Messages

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Best use of drum samples in PSG music]

Any PSG+ADPCM combo is great - it's just too bad that not many games use ADPCM drum samples.

PSG+ADPCM games that I'm aware of:

Cyber City OEDO 808
Cychorider (Anearth Fantasy Stories Taikenban caravan shooter)
Dragon Slayer - Eiyuu Densetsu
Fiend Hunter
Pastel Lime
Star Parodia

Fiend Hunter is probably my favorite of these.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Madou Monogatari]

Aleste 2 and Space Manbow scroll quite well (along with most MSX2 games), but their scrolling isn't quite as smooth as what is typical for consoles. The very jerky games are usually MSX1 titles, as the MSX1 VDP doesn't do scrolling natively. I believe the MSX2 VDP has some support for scrolling. As for scrolling directions, Space Manbow handles horizontal, vertical, and diagonal. It's probably the most technically accomplished shooter on the platform.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Madou Monogatari]

Guh, I can imagine the MSX versions were bad, every MSX game I've ever tried was awful.  That system just wasn't made for anything other than puzzle games.

I recommend that you play Space Manbow and Aleste 2 to see what the MSX (well MSX2 to be precise) was really capable of.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Music Ripping questions]

I have some HES files and was wondering how to rip your own HES files from roms, and if there was a utility to do so?

Ripping HES files entails cutting out the game's sound-related code and sequence data as well as determining the entry points for the initialization and play routines of the music driver. Knowledge of HuC6280 asm is a must, as well as knowing the PCE's sound hardware, memory management, and interupt handling. Since ripping generally involves determing what low-level machine code is doing at a higher, more abstract level, there is no utility that will handle anything out there.

This has probably been asked before, but is there a way to get extract chip-based music and sounds from CD games?

Sure there is. CD games use the same CPU (which also handles PSG), so they really aren't any different than HuCard games. Actually, in most cases they are easier to rip, as most CD games use the exact same music driver (the one that is found on the System Card).

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Tengai Makyou II rocks hard...]

I know this game has the ability to detect holidays, but I guess it can also pick up Cinco De Mayo eh?

Children's Day (Kodomo no hi), actually.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Name this Hucard]

Obocchama-kun.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Gate of Thunder Force]

My guess is this "extra" stage was used for debugging purposes during the game's development.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Daimakaimura ~ Ghouls 'N Ghosts ENDING MUSIC comparisons]

Interesting. Out of those listed, I like the SGX version the best,. Still, I prefer the C64 ending music (the whole soundtrack rather) to all of them.

[General Gaming / New Valis game out in Japan]

Can anyone explain why certain areas have a digital blur on them in some hentai? I'm not sure i understand the purpose of this.

It's to comply with Sofurin standards. Sofurin is an organization formed in the early 90s by the ero-game industry to keep the Japanese govt. off their backs.

Also, how does Valis X play? Is this just one of those choose your path movie type deals, or a real game with hentai in it? Has anyone purchased it? I can't read Japanese so I can't get very far in the download site.

I assume it's standard yaru-ge faire where the only point of the game is to click through mindless plot/dialogue to get a 100% CG collection. It won't be ready for release until 4-21-06 according to the official site.

[General Gaming / New Valis game out in Japan]

I doubt it. Falcom has never made anything sexist. Oh okay, one exception -- Brandish.

http://www.saladedemais.com/falcom/index.php/Private_Stripper

[Off-Topic / Any Japanese speakers here?]

If someone can translate this Hucard voice clip, I'd greatly appreciate it.

我が魂は不滅じゃ。

Translation: My soul is immortal.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Looking for a Kabuki Den savestate (for an HES rip)]

Mission complete.

Snatcher HES

Much easier than I expected. All PSG routines were located in a jump table, making things nice and convenient. The only tricky part was the timer-driven PCM.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / I'm looking for music from various Bonk games]

I have ripped GB Genjin 2 and GB Genjin Land. Both can be found on my page -> www.snesmusic.org/hoot/kingshriek

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Looking for a Kabuki Den savestate (for an HES rip)]

These rips are awesome!  I might mention, that personally, I'm looking for rips of GB Genjin 2 aka Bonk's Revenge & GB Genjin Chikun (something or other, I forget the full name).  Is there any kind of tool that someone like me can use to make them myself, or is it pretty difficult?

