INES Mapper 215

iNES Mapper 215 is used for later single-game as well as multicart releases from Sugar Softec. They use an MMC3 clone with a selectable scrambling pattern.

• Submapper 0, UNIF board name UNL-8237:
  • Earthworm Jim 2
  • Mortal Kombat 3 (SuperGame, not Extra 60, not to be confused by similarly-named games from other developers)
  • Mortal Kombat 3 Extra 60 (both existing ROM images are just extracts of the 2-in-1 multicart containig this game)
  • Pocahontas Part 2
  • 2-in-1: Aladdin, EarthWorm Jim 2
  • 2-in-1: EarthWorm Jim 2, Boogerman
  • 2-in-1: Mortal Kombat 3 Extra 60, The Super Shinobi
  • 3-in-1: Boogerman, Adventure Island 3, Double Dragon 3
  • 5-in-1: Aladdin, EarthWorm Jim 2, Garo Densetsu Special, Silkworm, Contra Force
  • 6-in-1: EarthWorm Jim 2, Mortal Kombat 3, Double Dragon 3, Contra 3, The Jungle Book, Turtles Tournament Fighters
• Submapper 1, UNIF board name UNL-8237A:
  • 9-in-1: The Lion King, EarthWorm Jim 2, Aladdin, Boogerman, Somari, Turtles Tournament Fighters, Mortal Kombat 3, Captain Tsubasa 2, Taito Basketball

Registers

NROM Override/Mode Register ($5000)

Mask: $F007

D~7654 3210
  ---------
  MCS. BBBb
  |||  ++++- Select 16 KiB PRG-ROM bank at CPU
  |||        $8000-$BFFF and $C000-$FFFF
  ||+------- 0: Do not replace bit 0 (NROM-128)
  ||         1: Replace bit 0 with CPU A14 (NROM-256)
  |+-------- 0: Do not replace PRG A14 and CHR A14 from the MMC3 (256 KiB outer bank)
  |          1: Replace PRG A14 and CHR A14 with $5001 bits 4 and 5, respectively (128 KiB outer bank)
  +--------- 0: Use PRG bank from MMC3; ignore bits 0-3/5
             1: Ignore PRG bank from MMC3; apply bits 0-3/5

Power-up value: $00

Outer Bank Register ($5001) - Submapper 0 (UNL-8237)

Mask: $F007

D~7654 3210
  ---------
  ..cp CCPP
    || ||++- Select 256 KiB Outer PRG-ROM bank (PRG A18/A19)
    || ++--- Select 256 KiB Outer CHR-ROM bank (CHR A18/A19)
    |+------ Select 128 KiB Outer PRG-ROM bank (PRG A17) if $5000 bit 6=1
    +------- Select 128 KiB Outer CHR-ROM bank (CHR A17) if $5000 bit 6=1

Power-up value: $xF

Outer Bank Register ($5001) - Submapper 1 (UNL-8237A)

Mask: $F007

D~7654 3210
  ---------
  ..cp P.PP
       CCC.
    || +|++- Select 256 KiB Outer PRG-ROM bank (PRG A18-A20)
    || +++-- Select 256 KiB Outer CHR-ROM bank (CHR A18-A20)
    |+------ Select 128 KiB Outer PRG-ROM bank (PRG A17) if $5000 bit 6=1
    +------- Select 128 KiB Outer CHR-ROM bank (CHR A17) if $5000 bit 6=1

Power-up value: $xF

Scrambling Pattern Register ($5007)

Mask: $F007

D~7654 3210
  ---------
  .... .MMM
        +++- Select MMC3 register address and index scrambling mode (0-7)

Power-up value: $00

MMC3-compatible registers ($8000-$FFFF, write-only)

The scrambled addresses correspond to the real address as follows:

$5007	-------------address written-----------
value	8000 8001 A000 A001 C000 C001 E000 E001
-----------------------------------------------	
0	8000 8001 A000 A001 C000 C001 E000 E001
1	A001 A000 8000 C000 8001 C001 E000 E001
2	8000 8001 A000 A001 C000 C001 E000 E001
3	C001 8000 8001 A000 A001 E001 E000 C000
4	A001 8001 8000 C001 A000 C000 E000 E001
5	8000 8001 A000 A001 C000 C001 E000 E001
6	8000 8001 A000 A001 C000 C001 E000 E001
7	8000 8001 A000 A001 C000 C001 E000 E001

The data that is written to the low three bits of register $8000 corresponds to the real data as follows:

$5007	-value written-
value	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
-----------------------
0	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1	0 2 6 1 7 3 4 5
2	0 5 4 1 7 2 6 3
3	0 6 3 7 5 2 4 1
4	0 2 5 3 6 1 7 4
5	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
6	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
7	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

Bits 6 and 7 of register $8000 are kept as they are. The data written to $8001 and $A000-$FFFF is never scrambled. After unscrambling the address and the data written, these registers function the same as the MMC3's

Note

• Games with only 256 KiB of CHR-ROM still use 512 KiB chips; the other 256 KiB usually contain leftover data from another game.
• The Outer Bank Register is reset to its power-up value if a Reset has been detected via an interruption of the M2 signal. This makes it difficult to dump these cartridges using a Kazzo device.
• Boogerman (INES Mapper 114 Submapper 1) was originally assigned by CaH4e3 to Mapper 215; he later reassigned UNL-8237 to Mapper 215 instead.
• Some multicarts may have alternative outer bank registers in the $6xxx range; since they all contain compatibility code that writes to the $5xxx range, they are assigned to Mapper 215 as well.

Similar Mappers

• INES Mapper 114 resembles Subtype 1 but with a different scrambling pattern.
• NES 2.0 Mapper 258 has everything from Subtype 2 but adds readable protection registers in the $5000-$5007 range.