container (1st door on the right of the shaft with the elevator leading to Brinstar)
Missile Container (near Fake Kraid)
Kraid
Energy Tank (in Kraid's room)
Missile Container (door on the left of the shaft that leads up from Kraid's room)

Tourian
Mother Brain

In this basic guide, you will have the maximum of six Energy Tanks.  You should have a maximum missile capacity of 220-225 Missiles (game max is 255).  You won't obtain the Wave Beam or the missiles in the green bubble area of Norfair and the tank at the very bottom of Hideout II.  They are just too time consuming to acquire.  You should have more than enough missiles for Mother Brain and her Zeebites, and the Metroids in Tourian respawn to give you more.

The most difficult part of this path is getting the Varia.  When you get to the green corridors, you have to freeze the Waver in the small corridor just under the door to the Varia.  You must shoot the blocks to get the Waver to fly up the screen and clear all the blocks.  You freeze the Waver when he is at the fifth block.  With the cartridge version, the Waver's patterns are less random, making this easier.  In fact, if you approach the corridor from the left door, you should be able to make the Waver go up the blocks when he comes back to the right for the first time.  When the blocks reform and he unfreezes, he should fly to the open area above.  Then you have to make sure it stays up there and alive so you can freeze it to use as a platform to get to the Varia door.  Both of these tasks can take a decent amount of time, depending on luck and skill.

When you defeat Ridley and get the Energy Tank, you should go to the continue/password or continue/save screen by pressing Up and A on the second controller when the game is paused.  This will take you back to the starting point in Brinstar if you are playing the FDS version.  If you are playing the cartridge version, you will need to do it to get you to the Hideout II elevator, go up the elevator, do it again, go up the Norfair elevator to Brinstar, then do it a third time.  You will then be back at the Brinstar starting point.  From there you can go to Hideout I and get the Energy Tank on the second door to the right in the shaft where the elevator is located.  From there, beat Kraid and then go to Tourian.

In Tourian Metroids give you 30 missiles instead of the 2 that other enemies give, so you can replenish your stock.  If you are a bit low on life, their energy balls give 30 life instead of the 5 or 20 that other enemies give.  Metroids always give a life ball or a missile.

In the original version of Metroid for the Famicom Disk System, the endings are a bit different.  You get the best ending if you beat the game in two hours or less (instead of one).  There is no Armorless Samus in the game and you do not start a new game with any previously acquired powerups.  All you get is a stack of moneybags next to your character on the character select screen showing you the quality of the ending you previously achieved.  Because there are five endings, you get five moneybags for the best ending, four for the next best, and so on.  

The FDSStick, a Compact Solution for all your Famicom Disk System Needs

The Famicom Disk System just was not a very reliable piece of hardware.  Between bit rot on the disks and drive belts that wear out quickly, today it is an error prone beast.  However, most of the work is done in the FDS RAM Adapter, the black box that fits into into the Famicom's cartridge slot.  Many Disk System enthusiasts, myself included, have long sought a method to use their FDS RAM Adapter without having to deal with the dodgy disks and flaky drives.  Since 2004, the only solution has been an FDSLoadr cable or find an incredibly rare copying device from back in the day.  The cable connects to a PC parallel port and the software is DOS only.  While it can read and write to disks or use the PC as the drive emulator, it is really speed sensitive and the cable is not easy to make because of the FDS connector.

Old FDSStick vs New FDSStick (with a penny for scale)

Many people have dreamed of a more convenient solution, so a NESDev forum regular named loopy stepped up in 2015 and designed a USB-based device that would allow you read and write disk images solid state media and let the FDS RAM Adapter or Twin Famicom read it like a regular disk.  He has called the product the FDSStick and has offered it for sale.  The price is ridiculously cheap for folks in the USA, a mere $11.99 plus $2.60 for shipping.  You can buy it here : 

http://3dscapture.com/fdsstick/

International customers order from TotoTek for $14.99 plus shipping here :

http://www.tototek.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=196

The FDSStick is about the size of a USB thumb drive, just a little thicker.  The first enclosures had a smooth rough matted finish.  This was my first experience with a 3-D printed object.  The enclosure does what it needs to, but if it represents the state of plastic construction, we have a long way to go before we abandon plastic injection molds and CNC machines.  The enclosure tends to pick up dirt and, like most 3-D printed objects, is not especially strong.  Not too long after the first batches, loopy switched to using injection molded cases, so the quality has been greatly improved and the finish is smooth.

The FDSStick has a USB plug on one end and a 12-pin cartridge edge on the other end which the FDS RAM Adapter cable plugs into.  The FDSStick is unusual for a device that interfaces with vintage computing equipment because it is completely hot swappable.  The USB end obviously has no issues with being inserted into a live computer or hub.  The FDS end can be inserted onto the end of the FDS RAM Adapter's cable when the Famicom is turned on.  The RAM Adapter cable was designed to plug into the Disk Drive when both the drive was plugged into a wall socket or running off batteries and the FDS RAM Adapter was plugged into a Famicom that is turned on.

Installing the FDSStick, Loading Games onto the FDSStick and Saving Games from the FDSStick

The FDSStick is easy to install and use.  First, you insert it into a spare USB port or hub (which does not need to be powered). The FDSStick will load its drivers automatically. I did not need to be in Test Mode to load the driver, apparently loopy has Windows Driver Signing privileges.  Click “Run Anyway” when Windows says it does not recognize the program.

There is a graphical user interface (GUI) program, FDSStick.exe to transfer disk images to and from the FDSStick.  You can download them it from http://3dscapture.com/fdsstick/  The program will automatically detect when the FDSStick is plugged into a USB port attached to the computer. The program is not particularly useful without the FDSStick, the GUI program will not load when FDSStick is not plugged into the computer.  As downloaded, the file name of the program will include the date of release.

FDSStick.exe allows you to load .fds images onto the FDSStick and save images from the FDSStick in .fds format.  It will also run images in the Game Doctor format, but unless you have a Game Doctor device, you probably will never encounter a Game Doctor image.  Running the GUI program with the FDSStick plugged in will update the firmware, which I highly recommend to everyone because the new firmware can add features and fix bugs.

