Hello,
I am thinking about making an emulator for the Nintendo Entertainment System. I think it would be a good project that would be very fun. My only problems is knowing where to find game ROMs! I don't have any NES ROMs on hand. I don't want to use pirated ROMs, either. I do have a NES Classic Edition. Does anyone have experience with HackChi? Is it safe to use? I expect this project to be a challenge, but I think it would be fun as well. I just need to know where to get games first !
"How did you do this?"
"It's very simple — you read the protocol and write the code." - Bill Joy
Projects: NexNix | libnex | nnpkg
HackChi seemed fairly well behaved when I last used it, and would allow access to the rom files on the classic.
For others, there are various homebrew releases -- though they are not necessarily reliable test cases for actual hardware behavior.
Otherwise, unless you go the long route of tracking down one of the various dump tools, and cartridges to run through it, your only other option will be ROMs of, let's say, alternative sources. There are various databases around the net with hashes of known-good dumps, but the sources for the roms themselves will be best approached through a few sandboxes and industrial strength adblockers. Google can find them, but you're at your own peril there.
Nesdev.com is probably the most consolidated source of information for the hardware specifics, as well as a dev forum. Technical questions about the hardware and such are welcomed, rom requests are not.
!
.