FCE Ultra General Documentation

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
  • History of FCE Ultra
• Core Features
  • CPU
  • PPU
    • Palettes
  • Sound
  • Input
    • Zapper
  • File Formats/Expansion Hardware
    • iNES Format
    • UNIF
    • Famicom Disk System
    • Game Genie
    • VS Unisystem
  • Automatic IPS Patching
• Using FCE Ultra
  • Key Assignments
    • VS Unisystem
    • Famicom Disk System
    • Game Pad
    • Power Pad
    • Family Keyboard
  • Command-line Ports
    • SDL
    • DOS
    • Linux SVGAlib
  • MS Windows Port
• Cheat Guide
• Network Play
• Credits

FCE Ultra is an NTSC and PAL Famicom/NES emulator for various platforms. It is based upon Bero's original FCE source code. Current features include good PPU, CPU, pAPU, expansion chip, and joystick emulation. Also a feature unique to this emulator(at the current time) is authentic Game Genie emulation. Save states and snapshot features also have been implemented.

This document has been arranged to keep user interface details and emulation details as separate as possible, though this has not been accomplished entirely.

In several places references are made to the "base directory". If you are running a port on a UN*X-like system(Linux/*BSD/Mac OSX/SunOS/etc.), the base directory is "~/.fceultra", or in other words, "your home directory plus .fceultra". For all other ports(including DOS and MS Windows), the base directory is the directory that the executable is in.

This section is a work-in-progress. Some details may be incorrect.
Bero originally wrote a NES emulator that was referred to as FCE. This name was apparently meant only to serve as a temporary name, but its usage remained. Xodnizel originally ported it to Linux SVGAlib, and made a few improvements. This code base was abandoned, and work began anew, under DOS, with the original FCE source code. At the end of November, 1998, FCE Ultra Beta 1 was released.

FCE Ultra remained DOS-only until version 0.18, when it was ported to Linux SVGAlib, and released as a staticly-linked executable. The first MS Windows port was released as version 0.25.

The source code of 0.40 was released on November 12, 2000. It retained the simple license of FCE for a long time, which stated that " This software is freeware.you can use it non-commercially." Almost two years later, in June 2002, 0.80 was released, and FCE Ultra was relicensed under the GNU GPL.

All official instructions of the NES' CPU, the 2A03, which is compatible(mostly) with the 6502, are emulated. "Unofficial" instructions are also emulated, though probably not as accurately as the more well-defined official instructions.

FCE Ultra has many palette features, including loading a custom palette to replace the default NES palette. The palette from an NTSC NES can also be generated on-the-fly.

First, a note on on the format of external palettes; Palette files are expected to contain 64 8-bit RGB triplets(each in that order; red comes first in the triplet in the file, then green, then blue). Each 8-bit value represents brightness for that particular color. 0 is minimum, 255 is maximum.

Palettes can be set on a per-game basis. To do this, put a palette file in the "gameinfo" directory with the same base filename as the game you wish to associate with and add the extension "pal". Examples:

        
                File name:              Palette file name:
                 BigBad.nes              BigBad.pal
                 BigBad.zip              BigBad.pal
                 BigBad.Better.nes       BigBad.Better.pal
	

With so many ways to choose a palette, figuring out which one will be active may be difficult. Here's a list of what palettes will be used, in order from highest priority to least priority(if a condition doesn't exist for a higher priority palette, the emulator will continue down its list of palettes).

• NSF Palette(for NSFs only)
• Palette loaded from the "gameinfo" directory.
• NTSC Color Emulation(only for NTSC NES games).
• VS Unisystem palette(if the game is a VS Unisystem game and a palette is available).
• Custom global palette.
• Default NES palette.

All 5 internal sound channels are supported(2x rectangle, triangle, noise, and DMC/PCM). Sound channels are emulated with CPU instruction granularity. There are two sound quality options. Low-quality sound, the default sound quality option, generates sound data at 16x the playback rate and averages those samples together to 1 sample. This method works fairly well and is reasonably fast, but there is still some aliasing and sound distortion. All sample rates between 8192Hz and 96000Hz are supported.

