FlatCube NES Port Finished

2026-01-28 - [54] 11:14

I have been hard at work this last week and a half on the NES port of FlatCube. For context of what FlatCube is, I wrote a post back in November mentioning I had created a game for the Playdate called FlatCube.

My First Game for the Playdate - FlatCube

To restate the point of and limitations of FlatCube:

Only the [F]ront face is visible
The cube cannot be rotated, meaning no X-, Y-, or Z-axis rotations of the cube
The only turns allowed are [F]ront, [U]p, [D]own, and [R]ight, [L]eft face turns (so no [B]ack turns or slice moves)
Every scramble randomizes the color scheme of the cube

Screenshot of the front face of a scrambled cube showing 3 global achievements titled "3x3", "3x3x1", and "3x3x3?" have been met (indicated by a star for each achievement)

Just like the PlayDate version, this version also has 4 achievements:

3x3 - The [F]ront face is solved
3x3x1 - The entire [F]ront layer is solved
3x3x3? - The cube is "solved" (The [U]p, [D]own, [L]eft, and [R]ight centers may be 180 degrees off from the edges touching those centers)
3x3x3 - The cube is "solved" both ways (The [U]p, [D]own, [L]eft, and [R]ight centers were 180 degrees off from the edges touching those centers at one point AND correct at one point, guaranteeing the cube has been solved at some point in the scramble)

Screenshot of a the front face of a cube where the front face is solved, 3 global achievements titled "3x3", "3x3x1", and "3x3x3?" have been met (indicated by a star for each achievement), and the current scramble achievements "3x3" and "3x3x1" have been met (indicated by a checkmark for each achievement)

NES ROM Download

The NES ROM is freely available and open source.

NES ROM (MMC1 Mapper)
NES ROM (NROM Mapper)
Project Page
Source Code [HTTP]

The NES ROM is available both as an MMC1 mapper ROM (using the same circuit board setup as Zelda II), and an NROM mapper ROM (the same as used for Donkey Kong or Excitebike). The expected board for the MMC1 version is SKROM with battery backed Save RAM (SRAM).

The SRAM for the MMC1 version of the game should function properly in most emulators, while the SRAM for the NROM version should work on emulators that support Family BASIC. If SRAM isn't working properly in the emulator you are using, the game will still be playable, although in that case it won't save the scramble or achievement information.

Game Boy Port

I still intend to make a Game Boy (possibly Game Boy Color functionality included) port of FlatCube. That might take some time though, as there are some important personal life things that have come up that I need to deal with.

Contact/Reply

If you would like to reply to this post, feel free to send me an email.

Email: vi@vigrey.com [Email]
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