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**importaku** · 15-07-2018, 13:28

Part 2: Add toppings

This part we will look at what's out there regarding neat stuff you can buy for your mini to enhance it's features and/or appearance. I won't cover every single item as there are a lot of carry cases & NES/SNES extention cords available, however there are a few neat items.

Like i said in part 1 the famicom has the main disadvantage of having hard wired controllers so you can't just add a extension cable and sit back. A company called Brook released a tiny board for the mini series that adds wireless controller support, the boards work on all versions of the mini nes & snes (not sure on jump version yet) all you have to do is open your mini, unplug the cable from the consoles motherboard and plug it into the wireless board then use the second included cable to plug that from the board back into the mini motherboard & you are all set. Your mini will now have the ability to sync with various wireless console controllers. The only drawback is the board only does one control pad so if you want both player one & player 2 sides converting to wireless you'll need to buy 2 boards but it's a useful mod to get and requires no soldering.

Product - Brook Gaming

http://www.brookaccessory.com/NINCADE/list.html

BROOK DESIGN LLC.

The next item is exclusively for the famicom mini, as with it's fullsize big brother it uses metal plates on the controllers. Over the years as they get played to death the metal coating starts to wear away around the buttons and seeing as the pads are non replacable it will be hard to keep them looking nice. Some wonderful company has released protectors that perfectly fit the pads and leave no residue if you take them off as they are silicone backed like screen protectors are, they even include a bit for the plastic part of the pad so it won't get all scratched up. They fit fantastic and are pretty much invisible when on. The only snag is i don't know if they are available outside of amazon japans marketplace.

Amazon | コントローラー本体保護フィルム高光沢タイプニンテンドークラシックミニファミリーコンピュータ I/II 用 | ファミリーコンピュータ

https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B01N52P3AV/

コントローラー本体保護フィルム高光沢タイプニンテンドークラシックミニファミリーコンピュータ I/II 用がファミリーコンピュータストアでいつでもお買い得。当日お急ぎ便対象商品は、当日お届け可能です。オンラインコード版、ダウンロード版はご購入後すぐにご利用可能です。

This one is purely cosmetic, the famicom looks great but it looks even better connected to a disk system. The famicom mini has several disk system games on it so it's kind of fitting you can get a little disk system to go underneath it. The disk system doesn't do anything as it's basically a cardboard storage box to keep the cables of your mini in but it does look nice. As a extra bonus it comes with a pair of stickers to add to your famicom mini to replicate the look of the stickers on it's older brother. It's strange that Nintendo didn't think of adding some in themselves as it really does complete the look. So far i have only seen them on amazon japan but there may be other resellers online.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B3%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B3%E3%83%90%E3%82%B9%E3%82%B5%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AB-%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B7%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%83%9F%E3%83%8BFC%E7%94%A8-%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B7%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%83%9C%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9-%E3%83%9F%E3%83%8B/dp/B01MDTNH9F/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=7TGD8AT4JBF4MA2G2YEQ

You may be thinking, hmm that disk system box looks cool but it doesn't really have a proper use and it's made from cardboard. I want to make my famicom even more authentic looking, seems cyber create had the same idea as they are currently in the process of making a mini plastic disk system that functions as a 3 input HDMI switch, apparently has a remote so you don't need to get up but im guessing from the renders that you will also be able to change channels from pressing the yellow eject button. The thing also has a led where the disk access light is so it will look rather nice when it's all connected. Not released till halloween this year but you can bet your ass i preordered one.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/CYBER-%E3%83%AC%E3%83%88%E3%83%AD%E3%83%87%E3%82%B6%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3-HDMI%E3%82%BB%E3%83%AC%E3%82%AF%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC-3in1-%E3%83%AC%E3%83%83%E3%83%89/dp/B07F1VFYW2/

The final mod is designed for all consoles it does require soldering but it's just a matter of lining up the board to the various correct solder points on the mini motherbard then connecting the boards together with soldering. The board adds the ability to expand the minis internal memory by allowing you to add a micro SD card to the inside. However you need to use it in conjunction with hackchi to make it work.