The high-quality sound emulation is much more CPU intensive, but the quality is worth it, if your machine is fast enough. Sound data is generated at the NES' CPU clock rate(about 1.8MHz for the NTSC NES), and then resampled to the output sample rate. Custom-designed 483rd order Parks-McClellan algorithm filter coefficients are used. Supported playback rates are 44100Hz, 48000Hz, and 96000Hz. The following filter statistics apply for NTSC emulation.

Rate:	Passband Upper Bound(Hz):	Passband ripple(dB):	Transition bandwidth(Hz):	Stopband attenuation(dB):
44100	11982.5	0.20	10067.5	66.4
48000	13932.5	0.10	10067.5	60.0
96000	30000.0	0.01	18000.0	103.0

In addition to improved tonal quality, the high-quality sound emulation also simulates deficiencies present in the NES' D/A converter, which causes the sound output to be non-linear(for example, 16+16 might create an output equivalent to 25). Emulation of this is necessary for the DMC/PCM sound channel to sound correct. For example, without this feature, the drums in "Crystalis" are excessively fuzzy.

The "highest" sound quality mode is similar to the normal high-quality mode, but the filters are of a higher order(1024 coefficients). Ripple is reduced, the upper bound of the passband is higher, and the stopband attenuation is slightly higher. The highest-quality mode filter coefficients were created using "gmeteor". The parameters used to create these filters can be found in the source code distribution.

Besides the 5 internal NES sound channels, FCE Ultra emulates the extra sound capabilities of the Konami VRCVI, Konami VRCVII, Namco 106, Nintendo MMC5, and the Sunsoft FME-07 chips. The extra sound channel in the Famicom Disk System is also emulated, but the support for its FM capabilities is limited.

FCE Ultra emulates the standard NES gamepad, the Four-Score multiplayer adapter, the Zapper, the Power Pad, and the Arkanoid controller. The Famicom version of the Arkanoid controller, the "Space Shadow" gun, the Famicom 4-player adapter, and the Family Keyboard are also emulated.

Most Zapper NES games expect the Zapper to be plugged into port 2. and most VS Unisystem games expect the Zapper to be plugged into port 1.

The left mouse button is the emulated trigger button for the Zapper. The right mouse button is also emulated as the trigger, but as long as you have the right mouse button held down, no color detection will take place, which is effectively like pulling the trigger while the Zapper is pointed away from the television screen. Note that you must hold the right button down for a short time to have the desired effect.

FCE Ultra supports the iNES, FDS(raw and with a header), UNIF, and NSF file formats. FDS ROM images in the iNES format are not supported; it would be silly to do so and storing them in that format is nonsensical.

FCE Ultra supports loading ROM/disk images from some types of compressed files. FCE Ultra can load data from both PKZIP-format files and gzip-format files. Only the "deflate" algorithm is supported, but this is the most widely used algorithm for these formats. A compressed FDS disk image will only be saved back to disk if it uses the gzip format.

All files in a PKZIP format archive will be scanned for the followings extensions: .nes, .fds, .nsf, .unf, .nez, .unif The first compressed file to have one of these extensions will be loaded. If no compressed file has one of these extensions, the first compressed file will be loaded.

The battery-backed RAM, vertical/horizontal mirroring, four-screen name table layout, and 8-bit mapper number capabilities of the iNES format are supported. The 512-byte trainer capability is also supported, but it is deprecated. Common header corruption conditions are cleaned(let's go on a DiskDude hunt), though not all conditions can be automatically detected and fixed. In addition, a few common header inaccuracies for games are also corrected(detected by CRC32 value). Note that these fixes are not written back to the storage medium.

Support for the recent VS System bit and "number of 8kB RAM banks" is not implemented. Too many iNES headers are corrupt where this new data is stored, causing problems for those games.

The following table lists iNES-format "mappers" supported well in FCE Ultra.

