I should note first that this is is no way shape or form complete. This is the information that I have listed in one of my notes files, and it begs for more questions. Over the coming weeks I’ll attempt to dedicate more and more time to picking this apart for you all, and trying to make sure that I give you 100% accurate information. A lot of what I “know” I need to double-check and verify.
STANDARD CODES
[a] Alternate
[b] Bad Dump (There is a good chance the game will not work)
[f] fixed
[h] Hack
[o] Overdump
[p] Pirate
[t] Trained
[T] Translation (Typically indicates fan or “unofficial” translation)
(-) Unknown year
[!] Verified Good Dump
(M#) Multiple languages with # being the number of languages.
(###) Checksum
ZZZ_ Unclassified
(??k) ROM Size
(Unl) Unlicensed
COUNTRY CODES
(1) Japan and Korea
(A) Australia
(B) Non-USA (Genesis and NOT Mega-Drive)
(C) China
(E) Europe
(F) France
(F) World (Genesis/MegaDrive ONLY)
(FC) French Canadian
(FN) Finland
(G) Germany
(GR) Greece
(HK) Hong Kong
(H) Holland
(4) USA and Brazil NTSC Standard
(J) Japan
(K) Korea
(NL) Netherlands
(PD) Public Domain
(S) Spain
(SW) Seden
(U) USA
(UE) USA/Europe
(UK) England
(Unk) Country/Origin/Release Unknown
(I)Italy
SPECIAL CODES
Super Nintendo
(BS) BS Roms
(ST) Sufami Turbo
(NP) Nintendo Power
Game Boy / Game Boy Color
[C] Color
[BF] Bung Fix
[S] Super
SGB Enhanced – Super Gameboy SNES Cart
Genesis/Mega Drive
(1)Japan
(4) USA
(5) NTSC Only
(8) PAL Only
(B) non USA
[c] Checksum
[x] Bad Checksum
[R-] Countries
Unclassified (GBA MAYBE?)
[hl???] Hacks, probably on the intro
STANDARD CODE NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS
[a] – This is simply an alternate version of a ROM. Many games have been re-released to fix bugs or even to eliminate Game Genie codes (Yes, Nintendo hates that device).
[b] – A bad dump often occurs with an older game or a faulty dumper (bad connection). Another common source of [b] ROMs is a corrupted upload to a release FTP.
[f] – A fixed game has been altered in some way so that it will run better on a copier or emulator.
[h] – Something in this ROM is not quite as it should be. Often a hacked ROM simply has a changed header or has been enabled to run in different regions. Other times it could be a release group intro, or just some kind of cheating or funny hack.
[o] – An over-dumped ROM image has more data than is actually in the cart. The extra information means nothing and is removed from the true image.
[t] – A trainer is special code which executes before the game is begun. It allows you to access cheats from a menu.
[!] – Verified good dump.
SPECIAL CODE NOTES
SNES
(BS) – These Japanese ROMs were distributed through a satellite system in Japan known as the Broadcast Satellaview. They were transmitted along with a TV show which was connected to the game in some way. These games were only playable during the show, and thus stop after an hour, and many were timed so that only certain time periods were playable.
(ST) – The Sufami Turbo device allowed two GameBoy sized carts to be plugged into the SNES. Certain carts combined into new games much like the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on technology by Sega.
(NP) – Nintendo Power has been known to release games only available to its subscribers. Most of these ROMs are Japanese, as this practice occured mainly in Japan.
Genesis
(1) – Carts with this code will run on both Japanese and Korean machines.
(4) – While this code is technically the same as a (U) code, it is a newer header format and represents that the cart will run on USA and Brazil NTSC machines.
(B) – This country code indicates that the cart will run on any non US machine.
[c] – This code represents a cart with known faulty checksum routines.
Game Boy / Game Boy Color
[BF] – Bung released a programmable cartridge compatable with the GameBoy which could hold any data you wished to play. However, many games do not function on Bung v1.0 carts and have to be ‘fixed.’
SGB Enhanced – Super Game Boy is an adapter for the Super Nintendo released in 1994 that lets you play Game Boy games on your SNES.
Nintendo
PC10 – The PlayChoice 10 was an arcade unit which played exact copies of NES games in an arcade cabinet. The machines had a choice of 10 games to choose from and ran for about 3 minutes on 25 cents.
VS – The Versus system ran on similar hard-ware to the PC10 machines, but simply allowed you to play against each other.
RetroPie Station 