Uploaded November 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Two tracks in StarTropics had broken music. I figured out the problem and fixed them both! 24 years later we can finally hear them as they were composed!
IPS patch for NES ROM: rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/startropics_music_fix.ips
NSF: rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/startropics_music_fix.nsf
NSF + SFX: forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?p=250908#p250908
Source: rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/startropics_music_fix.zip
NSF of original soundtrack for comparison: rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/startropics.nsf
The patched ROM will run correctly on the real hardware, but some emulators like Nestopia have a problem with altered versions of StarTropics. The common MMC3 mapper chip was unfortunately confused with StarTropics' uncommon MMC6 mapper in the NES ROM format, and some emulators implement them in an incompatible way. Emulators that do this usually detect for StarTropics by a ROM checksum, which can't detect an altered ROM. Try switching to another emulator, such as FCEUX.
Alternatively, if you have a newer emulator with iNES 2 support, you can try applying a header patch:
* romhacking.net/hacks/5187
* romhacking.net/hacks/4871
rainwarrior.ca
Chapters:
0:00 The problem
2:28 Restored island music
3:05 A second problem
3:41 Restored ending music
4:12 Thoughts and download
Two tracks in StarTropics had broken music. I figured out the problem and fixed them both! 24 years later we can finally hear them as they were composed!
IPS patch for NES ROM: rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/startropics_music_fix.ips
NSF: rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/startropics_music_fix.nsf
NSF + SFX: forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?p=250908#p250908
Source: rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/startropics_music_fix.zip
NSF of original soundtrack for comparison: rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/startropics.nsf
The patched ROM will run correctly on the real hardware, but some emulators like Nestopia have a problem with altered versions of StarTropics. The common MMC3 mapper chip was unfortunately confused with StarTropics' uncommon MMC6 mapper in the NES ROM format, and some emulators implement them in an incompatible way. Emulators that do this usually detect for StarTropics by a ROM checksum, which can't detect an altered ROM. Try switching to another emulator, such as FCEUX.
Alternatively, if you have a newer emulator with iNES 2 support, you can try applying a header patch:
* romhacking.net/hacks/5187
* romhacking.net/hacks/4871
rainwarrior.ca
Chapters:
0:00 The problem
2:28 Restored island music
3:05 A second problem
3:41 Restored ending music
4:12 Thoughts and download