The oldest version of FDSStick had 4 Megabits of rewriteable memory and can hold up to 8 disk sides on its flash memory at a time.  The second version FDSStick has 16 Megabits of rewriteable memory and can hold 32 disk sides on its flash memory at a time.  The third version of FDSStick has 128 Megabits of rewriteable memory and can hold 255 disk sides on its flash memory at a time.  The fourth version of FDSStick has 256 Megabits of rewritable memory and can hold 512 disk sides on its flash memory at a time.

If each game you want to load is only one-sided, you can load 512 games onto the current FDSStick. There are only 199 licensed FDS games, however some games have multiple versions.  There were many unlicensed games released for the FDS by companies like Hacker International.  However, if your games are two-sided, then you will be able to load no more than 256 games.  Only six four sided games were ever released.  You can mix and match games using different numbers of sides so long as the total number of disk sides does not go above the maximum number of disk sides supported by the version of FDSStick you have.

The program has a meter that will show how full the FDSStick will be when you write your images to the device.  When you have finished making your choices, click on write and it will quickly write the images to the FDSStick.  It will take less than a minute to write the maximum number of disk sides to the FDSStick. Saving the existing games to your PC can be done in the same tab, using the file name you used when you originally loaded the game.  You can also remove individual games from the FDSStick using the GUI without erasing the whole of the rewriteable memory.

The program can also load games stored on your PC with the PC Emu tab.  This is useful if you have an FDSStick with a small amount of rewritable memory, but the price for the most recent version is so reasonable that it is well worth an upgrade double dip.  You must connect your FDSStick to your PC using a USB cable extender to allow this to work.

Using the FDSStick with the FDS RAM Adapter and the Twin Famicom

When you insert your FDS RAM Adapter into your Famicom and turn the system on, you will see the Nintendo logo (or FAMICOM if you are using a Twin Famicom) with the Please Set Disk Card text. You can insert your FDSStick into the FDS RAM Adapter cable before or after you turn the system on. A menu will appear on the screen and you can select the game using your controller, just like with a PowerPak or EverDrive N8.  Unlike those flash carts, the FDSStick does not support subdirectories.  You may want to trim down the file names to no more than 28 characters so that the game's name will fit on the menu screen. Spaces count, but the extension does not.

FDSStick Game Menu 

Game images need the FDS file format 16-byte header to work with the FDSStick's internal storage.  When you load single-sided disk images, they must be exactly 65,516 bytes large.  Double-sided disk images must be 131,016 bytes large.  You may need to add one with a hex editor (if you are using the no-intro set).  The crucial thing the header tells the FDSStick is how many sides the game has.  Only byte 04 differs in any FDS header, it is either 01 for single sided disk games, 02 for double sided disk games and 04 for four sided disk games.

After the game loads, it may ask you to change disk sides.  If it asks you to change to side A, you always press the button once.  If it asks you to change to side B, you always press the button twice.  If you want to select a new game, turn the power off on the console and back on to return to the FDS menu.

It is much easier than it used to be for sure!  In the oldest firmwares, there was no menu on the FDS "Please Set Disk Card" screen.  You had to know the order in which the game was written to the FDSStick.  When the FDSStick was first released, you had to know which of the eight slots the disk image's side A was in.  Prior to the firmware update, you also had to remember the slot in which the game's side A and B were located.  You also had to use a Command Line Interface if you wanted to write more than one game to the FDSStick.  Now it is incredibly intuitive to use the FDSStick.  Don't get started on the dark ages of the pre-FDSStick era.

The Twin Famicom does not have a RAM Adapter or a cable to connect to the FDSStick.  This is not surprising because the whole point of the Twin Famicom was to combine the Famicom and Famicom Disk System in an all-in-one unit.  However. the Twin Famicom has a port on its underside that has the signals the FDSStick needs.  For an extra $4, you can buy an adapter for the Twin Famicom that will easily interface with this port, but you will need a cable from an FDS RAM Adapter or find a Nintendo Multi-Out connector with connections for 11 of the 12 pins.  See http://3dscapture.com/fdsstick/ for more details.

Reading and Writing Real Disks

The FDSStick can copy to or from FDS Disks using the FDS Drive using the Disk tab of the program.  However, there are two difficulties with putting disk images onto real disks.  First, the drive must not be protected or the protection must be bypassed.  FDS Drive protections are covered here :

http://famicomworld.com/workshop/tech/fds-power-board-modifications/

http://famicomworld.com/workshop/tech/famicom-disk-system-fd3206-write-mod/

Second, you will need to make a coupling cable or start soldering wires.  Both the disk drive and the FDSStick use a male end, so you will need a cable with female to female connectors.  You can do this if you had two spare FDS RAM Adapters to cannibalize, you can use a pair of Nintendo Multi-out cables or you can solder wires directly from the exposed Disk Drive Power Board PCB to the test points on the FDSStick PCB.  I would suggest the second option using cheap third party connectors.  You will need to cut, file or grind down the bump that keeps the cable going in the right side up in Multi-Out sockets.  I would suggest a dremel for this purpose or a file.

After you have a good fit, look here for instructions on how to solder the wires : http://3dscapture.com/fdsstick/

Once you have your cable, insert your disk into the drive, power up the drive, and connect your coupling cable to the drive and the FDSStick.  Connect the USB end to your PC and use fdsstick.exe to read from a disk or to write to a disk.  It will save the image in the FDS format, but unlike the images found in the TOSEC and No-Intro sets, it will preserve the 16-bit CRC bytes for each file on the image. Emulators had no use for the CRC bytes.  It should also preserve the exact number of Gap bytes between each file and before the beginning of the disk.  The exact number of Gap bytes is indicated by a terminating bit, which is not needed by emulation.  There may be some copy protected games that require this sort of information, but I am not aware of any.

Some games have a simple method of copy protection whereby they put files after the last file indicated in the file number block.  These files appear hidden and will not be transferred in a file by file transfer, but will if the dumper always dumps 65,500 bytes as loopy's should do.  When loopy's device loads FDS game images from TOSEC or No Intro from its internal storage, it calculates and adds CRC bytes and Gap termination bits for the FDS RAM Adapter.

