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RetroBIOS

Nestopia UE

Nestopia UE emulates Nintendo NES and Nintendo Famicom Disk System. It reads 8 files, 1 of them required: without a required file it does not start games. A required file is needed only by the machines that use it. Each file below cites the line of source code that reads it.

About this profile
Detail Value
Type libretro
Classification Community fork
Source https://github.com/libretro/nestopia
Upstream https://gitlab.com/jgemu/nestopia
Version 2.0.0, stated in libretro/libretro.cpp
Revision libretro/nestopia@2110d21b7174, jgemu/nestopia@b3adbeb42482
Profiled 2026-03-24
Profile YAML, JSON
Cores nestopia
Systems Nintendo NES, Nintendo Famicom Disk System
Install this emulator's files

The installer finds your setup and its BIOS folder, then downloads only the files this emulator reads there and checks each one.

Open the Start menu. Type PowerShell and open it. Paste the line. Press Enter.

PowerShell
&([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://abdess.github.io/retrobios/i.ps1))) --emulator nestopia
Technical notes

Nestopia UE is a cycle-accurate NES/Famicom emulator. The libretro port tracks the upstream Nestopia JG project. NES cartridge games need no BIOS. Famicom Disk System games require disksys.rom (8 KB FDS BIOS) in the system directory. The core validates the BIOS via CRC32 against two known dumps: standard Famicom (0x5E607DCF) and Twin Famicom (0x4DF24A6C). An unknown BIOS triggers a warning but still loads.

NstDatabase.xml is an optional game database for region autodetection, mapper selection, and 4-player adapter recognition. A copy is baked into the core binary (libretro/nstdatabase.hpp) as fallback. The upstream Nestopia JG requires this file, while the libretro port makes it optional.

An optional custom palette file (custom.pal, 64 RGB triplets) overrides built-in palettes when the nestopia_palette core option is set to Custom. The libretro port embeds all named palettes (Royaltea, Smooth FBx, etc.) that the upstream loads from external .pal files.

Five Famicom games use external ADPCM audio samples placed in system/nestopia/samples/{game}/ as numbered .wav files. These originate from MAME sample ZIPs. Games function without them but miss some audio.

Files

Section titled “Files”

8 files: 1 required, 7 optional. 2 have an HLE fallback.

By kind: 3 BIOS and 5 game data.

In this collection: 8 in repo and 0 missing.

Required

Section titled “Required”
FileStatusHash

disksys.rom

FDS BIOS ROM

  • System: Nintendo Famicom Disk System
  • Mapped at 0xE000-0xFFFF (8 KB). retro_load_game returns false if missing when loading .fds files. CRC32 checked: Famicom 0x5E607DCF, Twin Famicom 0x4DF24A6C.
Hashes, validation, source and more
  • On a failed check: warns and runs with the file
required for Nintendo Famicom Disk System in repoMD5 ca30b50f880e

Optional

Section titled “Optional”
FileStatus

NstDatabase.xml

Nestopia game database for region and mapper autodetection

  • System: Nintendo NES
  • XML database matching games by SHA1+CRC32. Used for region, mapper, mirroring, and 4-player adapter detection. Built-in fallback exists so this file is optional.
Packages and source
in repo HLE fallback

custom.pal

External NES color palette

  • System: Nintendo NES
  • 64 RGB triplets (64 x 3 bytes = 192 bytes). Loaded unconditionally at startup, applied only when nestopia_palette core option is set to Custom. Falls back to built-in Royaltea palette. Multiple valid palettes exist so no canonical hash.
Source
in repo HLE fallback

Game data

Section titled “Game data”
FileStatus

nestopia/samples/moepro/

Moero Pro Yakyuu audio samples (16 .wav files, 00.wav-15.wav)

Source
optional in repo game data directory

nestopia/samples/moepro88/

Moero Pro Yakyuu '88 audio samples (20 .wav files, 00.wav-19.wav)

Source
optional in repo game data directory

nestopia/samples/mptennis/

Moero Pro Tennis audio samples (19 .wav files, 00.wav-18.wav)

Source
optional in repo game data directory

nestopia/samples/terao/

Terao no Dosukoi Oozumou audio samples (6 .wav files, 00.wav-05.wav)

Source
optional in repo game data directory

nestopia/samples/ftaerobi/

Aerobics Studio audio samples (8 .wav files, 00.wav-07.wav)

Source
optional in repo game data directory

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”
.

Maintained by Abdess on GitHub. Report a problem.

Packs from release v2026.10.10, .

MIT for the tooling and metadata. BIOS and firmware files are third-party system software, preserved for personal backup, archival and interoperability.