In Emulators / NES ROMs

I've got a question to you: There are always those symbols in the name of game NES ROMs. (At least on good websites.) Now I planned to download every NES game, which I have already managed. But I had a rule: Only NES ROMs that represent a real cartridge. And now, to be sure, I want to know: What symbols show that this is another version of the game and which ones just indicate that it's a different version of the ROM?
Let's become more concrete:
There are three versions of "Super Mario Bros." that represent actual versions: "(JU) (PRG0)", "(JU) (PRG1)" and "(E)". So, that means that there were actually three versions of the game: A European one and two Japan/US ones. To have a complete list of all games, I have to download all three.
On the other hand, "Super Mario Bros. (JU) (PRG0) " is not a representation of a real game. It's just a bad dump, so it's just another ROM of the same cartridge. That's why I don't have to download it.
And now please tell me: Which symbols show me that this is a different version of the ")? Did they really exist as cartridges or were they just translated by private persons on the PC?

I'd really appreciate if somebody could help me with it.

This probably won't help, but ill give you a link anyways.


And dont crap on me if its not what you wanted. im trying to help.

O.k., but I don't want to get the meaning of it. (I already know that.) I want to know if a symbol represents a real game or just a NES ROM: Is "" meant to be an official alternate version of the game (A fictitous example: "Maniac Mansion" with and without the hamster in the microwave) or just a selfmade alternate version of the NES ROM (For example: I dumped "Zelda" and after it I corrected the badly translated texts in the file on the PC).

, not "home made" or "hacks".

game.

= Original games that have been translated by at home programmers. They are not official releases. In addition, the games have also been "text hacked" to implement the Greek/Roman alphabet (or another character set), usually from Japanese text.
They are not 100% , but there is no change in the actual game itself. It's just a matter of if you want the game in your language of choice.
(NOTE: Not to be confused with lowercase "trainer".)

Fix") = A "fix" for GameBoy games that can be used with a special cartridge developed by a company called Bung. I don't think this applies much to emulation. It was used for the actual GameBoy and GBC.

So... if you expect to grab a ROM of every single "official" game release, expect to have hundreds of duplicate games with virtually no difference in them. If you just want the complete library of games for a system, just get the original NES ROMs and don't bother with the 's.

So, if I understand you correctly, then there is only one symbol written in square brackets that represents an actual game: .) (PRG is written in round brackets, by the way.) All other symbols either represent a modified NES ROM or a pirated game, right? (I'm only referring to the NES. For other consoles like the Game Boy of course advanced rules count.)

But I still have some questions:
1. What does mean? It's labeled as "Other Fix", but here again the question: Does this refer to the game (the company fixed something and released the new version) or to the NES ROM (a private person fixed something in the NES file)?
2. What would be the difference between "Game (U)" and "Game (U) then necessary as "Verified Good Dump"?
3. How can the program GoodNES recognize the correct name of every single game? Does the binary code of the game somehow contain the name with all the symbols?

P.S.: I would have found it better if they had used round brackets for all the game information (country, PRG, alternative, unlicensed, pirate etc.) and square ones for the NES ROM information (bad dump, crack etc.).

= A ROM that has been specially "fixed" in order to increase it's compatibility with emulators or other software-based programs. This usually applies to older versions of NES ROMs, before emulation got more advanced. NOT from a real game.

= Games/carts originally released in the United States of America. That's all. Usually these games are the most common and are all in English language. It does not mean "good dump".

= Correctly working ROM of a game.

I'm not sure why games are listed with/without the just so you know you are getting a good working version.


Indeed, it would have made things easier to figure out.

Thank you for your information. You helped me a lot.

By the way:

I know this. Of course it's the country code and not a symbol for a good NES ROM. I just wondered why a in useless.)

I believe the symbol was in use before the country codes, so it was traditional to include it in all NES ROM dumps.
Besides, it makes searching for good dumps a bit quicker just by checking for the .

@Z.E.N:
About the games you wrote:
Well, may I show you something? (Click on the images to show it in the original size.)

This is "Super Mario Bros. (E) ":

It has the graphic of the Japan second part.

This is "Super Mario Bros. 3 (U) (PRG1) ":

Have you ever seen such a map in an official "Super Mario Bros. 3" game?

"Super Mario Bros. 3 (U) (PRG1) ":

The picture is from the first level.

And finally "Super Mario Bros. 3 (U) (PRG1) ":

Also from the first level.

I tested all NES ROM names with GoodNES (to prevent that they are just labeled with "Super Mario Bros. (E) " etc., but really they are not these games).

Are you really sure that games are real games and not home made? I mean, I never ever saw any official "Super Mario Bros." game that looks like any of the above pictures.

P.S.: Can I upload the pictures anywhere on NESFiles.com? Because in the moment they are on my site and I don't plan to keep them there. So, I'd need a place for them, so that they are still there when anybody reads this topic in the future.

P.S.: Can I upload the pictures anywhere on NESFiles.com? Because in the moment they are on my site and I don't plan to keep them there. So, I'd need a place for them, so that they are still there when anybody reads this topic in the future.

looks like you downloaded hacked NES ROMs

Yes, of course. But I don't think anybody hacked for example the NES ROM "Super Mario Bros. (E) official.

I can't find any more information about "alternatives". The stuff I posted came from a TXT file that I read some time ago and I can't find the link.

Those screenshots look like "hacks". Either they were incorrectly labeled or the definition I found of is wrong.

I will clear up this NES ROM symbol mess as soon as I find any "correct" info about it.

It's nearly impossible that they were labeled incorrectly. I tested them with the program GoodNES which is able to rename every ROM back to its original name. The program recognized the ROM, but didn't give it another name. (Every recognized ROM is moved to the file "rename", no matter if it really had to be renamed. NES ROMs that are unknown to the program are not moved.)
I tried something out: I took a normal "Super Mario Bros." ROM and with NESticle I changed a little bit of the graphic. After the change GoodNES didn't recognize the ROM anymore.
So, we can assume that the names of the is not a label for an official alternative. The official alternatives are PRG0, PRG1 etc. (Compare both "Zelda" versions: The second one has the "Hold reset when POWer is turned off or the battery state may be lost" warning, the first one not.)