Breeze

https://echo10.io/

**importaku** · 15-07-2018, 13:29

Part 3: Classic à la MODe

Ok so you chose your mini of choice and you have maybe bought a few addon acessories and you have been thoroughly enjoying re-exploring the built in games but now you have come to a point where you feel like it's missing some of your faves or you have totally rinsed all of the games on it. While the games collections for the most part are pretty fab for myself it was missing a LOT of what i really love.

Thankfully for everybody there now exists software to totally modify your mini in a whole world of different ways but for this section i'll be concentrating on the basics of just getting new games onto it and making them look how you like. If you want to delve further into more hardcore modding then you will need to go do the reading up on it yourselves. Firstly everything has risks while the modding is pretty safe and simple there is a chance you can screw up if you don't follow instructions properly, people proceed with caution. If you are unfortunate to soft brick you mini you can easily repair it by reflashing the original stock kernel back onto it so it's important to make a backup first before you try anything.

Note
The new re releases of the NES & SNES mini in all regions have some updated internals so if you have bought one of these newer models it's important that you use the Hackchi2 CE edition

Releases · TeamShinkansen/Hakchi2-CE

https://github.com/TeamShinkansen/hakchi2/releases/

Tool that allows you to add more games to your NES/SNES Classic Mini - TeamShinkansen/Hakchi2-CE

if you have an older machine from the original first releases you can safely use clusters version of hackchi

Releases · ClusterM/hakchi2

https://github.com/ClusterM/hakchi2/releases

Tool that allows you to add more games to your NES/SNES Classic Mini. WARNING: hakchi2 is no longer supported. Please use hakchi2 CE. - ClusterM/hakchi2

Personally im using clusters hakchi 2.30 version so all the info i give will be relating to this but the options are mostly the same. While you can use one version of hakchi with several consoles it is reccomended that you use one for each console so i have 2 separate folders with a copy of hakchi in each one for my famicom & another for my super famicom i find it safer that way.

There's a lot of tutorials on youtube so i thought i may as well use one of them to show the basics, once you have hakchi up and running and you have some games uploaded i can give the settings changes to make it nicer depending on what you want to do. Just remember to use a version of hakchi suitable for your console and not just blindly follow the video, the vid is just to show the method of how it works.

For the most part all these tweaks are for the NES/famciom mini as the SNES doesn't need as much work but i'll cover those after the NES stuff.

Right now you have hakchi hopefully running it's time for settings tweaks, the first important thing is to install the retroarch cores so you can play unsupported games that use currently unsupported mappers. first you need the retroarch with cores zip file from here.

Releases · ClusterM/retroarch-clover

https://github.com/ClusterM/retroarch-clover/releases

Contribute to ClusterM/retroarch-clover development by creating an account on GitHub.

With hakchi up and running and your mini connected to your pc drag the newly downloaded retroarch with cores zip file into the hakchi window it will bring up a menu asking which cores you wish to install if you are not bothered you can leave them all checked but the only one you really need to be installing is the retroarch one. Once you have selected what you wish to install follow the instructions and let it write them to your console. Now you have the power to play unsupported games, the retroarch core contains 2 nes emulators fceumm and nestopia. When you add a game that is unsupported hakchi will warn you of such and ask if you wish to continue, it will automatically now use the fceumm emulator core instead of the built in one however i have discovered the fceumm is not that good for some games as for example using it to run Gimmick the sound will stutter pretty badly at random points where as using the nestopia core it has no problem at all so i would use nestopia for all games that the built in emulator can't run.

