The driver kernels all require IRQ handling even if the actual drivers don't make use of it. So in order to successfully link a NES program using the joystick and/or TGI driver there has to be at least a "dummy" IRQ backend.
--- /dev/null
+;
+; IRQ handling (NES version)
+;
+
+ .export initirq, doneirq
+
+; ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+.segment "INIT"
+
+initirq:
+ rts
+
+; ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+.code
+
+doneirq:
+ rts