Building an All-Terrain NES Emulator

[@juanmacias5922]

Cool concept! I like using web apps because anyone can use it, but dealing with browser specific errors can be annoying lol

[@roguewarrior51]

best way to play Oregon trail

[@dubbynelson]

not anyone-the memory overhead on a lot of web apps is absurd and not everyone buys the latest iPad every four years to catch up with the overwhelming bloat that modern software development teams (or, more specifically, those in charge of said teams) have made so disgustingly standard.

[@Faoplich-On-Rumble]

POV: Nintendo getting ready to arrest the entire internet and the entirety of javascript just because theres a nes emulator website

[@ukigames7664]

Wow dedication

[@Smaxx]

Nice! Only two minor complaints from me: If you try to load a game using an unsupported/unimplemented mapper, there's an error message in the JS console, but not visible to the regular user. And the second one is about your input scheme: Not everyone is on QWERTY keyboards. I as a German user QWERTZ, which kind of works, but imagine having to play with Y and X. It's probably even worse for French AZERTY.😉 As a nice to have feature, would be nice to have a PAL toggle to run the game at 50Hz.

[@InkboxSoftware]

Try clicking on the input button and you can rebind the key. I will also work on the mapper alert issue.

[@Smaxx]

@@InkboxSoftware Ah, nice, that wasn't obvious enough. With visible key binds disabled you only see the controller changing color after all.

[@yaboijuanito1460]

@@InkboxSoftware I'm having trouble to play my NES roms on the website

[@WinVisten]

There used to be one called virtualNES or something like that , it existed years ago in like 2006-2011, but it disappeared forever ago. Basically it used a web-app emulator that would load a game you clicked from a list of games that the creator/owner of the site/emulator had a copy of.

[@BoysenBarry]

This brings me back, if we're remembering the same website this is how I played a LOT of NES games when I was in grade school in the computer lab. It's how I first played a Final Fantasy game and is probably a huge contributing factor as to my love for 8-bit games as a whole. Great times.

[@FigureFarter]

That emulator was used in the punch out minigame from warioware wii. If you remove the tv border, there's a window of virtuanes running the game

[@ChadWSmith]

You are wealth of information and entertainment. Thank you!

[@mustachewalrus]

This project is crazy, super underrated.

[@soundrogue4472]

2:26 I'm sorry I can't pay attention in this video because I can't get over the fact IT'S UNDER 4K LINES OF CODE???

[@cst1229]

That's probably minified (basically, removing all parts of the code that aren't required, like most newlines and whitespace), the actual source code size is probably larger.

[@thomaswesleyscott4555]

This is great - I love all of your NES videos. Your video with the mushroom and the sword helped me finally understand how to make a background for an .NES game, so thank you for that. You earned my subscription, and many thumbs up for the foreseeable future!

[@4rumani]

Great work Inkbox

[@BNWilliamGaming]

I recently got to play Journey to Silius, my favorite NES game, at school because of this. Thanks!

[@gengar-1997]

A few complaints: 1. PAL games don't work correctly. (I'm European) 2. The control scheme that you chose is unusual for me, the people who use QWERTZ, and the French AZERTY. 3. Add support for more mappers so that the Famicom game, "Gimmick!", works on JSNES.

[@YesImAbby276]

Try clicking on the input button and you can rebind the key.

[@gengar-1997]

@@YesImAbby276 But I use QWERTY!

[@Yehor-v7y]

​@@gengar-1997yes? and? you don't need to have the QWERTZ keyboard to rebind the keys

[@gengar-1997]

@@Yehor-v7y that comment was from 1 year ago i was weird back then

[@Yehor-v7y]

@@gengar-1997 so you aren't now?

