Multi-memory controllers or memory management controllers[1] (MMC) are different kinds of

special chips designed by various video game developers for use in Nintendo Entertainment

System (NES) cartridges. These chips extend the capabilities of the original console and make it
possible to create NES games with features the original console cannot offer alone. The basic NES
hardware supports only 40k of ROM total, up to 32k PRG and 8k CHR, thus only a single tile and
sprite table are possible. This limit was rapidly reached within the Famicom's first two years on the
market and game developers began requesting a way to expand the console's capabilities.

These chips are also known as mappers.

CNROM[edit]
 Manufacturer: Nintendo
 Games: Gradius,[1]:29 Ghostbusters, Gyruss, Arkanoid
CNROM was the earliest banking hardware introduced on the Famicom, appearing in early 1986. It
consists of a single 7400 series discrete logic chip. CNROM supports a single fixed PRG bank and
up to eight CHR banks for 96k total ROM. Some third party variations supported additional
capabilities. Many CNROM games store the game level data in the CHR ROM and blank the screen
while reading it.

UNROM[edit]
 Manufacturer: Nintendo
 Games: Pro Wrestling,[1]:29 Ikari Warriors, Mega Man, Contra, Castlevania
Early NES mappers are composed of 7400 series discrete logic chips.[1]:29 UNROM appeared in late
1986. It supports a single fixed 16k PRG bank, the rest of the PRG being switchable.[2] Instead of a
dedicated ROM chip to hold graphics data (called CHR by Nintendo), games using UNROM store
graphics data on the program ROM and copy it to a RAM on the cartridge at run time.[1]:29

MMC1[edit]

A Tetris cartridge showing an MMC1B1 chip.

 Manufacturer: Nintendo
 Games: The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man 2, Metroid, Godzilla: Monster of
Monsters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and more.
The MMC1 is Nintendo's first custom MMC integrated circuit to incorporate support for saved games
and multi-directional scrolling configurations.[1]:p.30 The chip comes in at least five different
versions: MMC1A, MMC1B1, MMC1B2, MMC1B3 and MMC1C. The differences between the
different versions are slight, mostly owing to savegame memory protection behavior. The MMC1 chip
allows for switching of different memory banks. Program ROM can be selected in 16KB or 32KB
chunks, and character ROM can be selected in 4KB or 8KB chunks. An unusual feature of this
memory controller is that its input is serial, rather than parallel, so 5 sequential writes (with bit
shifting) are needed to send a command to the circuit.[3]

MMC2[edit]
 Manufacturer: Nintendo
 Games: Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
The MMC2 is only used in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! and the later rerelease which replaced Mike
Tyson. A single 8KB bank of program ROM can be selected (with the remaining 24KB locked) and
character ROM can be selected in two pairs of 4KB banks, which would be automatically switched
when the video hardware attempts to load particular graphic tiles from memory, thus allowing a
larger amount of graphics to be used on the screen without the need for the game itself to manually
switch them.[4]

MMC3[edit]

The MMC3 chip, soldered onto a PCB containing Super Mario Bros. 3 and others.

 Manufacturer: Nintendo
 Games: Mega Man 3, 4, 5, 6, Super Mario Bros. 2NA/EU, Super Mario Bros. 3, Kirby's
Adventure, and more.
The MMC3 was introduced in 1988. It adds an IRQ timer to allow split screen scrolling without the
sacrifice of sprite 0, along with two selectable 8KB program ROM banks and two 2KB+four 1KB
selectable character ROM banks, which allows easy instant swapping of sprite and tile data. 8k of
save game RAM is supported.[5]

MMC4[edit]
 Manufacturer: Nintendo
 Games: Fire Emblem, Fire Emblem Gaiden, and Famicom Wars
This chip is only used in three games, all of which were released only for the Famicom in Japan, and
were developed by Intelligent Systems. Functionally, it is nearly identical to the MMC2, with the only
difference being that the MMC4 switches program ROM in 16KB banks instead of 8KB banks and
has support for a battery-backed SRAM to save game data.[6]

