The combination of the FDSLoadr software[1] and parallel port/RAM adapter cable[2] allows an old PC to be used as a replacement for Famicom Disk System hardware. However the .FDS images found online often lack the header required by FDSLoadr.
The fdspatch tool will, by default, confirm that the image is
valid and display whether it has the required header. For example,
when run on a "Monty On The Run" image that lacks the header:
$ fdspatch ./monty.fds
Disk count: 2
FDS header expected: no
Image header valid: yes
Game vendor id: 10
Game ident: "MDD "
Game version: 0
The image is valid, but no FDS header is found. Running fdspatch
in convert mode will fix this:
$ fdspatch -c monty.fds
Patching /Users/vrai/Downloads/monty.fds ........OK
Re-running in default mode confirms the fix has worked:
$ fdspatch monty.fds
Disk count: 2
FDS header expected: yes
FDS header valid: yes
Image header valid: yes
Game vendor id: 10
Game ident: "MDD "
Game version: 0
Note that the FDS header is found and is valid. Running the tool in convert mode over an image that already has the FDS header will leave the file untouched. Only valid images that lack the header will be modified.
To build fdspatch on a Unix style system (including Linux and
OS X), simply run make. This will produce the fdspatch binary
that can be copied to the system's standard binary directory if
required.
To build on DOS, the DJGPP development environment[3] is required.
Once this is installed and configured, running make dos will
build fdspatch.exe. This binary takes the same options and works
the same way as the Unix version.
Note that the DOS version has only been tested on FreeDOS. Any version of DOS capable of running the compiler should work.
The latest version of the application can be downloaded from Github:
https://github.com/vrai/fdspatch
The fdspatch is free software and is licensed under version 2 of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program (see the COPYING file); if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
- FDSLoadr can be downloaded from http://nesdev.com/fdsloadr.zip
- The FDS RAM adapter to parallel port cable can be home build or bought from http://www.tototek.com/
- The DJGPP compiler and development environment can be downloaded from http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/
Copyright 2013 Vrai Stacey vrai.stacey@gmail.com