[@mariobot128]

it would be great to add a selection of your own games to be playable without download since some devices (such as consoles or e-ink readers) do not have a file browser

[@Spunney]

Crazily opens you up to serious legal trouble, as I think that's essentially distributing roms and Nintendo definitely cares about that sort of thing

[@mariobot128]

@@Spunney no but i mean distributing HIS games, the ones he developed, given he owns the copyright to it he's gonna be fine

[@RaphielShiraha64]

Don't know how hard it would be, but having toggle buttons for the A and B would be nice to have, since for example like showed in the video is hard to make mario run and jump both at once with mobile controls. So just having a extra mobile button that you can press to just have run always turned on, then being able to turn it off when unecessary would be nice. Another suggestion would be turbo controls, for well turbo.

[@NotAdachiPeople]

There is an entire port of retroarch to webassembly. Damn it’s good

[@MrMegaManFan]

Sadly it doesn’t seem to work on Apple phones.

[@SKCro.]

Safari doesn't like to conform to web standards very well (despite using WebKit), so I'm not surprised :P

[@beyondobscure]

Nice Phineas and Ferb reference in the thumbnail haha

[@63801170]

I'm new to your channel and only 4 videos in, but getting that dreaded feeling... like this awesome binge-watch fest is surely going to end soon 😭... hoping you have a ton of videos back there 🤞

[@nachiopistachio]

Came for the Phineas and Ferb reference, stayed for a really handy project. Gotta try this on my otherwise useless for emulation iPhone

[@stgigamovement]

I wrote BWTC32Key in vanilla JavaScript precisely so it works everywhere.

[@refeals]

definitely a great use of web technology! as a professional web developer, i'd love to see more stuff like this popping up

[@PretendCoding]

I would love to see "cloud save" functionality. All that would have to be done is storing those saves in a place like firebase, aws, etc. and checking against local storage upon logging in. Oh yeah... and logging in. Admittedly, super easy with firebase.

[@jorotroid]

A while back some friends and I made a javascript platformer game for school and we chose to use z and x for the action buttons, but in hindsight (in lieu of creating a custom input menu) we should have used a and s instead. We had many people complain about using the z key because sometimes they would accidentally hit the Windows key.

[@tomrow32]

It would be nice if you could add a URL field to load a ROM image from. There are many devices out there that don't support file upload form fields.

[@BuggaDude2012]

illegal.

[@pontoexclamacao9158]

very good video

[@anEevee]

couldn't someone find the algorithm used to generate the NES colors to figure out what they are?

[@mattrogers6646]

He explained in the video how the original NES/FamiCom color palette was created and why it doesn't map to RGB exactly.

[@neonfuz_]

My main desktop monitor is portrait (LG 28MQ780-B), so your site incorrectly assumes I'm using a phone and makes the controls huge and cut off...

[@imonly1man_]

Is the thumbnail text a semi-obscure Phineas and Ferb reference?

[@nachiopistachio]

Yes, yes it is.

[@todesziege]

Almost entirely off-topic, but many european (CRT) TVs display the full 256x240 resolution, or close to (often showing glitches at the edges as a result).

[@Nbrother1607]

240x212 on PocketNES is then scaled down to 240x160 for the GBA screen

[@BrainSlugs83]

Nice work. I have a few suggestions if you're willing to hear them out. I think you should put the Start and Select above A and B so that pressing them needs to be intentional (and the palm of your hand /base of your thumb can't hit them by accident). Also adding a left handed mode in the settings (to swap the dpad over to the right) would be a nice accessibility improvement, and finally: adding a way to hard code a single ROM from a URL would be nice. So that you can host an embedded player for your game on the download page.

[@BuggaDude2012]

but dont hardcode roms you will definitely go to jail

[@bananacraft69]

NESOS 2.0? will it have an api that allows for writing custom programms?

[@InkboxSoftware]

That's the plan

[@TheDaySquare]

Yo how do I play games on the emulator

[@FlergerBergitydersh]

S and D should be the universal default for two button games and emulators like this, because this is where the hand rests when using WASD anyway, and it doesn't disrupt QWERTZ and AZERTY layouts. Which button should be A and which should be B should be a toggle. I agree that B should be on the left, but many PC games already have the "shoot" button on the right as well, so muscle memory may be crippled for a lot of people (despite the fact that I think the stronger middle finger should always be on shoot, and the weaker pointer finger should always be on "jump")

[@xXJ4FARGAMERXx]

Instead of choosing for people, why not let them choose their own button mappings?