Number:	Description:	Game Examples:
0	No bankswitching	Donkey Kong, Mario Bros
1	Nintendo MMC1	MegaMan 2, Final Fantasy
2	Simple 16KB PROM Switch(UNROM)	MegaMan, Archon, 1944
3	Simple 8KB VROM Switch(CNROM)	Spy Hunter, Gradius
4	Nintendo MMC3	Super Mario Bros. 3, Recca, Final Fantasy 3
5	Nintendo MMC5	Castlevania 3, Just Breed, Bandit Kings of Ancient China
6	FFE F4 Series(hacked, bootleg)
7	AOROM	Battle Toads, Time Lord
8	FFE F3 Series(hacked, bootleg)
9	Nintendo MMC2	Punchout!
10	Nintendo MMC4	Fire Emblem, Fire Emblem Gaiden
11	Color Dreams	Crystal Mines, Bible Adventures
12	??	Dragon Ball Z 5 ("bootleg" original)
13	CPROM	Videomation
15	Multi-cart(bootleg)	100-in-1: Contra Function 16
16	Bandai ??	Dragon Ball Z, SD Gundam Gaiden
17	FFE F8 Series(hacked, bootleg)
18	Jaleco SS806	Pizza Pop, Plasma Ball
19	Namco 106	Splatter House, Mappy Kids
21	Konami VRC4 2A	WaiWai World 2, Ganbare Goemon Gaiden 2
22	Konami VRC4 1B	Twinbee 3
23	Konami VRC2B	WaiWai World, Crisis Force
24	Konami VRC6	Akumajou Densetsu
25	Konami VRC4	Gradius 2, Bio Miracle:Boku tte Upa
26	Konami VRC6 A0-A1 Swap	Esper Dream 2, Madara
32	IREM G-101	Image Fight 2, Perman
33	Taito TC0190/TC0350	Don Doko Don
34	NINA-001 and BNROM	Impossible Mission 2, Deadly Towers, Bug Honey
40	(bootleg)	Super Mario Bros. 2
41	Caltron 6-in-1	Caltron 6-in-1
42	(bootleg)	Mario Baby
44	Multi-cart(bootleg)	Super HiK 7 in 1
45	Multi-cart(bootleg)	Super 1000000 in 1
46	Game Station	Rumble Station
47	NES-QJ	Nintendo World Cup/Super Spike V-Ball
48	Taito TC190V	Flintstones
49	Multi-cart(bootleg)	Super HiK 4 in 1
50	(bootleg)	Super Mario Bros. 2
51	Multi-cart(bootleg)	11 in 1 Ball Games
52	Multi-cart(bootleg)	Mario Party 7 in 1
57	Multi-cart(bootleg)	Game Star GK-54
60	Multi-cart(bootleg)	4 in 1(Reset-selected)
61	Multi-cart(bootleg)	20 in 1
62	Multi-cart(bootleg)	Super 700 in 1
64	Tengen RAMBO 1	Klax, Rolling Thunder, Skull and Crossbones
65	IREM H-3001	Daiku no Gensan 2
66	GNROM	SMB/Duck Hunt
67	Sunsoft ??	Fantasy Zone 2
68	Sunsoft ??	After Burner 2, Nantetta Baseball
69	Sunsoft FME-7	Batman: Return of the Joker, Hebereke
70	??	Kamen Rider Club
71	Camerica	Fire Hawk, Linus Spacehead
72	Jaleco ??	Pinball Quest
73	Konami VRC3	Salamander
