# ZENSF

Difficult to use tools for making an NES ROM album from NSF files.

This is mostly for my personal use, though I offer it freely for anyone to use.

Comments and documentation are written for my own benefit, but if you're lucky they'll be enough for you.

This is not a tutorial. If you'd like something easier to use, try EZNSF instead:

https://github.com/bbbradsmith/eznsf

For a demonstration example, see: demo.nes

The NES mapper used by this project is a newer design and only supported by recently made emulators. More info:

https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/INES_Mapper_031

Instructions:

0. See below for dependencies; in particular make sure cc65 is placed in the right folder before beginning

1. Place NSFs in in_nsf/ folder, edit tracks.txt to build the track list

2. Run nsfspider.py to build in_nsf/tracks.txt and work through any exceptions you get

2.1. Input:

2.1.1. in_nsf/tracks.txt

2.1.2. in_nsf/*.nsf - if named in tracks.txt

2.2. Output:

2.2.1. out_src/*.bin - 4k .bin files of each bank from the NSFs

2.2.2. out_src/*.s - disassembly of any bank that needs modifications

2.2.3. out_info/binlist.txt - list of 4k banks to be prepared

2.2.4. out_info/modlist.txt - list of detected modifications to be done

2.2.5. out_info/tracks.inc - track data tables

2.2.6. out_info/nsfe.inc - NSFe data tables

2.2.7. out_info/nsfspider.txt - diagnostic output

Note: this may take a few minutes to analyze the NSFs.

In nsfspider.py, debug_track_skip can be used for faster iteration.

All of the data will still be valid, but it will fail to identify some mods:

- modlist.txt will be incomplete.

- Some disassemblies will not be produced.

This is OK if you've already identified the mods previously.

(The contents of out_mod are not touched.)

3. Prepare modified banks.

3.1. Copy disassembled .s files from out_src/ to out_mod/

3.2. Review out_info/modlist.txt for things you need to modify with replacments from ramp.s:

3.2.1. Any bank F: comment out last 6 bytes and replace with VECTORS macro

3.2.2. Any bankswitch write needs to be replaced (sta $5FFB -> jsr sta_5FFB, etc.)

3.2.3. A bankswitch from bank "$-1" means it came from RAM. This has to be resolved with manual debugging.

3.2.4. If ZP or RAM usage is too high you will probably need to patch the NSF directly to fix this.

Some engines with this problem merely clear RAM during INIT, so this can just be replaced with NOP,

and after patching the NSF re-running nsfpider will find the true RAM usage instead.

(The disassemble_all option in nsfspider.py may assist in locating the memory clear code.)

The RESERVE option is to accomodate engines (e.g. OFGS) that use the high bytes of ZP,

ZENSF's ZP usage will be in the middle between ZP (in_art/art.txt) and RESERVE (in_nsf/tracks.txt).

3.3. Any extra banks needed can be manually added to binlist.txt

4. Place nmt/chr/pal art files in in_art/ folder, edit art.txt to provide an art list and other build paramters

5. Run package.py to build out_mod/ and in_art/ and work through any exceptions you get

5.1. Input:

5.1.1. in_art/art.txt

5.1.2. out_info/binlist.txt

5.1.3. out_mod/*.s - if named in binlist.txt and this file exists

5.1.4. in_art/*.nmt - if named in art.txt

5.1.5. in_art/*.chr - if named in chr.txt

5.1.6. in_art/*.pal - if named in pal.txt

5.1.7. ramp.s

5.1.8. mod.cfg

5.2. Output:

5.2.1. out_info/art.inc

5.2.2. out_info/screen.inc

5.2.3. out_info/screen_enum.inc

5.2.4. out_info/build.inc

5.2.5. out_info/strings.inc

5.2.6. out_mod/*.bin

5.2.7. out_info/nsfs.inc

5.2.8. out_info/package.txt

5.2.9. out_build/*.o (temporary)

5.2.10. out_build/command_temp.txt (temporary)

6. Build NSF with build_nsf.bat

7. Build NSFe with build_nsfe.bat (test this and/or the NSF to verify that everything done so far is correct)

8. Prepare in_code/custom.s to do your custom stuff. All the menus and stuff are handled in here.

9. Build NES with build_nes.bat

Good luck!

Other notes:

- Some NSF files do not use all startup banks. These will be replaced with the ROM's high bank ($FF).

- All input text files will be interpreted as UTF-8.

- Any changes to ramp.s will require package.py to be re-run to rebuild the mod banks.

- If adding NSFs late, add to the end of the list in in_nfs/tracks.txt and use the ORDER to specify the playback order. (In nsfspider.py debug_track_skip can be used to skip analysis for NSFs you've already modified.)

- This project cannot support Famicom expansion audio. Don't ask for it. Nothing is impossible, but expansion audio is beyond the scope of this thing.

Dependencies:

python 3 - install it

https://www.python.org/

cc65 - place in cc65/ folder

http://cc65.github.io/cc65/

py65emu - already included in py65emu/

https://github.com/docmarionum1/py65emu

If you're on a host platform other than Windows, you can probably figure out how to replace those batch files with whatever script you think is appropriate.

Other Utilities:

If you need a player for NSF/NSFe files:

https://github.com/bbbradsmith/nsfplay

Some emulators that can debug NSF:

https://www.mesen.ca/

http://www.fceux.com/

If you need a way to edit the files in in_art/ try Shiru's NES Screen Tool:

https://shiru.untergrund.net/software.shtml

It may help to be able to identify NSF engines used. This NSFID tool can do that:

https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14358

Licenses:

Go ahead and use this code, fork it, modify it, do whatever you like with it, commercial or otherwise. I'd prefer some credit, but I'm not that picky.

The project contained in py65emu/ was not written by me, but it has a license compatible with the above.

The code condainted in region.s has its own license which requires any source code releases to retain its license/copyright notice, but otherwise may be freely distributed. See that file for details. It was written by Damian Yerrick, and the original version is available here:

http://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/Detect_TV_system

The 3 NSFs included under in_nsf/ are not included in this license. See below.

NSF License exception:

The 3 NSF files contained under in_nsf/ are my own and may not be reused or modified without my permission, but may be resdistributed freely with this project. If you don't intend to properly credit me for them, replace them with your own NSF files instead.

Two of the NSFs are from my album of classical music for the NES:

http://rainwarrior.ca/music/classic_chips.html

The other NSF was composed for Famicompo Mini Vol. 8 and is available here:

http://rainwarrior.ca/music/index.html

https://github.com/bbbradsmith/zensf