PocketNES - The Official Site

Optional splash screen (creator) (more info)
See How to control PocketNES for more info.
Features marked (creator) are controlled through options added when you create the menu rom, see What are options or variables? below.

What do I need to get this thing to play on a real Gameboy Advance?
You need a flash card and a flashing device. If you're only going to use the card for PocketNES a 64mbit card should suffice, holding about 50-100 NES roms.
See below for more info on how PocketNES works on specific brands.
Also see the how to for more info how to use flash cards.
The GBAEmu FAQ got some good info on various flash cards.
If you are planning to use the card for more than PocketNES there's quite a few things to consider. Since this all is beyond the scope of PocketNES please direct your questions about types of flash cards, which cards to use, or where to buy them, to Pocketheaven's Public Forum or GBAEmu's Forum.

Does PocketNES work with all brands of flash cards?
See the chart below for known issues with specific brands of flash cards.
For more detailed info and advice on how to use flash cards correctly with PocketNES, see the How To.

Brand Playing Menu* Saving Comments

Flash Advance Turbo Fine Fine Fine Needs padded file size

Flash2Advance/Flash Advance Pro Fine Fine Fine Works fine with the visoly menu and Pogoshell, as plugin or menu rom

Flash Advance Xtreme Fine Fine Issues Some save issues with the Xtreme software (not only with PocketNES). Try flashing with the parallell port instead of USB if you have saving issues, or flash as a single rom.

Flash2Advance Ultra Fine Fine Fine No known issues

XG Flash Fine Fine Fine No known issues

XG Flash 2 Lite/§ II/Magic Flash Fine Link Issues? Fine Should work fine with the loader menu since PocketNES v9.9. If you have problems with linking try using PocketNES as a single rom. Note: EZFA II and Magic Flash are rebranded XG carts.

EZ Flash Fine Fine Fine Use the latest version of the software. If you have problems getting PocketNES to work with the loader menu, try using PocketNES as a single rom.

EZF Advance Fine Fine Manual size Previous save issues should be fixed since version 0.99a of the EZFA Client. Manually set the save size to 512kbit every time you flash PocketNES. Linking should work with the loader since PocketNES version 9.94.

EZ-Flash 2 (EZ II) Fine Fine Manual size Manually set save size to 512kbit every time you flash PocketNES. Use the latest software.

X-ROM Fine Fine Possible state saving issues Some reports of state saving not working

Extreme Flash Advance Fine Works? Manual size? If you have problems with crashing using PocketNES with other roms, try flashing it as a single rom. You may need to manually set save size to 512kbit when you flash PocketNES.

* Menu = PocketNES used together with other GBA roms on the flash card using a loader/multiboot menu.

I highly recommend the original Flash2Advance card as they are very stable and there's plenty of tools available for them. Also, PocketNES was mainly coded and debugged using these cards so compatibility is pretty much guaranteed.
PocketNES should work on all flash cards as it's just like any other rom and uses SRAM saving so no special patching is needed.
If something in the chart above is wrong/has been updated, or if you have a brand of flash card not yet listed, please report on the forum.

Does PocketNES work with the MBV2 multiboot cable?
Yes! The older versions of PocketNES had a special rom for multibooting, but now it auto detects if its loaded via the cable. It even includes sleep mode to preserve power (particularly usefull since you can't turn the GBA off). The MBV2 cable is used for loading GBA roms directly from a PC through the link cable. For more info see the MBV2 site.

What is PogoNES and the NFS player?
They are plugins for the Pogoshell, a file menu system for the GBA.
PogoNES is the PocketNES emulator re-made for Pogoshell and NSF player is is a NES Sound File (.NSF) player. See the howto section for instructions and more details.
Also see What is the difference between PogoNES and regular PocketNES?

How does the link play work?
You link up GBAs and then play against each other just like on a real NES. Each player sees the same playing screen, but each GBA works as a separate controller.
You can link 1-4 players, so both 2-player and 4-player games work fine.
You can even send the game to the other players, so only one flash card is needed. This only works for smaller roms, under 192k, due to the GBAs memory limitations.
For bigger games each player needs their own flash card.
It is highly recommended to use official Nintendo link cables. Third party cables are unstable with PocketNES.
For more details on how to do linked play see the How to.
For lists of 2-player and 4-player games for linked play, see the lists section.

How do I get this thing to work?
See the How To page!

