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nes simulator

github: PeakRacing/nes: A NES emulator in C (github.com) (recommend)

gitee: nes: c语言实现的nes模拟器 (gitee.com) (updates may not be timely due to synchronization issues)

Introduction

​ The nes simulator implemented in C , requires C11 or above

​ attention：This repository is only for the nes simulator and does not provide the game ！！！

Platform support:

• Windows

• Linux

• MacOS

Simulator support：

• CPU (All instructions)

• PPU (Simulating at pixel-level precision)

• APU (Fixed-point calculation)

mapper support：

​ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 94, 177, 180

Software Architecture

​ The example is based on SDL for image and sound output, without special dependencies, and you can port to any hardware by yourself

Compile Tutorial

​ clone repository，install xmake，execute xmake directly to compile

Compile Preparation

Windows:

​ install MSVC(Visual Studio)

​ install xmake

Linux(Ubuntu):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xmake-io/xmake -y
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install -y git make gcc p7zip-full libsdl2-dev xmake

Macox:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
brew update
brew install make gcc sdl2 xmake

Compilation Method

​ clone repository，execute xmake directly to compile

​ Note: This project supports both SDL2 and SDL3, use SDL2 to execute 'xmake' under SDL/SDL2

Download link

github: https://github.com/PeakRacing/nes/releases

gitee: https://gitee.com/PeakRacing/nes/releases

Instructions

​ on linux or macos enter ./nes xxx.nes load the game to run

​ on windows enter .\nes.exe xxx.nes load the game to run

Key mapping

joystick	up	down	left	right	select	start	A	B
P1	W	S	A	D	V	B	J	K
P2	↑	↓	←	→	1	2	5	6

Note: P2 uses numberic keypad

Transplant instructions

​ The source code in the incand src directories does not need to be modified, only the three files in the port directory nes_conf.h nes_port.c nes_port.h

• nes_conf.h is a configuration file, configure according to your needs, such as printing extra definitions, the implementation of nes_log_printf
• nes_port.c is the main porting file, which needs to be ported according to the needs

​ Note: If the target platform for migration has weak performance and small space, some macro configurations are specially reserved:

• NES_ENABLE_SOUND can be set to 0 to turn off the APU to increase the running speed
• NES_RAM_LACK can be set to 1, using a half-screen refresh to reduce RAM consumption (running at a slower speed)
• You can configure NES_FRAME_SKIP to skip frames
• NES_ROM_STREAM can be set to 1 to dynamically switch banks from a file. This mode only requires a 40KB active bank buffer (PRG 32KB, CHR 8KB). The file handle remains open, but the bank switching speed will decrease. It is designed for low memory.
• If SPI 8-byte transmission is used for embedded platforms, the color anomaly configuration NES_COLOR_SWAP can be used to switch the large and small ends

Showcase

mapper 0:

mapper 2:

mapper 3:

mapper 94:

mapper 180:

Discussion group

​ Non-technical support, only for the purpose of interest exchange.

Literature reference

https://www.nesdev.org/