[Cinossu]

<lots of lovely format info here>

If said sequence data, that final section, can be worked out (what are flags, notes, durations, etc, and if it's similar to SMPS in any form down there), a converter wouldn't actually be too hard to throw together. I may take a look into this when I get home.

This post has been edited by Cinossu: 28 May 2009 - 07:52 AM

[Glisp]

SCHG:Sonic Spinball Music Hacking?

Sonic Spinball isn't the only GEMS game.

This is kind of off subject so forgive me but Rocket Knight Adventures uses the Hyperstone Heist Sound Driver. I really want a tool in the future that can convert Sound Driver files between formats.

Hell some of them have Custom Sound Drivers we still don't even know the names to yet. (Example: Streets of Rage 2)

You are retarded, and this is why.
a) "Hyperstone Heist" is the name (in actuality, subtitle) of a game. The name of the Konami music driver isn't known. Streets of Rage 2's driver could be an early version of the Ancient MD driver, too.
b) Your posts are practically "I want this music in my hack!" but... much less forward about it.

Ship's source indicates that there is also a modulation bank (MBANK);

Probably similar to SMPS modulation, but seperate from the song... maybe done per-instrument.

Um, no. It actually is called that.
I got this from the list:Rocket Knight Adventures Konami/Hyperstone Heist.
See for yourself:
http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Me...und_Engine_List

I knew it was the name of a game because I own it. It shares the sound driver of that game which was also made by Konami. I win this round! =P
I had a right to do that since you called me retarded for the wrong reason. Next time do your research before calling someone else names.

[muteKi]

I think what he was trying to point out was that most of the names on that list aren't formal or official but done largely for the purposes of identification. We don't need a name for the sound driver to figure out how it works or what other games use it.

[Glisp]

I think what he was trying to point out was that most of the names on that list aren't formal or official but done largely for the purposes of identification. We don't need a name for the sound driver to figure out how it works or what other games use it.

Regardless though its still the same fucking sound driver that TMNT: Hyperstone Heist uses.

How exactly do sound Drivers vary anyway? Does it have something to do with what instruments are available? I've noticed that GEMS music in general is very spiky and hard. (for lack of any better words to describe it. No pervertedness intended whatsoever.)Is this an actual characteristic of the sound driver or are all sound drivers capable of making very sharp and hard music? I know one of the tracks in Genesis/Mega Drive Ecco 2 (Asterite's Cave theme.) sounds sort of like typical GEMS music but it is using the Novotrade Sound driver so its not. I've noticed that GEMS is generally associated with games solely developed by SOA (aside from Blue Sky Software which is or should I say was - as they no longer exist - and a few minor third party games.) Not that it really matters I just think its kind of interesting. (I like learning about all aspects of Sega and its games. I literally drool while looking at this kind of stuff!=P) *drools*

[TmEE]

GEMS is a pain in the ass with poor default instruments... and not many people bothered to make their own instruments... thus, most of the 200 games that use GEMS have poor sound. Also, GEMS cannot keep the beat, its fluctuating

[muteKi]

Now there'd be no reason one couldn't use most default SMPS instruments in GEMS right? Certainly neither really seems to make much use of those wonderous undocumented features of the 2612.

[Andlabs]

Now there'd be no reason one couldn't use most default SMPS instruments in GEMS right? Certainly neither really seems to make much use of those wonderous undocumented features of the 2612.

CODE

* Patch 14 "SOLOTPT1.FM": FM
    dc.b    0
    dc.b    $0B,$00,$35,$E3,$21,$0B,$94,$8C
    dc.b    $01,$4B,$21,$25,$92,$80,$02,$37
    dc.b    $31,$17,$9D,$05,$02,$46,$31,$11
    dc.b    $9A,$00,$02,$48,$1F,$FF,$1F,$FF
    dc.b    $1F,$FF,$1F,$FF,$0F,$00

(How do you guys do asm highlighting?)

Wow, that doesn't look like SMPS voice data, does it? You probably would have to manually assign each operator its value. And that's quite a few values! In the documentation that comes with GEMS:

Artec format .FM and .PSG files can be imported into a GEMS patch bank. Artec PSG Noise patches cannot be reliably imported due to certain ambiguities in their file format... sorry. Gems can import (and export) its own .PAT file format which does not have this problem.

Apparently the voice data is in one of the above formats. If the comment is hinting correctly, Ship uses the .FM/.PSG, so the data above is in Artec format. I wonder if Sonic Spinball has the same thing. And I don't think either format matches the SMPS format.