To make any added game use retroarch insted of the built in emulator you can use either
--retroarch --core nestopia (recommended to use this one)
or if there is a game that isn't working nicely then try the other
--retroarch --core fceumm

the commands are entered into the command line option above the box art window, you can also do other things in here like adjust the individual volume of games and a whole pile of other things. Here in this example on Gimmick im using the nestopia core, remember to leave a space in between commands.

Now when you have a game running using retroarch you can open the retroarch menu in game by holding in start & select, it's time to change a few things in these menus. Firstly we need to change the colour palette to something that matches the colours of the built in official emulator.

Press B to back right out to the front of the menu then goto
quick menu > options > select palette and then use left & right to scroll through till you get nes-classic-fbx-fs and then select it.

now it's time to turn off the sprite limit so you don't get flickering when the screen gets busy, it's optional but it's a nice thing to have on.
quick menu > options, and scroll down to select remove 8 sprites per scanline hardware limit & enable it

now retroarch has a nice scanline filter thats activated when you select the analog tv mode in the main console tv options screen, it's a bit like the snes mini but if you want to make them pin sharp instead of having a bit of a blurry bilinear filter effect theres an opton to turn it off.

goto
main menu > settings > video, then scroll right down to the very bottom there is an option called bilinear filtering just turn it off.

Once you are done playing with the settings just select quick menu & resume to go back to your game. The settings will be remembered across all games that you have specified to use the retroarch nestopia core. If the start and select menu is annoying and you want to disable it then there is an option in the retroarch menu under settings > input but it's not recomended as once you disable the only way to get it back is to uninstall the retroarch cores from the hackchi modules menu and then reinstall them to reset all the settings. Also do not play around with the extra video filters in retroarch as i have no idea how to get the original one back so soon as you play around and exit it will save that setting so it's best to leave it as.

Ok so that will have any unsupported mapper games running and looking nice with scanlines but what about games that you add that work fine with the built in emulator, there is a way to add nice scanlines to those too. There is a command line option that will add sharp non janky scanlines to the 4:3 & pixel perfect screen modes in the consoles video settings menu. Simply add the command --enable-crt-scanlines

The original built in games however cannot be edited in any way as they reside in a read only part of the mini, the only way around this is to select the original games option in the menu and untick all the boxes to make them hidden and then find the roms and re add them as new games so you can choose the various options.

Now we are nearly done there is a few options you will want to change in hakchi, firstly make sure the following settings are ticked in the settings menu.
Compress when adding
use extended font
disable epilepsy protection

For the Japanese famicom & super famicom mini it doesn't have a full font set so if you don't enable the extra fonts you will not be able to type any titles in japanese not a huge problem for most users but i like my games to have the correct titles so i translated all the kanji in the titles into kana so they all show properly.

A few more options left, in the controller hacks section of the settings menu make sure to tick the reset with a button combination option so you don't have to keep hitting reset you will now be able to get back to the menu by holding down & select although you can customize which buttons to use if you like. The other option you might want to change is disabling folders, personally i like all my games on one page without having a folder icon to take me to another page. On the settings page select folder structure and then disable pages/folders. This does mean that you can't put any more than 90 NES/famicom games on the front menu as if you put more you will get an error notification as you shut down. You can add more games but you will need to start using the pages & folders to do that if you wish.

If you have a famicom and you wish to add more famicom disk system games make sure you add into the command line --fds-auto-disk-side-switch-on-keypress
that command will let you change sides of the disk with a button press while loading.

That covers pretty much all the basics for nes games, you should be able to get most games running now but there are a few disk system games that don't work peroperly but you can use nestopia for those but you will need to remap the disk eject and disk change buttons to the controller to make those work so it's a bit of a pain. One final thing regarding save states while using the retroarch cores, it seems while save states work you need to give a few seconds for the emulator to catch up & create one as if you load a save and then instantly exit out to create another you will find that there isn't a little screenshot waiting to slot into the save slot box. It took a while to figure this out but if you are playing and you want to save state then it should work but if you then quickly reload that save and try to make another you need to give it about 10 seconds from loading the save state before you try to make another, hopefully that makes sense.