MMC5[edit]
 Manufacturer: Nintendo
 Games: Castlevania III: Dracula's CurseNA/EU, Just Breed, Metal Slader Glory, Laser
Invasion, Uchuu Keibitai SDF, Nobunaga's Ambition II, Nobunaga no Yabou - Sengoku Gunyuu
Den, Bandit Kings of Ancient China, Romance of the Three Kingdoms II, Uncharted
Waters, Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Gray Wolf, Gemfire, L'Empereur, Ishin no Arashi, Shin 4
Nin Uchi Mahjong - Yakuman Tengoku
The MMC5 is Nintendo's most advanced MMC. It was originally also the most expensive.
Only Koei used this chip regularly. It is similar to Konami's VRC6, but interrupt handling works
differently. The chip has 1KB of extra RAM, two extra square wave sound channels, one
extra PCM sound channel, support for vertical split screen scrolling, improved graphics capabilities
(making 16,384 different tiles available per screen rather than only 256, and allowing each individual
8x8-pixel background tile to have its own color assignment instead of being restricted to one color
set per 2x2 tile group), highly configurable program ROM and character ROM bank switching, and a
scanline-based IRQ counter. The MMC5 supports up to 2MB total ROM, however no commercially
released game exceeded 1MB.[7]

MMC6[edit]
 Manufacturer: Nintendo
 Games: StarTropics, Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II
The MMC6 is similar to the MMC3, with an additional 1 KB of RAM which can be saved with battery
backup.[8]

Famicom Disk System[edit]

 Manufacturer: Nintendo
 Games: Akumajo Dracula, Arumana no Kiseki, Ai Senshi Nicol, Big Challenge! Dogfight
Spirit, Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa, CrackoutJP, Double DribbleJP, Dracula II, Falsion, Famicom Tantei
Club Part II: Ushiro ni Tatsu Shōjo, Kid IcarusJP, KiKi KaiKai, Meikyuu Jiin Dababa, MetroidJP, Pro
WrestlingJP, Relics - Ankoku Yousai, Risa no Yōsei Densetsu, Shin Onigashima, Super Mario
Bros. 2JP, The Legend of Zelda (FDS release), The Mysterious Murasame Castle, Vs.
Excitebike, Yūyūki, Zelda II: The Adventure of LinkJP, and more.
The Famicom Disk System's ASIC is an extended audio chip, which supports one channel of single-
cycle (6-bit × 64 step) wavetable-lookup synthesis with a built in phase modulator (PM) for sound
generation similar to frequency modulation synthesis. Some cartridge conversions of Disk System
games have MMCs to replace the audio channel.

AOROM[edit]
 Manufacturer: Nintendo
 Games: Battletoads, Wizards & Warriors, Cobra Triangle, Jeopardy!
The A*ROM MMC, named after the AMROM, ANROM, and AOROM cartridge boards that use it, was
developed by Chris Stamper of Rare, and manufactured by Nintendo. It is found in games developed
by Rare for Nintendo, Tradewest, GameTek, Acclaim, and Milton Bradley.[9] It allows the PRG ROM to
be switched in a single 32k piece and uses CHR RAM for up to 256k total ROM. Unlike other chips,
it uses one screen mirroring.[10]

Third-party chips[edit]
Nintendo maintained tight control over internationally-released cartridge hardware and did not allow
third parties to use their own PCBs and mappers. This remained the case until late in the NES's
commercial lifespan when restrictions were eased up. Thus most third party mappers will only be
found in Famicom or unlicensed cartridges.

VRC1[edit]
 Manufacturer: Konami, Jaleco (SS8805)
 Games: Exciting Boxing, Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Douchuu, Jajamaru Ninpouchou, King
Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch, Moero!!, Junior Basket: Two on Two, Tetsuwan Atom[11]

VRC2[edit]
 Manufacturer: Konami
 Games: ContraJP, Tiny Toon AdventuresJP, Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun
The VRC2 is a chip from Konami that allows program ROM to be switched in 8KB banks, and
character ROM to be switched in 1KB banks. This MMC has two known revisions: VRC2a and
VRC2b.[12]

VRC3[edit]
 Manufacturer: Konami
 Games: SalamanderJP
Exclusively used in the Japanese version of Salamander.

VRC4[edit]

The VRC4.