If you have trouble reading and writing disks, look to the information in the later pages of this thread, for advice : http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12163  If your disk is damaged, not much can be done except to combine it with an undamaged disk from the No Intro or TOSEC sets.

Why Buy the FDSStick? 

I have been able to complete the following games from start to finish without issue using loopy's FDSStick :

Akumajou Dracula (Demon Castle Dracula/NES Castlevania)
Dracula II: Noroi no Fuuin (Dracula II: The Seal of the Curse/NES Castlevania II: Simon's Quest)
Hikari Shinwa: Palutena no Kagami (Myth of Light: The Mirror of Palutena/NES Kid Icarus)
Legend of Zelda 2: Link no Bouken (Legend of Zelda 2: Adventure of Link/NES Zelda II: The Adventure of Link)
Metroid
Yume Koujou: Doki Doki Panic (Dream Factory, Heart Pounding Panic/NES Super Mario Bros. 2)
Zelda no Densetsu: The Hyrule Fantasy (NES Legend of Zelda) (first and second quests)

I think that is a fair endorsement for this device. Everything else I have tried works without flaw, as long as you avoid corrupted images. If an image from the No-Intro set appears corrupt (like Palutena used to be in older sets), try one from the TOSEC set and vice versa.  Note that No-Intro will put a [b] next to working images because they have saves on the disk.  A disk with saves is impure, but I have figured out how to "purify" many FDS games : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/06/cleaning-saved-information-from-famicom.html

One awesome feature of the FDSStick is that you can backup your saves.  When you beat any of the above games, you will not be able to see the ending unless you beat the game again.  Use an FDSStick to back up your game before you beat it and you can reload the fds image whenever you want to see an ending.

The currently available NES/Famicom flash carts just do not cut it when it comes to FDS emulation.  The NES PowerPak can fail with certain games and its sound emulation is sometimes off.  The EverDrive N8 is more reliable with games but you cannot pause a game when the game wants to change disk sides and the sound emulation is worse.  Even the mighty Hi-Def NES Mod and Analogue Nt will have notably "off" FDS sound.

The RAM Adapter, on the other hand, provides perfect sound.  It does not crash when given good images. FDS RAM Adapters can usually be had for $50 shipped.  It makes those FDSLoadr cables and Game Doctor devices thoroughly obsolete.  There are also other similar devices like the FDSemu (256Mbit) and the Magic Wild Card (uses microSD cards), but they are more expensive.  These are probably the best reasons why you should consider the FDSStick.

Analogue Nt - The NES as a Luxury Retro Console

Nintendo made over sixty million NES and Famicoms systems from 1983-2003.  It is not a rare system and a base system is not particularly expensive on the second hand market.  It was one of the most popular video game consoles of all time.  However, today getting a NES to run on modern LCD TVs and not looking like crap can be a bit of a challenge.  Any of the popular NES or Famicom models, the original Famicom HVC-001, the front loader NES-001, the top loader NES-101 and the Famicom AV HVC-101 output composite video at best and RF at worst.  LCDs usually make this signal look horrible and some newer TVs do not like the 240p signal output by these consoles at all and will refuse to display them.

Now suppose you took the two core custom chips inside every NTSC NES and Famicom, the 2A03 CPU and 2C02 PPU and had the resources to make a totally redesigned system.  Then suppose you wanted to make this redesigned system a luxury item which the press and deep pocket gamers would fall in love over.  Well, a company called Analogue Interactive did just that.  It made an enclosure for its redesign fashioned out of a single solid block of high-grade 6061 aluminum.  It took CPU and PPU chips from a batch of Famicoms in cosmetically objectionable condition and put them in sockets inside a new PCB that it designed.  The result is a redesigned NES called the Analogue Nt that costs $499.00 to purchase.  

Analogue Interactive has had success designing wooden enclosures for consolized Neo Geo MVS arcade PCBs.  These wooden enclosures, with matching enclosures for the joysticks, are beautifully designed, scream quality and come with price tags to match.  Of course, Neo Geo fans are known for deep pockets who will pay thousands of dollars for rare Neo Geo AES home console game versions and can afford an uncompromising attitude toward quality.  While prices for NES-related items have gone up and up over the years, they are not at the average level of Neo Geo-related items.  The NES had many more games, both games and systems cost far less and had a very wide appeal to gamers in Japan, the United States and Canada and to a lesser extent in Europe, Australia, Brazil, Russia and Southeast Asia.  Analogue Interactive has seen this as a market to tap into with its high-end design philosophy.

The Analogue Nt is designed to handle both NES and Famicom systems.  It has a 72-pin connector cartridge connector for NES Game Paks and a 60-pin connector for Famicom Cassettes (no one uses the "official" names for the media anymore, so from hereon out I will use the word "cartridges" like everybody else).  The four controller ports on the front eliminate the need for a separate 4-player adapter for either NES or Famicom games.  The controller pins are gold plated to resist corrosion.  It supports the Famicom Disk System with an FDS RAM adapter and disk drive.  

As you can see from the front of the unit, the Analogue Nt is very minimalist in design except where absolutely necessary.  No unnecessary ridges, no asymmetry, no buttons or switches.  No more vents than absolutely necessary.  The basic silver color looks as if it was designed by or for Apple Inc.  The little dot above the stylized A is for an LED button, something not found on a Famicom or top loader NES.  If you want to be more adventurous, for $49.00 extra you can get the console in red, blue and black.  Pre-order backers could specify white plastic controller ports instead of the Nintendo black.  

The Analogue Nt has more features and in some ways more powerful hardware than any official Nintendo product every boasted.  It has the equivalent of a NESRGB board built into every system.  That gives S-Video and RGB video output and this console also adds Component Video for us Yankees.  The regular 2C02 composite video is also available.  Cables beyond the basic composite/S-Video cable that the base system comes with cost an additional $29.00 each Analogue Interactive offers JP-21 RGB, SCART RGB, BNC RGB and Component Cables for sale.  For an extra $79.00, you can in addition have kevtris' HDMI Mod installed.  

