Hi,
Are the ROM files available in this version? I'd like to play this on the original hardware if possible.

if the roms are there, they need to be extracted somehow, there is only one single executable file

Wait... is there a way to play/unlock Jackal in this collection?

They just had it in there for some reason but no way to actually unlock it that I know of.

(Note: Back up the .exe file before you start modifying it.)

So, this gets me wondering:
* What happens if you take the Jackal ROM in the .exe, and replace one of the other games with it? Does it run properly?
* Can you inject the ROM of some other related game, like Super Mario Bros., and expect it to run? (Of course, that would require that the game use a supported mapper (though I note that Castlevania 3 is on here), and I suspect in'game saves might not work properly (since none of these games have battery saves).)

I've managed to successfully extract three of the six ROMs (Castlevania, Contra, and Jackal) using the information posted by misanthroat, but the others are causing trouble. All I end up with is a grey emulator window.

I've been using the "dd" command in Linux, which was remarkably easier than my initial attempts in trying to extract the ROMs using a hex editor.

Please note, that I had to convert the hexadecimal to decimal for the following to work.

First, I extracted the NES header:
dd if=cc.exe skip=1041776 bs=1 count=16 > nes_header

Second, the game ROMs:
dd if=cc.exe skip=<offset> bs=1 count=<block length> > <name of game>
eg. dd if=cc.exe skip=910704 bs=1 count=131072 > contra

Third, I concatenated the two and ended up with a working ROM (at least for the three games that I mentioned!):
eg. cat nes_header jackal > jackal.nes

I'm still going to keep trying to see if I can find out why the other three games aren't working -- I'd be very happy if someone beat me to it though! :-)

EDIT: Well, I got all the ROMs working! :-)

I downloaded the following:
NES header database: http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&amp;t=19940 (nothing illegal, just an XML database)
NES Header Repair python script: https://github.com/Kitrinx/NES_Header_Repair

I unzipped them both in the same directory as my reconstructed NES ROMs, and ran the script. Please note that it does a trial run to make sure that everything is OK -- to actually make any changes, you have to edit the script and change TRIAL RUN from 1 to 0.

I was successful in extracting one of the Castlevanias, do some edits and inject it back into the executable. It ran without problems.

I'll try to do what you mentioned soon. If it turns out to be possible - ie., running SMB through the frontend - then this means their emulator is general purpose. And it also means the compilation is even less worth it.

So, I tested this. It seems the emulator Konami used for the compilation can run other NES games, but results are mixed. I didn't run every single NES game, just a handful, but here's some test results.

Zelda won't run (tested both PRG1 and PRG0)
Metroid runs garbled, can't seem to get past main screen
Ikari warriors (revA): Glitchy but seems to run (has problems updating frames when scrolling)

Ghosts'n Goblins: seems to run fine, though does show some glitches in the intro.
Megaman 1: seems to run just fine, actually. Tested three levels so far, didn't find any glitch.

Ganbare Goemon: doesn't run
Salamander: doesn't run
Alien Syndrome: doesn't run
Parodius Da!: doesn't run

So given enough trial and error, it's possible to simply replace some games in the compilation with other NES titles. So yes, it seems the compilation itself is rather pointless, not only when compared with other Castlevania and Contra compilations Konami released, but also as a standalone program since it doesn't really provide any benefit over modern emulators (and it certainly didn't provide any benefit over them in 2002 when it was first released).

I made a script for extracting the ROM files (thanks for help from Castlevania community about offsets and header data):

See here: https://gist.github.com/shmerl/202332219bebb5e5135ad41140f8f6d5

How do you run the script? What do you need installed in advance?

Thanks in advance...

It's using Bash and would work well on Linux (you need to pass the path to cc.exe as script parameter). Just make sure you have xxd installed.

On Windows you'd need something to run Bash and to have dd and xxd. One relatively easy way to do it is to enable WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) which basically seamlessly installs a virtual Linux instance on Windows. You can then run that script from there (same thing, make sure to install xxd in it first).

Also, for the reference, I tested all resulting ROM files in Nestopia, they all work, including Jackal.

Hey shmerl, good to see you here :)

I want to point out I was also successful in switching the two Contra titles with the Probotector versions after a request - though I didn't test them extensivel, they seemed to run fine.

It's still unclear what kind of emulator Konami included. It might be tailor made for the games in the compilation, though.

Good to see you! Since I run it all on Linux, that emulator is less useful for me, since I'd need to run it in Wine, but good to know it can run more games than the packaged ones. Most likely they just used some existing open source solution there.

Thanks a lot for the script !