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Anemoia
Anemoia-ESP32

Anemoia-ESP32 is a rewrite and port of the Anemoia Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator running directly on the ESP32. It is written in C++ and is designed to bring classic NES games to the ESP32. This project focuses on performance, being able to run the emulator at native speeds and with full audio emulation implemented. However, games with complex mappers may induce a small speed loss.
Anemoia-ESP32 is available on GitHub under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3).

Anemoia-ESP32_2.mp4

Sponsor

NextPCB

This project is proudly sponsored by NextPCB. Their support helps fund the development and continuation of this project, and I'm very grateful to have them as my first ever sponsor.

Want to make a PCB? NextPCB offers PCB fabrication and assembly services with fast turnaround times and affordable pricing to help bring your electronics projects to the next level.

Performance

Anemoia-ESP32 is heavily optimized to achieve native NES speeds on the ESP32, running at ~60.098 FPS (NTSC) with 1 frame skip and full audio emulation enabled.

Here are the performance benchmarks for several popular NES games.

Note

The following benchmarks show average framerates recorded over 8192 frames (~2 minutes) of emulation time. Some games, such as Kirby's Adventure, which frequently switch banks may experience significant FPS drops in certain sections.

Game Mapper Average FPS
Super Mario Bros. NROM (0) 60.10 FPS
Contra UxROM (2) 60.10 FPS
The Legend of Zelda MMC1 (1) 60.10 FPS
Mega Man 2 MMC1 (1) 60.10 FPS
Castlevania UxROM (2) 60.10 FPS
Metroid MMC1 (1) 60.10 FPS
Kirby’s Adventure MMC3 (4) 59.57 FPS
Donkey Kong NROM (0) 60.10 FPS

Compatibility

As of now, Anemoia-ESP32 has implemented six major memory mappers:

  • Mapper 0
  • Mapper 1
  • Mapper 2
  • Mapper 3
  • Mapper 4
  • Mapper 69

Totalling to around 79% of the entire NES game catalogue.

If you'd like to check if a certain game is supported, visit NesCartDB and search for the game on the right-hand side of the site. Select the specific game version and look for the iNES Mapper number in the cart properties. The game should be supported if the iNES Mapper number is in the list of implemented mappers above.

Feel free to open an issue if a game has glitches or fails to boot.

Hardware Overview

Anemoia-ESP32 requires a dual-core ESP32 with a minimum of 1 MB flash memory and NO PSRAM IS REQUIRED.

  • ESP32
    • e.g. ESP32-DevKitC or ESP32-WROOM-32
  • A 320x240 SPI TFT screen (no touch needed)
    • Either an ST7789-based screen as depicted, or
    • an ILI9341-based screen with 320x240 pixels
  • Audio Amplifier
    • e.g. a PAM8403 or PAM8302
  • Speaker
  • MicroSD card module
  • 8 Tactile push buttons, or
  • Supported Controller
    • NES controller
    • SNES controller
    • PS1 controller
    • PS2 controller

Default Pin Setup

TFT Display

Signal ESP32 Pins
MOSI GPIO23
MISO -1 (N/A)
SCLK GPIO18
CS GPIO4
DC GPIO2
RST EN

MicroSD

Signal ESP32 Pins
MOSI GPIO13
MISO GPIO34
SCLK GPIO26
CS GND

Audio Amplifier

Signal ESP32 Pins
Input GPIO25

Controller

There are currently three input methods: Tactile push buttons, an NES/SNES controller, and a PS1/PS2 controller.

Tactile Push Buttons

Signal ESP32 Pins
A GPIO22 & GND
B GPIO21 & GND
Left GPIO0 & GND
Right GPIO12 & GND
Up GPIO15 & GND
Down GPIO5 & GND
Start GPIO32 & GND
Select GPIO27 & GND

NES/SNES controller

NES/SNES controller Pinout
Signal ESP32 Pins
Clock GPIO5
Latch GPIO19
Data GPIO21

PS1/PS2 controller

PS1/PS2 controller Pinout
Signal ESP32 Pins
Data GPIO5
Command GPIO19
Attention GPIO21
Clock GPIO22

Also connect the power and ground lines if using a controller. Most controllers should work fine from 3.3V power supply.

Getting Started

  1. Upload the Anemoia-ESP32.ino program into the ESP32
  2. Put .nes game roms inside the root of a microSD card
  3. Insert the microSD card into the microSD card module
  4. Power on the ESP32 and select a game from the file select menu

How to build and upload

Step 1

Either use git clone https://github.com/Shim06/Anemoia-ESP32.git on the command line to clone the repository or use Code → Download zip button and extract to get the files.

Step 2

  1. Download and install the Arduino IDE.
  2. In File → Preferences → Additional boards manager URLs , add:
https://espressif.github.io/arduino-esp32/package_esp32_index.json
  1. Download the ESP32 board support v3.2.1 through Tools → Board → Boards Manager .

Important

Make sure to download version 3.2.1, as different board versions may have worse performance.

  1. Download the SdFat and TFT_eSPI libraries from Tools → Manage Libraries .

Step 3 - Configure TFT_eSPI

The emulator uses a custom display configuration for the ST7789 display.

  1. Navigate to your Arduino Libraries folder: (Default location): Documents/Arduino/libraries/TFT_eSPI
  2. Open User_Setup_Select.h in a text editor.
  3. Comment out #include <User_Setup.h> and any other setup includes and add <User_Setups/Anemoia-ST7789.h>:
// #include <User_Setup.h>
#include <User_Setups/Anemoia-ST7789.h>
  1. Copy the provided Anemoia-ST7789.h file from this repository into TFT_eSPI/User_Setups/. Optionally, edit the #define pins as desired.

Note

If using a screen with the ILI9341 driver, open Anemoia-ST7789.h in a text editor and comment out #define ST7789_DRIVER and uncomment #define ILI9341_DRIVER.

// #define ST7789_DRIVER
#define ILI9341_DRIVER

Step 4 - Apply custom build flags

  1. Locate your ESP32 Arduino platform directory. This is typically at:
\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp32\hardware\esp32\{version}\
  1. Copy the platform.txt file from this repository and paste into that folder. This file defines additional compiler flags and optimizations used by Anemoia-ESP32.

Warning

Backup your platform.txt file if you have your own custom settings already.

Step 5 - Upload

  1. Connect your ESP32 via USB.
  2. In the Arduino IDE, go to Tools → Board and select your ESP32 board (e.g., ESP32 Dev Module).
  3. Click Upload or press Ctrl+U to build and flash the emulator. Optionally, edit the #define pins as desired.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3) - see the LICENSE file for more details.