74	Taiwanese MMC3 CHR ROM w/ VRAM	Super Robot Wars 2
75	Jaleco SS8805/Konami VRC1	Tetsuwan Atom, King Kong 2
76	Namco 109	Megami Tensei
77	IREM ??	Napoleon Senki
78	Irem 74HC161/32	Holy Diver
79	NINA-06/NINA-03	F15 City War, Krazy Kreatures, Tiles of Fate
80	Taito X-005	Minelvation Saga
82	Taito ??	Kyuukyoku Harikiri Stadium - Heisei Gannen Ban
83	Multi-cart(bootleg)	Dragon Ball Party
85	Konami VRC7	Lagrange Point
86	Jaleco ??	More Pro Baseball
87	??	Argus
88	Namco 118	Dragon Spirit
89	Sunsoft ??	Mito Koumon
90	??	Super Mario World
91	??	Mari Street Fighter 3 Turbo
92	Jaleco ??	MOERO Pro Soccer
93	??	Fantasy Zone
94	??	Senjou no Ookami
95	Namco ??	Dragon Buster
96	Bandai ??	Oeka Kids
97	??	Kaiketsu Yanchamaru
99	VS System 8KB VROM Switch	VS SMB, VS Excite Bike
105	NES-EVENT	Nintendo World Championships
107	??	Magic Dragon
112	Asder	Sango Fighter, Hwang Di
113	MB-91	Deathbots
114	??	The Lion King
115	??	Yuu Yuu Hakusho Final
117	??	San Guo Zhi 4
118	MMC3-TLSROM/TKSROM Board	Ys 3, Goal! 2, NES Play Action Football
119	MMC3-TQROM Board	High Speed, Pin*Bot
140	Jaleco ??	Bio Senshi Dan
144	??	Death Race
151	Konami VS System Expansion	VS The Goonies, VS Gradius
152	??	Arkanoid 2, Saint Seiya Ougon Densetsu
153	Bandai ??	Famicom Jump 2
154	Namco ??	Devil Man
155	MMC1 w/o normal WRAM disable	The Money Game, Tatakae!! Rahmen Man
156	??	(TBA)
158	RAMBO 1 Derivative	Alien Syndrome
180	??	Crazy Climber
182	??	Super Donkey Kong
184	??	Wing of Madoola, The
189	??	Thunder Warrior, Street Fighter 2 (Yoko)
193	Mega Soft	Fighting Hero
200	Multi-cart(bootleg)	1200-in-1
201	Multi-cart(bootleg)	21-in-1
202	Multi-cart(bootleg)	150 in 1
203	Multi-cart(bootleg)	35 in 1
225	Multi-cart(bootleg)	58-in-1/110-in-1/52 Games
226	Multi-cart(bootleg)	76-in-1
227	Multi-cart(bootleg)	1200-in-1
228	Action 52	Action 52, Cheetahmen 2
229	Multi-cart(bootleg)	31-in-1
230	Multi-cart(bootleg)	22 Games
231	Multi-cart(bootleg)	20-in-1
232	BIC-48	Quattro Arcade, Quattro Sports
234	Multi-cart ??	Maxi-15
235	Multi-cart(bootleg)	Golden Game 150 in 1
240	??	Gen Ke Le Zhuan, Shen Huo Le Zhuan
242	??	Wai Xing Zhan Shi
244	??	Decathalon
246	??	Fong Shen Ban
248	??	Bao Qing Tian
249	Waixing ??	??
250	??	Time Diver Avenger

