Does anyone know what version of earthbound to use to make an nes repro. I have heard so many different things but am still not sure. Has anyone made one and played through it. I want to make sure I make one that does not give the piracy screen toward the end of the game. Please advise. Thank you all so much in advance.
I think it's called the powerpak or something like that.
PowerPak answers "How do I play the ROM on my NES?" The original question was "How do I identify the ROM image of Earthbound Beginnings (formerly Earthbound Zero) that works correctly on an NES?"
nintendo2600's answer still works: test the different possibilities on the PowerPak to find which one works correctly.
It's still a lot of labor to play all the way through the game only to be thwarted by the anti-piracy screen at Magicant.
Not if you copy a SRM file with a game saved there (or edited) to test.
Of course someone has to create that save or editor first.
By the way, you might try the forums at STARMEN.NET instead. You'll find a lot more people who have played Mother there, so you might have better luck.
https://forum.starmen.net/forum/Games/Mother1In my own peresonal experience, all I can tell you is that I know the Virtual Console version works perfectly well, because I've played it start to finish.
Also, if you're frustrated with the lack of available knowledge here on this topic, consider doing the research yourself and reporting back when you find it, so that the next person to ask this question won't have to do the same.
First and foremost I need to disclaim I do NOT know the answer to this question. I do however think I should let you know the route I am about to be doing as well. I have been working with a guy on Pinside and he wants me to try to make him his game as well. He told me all about the MP bug and extra enemies ect and claims Earthbound (USA) (Proto) ROM is the "purist" version around. I do have a link, but I want to make sure it is still ok to post links to roms especially since Nintendo is now selling this game in the virtual club. I ordered a large amount of NES cartridges from INL.com last week and they should hopefully be shipping soon. As soon as I get them in hand, I plan on burning this version as well, and will let you know how it went.
I think this board has rules against posting or linking to copyright violating ROMs (though I can't seem to find that explicitly stated anywhere at the moment).
I think a hash (e.g. CRC, SHA1) to identify the ROM you're talking about would be acceptable, though?
From what I can gather, Mother's copy protection was not very extensive. Basically just a CRC check for ROM integrity. I don't think it does anything funky like testing the SRAM or even the MMC3's SRAM disable device. I think all you need is a clean ROM dump on an MMC3 board. It sounds like the problem only manifest in the very first release of the ROM because it was hacked for Nesticle and they didn't know about the CRC?
http://www.wikibound.info/wiki/Anti-piracy_in_the_Mother_serieshttp://earthboundcentral.com/2009/09/earthbound-zero-prototype-info/