**importaku** · 15-07-2018, 13:30

Part 4: The super scoop

Ok we have covered NES/famciom mainly in the previous part but the SNES/super famciom has a few tweaks too, while you can install retroarch snes emulator cores i found that with the right patches and tweaks i didn't need to do so as the built in emulator works fine with most games but it will totally depend on what games you are trying to run.

Firstly there has been made a fantastic compatability spreadsheet that lists all the games people have tested to get running and also any patches and fixes to get them running on the built in emulator.

The spreadsheet is here

SNES Classic Mini CANOE Compatibility List

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12HKfz4ZQBy6Ip5awvh8t2aV5cVswYlnsdKxn9xoIW2Y/edit#gid=2014317767

Sometimes when you add a game hakchi gets confused about what ID to give it so the emulator works properly with it. If you see any games in the list and it has a preset ID listed you need to use Ctrl+Alt+E in hakchi to edit the game and type in the correct preset id. That should fix some problem games, also in the spreadsheet are patch links to download rom patches the user sluffy did an amazing job of releasing patch fixes for a lot of games, some fix graphical problems, some fix sound problems and some make the game actually work full stop.

If you are wanting to use a game that has a patch available you need to goto the download link location in the spreadsheet and download the patch, you also obviously need a copy of the game rom in question.

Now get hold of the lunar ips patcher from here

Lunar IPS

https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/240/

Lunar IPS is intended as an easy to use, lightweight IPS patch utility for Windows to replace DOS pr

Now all you have to do is run the patcher and select the run ips patch button then navigate to the patch file and then select the game rom, it should then automatically patch it for you. If you find the patch isn't working you may need to find a different version of the game rom as some have header junk and other stuff that will stop the patches working properly but so far the ones i have used have fixed the games for me but your mileage may vary.

That's pretty much it, you can use the same hackchi options as the famicom/nes mini like
Compress when adding
Use extended font
Disable epilepsy protection

And also enabling the reset by joypad hack along with disabling the page/folder options. There is a limit to how many snes/super famicom games you can have on one page without using folders, for snes it's 63 games. Any more than that and it will error on shut down.

If you want pin sharp scanlines on your added snes/super famicom games you can use the same command
--enable-crt-scanlines in the command line window in hackchi it will add the sharp scanlines to the 4:3 and pixel perfect video modes in the console settings screen.

And thats pretty much it for mods, hopefully that helps some people out but remember i'm no expert this is just stuff i picked up after scouring the net for info on fixing stuff as i tried to get all my wanted games working.

**importaku** · 15-07-2018, 16:00

reserved for part 5

**Leon Retro** · 16-07-2018, 09:26

Thanks for all the comprehensive info, Importaku.

I will try to get more games onto my NES & SNES over the coming week. If I have any problems, I'll make a post here.

Also, I will list some of my favourite SNES/Super Famicom and NES/Famicom games. I hope others do the same, because it's nice to discover games you haven't played before.

**importaku** · 16-07-2018, 10:13

These are the games that currently reside on my Famicom & Super famicom, it's not a comprehensive list but it's everything i have found so far that i really like. I went against the urge of just loading the things with every rom in the consoles library, it's more enjoyable to slowly assemble a selection of games tailored to yourself. In my case while i have left quite a lot of the built in games on them i just didn't list them below. i have disabled quite a few though built in super famicom games as i'm not really arsed with them. Stuff like final fantasy & secret of mana along with super formation soccer and streetfighter II even fire emblem is gone as i'll never play any of them, used that room for games that i will play. For famicom i kept a mix of the first gen releases with a mix of the newer stuff too.