On the back of the unit, you can see a number of ports.  From left to right, we have a Famicom Expansion Port and a microphone jack.  The microphone input mimics the functionality of the microphone on the original Famicom's 2nd controller.  So you should be able to kill Pols Voice without any effort on the original version of The Legend of Zelda on the Analogue Nt.  

After the microphone port are a pair of RCA audio outputs.  The RCA audio out is shielded and amplified for headphones.  The Analogue Nt supports the original mono audio from the NES or the split channels "stereo" audio mod.  The left switch is to select between the 4-player NES adapter, the default of 2-player input and the 4-player Famicom adapter.

The right switch functions with the up and down buttons next to it.  With the switch in the Mic position, you can set the output volume of the Microphone.  With the switch in the Aux position, you can set the output volume of the Expansion Audio from the a cartridge.  With the switch in the Mix position, you can set the monophonic/stereophonic setting

Next comes the power jack.  Finally there is an HDMI port (if you selected the HDMI Adapter Upgrade option) and a VGA-style HD-15 video output port for all analogue video output.    The red button is the power button and is taken from an NES controller.  A quick push acts as a soft reset, holding it down turns the power off.  

The Analogue Nt supports the NES PowerPak and Everdrive N8.  Its power supply supports all worldwide power standards and there are versions for the US and Japan, the UK, Europe and Australia.  It provides additional power for 3rd party devices.

The HDMI Adapter Upgrade offers an awful lot more.  It uses kevtris' (Kevin Horton's) design and has virtually all the features from the HDMI Mod he has been demonstrating for the past year. Here is an unlisted video Analogue Interactive put out showing off the features for its implementation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXsZ3LvdfCs

For those who prefer their information in text as opposed to video, a listing of the menu and submenus can give you a good idea of its features

Analogue Nt [Main] Menu

• Resolution
• 640x480 [60Hz/50Hz]
• 1280x720 [60Hz/50Hz]
• 1920x1080 [60Hz/50Hz]
• Video Options
• Horizontal Stretch
• Width [Slider]
• Scaling
• None
• HQ2X
• HQ3X
• HQ4X
• Scale2X
• Scale3X
• XRay
• Scanlines
• Off
• NES
• 2X
• 3X
• 4X
• 5X
• Interpolation
• On
• Depth [Slider]
• Palette
• FCEUX'S
• Beware's
• Playchoice 10
• Black and White
• Cropping
• Top Edge [Slider]
• Right Edge [Slider]
• Bottom Edge [Slider]
• Left Edge [Slider]
• Horizontal Position
• Position [Slider]
• Despeckle
• Sound Options
• Enables
• VRC6
• VRC7
• FDS
• MMC5
• N163
• Sunsoft 5B
• VCR6 Swap
• Volumes
• APU [Slider]
• N163 [Slider]
• VRC6 [Slider]
• MMC5 [Slider]
• 5B [Slider]
• FDS [Slider]
• VRC7A [Slider]
• VRC7B [Slider]
• Panning
• NES Sqr 1 [Slider]
• NES Sqr 2 [Slider]
• NES Tri [Slider]
• NES Noise [Slider]
• NES DPCM [Slider]
• Namco 163 [Slider]
• VRC6 Sq 1 [Slider]
• VRC6 Sq 2 [Slider]
• VRC6 Saw [Slider]
• MMC5 Sq1 [Slider]
• MMC5 Sq2 [Slider]
• MMC5 PCM [Slider]
• Sunsft 5B [Slider]
• FDS [Slider]
• VCR7 A [Slider]
• VRC7 B [Slider]
• Viewer [visual representation by sliders]
• NES Pulse Wave 1 [Shows duty cycle, frequency and volume]
• NES Pulse Wave 2 [Shows duty cycle, frequency and volume]
• NES Triangle Wave [Shows frequency]
• NES Noise [Shows short and long noise periods, frequency and volume]
• NES Delta/PCM [Shows sample address, sample length, whether sample is looped, frequency]
• FDS Wavetable Main Channel [Frequency and volume]
• FDS Modulator [Frequency]
• MMC5 Pulse Wave 1 [Frequency and volume]
• MMC5 Pulse Wave 2 [Frequency and volume]
• VRC6 Pulse Wave 1 [Frequency and volume]
• VRC6 Pulse Wave 2 [Frequency and volume]
• VRC6 Sawtooth Wave [Frequency and accumuator rate]
• Sunsoft 5B Square Wave 1 [Frequency and volume]
• Sunsoft 5B Square Wave 2 [Frequency and volume]
• Sunsoft 5B Square Wave 3 [Frequency and volume]
• Settings
• Menu Hotkey [can select any combination]
• A
• B
• Select
• Strart
• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Overclock Hotkey [can select any combination]
• A
• B
• Select
• Strart
• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Underclock Hotkey [can select any combination]
• A
• B
• Select
• Strart
• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Short Reset Hotkey [can select any combination]
• A
• B
• Select
• Strart
• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Long Reset Hotkey [can select any combination]
• A
• B
• Select
• Strart
• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Controller for Hotkeys
• Controller 1
• Controller 2
• DVI Mode
• DVI Mode
• EDID Disable
• Disable EDID
• Audio Clock
• CPU Clock
• PPU Clock
• Save and Update
• Save Settings
• Update Firmware [via flash cart like PowerPak or Everdrive]
• About

[Status]

Rez(olution) [Current]

Palette [Selected]

Elapsed [Time]

[Controls, changes with every screen]

Start - Reset Timer

A - Enter     Select - Back

While the NESRGB captures the pixel colors from the graphics more-or-less digitally and then recreates the frame, the HDMI NES has to do much more.  Not only can it output pure digital video, it can also output pure digital audio as well.  Because the audio comes out of the CPU in a strictly analog fashion, the HDMI NES has to emulate not only the internal Audio Processing Unit but also all the expansion audio chips.  It also has to monitor the controller input memory locations/registers to virtually eliminate input lag.  The NESRGB board is only connected to the PPU, but the HDMI board is connected to both the CPU and PPU.  The result is digital audio output at 16-bit/48kHz.