UNIF

FCE Ultra supports the following UNIF boards. The prefixes HVC-, NES-, BTL-, and BMC- are omitted, since they are currently ignored in FCE Ultra's UNIF loader.

Group:
Name:	Game Examples:
Bootleg:
MARIO1-MALEE2	Super Mario Bros. Malee 2
NovelDiamond9999999in1	Novel Diamond 999999 in 1
Super24in1SC03	Super 24 in 1
Supervision16in1	Supervision 16-in-1
Unlicensed:
Sachen-8259A	Super Cartridge Version 1
Sachen-8259B	Silver Eagle
Sachen-74LS374N	Auto Upturn
SA-016-1M	Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu
SA-72007	Sidewinder
SA-72008	Jovial Race
SA-0036	Mahjong 16
SA-0037	Mahjong Trap
TC-U01-1.5M	Challenge of the Dragon
8237	Pocahontas Part 2
MMC1:
SAROM	Dragon Warrior
SBROM	Dance Aerobics
SCROM	Orb 3D
SEROM	Boulderdash
SGROM	Defender of the Crown
SKROM	Dungeon Magic
SLROM	Castlevania 2
SL1ROM	Sky Shark
SNROM	Shingen the Ruler
SOROM	Nobunaga's Ambition
MMC3:
TFROM	Legacy of the Wizard
TGROM	Megaman 4
TKROM	Kirby's Adventure
TKSROM	Ys 3
TLROM	Super Spike V'Ball
TLSROM	Goal! 2
TR1ROM	Gauntlet
TQROM	Pinbot
TSROM	Super Mario Bros. 3
TVROM	Rad Racer 2
MMC5:
EKROM	Gemfire
ELROM	Castlevania 3
ETROM	Nobunaga's Ambition 2
EWROM	Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2
MMC6:
HKROM	Star Tropics
Nintendo Discrete Logic:
CNROM	Gotcha
CPROM	Videomation
GNROM	Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt
MHROM
NROM-128	Mario Bros.
NROM-256	Super Mario Bros.
RROM-128
UNROM	Megaman

You will need the FDS BIOS ROM image in the base FCE Ultra directory. It must be named "disksys.rom". FCE Ultra will not load FDS games without this file.

You should make backups of all of your FDS games you use with FCE Ultra. This is because FCE Ultra will write the disk image back to the storage medium, and the disk image in RAM might have been corrupted because of inaccurate emulation(this case is not likely to occur, but it could occur).

The Game Genie ROM image is loaded from the file "gg.rom" in the base directory the first time Game Genie emulation is enabled and a ROM image is loaded since the time FCE Ultra has run.

The ROM image may either be the 24592 byte iNES-format image, or the 4352 raw ROM image.

Remember that enabling/disabling Game Genie emulation will not take effect until a new game is loaded(this statement shouldn't concern any of the "run once" command-line driven ports).

FCE Ultra currently only supports VS Unisystem ROM images in the iNES format. DIP switches and coin insertion are both emulated. The following games are supported, and have palettes provided(though not necessarily 100% accurate or complete):

• Dr. Mario
• VS Castlevania
• VS Duck Hunt
• VS Excitebike
• VS Gradius
• VS Golf
• VS Hogan's Alley
• VS Ice Climber
• VS Pinball
• VS Platoon
• VS RBI Baseball
• VS Sky Kid
• VS Slalom
• VS Star Luster
• VS Stroke and Match Golf
• VS Super Mario Bros
• VS Tetris
• VS The Goonies

Place the IPS file in the same directory as the file to load, and name it filename.ips.

        Examples:       Boat.nes - Boat.nes.ips
                        Boat.zip - Boat.zip.ips
                        Boat.nes.gz - Boat.nes.gz.ips
                        Boat     - Boat.ips
        

Some operating systems and environments will hide file extensions. Keep this in mind if you are having trouble.

Patching is supported for all supported formats(iNES, FDS, UNIF, and NSF), but it will probably only be useful for the iNES format. It can be used with the FDS format, but be warned that it will permanently patch your disk image, as the disk image is written back to disk when the game is unloaded(unless the disk image is in a zip file, in which case it isn't written back to disk). UNIF files can't be patched well with the IPS format because they are chunk-based with no fixed offsets.

Key:	Action:
F5	Save state.
F7	Load state.
0-9	Select save state slot.
F9	Save screen snapshot.
F10	Reset.
F11	Hard reset(toggle power switch).
F12	Exit.

Key:	Action:
F8	Insert coin.
F6	Show/Hide dip switches.
1-8	Toggle dip switches(when dip switches are shown).

Key:	Action:
F6	Select disk and disk side.
F8	Eject or Insert disk.

Key:	Button on Emulated Gamepad:
Left Control	B
Left Alt	A
Enter/Return	Start
Tab	Select
Cursor Down	Down
Cursor Up	Up
Cursor Left	Left
Cursor Right	Right

Side B
O	P	[	]
K	L	;	'
M	,	.	/

Side A
	P	[
K	L	;	'
	,	.