Does game *X* work?
See the Compatibility List. If the game isn't listed there, try checking what mapper it uses. There are mapper lists in the lists section. See below for supported mappers. If the game isn't in the mapper list and you can't find out any other way, just test it already! :D

Hints and Tips

How many games you can use with the menu?
There are no limits in the menu program or otherwise in how many roms you can include, so the limit is with the space of the flash card. Considering most NES games are between 25-300kB you could fit 25-300 games on a 64mbit card, 50-600 games on a 128mbit card, 100-1200 games on the 256mbit card, or 200-2400 games on the 512mbit card!
Note that the Gameboy Advance itself can't handle roms over 256mbit, so if you have a 512mbit card you need to split PocketNES up into at least two separate roms.
If you have problems getting a large amount of roms to work, it is most likely that some of them are corrupt, check out the troubleshooting
Also, emulators doesn't seem to be able to use roms over 128mbit, so if you have a large PocketNES rom that won't load on an emulator, chances are it will be fine on a flash card.

If I change the order of the games will the saves still work?
Yes! The saves are identified by the internal name in the rom, you can change the order of the games, or their names, do pretty much whatever you want, and the saves will still load!

Does the saves from old versions still work?
With version 8 and 9 the savestates from version 7 and 7a will work, but, sprite following will not work with a lot of games loaded from old save states. Also, you might have to remove a few states to save as the states only have 56k now, 8k is reserved for the SRAM. The SRAM save won't work if you have an old save full with state saves, so you have to delete a few to make room.
The SRAM saves from version 5-7a will no longer work as SRAM is compressed in v8.

Is there a way to make PocketNES use more SRAM on the card?
The Flash Advance cards have 256kbyte (2mbit) of SRAM memory, but PocketNES can only access 64k (512kbit) of it. If you want to get access to more SRAM than that, try making two or more PocketNES roms. If you make four roms you can access all the 256k of memory!
For more info on saving on PocketNES, see the How To.

Is there a way to use cheats with PocketNES?
PocketNES itself does not include any cheat options.
However, there are programs to add gamegenie cheats to the NES games before adding them to the menu. The codes will always be switched on and can not be controlled from PocketNES.
Hoe's PocketNES ROM Builder adds the cheats before making the menu, see Hoe's site
rdurbin's GameGenie.exe is a bit older and has more bugs, but it still works. This adds codes permanently to the roms, see downloads.
To find gamegenie codes check out the NES info sites in the links or try a search on Google.

Cautions

Are there any known bugs to watch out for?
There are a few in PocketNES version 9.
- Unofficial link cables don't work:
Symptom: link play don't work with unofficial link cables. Cause: The link code is buggy. Workaround: Use an official Nintendo 2 player link cables.
- A game won't work or the graphics are garbled:
Symptom: the game won't play, graphics are garbled or the menu don't work at all. Cause: Most likely you have a corrupt rom/bad dump. It might also be incompatible with PocketNES, see the compatibility list. Workaround: see troubleshooting, verify your roms, if you are sure you have a clean rom, you can try using speed hacks.
- Savestates disappearing:
Savestates not working or disappearing completely seems to be an issue with the flash cards or flasher softeware rather than with PocketNES itself. It usually happens with the Xtreme cards or the Xtreme Link software. If at all possible try using a different flasher program or multiboot menu.

Does PocketNES work on GBA emulators?
Yes. But don't judge PocketNES on how it behaves on emulators. I can not stress this enough. It is made to be run on the real Gameboy Advance and not on Gameboy Advance emulators on a PC.
If you are running PocketNES on a GBA emulator see how it actually works theres a few things you need to think of.
- Speed: The speed will most likely be hampered by running PocketNES through another emulator, unless you have a very fast system. PocketNES may seem sluggish on emus but it does indeed run full speed on real Gameboy Advance hardware.
- Graphics: The softening of the display in scaled mode can make the graphics appear strange on an emulator. The screen might flutter or the softening don't work at all, so graphics will look worse, quite a lot worse, than on real hardware. For example text is quite legible on the real thing.
- Sound: Sound might be distorted on GBA emulators, but it is fine, if a tad tinny, on real hardware.
- Emulator limitations: All emulators are somewhat innacurate, so you can never really judge the way a PocketNES game plays through a GBA emulator. Usually games work better on the real hardware but you can't be sure.
- ROM Size: Watch the size of the PocketNES rom. Emulators doesn't seem to be able to use roms over 128mbit, so if you have a large PocketNES rom that won't load on an emulator, chances are it will be fine on a flash card.
If you still want to try your luck... PockeNES seems to work on Visual Boy, and it might work on some others also. To get better display and avoid flickering, try turning the motion blur filter and/or frame skip on.
Some emulators require a valid rom size and header, see How to get PocketNES to work with multiboot for info on how to fix this.

Technical

What NES-mappers does PocketNES support?
PocketNES version 9 supports mappers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 32, 33, 34, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 80, 86, 87, 92, 93, 94, 97, 99, 105, 151, 152, 180, 228, 232.
See the Lists section for compatibility and mapper lists.