A NESRGB modded console connected to a Framemeister typically adds 1 frame of delay/lag to the input compared to a NES output to a CRT via composite video.  The Framemeister can convert analog audio to digital audio, which has to be converted back to analog for the speakers, so it is more noisy.  An HDMI modded NES like the Analogue Nt typically adds a few scanlines worth of delay, which is imperceptible by human beings.  This is in addition to any processing done by a non-CRT TV.  The NES's frame rate is an effective 60.098 frames per second, but the HDMI mod slows this down to a pure 60fps to avoid compatibility issues with picky HDTVs.  The slowdown of .0016% is unnoticeable to human beings.  If you want to get a better idea of how the HDMI mod works and its development, watch the videos on kevtris' channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/kevtris

Aethestically, the brushed silver aluminum finish may not make the best contrast against the dark gray matte finish of NES cartridges or the colorful plastic shells of Famicom cartridges.  Nintendo manufactured millions and millions of cartridges as cheaply as possible.  The gold Zelda cartridges and gold and silver Camerica cartridges may look most appropriate to the Analogue Nt, at least from a distance. The NES itself was made of plastic and rather boxy, it tried not to look out of place next to the VHS players and cassette decks of the mid-80s.  The Famicom, with its red and white scheme looked like a toy.  Those large NES joystick ports with visible pins are as far from modern interconnections like USB ports as you can get.  The plastic, rectangular NES and Famicom controllers with thick cables are somewhat removed from its descendants.  Today's video game storage media are optical disks and SD-like memory cards, not large bulky cartridges that stick out of a system.  The Analogue Nt may still look a little odd next to the 4K HDTV, the Blu-ray player, the Wii U, Xbox One  or Playstation 4 or the home receiver system.

The Analogue Nt was first announced in March, 2014 with an intended shipping date of summer, 2014.  However, summer turned to winter, winter to spring and spring to summer of 2015 before users have begun to receive their units.  Hard information about the device has been extremely limited, although excuses and apologies for the delay were not in short supply.  You can read a summary of it here : http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1076624  This has been seen by some as rather concerning from a company known primarily for its woodworking skills, not its electrical engineering design.  You had to pre-order the console and your account was charged immediately for the full price.  With the delays some have accused Analogue Interactive of running an unannounced Kickstarter-like campaign to raise interest-free financing.  Considering that the aluminum used for the enclosure and the high quality PCB assembly are large parts of the manufacturing cost, this charge has some merit.  To Analogue Interactive's credit, they offered full refunds to pre-order customers dissatisfied with the wait.  I can imagine some felt unhappy with their money tied up for over a year, but from what I have read, by-and-large most customers have stayed loyal. Analogue Interactive has made regular updates to its pre-order customers.

The superficial mainstream media also deserves some criticism.  A media organization finds a story about an interesting new product to be released and its competitors parrot it and that is often the last you hear about it from these sources.  Often you if do a search for the product, you will see little beyond the articles all originating around the same date.  Information about failed and long-delayed products is frequently harder to find.  You would think that if a media entity felt that this device was so sufficiently newsworthy to devote a substantial article, there would be reviews all over the place by now since it started shipping some weeks ago  There are none.

Analogue Interactive has released the occasional photo to keep up interest in the console and attention from the media.  However, if a photo is worth 1,000 words, a frame of video from the Analogue Nt is worth about 60,000 words.  It took well over a year from the initial taking of preorders to get video.  Last month IGN received a unit with an HDMI mod but at a particularly inauspicious time.  Their reporter received a unit on the first day of E3, and was only able to do a video unboxing.  No games were played on the unit.  I doubt that he had NES cartridges lying around in his hotel room in Los Angeles (but he certainly had a very nice looking pool table in his suite).  Moreover, there was so much other current generation news to cover at E3 and the week following it that there would be no time to make videos about the Analogue Nt.  You can watch the video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDo0hUHM82s

Since the IGN video, Analogue Interactive released a pair of unlisted Youtube videos to its pre-order customers.  The first showed off the HDMI Mod, and I have given the link above.  The functionality of the HDMI Adapter Upgrade had been a questioned feature because the older photos of the Analogue Nt only showed an analog video out port.  It was presumed that the HDMI Adapter Upgrade would act like a mini-Framemeister.  However, the video shows that the now-internal Adapter is licensed directly from kevtris' design, implicitly confirmed by the man himself.  (My skepticism of the release of the product was mostly eliminated at that point.)  Analogue Interactive has also released a second unlisted Youtube video showing gameplay footage from Mega Man 2 without the HDMI Mod menu, it can be viewed here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN6qtbWRC5Y.  Analogue Interactive is to be commended for doing the HDMI Adapter right by going with the Master of 8-bit Nintendo Hardware's (kevtris') design.    

Another individual attached to the website USgamer has received an Analogue Nt and did an unboxing video a few days ago.  His unit did not come with an HDMI Adapter Upgrade, so the hole where the HDMI port is supposed to sit is empty.  Unfortunately his video is no longer available.  According to the Analogue Nt user guide, you can send your HDMI-less console back for an upgrade at any time.  That user had a Framemeister, but the Framemeister is a jack-of-all trades while the HDMI Upgrade is designed specifically for the NES and its unique video output.

No one else has done an unboxing video, which suggests that people are still waiting.  Those who ordered the HDMI Adapter Upgrade may still be waiting because as of this date kevtris has not reported that he is done squashing bugs with his design.  If those bugs are hardware in nature, then Analogue Interactive may not have a final board to ship to customers.  Recalls are expensive for large companies and and a small company may get killed either from the cost of a recall or the bad publicity if they do not initiate a recall after a major bug is discovered.  

One other point of criticism about the Analogue Nt is the warranty period offered by the company.  They only offer a 90-day warranty on all their products.  By comparison, the big three, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony offer a one-year warranty on newly purchased consoles.  Considering that the core of the Analogue Nt is using used chips with unknowable prior use or abuse (did a prior Famicom owner try to get to new minus worlds in Super Mario Bros. by switching in and out a Tennis cartridge while the console was on?), the short warranty period is not particularly inspiring of confidence.  Not to mention that the Analogue Nt costs more than any of the current consoles, providing an industry standard one-year warranty would show appropriate confidence in their product and keep faith with customers.  