[@FlergerBergitydersh]

@@xXJ4FARGAMERXx ideally, that should ALWAYS be an option. But I have strong opinions on what should be present in cases where that's not possible.

[@fishactivation5087]

I, myself, prefer mapping everything to W (up), A (left), S (down), D (right), K (B), L (A), Enter (start), and Space (select).

[@MilleFalchiJUNIOR]

Hello Inkbox, it's been a while since I first used this emulator and I find it fantastic but I had an "issue" with it, that is that when I play on different devices I have different save files so what did I do? I made a simple webpage using vanilla JS and HTML (just like the spirit of this emulator) that helps you export and import save files for this emulator and also lets you convert exported data to standard .sav formats and vice versa, I would like to share this with others but I think I need your permission first Thanks and keep up the good work buddy

[@InkboxSoftware]

The actual emulator I used is open source, so you're free to use that. If you want to use my control mapping features and other UI things then that's no problem either.

[@Jintenzo]

Neat, but i feel that (when available) native apps would be better.

[@InkboxSoftware]

I agree, native apps are usually faster and more reliable. I don't think this will be my new everyday emulator (and I don't recommend it for such) but if I need a quick fix it could come in handy.

[@itsthem5699]

Why aren't we using WASD and space for jump in modern browser games? Maybe shift for B (hold shift to run) and right shift and enter for select and start.

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

0:06 Well that looks quite nice, it doesn't seem to support multiplayer which negates the whole point of a "family console," at least to a good extent. However, I'll watch further, perhaps I'm mistaken!

[@63801170]

A website cookie could flag (or not be available) indicating a first-time visitor is on your site, and perhaps you could have a (your 😊) game loaded and ready to go... with a pop up modal to explain what's going on... as said, only first time (or if you come in fresh from new interface). It would indicate it's working and if you're like me and don't have a ready-available ROM , it can do something straight up! Cheers!

[@Spunney]

This is great! ^^

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

RIP Inkbox, taken out by Nintendo ninjas (Nintinjas) after an epic shurikens vs NES Zapper battle 😢

[@PickledL]

will this function on a samsung smart fridge

[@BuggaDude2012]

no

[@PickledL]

@@BuggaDude2012:(

[@peej459]

R.O.B. would be cool, as well as the Power Pad, Game Genie, and Famicom Disk System.

[@whodidthissmh]

I think the ui could use some work but otherwise very nice

[@FlergerBergitydersh]

Start should be on Space. There are some NES games that actually use Start as an action button, and being able to pause as quickly as possible is a plus anyway, so it should definitely be taken off of Enter unless you are emulating something with a more complicated controller, like the SNES and later game consoles. At the very least, this should be a toggle.

[@guyrocketram9698]

i know this is a weird bug, but for some reason caveman games for the NES doesn't work on it? for me at least.

[@RaphielShiraha64]

Someone said pal games don't work, so maybe that.

[@iggienator]

The biggest advantage of an online emulator, at least for me, would be cloud storage for roms and saves. Obviously you can‘t just go ahead and upload all sorts of roms for for the public, but a personal storage for my own data sounds not to bad, right? Maybe even combine it with dropbox or something like that so that you do not have to mess with cloud storage hosting.

[@SonicTheFantastic]

Only complaint with this is that the touch controls are WAY too high for me to reach even my thumb, on my big huge tablet

[@Arock_tws]

Input doesn't allow for controller keybinds. Otherwise it runs great, nice work

[@eloujtimereaver4504]

I would very much prefer if Start and Select were moved to the bottom, on either side of the settings button, and/or if they could be put above the A and B buttons instead for the games that make more in game use of them. Honestly all 3 positions being an option in the settings would be very helpful. It might also be good to have the key-rebinding be in the settings rather than clicking on the button to have better support for windows touch screens. (And I know some people who might try to click them with a mouse to try and play.) Going to be testing it with my various android and windows folding devices a bit later to see how it does.

