| General Category > General Discussion |
| NES Fix Permanent? |
| << < (4/4) |
| satoshi_matrix:
Oh I guess I should explain then. Castlevania 3 for NES is not the same as Akumajou Densetsu for the Famicom. While they're both the same game, they operate on very different frameworks. First, let me briefly explain about mappers. The Nintendo Family Computer (often called Famicom and known outside Japan as the Nintendo Entertainment System) was designed in 1983 to compete with other 8-bit consoles like the Intellivision and the Atari 5200. As time went on, the Famicom quickly found itself outdated compared to other competitor systems. One of the early and most effective solutions were the invention of memory management chips, MMCs or "mappers". Early mappers handled things like dynamic scrolling in titles like Metroid. As time went on, they aided in allowing larger, more complex character sprites, more advanced tilesets, expnded audio, and bankswitching which allowed games to be made for a system which otherwise would never be able to run them. In Japan, Konami's Akumajou Densetsu used a Konami made mapper called the VRC6 which allowed for advanced graphics and extremely detailed tiles, but most importantly three additional sound channels beyond the Famicom's built in four channels. This makes Akumajou Densetsu one of the ebst sounding Famicom games. In North America and Europe, the western NES was designed not to use the pins that were necessary for the additional channels, so the game had to be completely rewritten for another mapper. The only other mapper capable of the VRC6's visuals was the very expensive MMC5, although scrolling effects were not possible with this chip. A stock NES-001 "toaster" can't play Famicom expansion audio via a converter unless you modify it, and an NES-101 "toploader" can't be modified at all. Only a Famicom or very accurate Famiclone can play Famicom expansion audio in games like Akumajou Densetsu. |
| Moviefan2k4:
Just another bit of trivia: the name "Castlevania" was actually taken from a scene in the 1931 "Dracula" movie, starring Bela Lugosi. He uses it as a reference when inviting Van Helsing to his home. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Previous page |