While unboxing and video capture footage videos are great, a full and real review from an unbiased and knowledgeable source is beyond due.  There are so many questions with using this device that have not been answered and cannot be answered without a reliable review of the whole Analogue Nt experience.  Even the User Guide, found here : http://www.analogueinteractive.com/pages/resources, can only answer so many questions.

For example, do the controller or cartridge connectors exhibit a Grip of Death?  Can you select palettes without the HDMI Upgrade Adapter?  Are there any issues with the FDS RAM adapter sitting flush on the slightly curved surface of the Analogue Nt?  What about more exotic devices like the Bandai Datach Joint ROM System?  Cartridge games like Zelda require the user to hold reset as they turn the power off to avoid RAM corruption, so how does the Analogue Nt deal with that?  Is there really a NESRGB board and an HDMI board inside the fully-upgraded Analogue Nt (seems kind of redundant)?  Is the Famicom Expansion Port sufficiently recessed for peripherals?  What is the experience like using the audio mixer buttons (the User Guide is a bit vague)?  Can you get expansion audio from the 72-pin cartridge slot using the pin 51 method?

There are some things an Analogue Nt will not do.  It will not play troublesome NES PAL exclusive games like Elite, Aladdin and Asterix properly and other PAL releases will run too fast.  That would require replacing the CPU and PPU with the PAL versions and changing the clock crystal.  The Analogue Nt can be opened with a slotted screwdriver, but doing so will void your warranty and there is a sticker on the bottom that acts like an anti-tampering seal.  It may not work with cartridges that require a lockout chip in the system like the Nintendo World Championships 1990 or Nintendo Campus Challenge (1991) cartridges.  Considering how rare those cartridges are (26 total confirmed to exist), their owners can find other ways to play them.  I do not recall kevtris getting the Zapper to work on his HDMI Mod, so it and other devices that rely on the refresh rate and scanline phosphor decay characteristics of a 15kHz CRT (R.O.B., Famicom 3D System) will not work on any LCD TV.  It must passthrough sampled ADPCM speech synthesis from cartridges in the Moero Pro Yakyuu series, no one has ever attempted to emulate that.  

Too often, one sees mainstream press coverage of the NES, whether it be a retrospective or a review of a new homebrew game.  While they may show a genuine front loader, they always actually show gameplay using a hardware or software clone.  There is no hardware clone made in recent decades that can accurately reproduce all the NES's quirks, and many get the basics wrong as with the reversed duty cycles for the pulse wave channels.  The Retron 5 is a popular choice these days because it can accept cartridges from the most popular system and display them via an HDMI output, but it is running on Android and using emulators of variable quality to run games.  Putting the game in the system is only necessary for the Retron 5 to dump the ROM to emulate it.  The bankswitching hardware inside the cartridge must also emulated or the game will not work.  The Retron 5 may also not run games it does not recognize if they use new or unknown bankswitching techniques.  Running on emulators means putting up with inaccuracies and lag.  Using the Retron 5 is something of a morally questionable choice considering that some of the emulators the company used, including the one used for the NES (FCEUmm) violate the terms of the emulators licenses.  More information can be found here : http://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-license-violations/ and it is truly reprehensible to violate the rights of individual programmers who do not have the resources to protect their rights. 

If the Analogue Nt is successful, despite its high price tag, we could see a revitalization of the closest way in which the NES and Famicom were intended to look, sound and play in modern times.  In fact, it looks to produce a better experience than Nintendo's own current limited offerings on the Wii U Virtual Console.  One hopes to have more information online about the console in the upcoming weeks, so hopefully some of the questions above can be answered.  If you have the money to spend and did not get in on the first batch another batch is apparently available for preorder, but don't expect to see it anytime soon (remember those TV commercials with allow 6-8 weeks for delivery, welcome to the modern version of that).

Everdrive N8 - A Most Worthy NES Multicart

Early in 2013, Krikzz released his Everdrive N8, the latest in the famed Everdrive series.  Unlike most of his Flash Carts, the Everdrive already had serious competition from the NES PowerPak, released in 2007.

Advantages compared to the NES PowerPak :

The Everdrive N8 has several advantages over the PowerPak.  First, it uses SD (NES version) or microSD (Famicom version) cards.  SD cards are cheaper and easier to find then the Compact Flash carts that the PowerPak supports.  They do not connect to a pin connector, so it is much less likely you will damage the connector.  SD cards are supported up to 32GB and it supports FAT16 or FAT32.

Second, it comes in a Famicom variety, which is awesome for those of us with a Famicom AV.  Krikzz even sells translucent Famicom cartridge shells.  You can see the LED showing the cartridge's operation.  The Famicom version supports mixing external audio emulated in the cartridge with the Famicom's internal audio.  Krikzz sells a 60-72 pin adapter that will allow you to use the Famicom version inside a NES.  You will only need to slightly modify a standard NES cartridge shell to make the two boards fit.  You can get the best of both worlds here.  If you wire Famicom connector pin 46 to NES front loader pin 51 or NES top loader pin 54 and solder the appropriate resistor to your system, you should be able to obtain expansion audio from your NES.

You can use the PowerPak on a Famicom or Famicom AV, but all the 72-60 pin converters I have tried are very poor.  The best one is too thick for the cartridge connector, and the rest use the cheapest plastic covers, have no supporting cover, and do not connect all the necessary pins or their edge pins are too short.  Krikzz's 60-72 pin converter is excellent and fits inside a NES cartridge shell very well.

Third, the Everdrive N8 has an advantage in picture quality over the PowerPak.  With the PowerPak, there are faint jailbars present whereas on an Everdrive they are much less noticeable. I can see faint jailbars (sitting three feet away from a 19" CRT TV) in the blue background of Super Mario Bros. (real cart) on a front loader, but I can barely notice them on the Famicom AV with the Everdrive loading Super Mario Bros. With the PowerPak the jail bars are quite noticeable, although it is not as bad as a NES Top Loader.

