List of NES Mappers
One of the shortcomings of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is that it was designed in 1983 for the Japanese market, and it wasn't deemed important to have the system be able to access more than 40 KB of ROM (read only memory, data on the cartridge) at any given time. By 1985, the cost of ROM chips decreased dramatically, and it was feasible to include more than 40 KB memory in a game.
To do so, developers added the "Memory Mapper Controller" or mapper. It's an additional chip added to the cartridge that allows the cartridge to switch between different sections of memory, to let the NES access more than 40 KB of data. Most of the time, if a game doesn't work in vNES, it's because of an issue with emulating the mapper correctly.
This list isn't complete yet.
| # | Producer | Name | NOA | NCL | Example Game | Works |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Nintendo | NROM (No Mapper) | 54 | 113 | Super Mario Bros. (W) [!] | Yes |
| 1 | Nintendo | MMC1 (SxROM) | 219 | 290 | Castlevania II - Simon's Quest (U) [!] | Yes |
| 2 | [Generic] | UxROM | 89 | 101 | Castlevania (U) (PRG0) [!] | Yes |
| 3 | [Generic] | CxROM | 59 | 63 | Solomon's Key (U) | Yes |
| 4 | Nintendo | MMC3 / MMC6 (TxROM, HxROM, DxROM, TENGEN 8000xx) | 201 | 239 | Super Mario Bros. 3 (U) (PRG0) [!] | Yes |
| 5 | Nintendo | MMC5 (ExROM) | 8 | 14 | Castlevania III - Dracula's Curse (U) [!] | Yes |
| 6 | Front Far East | F4xxx [128+128] & F3xxx [128+64] | 0 | 0 | Conversions for pirate hardware. | No |
| 7 | Rareware | AxROM | 31 | 3 | Battletoads (U) [!] | Yes |
| 8 | Front Far East | F3xxx | 0 | 0 | Conversions for pirate hardware. | No |
| 9 | Nintendo | MMC2 (PxROM) | 2 | 1 | Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (U) (PRG0) | Partial |
| 10 | Nintendo | MMC4 | 0 | 3 | Fire Emblem (J) | Partial |
| 11 | Color Dreams | 74LS377 | 0 | 0 | Bible Adventures (Wisdom Tree) (V1.4) [!] | Yes |
| 12 | Front Far East | F6xxx (BTL, REX, DBZ5) | 0 | 0 | Yes |