All emulated keys are mapped to the closest open key on the PC keyboard, with a few exceptions. The emulated "@" key is mapped to the "`"(grave) key, and the emulated "kana" key is mapped to the "Insert" key(in the 3x2 key block above the cursor keys).

To enable or disable Family Keyboard input, press the "Scroll Lock" key. When Family Keyboard input is enabled, FCE Ultra will also attempt to prevent any key presses from being passed to the GUI or system.

FCE Ultra supports arguments passed on the command line. The MS Windows port only allows for a file name to be specified, however. Arguments are taken in the form of "-parameter value". Some arguments are valueless. Arguments that have both a parameter and a value will be saved in the configuration file, with the exception being the network-play arguments. All ports other than the MS Windows one recognize the following parameters:

Argument:	Value Type:	Default value:	Description:
-cpalette x	string	0	Load a custom global palette from file "x". Specifying "0" will cause FCE Ultra to stop using the custom global palette.
-ntsccol x	boolean	0	If value is true, enable automatic generation and use of an NTSC NES' colors.
-pal x	boolean	0	If value is true, emulate a PAL NES. Otherwise emulate an NTSC NES.
-sound x	integer	48000(44100 for DOS)	Sets the playback rate. If it is zero, sound emulation(and output) is disabled.
-soundvol x	integer	100	Sound volume.
-soundq x	boolean	0	If value is true, enable high-quality sound emulation.
-input1 x and -input2 x	string	gamepad	Select input device for input port 1 or 2. Valid strings are "none", "gamepad", "zapper", "powerpada", and "powerpadb".
-fcexp x	string	none	Select Famicom expansion port device. Valid strings are "none", "shadow", "arkanoid", "4player", and "fkb".
-nofs x	boolean	0	If value is true, disable four-score emulation.
-gg	boolean	0	Enable Game Genie emulation.
-subase x	boolean	0	If value is true, Save extra game data files under the base directory.
-snapname x	boolean	0	If value is true, use an alternate naming scheme(file base and numeric) for screen snapshots.
-nothrottle x	boolean	0	If value is true, disable the speed throttling that is used when sound emulation is disabled.
-clipsides x	boolean	0	If value is true, clip leftmost and rightmost 8 columns of pixels of the video output.
-slstart x	integer	8	First scanline to be rendered in NTSC emulation mode(when PAL emulation is disabled).
-slend x	integer	231	Last scanline to be rendered in NTSC emulation mode.
-slstartp x	integer	0	First scanline to be rendered in PAL emulation mode.
-slendp x	integer	239	Last scanline to be rendered in PAL emulation mode.

Argument:	Value Type:	Default value:	Description:
-joyx y	integer,integer	0	Enable joystick #y for virtual joystick #x(both starting at "1").
-stretchx/-stretchy x	boolean	0/0	Stretch to fill surface on x or y axis(fullscreen, only with OpenGL).
-fs	boolean	0	Full screen mode.

Name:	Contribution(s):
\Firebug\	High-level mapper information.
Bero	Original FCE source code.
Brad Taylor	NES sound information.
Chris Hickman	Archaic Ruins.
Donald Moore	DC PasoFami NES packs.
Fredrik Olson	NES four-player adapter information.
Gilles Vollant	PKZIP file loading functions.
goroh	Various documents.
Info-ZIP	ZLIB
Jeremy Chadwick	General NES information.
Justin Smith	Good stuff.
Kevin Horton	Low-level NES information and sound information.
Ki	Various technical information.
Mark Knibbs	Various NES information.
Marat Fayzullin	General NES information.
Matthew Conte	Sound information.
nori	FDS sound information.
Quietust	VRC7 sound translation code by The Quietust (quietust at ircN dort org).
R. Hoelscher	Famicom four-player adapter information.
Rob Mocca	DC PasoFami NES packs, testing.
Sean Whalen	Node 99
Tatsuyuki Satoh	OPL2 emulator used for the VRCVII sound emulation.
TheRedEye	ROM images, testing.