Fourth, the Everdrive supports automatically backing up saves to its RAM.  It has a replaceable coin battery to allow this function to work.  The PowerPak requires a reset to the menu.  If you do not reset, you lose the save.  Also, the PowerPak used to (and may still) require that the user create a blank save file, the Everdrive creates a new file automatically.  One exception is FDS games, both flash carts require pressing reset to save data onto the .fds disk images.

Both the PowerPak and Everdrive N8 support the entry of five Game Genie codes, but the Game Genie functionality does not work with every PowerPak mapper set.  The Everdrive supports Save States officially, whereas the PowerPak's save state support only comes with 3rd party mappers.  In order to play the two MMC6 games, Startropics and Startropics 2: Zoda's Revenge, the save state feature must be turned off in the options menu.

The Everdrive N8 supports file sorting without using a program, the PowerPak requires a program like DriveSort to accomplish the same thing.

BIOS updates for the NES PowerPak require the cartridge to be shipped back to retroUSB.  BIOS updates for the Everdrive can be performed with an SDHC card.  Only Everdrives shipped in the first two weeks would need a BIOS update.

The NES PowerPak costs $135.00 from retroUSB, the Everdrive N8 costs $119.00 from retrogate (including a is with a shell), so it is a bit cheaper.

The NES PowerPak has been around longer, and it has had mapper contributions from several people, loppy and thefox in particular.  On his own, Bunnyboy's PowerPak mappers never implemented FDS functionality, MMC5 or any of the expansion audio chips.  Krikzz's Everdrive has not had any mapper contributors other than Krikzz, even so he has still has implemented an impressive number of mappers.  There is little of importance, mapper wise, that is implemented in the PowerPak that is not in the Everdrive.  His mappers support games like Salamander, which is superior to its NES counterpart, Life Force but is the only game using its mapper.  Krikzz's mappers also support proper saving for the official Final Fantasy I & II combination cart, even though that is outside the iNES specification.  In fact, judging by the mapper support grid, every official Japanese game, excluding MMC5 and VRC7 games and some really weird stuff, is supported (it won't play sampled sound from games like the Japanese Bases Loaded series, nor will the PowerPak but most emulators don't bother with that either.)

Because there is only one source, you don't have to play the game of find a mapper file that will make your game work with an Everdrive.  Things are much easier as a result, and rarely has there been a mapper regression, which cannot be said about the PowerPak mappers.  In the seventeen months between the earliest and the latest OS versions, the Everdrive has come a long, long way.  I could not get every important MMC3 games that used the scanline counter to generate an IRQ (split screen effects) to work properly in the PowerPak, regardless of mapper I tried except by using thefox's original save state mapper.  I have no such complaints for the Everdrive.

The Everdrive does not have the issue of corrupt background tiles in certain games like Noah's Ark, which may be an insolvable problem with the PowerPak.  I could never get FDS Metroid to work in the PowerPak, but it plays fine in an Everdrive.

Disadvantages compared to the NES PowerPak :

While the Everdrive N8 supports some expansion audio chips, the resulting audio is sometimes less than ideal. It supports the FDS, Namco 163 and Konami VRC6 expansion audio.  It does not support MMC5 expansion audio (MMC5 works pretty much only for Castlevania III).  Note that the working MMC5 mapper (loopy's) for the PowerPak does not support its expansion audio either.  :

Loopy's Sunsoft FME-7/5B's PowerPak mapper supports Gimmick!'s expansion audio, the save state mappers cannot due to lack of space on the FPGA.  Recently, a user on Krikzz's forums named Necronomfive made a Sunsoft FME-7/5B mapper which supports expansion sound, and it sounds really good.  Get it here : http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=3245.msg31931#msg31931

Neither flash cart supports the VRC7 mapper or its sound.  The PowerPak mappers have more accurate expansion audio.  The PowerPak FDS support will also let you delay the automatic disk swapping to allow the introductions of Zelda no Densetsu and Doki Doki Panic to work. However, the Everdrive can set its emulated audio output mixing to low or high, which may be useful for late Famicoms and all Famicom AVs, which supposedly have quieter internal audio output.

The PowerPak is compatible with a CopyNES add-on, in fact it can use CopyNES to update its bootrom.  retroUSB sells both.  The Everdrive N8 refuses to work in a CopyNES-modded system.  On the other hand, the Everdrive is more friendly to clone systems than the PowerPak.

The PowerPak can play NSF audio files, the EverDrive requires them to be compiled into a ROM, and that is not easy to do.

Games Currently Not Working as of OS v13 (USA/Europe, Japanese Games not included) :

Too Large:
Action 52 (1.5MB of PRG-ROM + 512KB of CHR-ROM, Everdrive and PowerPak only support 512KB of each, will never work unless broken up)

Unsupported Mappers :
Racermate Challenge II (Mapper 168)
Death Race (Mapper 144)
Nintendo World Championships (Mapper 105)
Super Mario Bros + Tetris + Nintendo World Cup (Mapper 37, PAL Only, play separate releases)

The PowerPak supports Death Race and will play the Nintendo World Championships cart, but the timer can only be changed by using an alternate MAP069.MAP file.

Unsupported Mapper Feature :
Bandit Kings of Ancient China (MMC5 EX-RAM not supported, too glitchy to play)
Gemfire (ditto)
L'Empereur (ditto)
Nobunaga's Ambition II (ditto)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms II (ditto)

Uncharted Waters (ditto)

Laser Invasion (MMC5 game, glitchy graphics during takeoff sequence, works properly on PowerPak with loopy's mapper)

Mickey's Safari in Letterland (MMC3 Acclaim clone, status bar shakes)

All the above work on the PowerPak without glitches except for Mickey's Safari in Letterland, Uncharted Waters and Bandit Kings.

