I am trying to dump my personal NES carts for preservation and emulation. I'm following the wiki Dumping NES Games · sanni/cartreader Wiki · GitHub as closely as possible. When I dump, I'm uncertain how to test my rom since I don't know how to add a header. The information on the wiki is confusing me and I'm not sure if my dumps are ok. Can anyone please give advice to help me know if I'm dumping correctly and give advice on how to add a header and test my dumps in an emulator? Thank you in advance!
No idea. But did you follow all the links in the article that you linked?
I followed all the links as closely as possible. All my dumps generated an iNES file, and I'm pretty sure I entered the prg chr values correctly and RAM was always set to zero. I cannot figure out how to use the links for adding an iNES header manually . The provided links: GitHub - dsedivec/inestool: Read/write iNES readers on NES ROMs
iNES Header Fixer | greg-kennedy.com are where I'm stuck (I think).
The first link is confusing and the tool wouldn't load for me. I couldn't find a working download in the second link. Assuming my dumps are clean, I need a tool to generate a header or help me manually load one. If anyone has any information on how to take a Sanni NES dump and add headers that would be amazing!
I found a great answer for dumping NES roms and generating headers. I found a solution thanks to a forum post from a member named LHCGreg. Props to him. In short- if you sanni dump your NES rom successfully using the guides above, adding a header for them to work in emulators is as simple as using the Mesen emulator https://www.mesen.ca/ and using the debug menu. Then select the edit iNES Header tool. Finally, select save as.
This allows you to save the file and give it a name and then it generates a proper iNES file for you to use in emulators. I didn't play with any values, I just saved the file as iNES rather than iNES 2.0 and it worked fine on the emulators I tried. Furthermore, the Mesen emulator boots your rom dumps fine without even needing a header, so that is an emulation option too. Also, you may have to try several dumps to get a clean one since the NES carts don't always perfectly connect and make contact. I was able to get almost all my carts dumped after a few attempts but there were only three I couldn't get to dump clean, probably because the cart connectors are worn, or because of bit rot. Obviously you must clean your carts too.
Well done on your researc and solving the problem.
Karma added for feedback that can help others in the future.
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