NES Sound Format

NES Sound Format (NSF) is an audio file format invented by Kevin Horton, to provide a way to transfer Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) music data. NSF files consist of the original music / sound code from a NES game and some header data.

While the original intention was to allow storage, transfer and playback of music / sounds ripped from NES games, the format has become popular with composers of chiptunes and many original compositions are now available.

Files
Examples of NSF files can be found at:


 * Akumu's NSF Archive
 * Famicompo Mini
 * NES Music Archive
 * Zophar's Domain - Nintendo NSF Music

Information
Information on the NSF format can be found at:


 * 2A03 - The NES Music Archive
 * NesDev wiki - NSF
 * NES Music Format Spec (.txt file)
 * Wikipedia - NES Sound Format
 * NesDev forum discussion about the NSF 2.0 featureset

Other information that might be of use:


 * NES APU Sound Hardware Reference
 * NesDev
 * NesDev NES Music forum

Playback - Hardware
There have been a number of projects developing hardware NSF players


 * CopyNES NSF Cart
 * HardNES
 * NES PowerPak
 * TNS-HFC (japanese)

Playback - Software
There are a number of options for playing back NSF files, including both standalone players and plugins for popular media players such as Winamp.

Plugins

 * Festalon is an open-source xmms and Winamp plugin, as well as a standalone command-line NSF player.
 * Game Emu Player is a foobar2000 plugin supporting multiple formats, including NSF. Source is available here.
 * NEZplug is a plugin for Winamp 2.x, kbMediaPlayer (japanese), Netscape and Internet Explorer 3.x - 5.x. Both binary and source are available, and the SVN can be browsed here.
 * NEZplug++ (japanese) is a Winamp plugin.
 * NotSo Fatso is a Winamp plugin. Both binary and source are available.
 * NSFplug is a plugin for Winamp 2.x, Winamp 5.x and kbMediaPlayer 2.28 (japanese) or later. Both binary and source are available.
 * NSFten is a plugin for Winamp 2.x

DOS / Windows

 * Bleep! plays NSF and GBS files. It also offers a Winamp plugin.
 * BNSF (zip archive)
 * DeliPlayer supports a huge number of formats, including NSF.
 * G-NSF (japanese)
 * NSFLive (zip file)
 * NSFplay original version by Brezza.
 * NSFPlay a fork of the original by Brad Smith.
 * SlickNSF
 * VirtuaNSF (japanese)

Cross-platform / Other

 * Mesen-X - an accurate NES emulator, supports NSF, NSFE and EPSM in those.
 * Audio Overload plays back damn near everything (including NSF) and is available for Linux, Mac and Windows.
 * FlashNSF is, as the name suggests, an NSF player implemented in Flash. Also plays NSFE files.
 * Modizer is a module player app for iOS which supports NSF.
 * NoiseES is an iOS app supporting NSF, NSFE, GBS, VGM and SPC.
 * Nosefart offers two Linux versions, a DOS version, an XMMS plugin, a Winamp plugin and a CL-amp plugin.
 * tgxnsf is an NSF player for the PC-Engine / TurboGrafx 16. Binary and source available.

Composition Software

 * FamiStudio
 * FamiTracker
 * Dn-Famitracker - Dn-Famitracker is a fork of 0CC-FamiTracker that incorporates numerous fixes and features.
 * Furnace
 * DefleMask
 * Musetracker
 * NerdTracker II
 * NTRQ - a native NES tracker
 * mck

NSF to X

 * nsf2midi NSF to MIDI.
 * NSF2WAV NSF to WAV.

X to NSF

 * IT2NSF IT to NSF.
 * S3M2NSF info, download S3M to NSF.