Using Game Genie codes requires a bit of explanation.  First, you must select the ROM you want to play.  Do not use the Select + Load option.  Then go into the cheats menu by pressing select.  In the cheats menu, you hold down B and use the D-pad to select a letter.  If you have swapped A/B in the options menu, you must use A instead.  The on-screen instructions do not change to reflect this change.  When you have entered all the codes, you exit out of the cheat screen using select and then A or B.  When you get back to using a cursor to select a ROM, press start to load the game and the cheat code will be applied to it.

Most people today use the No-Intro set for the basic set of properly dumped ROMs.  However, even with this set there are games that will not work.  Some do not work properly in emulators or flash carts because they lack headers.  If the game's size is an even number like 24KB, 32KB, 40KB, 48KB, 64KB, 80KB, 96KB, 128KB, 160KB, 192KB, 256KB, 320KB, 384KB, 512KB, 640KB, 768KB or 1,024KB, then it will appear as a bad ROM.  Every NES ROM file should be 16 bytes larger than the pure dump, thus appearing as 25KB, 33KB, etc.  Adding a NES header is easy enough.

Other games do not work properly, or at all, because they have the wrong information in their headers.  The header format flash carts support is the iNES 1.0 format, established back in the late 1990s when so much was yet to be learned about NES and Famicom cartridge hardware.  A header tells the emulator or flash cart how much PRG-ROM, CHR-ROM (if any), and PRG-RAM (if any) the cartridge has.  It will also tell the emulator whether the PRG-RAM is battery backed and the mirroring scheme the cartridge uses if hardwired or special (horizontal, vertical or four-screen).  It also has some useless and unsupported bits to inform an emulator whether the game is an NTSC or PAL game, if it is a Vs. System or Playchoice-10 game and whether it contains a pirate trainer.

Often, if a game does not work on an accurate emulator like Nintendulator, it will not work on the flash carts.  Sometimes this is because the header has the wrong mapper number assigned to it or has the wrong mirroring information.  The NES Cart Database has the appropriate information fort almost every NES and most Famicom games.  You should always use it, (Panesian games all use Mapper 3, with Bubble Bath Babes using Vertical mirroring and Hot Slots and Peek-A-Boo Poker using horizontal mirroring) except for the following :

Mapper 71 Camerica/Codemasters Games

Many of these games will experience severe glitches.  Examples include :

Big Nose the Caveman (major graphical glitches on left side of screen, should not see any)
Micro Machines (substantial graphical glitches for standalone cart version, Aladdin Deck Enhancer version just shows a gray screen)
Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy (standalone cart version crashes in seconds of starting gameplay)
The Ultimate Stuntman (severe graphical glitches, similar to Micro Machines)

Today, all Camerica/Codemasters games, with four exceptions, use Mapper 71.  They used to use Mapper 2 and the extra bits of Mapper 71 are really not important for emulation or a flash cart (with one exception). These problems will go away if you change the mapper to Mapper 2.  Fire Hawk is the sole exception, it must be Mapper 71 and appears to play fine.  The Quattro games (Action, Adventure, Sports) use Mapper 232.

Game Patch Required

Cheetamen II - Use Mapper 228 to Mapper 1 patch here : http://thegaminguniverse.org/ninjagaiden4/mottzilla/mapper.html to get this game to work
Cybernoid - Use or permanently patch the ROM with Game Genie code SXZNZV to get the game to work properly after you change the sound mode from sound effects to music.

These games work OK on the PowerPak without patches.

Four-Screen Mirroring Games

With the current OS, the two US four-screen mirroring games must use Mapper 04.  This is always the case for Rad Racer 2, but Gauntlet ideally uses the less advanced Mapper 206.  Change it to 04, which will harm nothing as far as Gauntlet goes.

Third Party Mappers

A few individuals other than Krikzz have released mapper files for the Everdrive to improve expansion audio and allow games to work, see here : http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=3405.0

VRC6 Expansion Audio Improvement
Akumajou Densetsu
Esper Dream 2
Madara

Sunsoft 5B Expansion Audio Support
Gimmick!

VRC7 Functionality :
Lagrange Point

Mapper 31 Support
NSF Carts

Mapper files use the RBF extension and always use three digits, hence 033.RBF, 249.RBF.  Each file may contain the configuration information for more than one mapper, unlike the PowerPak.  A file called MAPROUT.BIN assigns each iNES mapper to a RBF file.  This file is a 512 byte file and each value in the first 256 bytes corresponds the relative position on the iNES mapper grid here : http://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/Mapper#iNES_1.0_mapper_grid

Mapper files usually contain mappers with similar functionality, so many of the Konami mappers will use 022.RBF.  Here is a list I made of the RBF files and the mappers they support :

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
031 - 31
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
085 - 85
090 - 90, 211
118 - 12, 41, 47, 74, 115, 118, 119, 158, 182, 189, 191, 196, 205, 245

If the value for the mapper is FF, then it is unsupported.  If you want to add a mapper, you must convert the decimal number into hex, then enter the hex value in the appropriate byte in the MAPROUT.BIN.

Japanese Game Support :

As of OS v13, the following games have issues :

Incomplete Mapper :
Lagrange Point (game is playable but VRC7 expansion audio not yet implemented)

No PowerPak mapper supports the VRC7 games at all.  If you have a HiDef NES mod, you can use it to emulate the VRC7 audio for Lagrange Point.  You will have to revert to OS v3 for the EverDrive to work with a HiDef NES mod.

Glitches :
Fire Emblem (MMC4 game, glitches on right side of window borders)
Fire Emblem Gaiden (MMC4 game, glitches on right side of window borders)

Nonworking :
No Famicom MMC5 game can be expected to work correctly.
Any game using the Bandai mappers 153, 157 and 159 will probably not work.
Study Box will never work properly on any Flash Cart because it embeds a cassette deck.

Fix Required :
Galaxian - Must be an overdumped 24KB ROM, real cartridge is only a 16KB ROM, which is outside the iNES specification.  GoodNES's [!] rom will work.  Also has a Rev. A.  Same fix required for PowerPak.

Conclusion

The Everdrive N8 is an excellent product that has been well-implemented and boasts a very impressive array of mapper support.  With the proper ROMs, it will make your NES or your Famicom work with well over 1,000 games.  It has given the NES PowerPak serious competition and may yet completely eclipse it.