Broadly speaking, most would compose on actual instruments, notate on staff paper, and then program the audio chip instructions manually, in Music Macro Language, or using a custom utility developed by the musician or studio. Tracker programs became available starting with the Amiga platform in the late 1980s, but most trackers were still written specifically for the hardware the program ran on. Today, NES... Source: about 1 year ago

You can use a program like FamiTracker (tracker-style interface) or FamiStudio (midi/piano-roll-style interface) which reproduce the NES's limitations and can export .nsf files which you can play back on an actual NES or emulator. Source: over 1 year ago

Recently using FamiStudio for Chiptune music. Its like FamiTracker but with a regular DAW like workflow - https://famistudio.org/. Source: over 1 year ago

Here you go dude. Pretty sure there is every game here, and all of the nsf files for them. AND if you want to actually delete an instrument or change it, there is a way to edit them on pc. https://famistudio.org/. Source: almost 2 years ago

For this cover I used FamiStudio to be as close as possible to the sound of the original NES. Source: about 2 years ago

If you really want to go ahead and learn it yourself, klystrack could be a decent program > https://kometbomb.github.io/klystrack/. Source: over 2 years ago