What is the difference between PogoNES and regular PocketNES?
PogoNES and PocketNES are really the same program, they're just used in different ways.
When using PocketNES you build a menu rom which includes all the NES roms and you use the internal PocketNES menu to select games.
PogoNES is used with Pogoshell and the roms are kept separately in the Pogoshell file system where you select the game.
You can of course use a pre-built PocketNES menu rom with Pogoshell as well.
PogoNES can't handle variables so you won't be able to use speed hacks or sprite following.

How does PocketNES compare to the e-Reader games?
Graphics: e-Reader graphics are identical to the scaled mode on PocketNES, but on PocketNES you can select the scaling cut-off lines.
Sound: Sound is slightly better on the e-Reader since it's done in software. PocketNES uses the GBC circuits in the GBA to save processing power.
General: e-Reader basically has none of the features of PocketNES, no saving, no linking, etc. Also the games has to be very small to fit on the cards, so just a few games will be released. See GameFAQs for info on available games.
On the other hand, the e-Reader is much easier to aquire and use, and the cards have a certain charm.
There are also a few NES games available in the GameCube game Animal Crossing. You can send these games to the GBA using a link cable. These games are identical to the e-Reader games, except they include sleep mode. There's also some bigger games, since it's not limited by card sizes. Again, check GameFAQs for info on included games.

What is scaled and unscaled mode? Fullscreen?
- Short and simple answer:
Scaled is the same as fullscreen, that is, the full NES display is shrunk down to fit into the GBA screen. Please note that the screen is scaled down and not blown up.
Unscaled means the graphics are not scaled at all. The graphics are displayed in their full size with the NES display cut off by the GBA screen. You can scroll up and down with the L and R buttons to see different parts of the screen.
- Illustrated answer:
On the NES Resolution Explained page you will find screenshots comparing the PocketNES display to the intended TV display and raw emulator output.
The scaled PocketNES display is in fact quite accurate even when compared to PC emulators!
On the Screenshots page you can compare the scaled and unscaled display of various games.
Some games work better in scaled mode and some look better in unscaled. Just try both to see which you like best.
- More detailed technical explanation:
The NES has a screen resolution of 256x240 while the GBA has only 240x160. This obviously means that the NES screen does not easily fit into the GBA screen.
There are basically two ways to handle this, either cut off the parts of the screen that does not fit, or shrink the screen to fit.
Horizontally, there are 16 lines that does not fit (NES width is 256 while GBA is only 240). In both scaled and unscaled mode, these are simply cut off, 8 on each side so the screen is centered. Note that these lines are often not used anyway since most TVs don't display them.
The screen background scaling is done by removing every fourth horizontal line, and then blending the bordering lines by drawing them alternately. Removing 1/4 of 240 lines leaves 180 lines though, and with the gba only being 160 lines high, there's 20 lines cut off at the top and bottom. As with the horizontal lines being cut, these are lines that aren't used by games since TVs don't display them.
If sprite scaling is turned on, "SCALED (w/sprite)", the sprites are scaled similarly but without the softening blending. If sprite scaling is turned off, "SCALED", the sprites are not scaled down, but they are moved horisontally to match the scaled background.

What is sprite following?
Sprite following is available in unscaled mode. It makes the screen follow your sprite (character) as you jump up and down in the game.
Without sprite following your sprite would jump out of the screen because in unscaled mode the screen is cut off.
You could try and manually scroll the screen up and down to keep track of it, but this get annoying pretty fast.
With sprite following the screen automatically focuses the screen to follow the sprite up and down making sure you never jump offscreen!
Sprite following is a great alternative to the scaled mode, allowing the graphics to be kept intact and the games still playable.
See the How To page for instructions how to get sprite following to work!

What are options and variables?
Options are mainly used to activate sprite following. There's also a few speed/PAL hack options, but those are rarely used anymore as the compatibility has increased.
There are menu creators automating the adding of options, see How to use options and variables.
More technical info about options and variables follows:
The options are added in a header before each NES rom.
In the older, pre-7a version of the menu the variables were added in a menu.txt text file included with the roms, and some menu creators use a format similar to the old menu format.
The sprite following options are 16 and 32. 16 makes the screen follow a sprite number and 32 a memory location. You can get a list of variables to use with these in the lists page. For info on how to find them, see the HowTo.
The hack options are PPU hack (1) and CPU hack (2). 1 enables a PPU hack which can speed up some games. CPU hack 2 is enabled by default, but adding option 2 will disable it, a few games will run better this way.
There is also an undocumented PAL hack 4 which is basically only used for the game Elite. You can try it with other (E) games as well, but most are still too fast.
See also loopy's menu.txt example file from version 7.