Music drivers and formats vary widely from game to game, so there isn't a tool that does everything for you. What you need to know is the assembly language for the system's CPU, how to interface with the sound registers, how memory is organized, bankswitching, interrupt handling, and of course the rip format you will be going to use.

As for helpful tools, nothing beats an emulator with an integrated debugger. I use FCEUXDSP for NSF rips and BGB for GBS rips. I don't know of any PC-Engine emulator with debugging features, so in this case, a disassembler is your best friend (though a debugger would make things so much easier). Also, you'll want a hex editor to put everything together.

In conclusion, the barrier of entry is very high if you aren't used to low-level programming. As for the two games you mentioned, I'll look into them when I need to take a break from Kabuki Den.

EDIT: Okay, got around to those GB Genjin rips much sooner than I thought. I have updated my page with the rips.

I could happily help you with Snatcher (my playlist has been waiting for a rip for four years!). If I understood correctly, you need a save state (memory dump) for every tune while it's playing?

Actually, now that I think about, one should probably be enough. If all the PSG music is accessible from a sound test, assuming no loading time when accessing different tracks, then all of the music should be in the save state.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Looking for a Kabuki Den savestate (for an HES rip)]

If you're not in a hurry, give me a couple weeks and I'll send you a save state. I was playing at it for some private debug sessions with David Michel, but I got sidetracked along the way with Gulliver Boy and Seiya Monogatari (and my PS2, but that's another story).

Thanks for the offer, but it looks like I am going to play through the game again - I don't really have anything better to do this weekend. I just wanted to check to see if someone had one on hand that I could use.

I've had a number of problems with NEZplug, which were (AFAICT) resolved with NEZplug+. Have you tried this plugin? Your Ziria rip works correctly with it. And the audio emulation sounds noticeably better (except for the noise channel volume which is still too loud by default).

I did manage to solve the problem I was having, though not by switching to NEZplug+ (which I did do). I stupidly forgot about the "data size" field in the HES header, which NEZplug strictly follows. So basically what was happening was NEZplug was only loading a portion of my rips - no wonder I couldn't bankswitch past a certain value. I don't really see a need for such an entry in the header - wastes four perfectly good bytes when EOF could be used for the same purpose.

Where can I find these rips?

www.snesmusic.org/hoot/kingshriek

Also, if anyone can provide savestates for games while PSG music is playing (Snatcher and Gulliver Boy would be great for instance), that would be excellent. I've just about exhasted my supply of CD titles that can be ripped with relative ease. With the save state, I would be able to see if the rip is feasible. If it is, I'll find some way to get a hold of the game and rip it.

And if the game has an easily accessible sound test (like Snatcher), the rip could be made from a collection of save states (one from each track).

And just for reference - games that I'm looking into right now (these I have, no need for any savestates):

Emerald Dragon, Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 2, Puyo Puyo CD, Tengai Makyou II, Ys Book I & II, Ys IV

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Strip Fighter II]

But I do like the music though I fiddled around with the BGM test a bit, I now wish there was a HES rip out for that.

I've ripped it very recently. http://www.snesmusic.org/hoot/kingshriek/

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Looking for a Kabuki Den savestate (for an HES rip)]

Anyone here have a emulator save state (Magic Engine preferable) at the debug area in Kabuki Den (the place where you can listen to all the PSG music in the game). I'm currently in the process of ripping an HES of it, and the way the game's music is stored on the CD is annoying. There's got to be around 100 different music banks, with many duplicates in each. It will be really tedious to go through all of them - making sure I'm not missing anything or not duplicating anything.

Having easy access to all PSG in-game would make the process much easier (I could just rip the banks from a save state instead of the iso). Hopefully, someone can help me out. I don't really feel like playing through the game again at this time (though I will if I must).

Thanks in advance.

By the way, the driver used in Kabuki Den is also used in Ziria (have a basic rip of this sitting on my hd right now*) and the first Yuna game at least. I'll be looking out for more games that use this driver. Unfortunately, Manjimaru uses a different driver - one I haven't figured out yet. It looks like Ys 4 uses the same driver as Manjimaru as well.

* doesn't work in NEZPLUG though, but I think it's because NEZPLUG sucks, not that my rip is bad. For some bizarre reason, it seems to not let me write a value past #$0A to any MPR. I don't have that problem with other players - Audio Overload, MagicEngine, etc.