[@thecubeman381]

Really good. Where are the turbo buttons though?

[@BuggaDude2012]

not there

[@TeamUnpro]

Thankfully you can just add a "image-rendering" css property, it used to bug the living freq out of me

[@a_tf2soldier]

ah so thats why the colors look different on the emulators

[@vyachachsel]

My wishlist for NesOS 2.0: 1 - Programming

[@BuggaDude2012]

lemme know when the zapper feature works

[@BuggaDude2012]

you know it works when on the title screen the zapper acts as start instead of select

[@DrNo64]

I see the reference in the thumbnail

[@TheChocolatBlanc]

Too bad for the Zapper ! I wonder if by using the exploit you could manage to play it from a Switch , but yeah great project , came out really clean , maybe a small potential addition to add in the setting would be to have a sound feedback when pressing a key from the virtual controller .

[@Gvcdthbhigv5]

Would be nice to have it work On the Xbox with the browser

[@BuggaDude2012]

nope

[@jackolli877]

can you stop using es6 cause the your jscript nes emulator won't work

[@L721-d5i]

Force 50/60hz option, don't want those games going too slow or too fast

[@TheAmethystAurora]

Issue: doesn't work on MS-DOS 6.0

[@GameCyborgCh]

"uses Z and X" me on a non american keyboard layout: "god damn it"

[@InkboxSoftware]

Key binding is customizable, just click the button on the controller

[@AlexeyFilippenkoPlummet]

Wait, if the colors of NES were mathematically picked on a specific color scale, how is it impossible to convert them to RGB? After all color scale represents CERTAIN colors, doesn't it?

[@jhgvvetyjj6589]

Some of the RGB values end up out of bounds by this way

[@pdrouk]

It would be nice to have a JS Interpreter (even if old version) on NESOS.

[@mgord9518]

The NES isn't anywhere near powerful enough to even run the most basic JS

[@asbfabfoaijfo8]

yiq which stands for lumi- WHY IS IT Y THAN?

[@asbfabfoaijfo8]

no agression

[@AmyStrikesBack]

Now i wanna Port It to the dsi

[@BuggaDude2012]

nononnnonononono

[@rampantmold]

this is great, can you provide a downloadable html file?

[@maricthehedgehog]

Alright let's just hope Nintendo won't take this down

[@412lop7]

App name?

[@talisman_games15]

The sounds sound a bit off

[@talisman_games15]

like pitched down

[@h28yt]

you should try making UNO on NES

[@DanTDMJace]

RetroArch Web exists

[@MotownBatman]

KILLER!@! Now Do SEGA! lol, I'm trying to find something like this to run on a home server, so I can access it on iOS devices without having to Sideload Apps!

[@joycetong8434]

Try making rhythm heaven in nes

[@BuggaDude2012]

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

[@skejeton]

be careful w local storage data loss!! theres a newer FS api

[@junebug3507]

pachinko! pachinko!

[@HUYI1]

What is the point in this vid when it's based on a web browser? 😤😤

[@redalpha333]

Hmm- No exporting or importing or saves though and even if you consider it cheating save states and the ability to make load export import have multiple or be able to undo the last one is useful, as well rom hacks or cheat codes wouldn't be supported. Any who I'm just saying- webretro has all that but it dosen't have onscreen controls or good mobile support I guess.

[@SysDataSoftOffical]

also ATARI:

[@Pootie_Tang]

As a bum living on the road and covered in mud, I can truly appreciate this

[@kanesmith8271]

Time to go home 😢

[@dr.shakib9961]

Meh, my New 3DS does the job pretty well.

[@fnf_noob]

emulatorjs

[@buster5661]

Start with showing preview content for the video then start with the behind-the-scenes step-by-step process It's so annoying I have to skip to the end to see the actual content for the video

[@meatbleed]

so to you "the content" is just playing NES games? you clicked "building an NES emulator" for the gameplay at the end?

[@buster5661]

@@meatbleed do you not understand what a "preview" is? I wouldn't expect much from a half eaten chicken wing