INL mapper 30 testing - > which nes console?

Pete2kX

New member
Hello :D

My INL Kit arrives soon. I've got an european nes console but the nesmaker games are in ntsc format. So I asked myself how to test.

I could easily mod the console to play ntsc games by cutting the pin of the lockout chip. But it's not said that it'll work correctly. Also I still have 50hz instead of 60hz and there could be glitches and so on.

What console would be the best for testing?

Av famicon, original us ntsc consoles (toaster/top loader) or is it absolutely okay on my pal console? I mean did someone already test a nesmaker game on a pal console?

For me ntsc game format is the way to go because of speed,... so I'm not looking forward to create pal games (if it ever would be possible in the future).

So many questions :D but it's also a matter of the price. Importing nes consoles is not cheap because of the shipping rates. But if it would be the best I'll have to check ebay and so on.

Greetings
 

Mugi

Member
nesmaker games are not in ntsc format, they are in any format you want them to be.
the sound engine is however hardcoded into NTSC mode, i posted a fix for that in this thread: http://nesmakers.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=2115

the INL cartridges are also multiregional, by default they are in NTSC mode, and that can be changed by inserting the cart to the console and it it doesnt boot, you press reset to change the region.
the cartridge remembers the last working setting so this only has to be done once.
 

Pete2kX

New member
Hello Mugi. Wow thank you very very much!!! That's just awesome. So I could set my game to ntsc or pal format and save them separately as pal and ntsc without thinking about the sound because of autodetection. Didn't know I can choose region. I'm still a noob :D :D

Thanks a lot and greetings
Pete
 

Mugi

Member
you dont have to set anything in code to determine the region of the game, only difference that happens between PAL and NTSC is the speed it runs on (this is why PAL games are slower in general, because the console only runs at 50FPS instead of 60FPS) and the games have to be specifically programmed to be faster in PAL.

the audio autodetection is good because the audio actually slows down in PAL mode so i highly recommend you use the above code to ensure that the audio correctly plays in both regions.
if you want to have your game function at the same speed (character movement for example) you have 2 options for that.

1) you code a separate version of the game for both regions, and change movement speeds et cetera to slightly faster on the PAL rom.

2) you can code the game in a way that it checks which region it is running at (the audio variable can be used for this, because it is 0 on NTSC and 1 on PAL if above code is used) so you can make your code check this value and use faster object speeds when running in PAL mode.
 

Pete2kX

New member
Oh okay. So if the speed wouldn't matter to me I would let everything be as it is, put in the audio autodetection and I'm fine right?

And when people play the cartridge on ntsc or pal consoles they can switch by reset to their region when using inl mapper 30 carts.

This sounds very good to me. Thanks a lot again :)

Greetings
 

Mugi

Member
yup, that's how it goes. It's simple because there are no region differences on the console aside the speed difference, so the game will just work as it is on both.
you dont have to bother with region locks or anything because the carts are multiregion so just throw in the audio autodetection and game away :)
 

Pete2kX

New member
Hello :) I've got one more question. I really couldn't get the flasher kit to work because of error messages like block size too big, immediate cmd closing, input/output error messages and so on.

I tried different drivers and ports and in the end I thought it were 2 broken mapper 30 carts. But that seemed strange. The led on the flasherboard sometimes lighted up when trying to flash and sometimes not. It always stopped at writing 0 of...

I finally got it to work by using the flashcart_newargs.bat in the host folder of the inl-retro-progdump_map30 folder in the nesgamemaker flasher directory.

Sure, I can't use 'make cart' in nesmaker anymore but that's OK for me. Is there any problem by using the newargs.bat or will there be issues or is this absolutely okay?

Greetings
 

Mugi

Member
it's okay to use it. I believe that's the only one that acttually works at the moment anyway (this has something to do with INL updating the things while nesmaker was being done, so the make cart button doesnt really work anymore or something.)

one thing to note though that i have noticed myself when using the flasher is that a lot of times the first time you run the bat, it occasionally fails for no apparent reason, and more often than not, simply running it again usually does the trick.
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
Have you tried renaming your Flasher folder and using that one instead (don't re-install the drivers):
http://nesmakers.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=2633

And yes, like Mugi said, sometimes this doesn't work... just disconnect your usb, reboot, reconnect, and try again... (I have those kind of issues, regularly) :p
 

Pete2kX

New member
Hello dale_coop :) yeah I tried it yesterday, too. It could be that the folder from the zip is the actual Flasher folder I use now. But I don't know what I should rename. The inl folder seems to be legit with map30 at the end of the name?! Or do I have to rename something else?

Greetings :)
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
The "Flasher" folder (that is in your "NESmaker" folder), rename it... replace it with the one in the Zip file... and try again "Make Cart" in your project.
 

Pete2kX

New member
Ah okay :) I already tried this without success. But wouldn't it be possible to tell nesmaker to start flashcart_newargs.bat instead when klicking the make cart symbol?

Or is that nearly impossible to change without further knowledge? :)

Greetings
 

Mugi

Member
that you cannot change, as far as i know, nesmaker is hardcoded to run "flashcart.bat" when you click the make cart button.
however, .bat files are just text files, so you can open flascart_newargs.bat and copy it's contents into flascart.bat, then save it.
it doesnt really change anything though, generally the make cart button simply fails to flash the cartridge for reasons currently unknown to me.
(i did the above and using flashcart.bat works for me, but using the make cart still doesnt work heh.)
 

Pete2kX

New member
That sounds strange that it won't work. I give it a try but I guess it will end up with the same result :)
Had to cook first :D :D :D

I had to 'repair' the 72pin connector by boiling it and getting pins in the right position again. It
took some time to get the nes work again. But now I can say that both mapper 30 carts work flawlessly.
 

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