My Famicom games on top of whats already built in
Abarenbou tengu
Akumajou special boku Dracula kun
Asmikun Land
Bananan Ouji no daibouken
Boulder Dash
Bubble Bobble 2
Burger time
Chou wakusei senki meta fight
Cocoron
Devil World
Donkey Kong JR. Sansu Asobi
Donkey Kong 3
Donkey Kong JR.
Door Door
Ducktales 2
FC genjin
Fushigi na Blobby blobania no kiki
Ganbare Goemon karakuri douchuu
Ganbare Goemon 2
Ganbare Goemon gaiden -kieta ougon kiseru
Ganbare Goemon gaiden 2 -tenka no zaihou
Gimmick!
Goonies
Gradius II
Gun-Nac
Hebereke
Heisei tensai bakabon
Hi no Tori Hououhen: Gaou no Bouken
Hottaman no Chitei Tanken
Kiteretsu daihyakka
Kyorochan land
Meikyuu jima
Mitsume ga Tooru
Moai kun
Obake Q tarou
Parodius Da
Perman Enban o Torikase
Perman Part 2: Himitsu Kessha Madou
Puzznic
Rockman
Rockman 2
Rockman 3
Rockman 4
Rockman 5
Rockman 6
Splatterhouse wanpaku grafitti
Summer carnival '92 recca
Sweet Home
Tetris Flash
Wagan Land
Wagan Land 2
Wagan Land 3
Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World
Wanpaku duck no bouken
Wario no mori
Wily & Light no RockBoard That's Paradise

Disk system games
All night nippon super mario bros
Apple town monogatari -little computer people
Bubble bobble
Electrician
Hikari shinwa Parutena no kagami
Super mario bros 2
Yume koujou doki doki panic

Extra added super famicom games
Arkanoid doh it again
Battle pinball
Chou Makai taisen! Dorabocchan
Cosmo gang the video
Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shougun Magginesu
Ganbare Goemon 3: Shishijuurokubei no karakuri manji gatame
Ganbare Goemon kirakira douchuu: boku ga dancer ni natta wake
Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyuushutsu emaki
Gokujou parodius
Gradius III
Gunmans proof
Hagane
Hebereke no popoon
Hello! Pacman
Jikkyou oshaberi parodius
Kiki kaikai -Nazo no kuro manto
Kirby bowl
Kirby no kirakira kizzu
Mario no super picross
Motoko chan no wonder kitchen
Parodius da!
Pop'n twinbee
Prince of persia
Rockman & Forte
Rockman 7
Rockman X2
Rockman X3
Soreyuke Ebisumaru karakuri meiro
Super Mario collection
Super Wagan land
Super Wagan land 2
Super bomberman 3
Super bomberman 4
Super bomberman 5
Super genjin
Super genjin 2
Super pang
Sutte hakkun
The firemen
The great battle III
The great battle IV
The great battle V
Tsuyoshi shikkari shinasai taisen puzzle-dama
UFO kamen Yakisoban Kettler no kuroi inbou
Wagan paradise
Wonder project J: Kikai no shounen Pino
Wrecking crew '98
Yoshi no cookie kurupon oven de cookie

**QualityChimp** · 16-07-2018, 10:19

Brilliant!
Gold star for you, Importaku.

*Bordersdown in no way endorses the use of illegal ROMs and the alteration of your equipment using this guide is entirely at your own risk!

**hudson** · 16-07-2018, 11:22

Excellent stuff. I'm enjoying GBA classics on mine. Metroid Zero Mission and Pokemon Emerald.

**Leon Retro** · 16-07-2018, 11:32

Originally posted by importaku View Post

Gimmick!

Gun-Nac

Parodius Da

Splatterhouse wanpaku grafitti

Summer carnival '92 recca

Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World

They're all great. I will investigate quite a few of the others.

Two other NES/Famicom games that spring to mind are:

Crisis Force - A really nice shooter from Konami that shows off the hardware.

Shatterhand - A fun action game that plays really well and looks impressive. The Japanese version is called 'Super Rescue Solbrain' and is based on a television series.

