How to play NES and Famicom games
The NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), called Famicom in Japan, is a very popular video game console released in the 80s. More than 60 millions of units have been sold, and emulators have been popular since the late 90s. Several NES emulation software are still maintained today.
NES emulators
Several emulators are available, some of them have not been updated for years. We recommend these programs :
- FCEUX: recommended, really easy to use, has many advanced features, Windows only, but power users can compile it on Linux and Mac OS ;
- Nestopia: old but still good, easy to use, available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Tutorial on EmuHelp ;
- VirtuaNES: another old emulator not updated since 2007, available for Windows.
NES game archives
Most of the time, NES game archives will have several ROM files, which correspond to several versions of the game. The letters after the game name are based on the TOSEC Naming Convention:
- cr: cracked
- f: fixed
- h: hacked
- m: modified
- p: pirated
- t: trained
- tr: translated
- o: over dump
- u: under dump
- v: virus
- b: bad dump
- a: alternate
- [!]: verified dump
Running NES games in FCEUX
FCEUX is really easy to use, once you open the program, just click on File > Open ROM... and select the ROM file.
You can also check this tutorial on EmuHelp.
