Basic question about ROMS

[borcan]

Hi guys,

I am new here and also in the emu world so I apologize if this is a basic question for you. I've been looking lists of NES roms and there are some words in descriptions that I don't know the meaning. For example: Super Mario Bros. (proto) (what is the meaning of proto?) or Super Mario Bros (C) that it seems to be a different file format.

Could you please help me with this?

Thanks in advance.

[Iamerror]

Proto basically means that it's a prototype of the game. A version of the game where they can play it to find any bugs. The C, though I'm not sure. Don't feel bad about asking questions, that's how you learn.

[skullpoker]

It might be a clone, as in somebody making the game from scratch for practice.

People have done a lot of things with NES ROMs, like editing games to use different maps or harder difficulty. Read up on it and you might find some really cool things.

[Warrior]

Standard Codes
_______________

[a] Alternate
[p] Pirate
[b] Bad Dump (avoid these, they may not work!)
[t] Trained
[f] Fixed
[T-] OldTranslation
[T+] NewerTranslation
[h] Hack
(-) Unknown Year
[o] Overdump
[!] Verified Good Dump
(M#) Multilanguage (# of Languages)
(###) Checksum
(??k) ROM Size
ZZZ_ Unclassified
(Unl) Unlicensed
_________________________
Special codes
__________________

Game Boy
[C] Color
[S] Super
[BF] Bung Fix

Super Nintendo
(BS) BS ROMs
(ST) Sufami Turbo
(NP) Nintendo Power

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
(1) Japan
(4) USA
(5) NTSC Only
(8) PAL Only
[ (B) non USA ]
[ [c] Checksum ]
[ [x] Bad Checksum]
[ [R-] Countries ]

NES/Famicom
[PC10] Playchoice 10 version
[VS] Vs Version
______________________
Country codes
_______________________

(1) Japan & Korea
(4) USA & Brazil - NTSC
(A) Australia
(J) Japan
(B) non USA (Genesis)
(K) Korea
(C) China
(NL) Netherlands
(E) Europe
(PD) Public Domain
(F) France
(S) Spain
(F) World (Genesis)
(FC) French Canadian
(SW) Sweden
(FN) Finland
(U) USA
(G) Germany
(UK) England
(GR) Greece
(Unk) Unknown Country
(HK) Hong Kong
(I) Italy
(H) Holland
(Unl) Unlicensed
____________________

‡ Standard Code Notes
[a] This is simply an alternate version of a ROM. Many games have been re-released to fix bugs or even to eliminate Game Genie codes (Yes, Nintendo hates that device).

[b] A bad dump often occurs with an older game or a faulty dumper (bad connection). Another common source of [b] ROMs is a corrupted upload to a release FTP.

[f] A fixed game has been altered in some way so that it will run better on a copier or emulator.

[h] Something in this ROM is not quite as it should be. Often a hacked ROM simply has a changed header or has been enabled to run in different regions. Other times it could be a release group intro, or just some kind of cheating or funny hack.

[o] An overdumped ROM image has more data than is actually in the cart. The extra information means nothing and is removed from the true image.

[t] A trainer is special code which executes before the game is begun. It allows you to access cheats from a menu.

[!] Verified good dump. Thank God for these!

‡† Special Code Notes
Game Boy
[BF] Bung released a programmable cartridge compatable with the GameBoy which could hold any data you wished to play. However, many games do not function on Bung v1.0 carts and have to be ‘fixed.’

Super Nintendo
(BS) These Japanese ROMs were distributed through a satellite system in Japan known as the Broadcast Satellaview. They were transmitted along with a TV show which was connected to the game in some way. These games were only playable during the show, and thus stop after an hour, and many were timed so that only certain time periods were playable.

(ST) The Sufami Turbo device allowed two GameBoy sized carts to be plugged into the SNES. Certain carts combined into new games much like the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on technology by Sega.

(NP) Nintendo Power has been known to release games only available to its subscribers. Most of these ROMs are Japanese, as this practice occured mainly in Japan.

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
(1) Carts with this code will run on both Japanese and Korean machines.

(4) While this code is technically the same as a (U) code, it is a newer header format and represents that the cart will run on USA and Brazil NTSC machines.

(B) This country code indicates that the cart will run on any non US machine.

[c] This code represents a cart with known faulty checksum routines.

NES/Famicom
[PC10] The PlayChoice 10 was an arcade unit which played exact copies of NES games in an arcade cabinet. The machines had a choice of 10 games to choose from and ran for about 3 minutes on 25 cents.

[VS] The Versus system ran on similar hardware to the PC10 machines, but simply allowed you to play against each other.