MMC6

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MMC6
HxROM
Company Nintendo
Games 2 in NesCartDB
Complexity ASIC
Boards HKROM
Pinout MMC6 pinout
PRG ROM capacity 512K
PRG ROM window 8K
PRG RAM capacity 1K
PRG RAM window 1K
CHR capacity 256K
CHR window 1K + 2K
Nametable mirroring H or V, switchable
Bus conflicts No
IRQ Yes
Audio No
iNES mappers 004

The Nintendo MMC6 is a mapper ASIC used in Nintendo's NES-HKROM Game Pak board. This board, along with most common TxROM boards (which use the Nintendo MMC3) are assigned to iNES Mapper 004. The MMC3C and the MMC6 are alike, except the MMC6 has 1 KB of internal PRG RAM with different write/enable controls. This page only explains the differences, see MMC3 for full details on the rest of the mapper.

The NES 2.0 submapper 004:1 was assigned to disambiguate MMC6 from the MMC3 mapper it shares an iNES mapper with.

This chip first appeared in December 1990. A total of two commercial games were released using the MMC6:

  • StarTropics
  • Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II

Banks

  • CPU $7000-$7FFF: 1 KB PRG RAM, mirrored
  • CPU $8000-$9FFF (or $C000-$DFFF): 8 KB switchable PRG ROM bank
  • CPU $A000-$BFFF: 8 KB switchable PRG ROM bank
  • CPU $C000-$DFFF (or $8000-$9FFF): 8 KB PRG ROM bank, fixed to the second-last bank
  • CPU $E000-$FFFF: 8 KB PRG ROM bank, fixed to the last bank
  • PPU $0000-$07FF (or $1000-$17FF): 2 KB switchable CHR bank
  • PPU $0800-$0FFF (or $1800-$1FFF): 2 KB switchable CHR bank
  • PPU $1000-$13FF (or $0000-$03FF): 1 KB switchable CHR bank
  • PPU $1400-$17FF (or $0400-$07FF): 1 KB switchable CHR bank
  • PPU $1800-$1BFF (or $0800-$0BFF): 1 KB switchable CHR bank
  • PPU $1C00-$1FFF (or $0C00-$0FFF): 1 KB switchable CHR bank

Registers

The MMC6 has 4 pairs of registers at $8000-$9FFF, $A000-$BFFF, $C000-$DFFF, and $E000-$FFFF - even addresses ($8000, $8002, etc.) select the low register and odd addresses ($8001, $8003, etc.) select the high register in each pair. Only $8000 and $A001 are covered here. For the rest of the registers, see MMC3.

Bank select ($8000-$9FFE, even)

7  bit  0
---- ----
CPMx xRRR
|||   |||
|||   +++- Specify which bank register to update on next write to Bank Data register
||+------- PRG RAM enable
|+-------- PRG ROM bank configuration (0: $8000-$9FFF swappable, $C000-$DFFF fixed to second-last bank;
|                                      1: $C000-$DFFF swappable, $8000-$9FFF fixed to second-last bank)
+--------- CHR ROM bank configuration (0: two 2 KB banks at $0000-$0FFF, four 1 KB banks at $1000-$1FFF;
                                       1: four 1 KB banks at $0000-$0FFF, two 2 KB banks at $1000-$1FFF)

PRG RAM protect ($A001-$BFFF, odd)

7  bit  0
---- ----
HhLl xxxx
||||
|||+------ Enable writing to RAM at $7000-$71FF
||+------- Enable reading RAM at $7000-$71FF
|+-------- Enable writing to RAM at $7200-$73FF
+--------- Enable reading RAM at $7200-$73FF

Hardware

The MMC6 exists in a 64-pin TQFP package. At least two revisions exist[citation needed], though only MMC6B has been observed.

The PRG RAM protect bits control mapping of two 512B banks of RAM. If neither bank is enabled for reading, the $7000-$7FFF area is open bus. If only one bank is enabled for reading, the other reads back as zero. The write-enable bits only have effect if that bank is enabled for reading, otherwise the bank is not writable. Both banks may be enabled for reading (and optionally writing) at the same time.

When PRG RAM is disabled via $8000, the mapper continuously sets $A001 to $00, and so all writes to $A001 are ignored.