Also something interesting:

FM voice 3 can assign an arbitrary frequency to each of its 4 operators. This is refered to in various Yamaha and Genesis documentation as Channel 3 mode, and is useful for certain sounds such as drums. A note played using an FM Channel 3 Mode patch will require FM voice 3, or it will not be able to sound. For this reason, the voice allocation software will steer away from FM voice 3 for normal FM patches unless it is the only voice free.

Does SMPS even have this?

This post has been edited by Andlabs: 28 May 2009 - 03:20 PM

[TmEE]

converter is all one would need.... my sound system uses wildly different intrument files than what TFM MM uses, but that does not stop me from using the TFI files.... TFI files don't hold as much stuff as TYI (my format) does...

This post has been edited by TmEE: 28 May 2009 - 03:24 PM

[Mikel]

Now there'd be no reason one couldn't use most default SMPS instruments in GEMS right? Certainly neither really seems to make much use of those wonderous undocumented features of the 2612.

CODE

* Patch 14 "SOLOTPT1.FM": FM
    dc.b    0
    dc.b    $0B,$00,$35,$E3,$21,$0B,$94,$8C
    dc.b    $01,$4B,$21,$25,$92,$80,$02,$37
    dc.b    $31,$17,$9D,$05,$02,$46,$31,$11
    dc.b    $9A,$00,$02,$48,$1F,$FF,$1F,$FF
    dc.b    $1F,$FF,$1F,$FF,$0F,$00

(How do you guys do asm highlighting?)

Wow, that doesn't look like SMPS voice data, does it? You probably would have to manually assign each operator its value. And that's quite a few values! In the documentation that comes with GEMS:

Artec format .FM and .PSG files can be imported into a GEMS patch bank. Artec PSG Noise patches cannot be reliably imported due to certain ambiguities in their file format... sorry. Gems can import (and export) its own .PAT file format which does not have this problem.

Apparently the voice data is in one of the above formats. If the comment is hinting correctly, Ship uses the .FM/.PSG, so the data above is in Artec format. I wonder if Sonic Spinball has the same thing. And I don't think either format matches the SMPS format.

Also something interesting:

FM voice 3 can assign an arbitrary frequency to each of its 4 operators. This is refered to in various Yamaha and Genesis documentation as Channel 3 mode, and is useful for certain sounds such as drums. A note played using an FM Channel 3 Mode patch will require FM voice 3, or it will not be able to sound. For this reason, the voice allocation software will steer away from FM voice 3 for normal FM patches unless it is the only voice free.

Does SMPS even have this?

The Patch 14 code you posted above will look like this when highlighting with ASM, when highlighting in ASM, you can easily tell how RAM Values, and Equates work, you can also tell on how the op-codes (JMP, JSR, BRA, BSR, etc.) work:

Syntax Highlighted Code: ASM

* Patch 14 "SOLOTPT1.FM": FM
	dc.b	0
	dc.b	$0B,$00,$35,$E3,$21,$0B,$94,$8C
	dc.b	$01,$4B,$21,$25,$92,$80,$02,$37
	dc.b	$31,$17,$9D,$05,$02,$46,$31,$11
	dc.b	$9A,$00,$02,$48,$1F,$FF,$1F,$FF
	dc.b	$1F,$FF,$1F,$FF,$0F,$00

And for FM voice 3 assigning an arbitrary frequency to four of it's operators, It's not really possible with SMPS, it can get really, really complicated once you learn about working with Sound Drivers. All FM Channels in the GEMS Sound Driver use up to four operators, however, the SMPS Sound Driver only uses it's four operators for FM Instruments, and Voice Editing.

This post has been edited by Mikel: 28 May 2009 - 05:51 PM

[Glisp]

GEMS is a pain in the ass with poor default instruments... and not many people bothered to make their own instruments... thus, most of the 200 games that use GEMS have poor sound. Also, GEMS cannot keep the beat, its fluctuating

Well I know a few of the games that work well with GEMS and their all designed by Blue Sky Software.

[nineko]

You know what, I'm not very intersted in neither Sonic Spinball nor Gems in general, though it would be neat to have a disassembly of Sonic Spinball, complete with editing tools. Maybe new songs and new levels would help make it a decent game.
I'm up to help with that task eventually.

[drx]

A disassembly of Sonic Spinball would be nonsensical, since it was programmed in C. The code output by the compiler just looks ugly. You'd either need the original source or decompile it somehow (not really that easy). I know someone with the source btw :P

[nineko]

Yeah I can see that, but then, at least it would be cool to know locations and formats, so one can make an in-rom level editor à la SonED1