NES movie fileformat converter

This program converts different format NES movies to other formats.

nesmock v1.4.0 - Copyright (C) 1992,2005 Bisqwit (http://iki.fi/bisqwit/)

Usage: nesmock [<options>] <inputfile> <outputfile>

Transforms NES movie files to different formats.
 --help, -h     This help
 --offset, -o   Insert delay at <frame>,<length>
                Example usage: -o 14501:1
                Delay length may also be negative, in which case
                existing frames are deleted instead of copied.
                Frame numbers are relative to the original movie.
                Short syntax -o 10 uses frame number 0 by default.
 --set, -s      Set <var>=<value>
                Note: All movie formats don't support all values
                      or may have length/type limitations.
                Available vars:
                      PAL         0 or 1
                      RecordCount 0..n
                      EmuName     string
                      MovieName   string
                      ROMName     string
                      MD5         string (can be a 32-char hex or a filename)
                      FCEUver     0..n (example: 9812 (=0.98.12))
                Example usage: -spal=0 -srom="Mario Bros.nes" -smd5=mario.nes
 --state, -t    Copy savestate from <file>
                Example: nesmock a.fmv a.fcm -t'orig.fcm'
                Will also make fcm files reset-based (default: poweron-based)                
 --version, -V  Displays version information

Supported formats:
  FMV  (Famtasia 5.1)        - Read & Write
  FCM  (FCEU 0.98.12)        - Read & Write
  NMV  (Nintendulator 0.950) - Read & Write
  VMV  (VirtuaNES)           - Read

Example:
  nesmock -o2 smb1a.fcm smb1a.fmv

Offsets and delays are usually needed because different emulators have different timings in various details. Adjusting them is usually trial&error work.

If you are doubting whether this program actually works at all, try converting Super Mario Bros movies. I have had complete success with them.

Hint: Nesmock can be used for editing FCM files by first converting them to FMV (which is easier to edit than FCM) and then back to FCM.

nesmock has been written by Joel Yliluoma, a.k.a. Bisqwit,
and is distributed under the terms of the General Public License (GPL).

If you are an emulator developer, you are welcome to hack this source code and add more format support to the code.
These planned things are currently missing:

• Movie support for:
  • VirtuaNES (write)
  • Nesticle (read, write)
• Savestate support for:
  • Nintendulator (read, write)
  • FCEU (read, write)
  • VirtuaNES (read, write)
  • Famtasia (read, write)

GNU make and C++ compiler is required to recompile the source code.
For the program (including the Windows binary), you need a commandline.

Different emulators emulate differently. This is a fact. For this reason, usually straight conversions of the movies don't just work.

It is unfortunately impossible to guess from the movie file alone where would the emulator need more / less frames than the other emulator.

A more elaborate conversion could be made by running the two emulators simultaneously and keeping track of their status, and when the other goes desync, backtrack and bruteforce the combination that puts it back to track. This kind of method is however extremely difficult to implement. And it still might be impossible - if the game does calculations based on scanline counters, there could be no way to make them match.

The official home page of nesmock is at http://iki.fi/bisqwit/source/nesmock.html.
Check there for new versions.