 Manufacturer: Konami
 Games: Gradius IIJP, Crisis Force, Bio Miracle:Boku tte Upa, Ganbare Goemon Gaiden
2, WaiWai World, WaiWai World 2, Twinbee 3[13]
The VRC4 Chip is similar to the VRC2 chip, other than the VRC4 allowing for 512KB CHR capacity,
2 8Kb PRG ROM banking modes and 1 screen mirroring.
VRC5[edit]
 Manufacturer: Konami
 Games: Space SchoolJP
Exclusively used in the QTa adapter in Konami's Space School series of educational games.[14]

VRC6[edit]

The VRC6.

 Manufacturer: Konami
 Games: Akumajō Densetsu, Mōryō Senki MADARA, Esper Dream II
The VRC6 (Virtual Rom Controller) is an advanced MMC chip from Konami, supporting bank
switching for both program code and graphics as well as a CPU cycle–based IRQ counter, which
can also act as a scanline counter. The chip also contains support for three extra sound channels
(two square waves of eight duty cycles each, and one sawtooth wave). It is used in Akumajō
Densetsu (the Japanese version of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse), while the Western version uses
the MMC5 from Nintendo. Since the Nintendo Entertainment System does not allow cartridges to
add additional sound channels, the Famicom version's soundtrack was reworked to follow those
specifications; thus, the soundtrack on the Western version is implemented by the five sound
channels built into the stock NES.[15]

VRC7[edit]

The VRC7 with a post-processor for the FM synthesis

 Manufacturer: Konami, Yamaha
 Games: Lagrange Point, Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Trouble in Wackyland
The VRC7 is an advanced MMC chip from Konami, supporting bank switching and IRQ counting
equivalent to the VRC6, and containing a YM2413 derivative providing 6 channels of FM
Synthesis audio. This advanced audio is used only in the Famicom game Lagrange Point; while the
Japanese version of Tiny Toon Adventures 2 also uses the VRC7, it does not make use of the
extended audio.[16]

Namco 163[edit]
 Manufacturer: Namco
 Games: Erika to Satoru no Yume Bōken, Final Lap, King of Kings, Mappy Kids, Digital Devil
Story: Megami Tensei II, Namco Classic II, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Romance of the
Three Kingdoms II, Yokai Dochuki, Rolling ThunderJP, Top Striker
The 163 has been only used in games exclusive to Japan. Its capabilities were a little better than
Nintendo's MMC3. A variant contained extra sound hardware that plays 4-bit wave samples. It
supports 1 to 8 extra sound channels, but audible aliasing appears when a sufficiently large number
of channels are enabled.

FME-7[edit]
 Manufacturer: Sunsoft
 Games: Batman: Return of the Joker, Hebereke, Gimmick!, and more.
The FME-7 is a memory mapping circuit developed by Sunsoft for use in NES and Famicom
cartridges. It switches program ROM in 8KB banks and switches the character ROM 1KB banks. It
also contains hardware to generate IRQ signals after a specified number of CPU clock cycles, thus
achieving split-screen effects with minimal use of processing power. A special version of this MMC,
labeled as "SUNSOFT 5B" rather than "FME-7", contains a version of the widely used Yamaha
YM2149. This sound generation hardware is used on only one Famicom game: Gimmick!.

SUNSOFT-4[edit]

SUNSOFT-4

 Manufacturer: Sunsoft

Unlicensed MMCs[edit]
Some individual (homebrew) and unlicensed developers have made custom MMCs for the NES,
most of which simply expand the available memory.

228[edit]
 Manufacturer: Active Enterprises
 Games: Action 52, Cheetahmen II
228 is a simple bank switching MMC developed for use in the games Action 52 and Cheetahmen II.
It does not have a nametable control bit. In the Action 52 multicart, it also contains a small 16-bit
register area that contains the old menu selection when exiting a game.

GTROM[edit]
 Manufacturer: Membler Industries
GTROM or Cheapocadabra is a self-flashable MMC developed in 2015 for the homebrew market.
The board contains 512K of PRG ROM, 16K of CHR ROM, and two LEDs. While the GTROM does
not contain PRG RAM, saved games are possible due to PRG ROM being flashable by NES
software.