Originally posted by importaku View Post

Cosmo gang the video

Hebereke no popoon

Super genjin
Super genjin 2
Super pang

All the titles you've listed are good to great games. Cosmo Gang The Video is a lot of fun. The Super Genjin games are really nice. Super Pang doesn't get mentioned much for the machine, but it's well worth playing.

Other games I would add(if they are compatible) are:

Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie - Easily one of the best shoot 'em ups for the system. Great graphics and sound.

Ninja Warriors Again - A fun scrolling beat 'em up with really nice graphics.

Do-Re-Mi Fantasy - A beautiful platformer that is full of charm.

Of course, there are plenty of NES & SNES games to talk about. So I will recommend more when they spring to mind.

**charlesr** · 16-07-2018, 11:35

Mega thread. Wait, no. Super thread.

**Leon Retro** · 16-07-2018, 11:46

Originally posted by charlesr View Post

Wait, no. Super thread.

**importaku** · 16-07-2018, 22:23

Originally posted by Leon Retro View Post

They're all great. I will investigate quite a few of the others.

Two other NES/Famicom games that spring to mind are:

Crisis Force - A really nice shooter from Konami that shows off the hardware.

Shatterhand - A fun action game that plays really well and looks impressive. The Japanese version is called 'Super Rescue Solbrain' and is based on a television series.

All the titles you've listed are good to great games. Cosmo Gang The Video is a lot of fun. The Super Genjin games are really nice. Super Pang doesn't get mentioned much for the machine, but it's well worth playing.

Other games I would add(if they are compatible) are:

Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie - Easily one of the best shoot 'em ups for the system. Great graphics and sound.

Ninja Warriors Again - A fun scrolling beat 'em up with really nice graphics.

Do-Re-Mi Fantasy - A beautiful platformer that is full of charm.

Of course, there are plenty of NES & SNES games to talk about. So I will recommend more when they spring to mind.

Thanks for the recomendations i shall go through them to try out just testing the snes ones so far but shall check out the nes ones too. I had no idea about macross it is indeed a graphically impressive shooter. Man so many layers and objects whizzing around on screen, i love how things dimension jump into the level. those 3 games work fine on the mini but macross needs an preset id change. Had to remove a game to make room so out went super contra i think it's a more than fair trade off, pleased you mentioned that as i'd have never thought to try as i'm not a huge fan of the type of anime it's based on but even with it been macross based it's a solid shooter from the 20 mins i have played so far, i shall hammer this more through the week.

Yeah i really enjoyed pang, it's one of those i can pick up and blast through a few levels then bookmark for later. Eventually completed my way through the tour mode. Im also on my second playthrough of arkanoid, find that one relaxing and suprisingly long to complete.

**Leon Retro** · 17-07-2018, 00:00

Originally posted by importaku View Post

I had no idea about macross it is indeed a graphically impressive shooter. Man so many layers and objects whizzing around on screen, i love how things dimension jump into the level.

It really shows up how badly made a lot of SNES shooters are. I remember being amazed by it back in the day. It's just a shame it didn't come out in the West, because a lot of shoot 'em up fans who didn't import games missed out on it.

Another Super Famicom gem is 'Hansei Zaru: Jirō-kun no Daibouken', known as 'Spanky's Quest' in the West. It also has unique gameplay that is a lot of fun. I really like the graphics and catchy music.

**tokyochojin** · 17-07-2018, 09:25

Originally posted by importaku View Post

Ok so that will have any unsupported mapper games running and looking nice with scanlines but what about games that you add that work fine with the built in emulator, there is a way to add nice scanlines to those too. There is a command line option that will add sharp non janky scanlines to the 4:3 & pixel perfect screen modes in the consoles video settings menu. Simply add the command --enable-crt-scanlines.

Sorry for being a bit of dunce, but do you have to add this command to every file name for each rom file you add? Is there a way to set this option for all at once? Sorry if you already mentioned that, just want to add more filter options easily.

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