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You might remember the several (3) PCM demos I've posted in the past year or so, which streamed WAV files from the ROM to play as level music. The main problem with these demos was the large filesize needed to store PCM samples; however, over the past few days, I've added DPCM compression (the same type used for the Sonic 1 DAC samples) to the driver. DPCM compression compresses a sound file by storing a 4-bit deltas instead of a full byte; this results in an exact 2:1 compression ratio for an 8-bit WAV file. Even with the compression, the driver can still play WAVs at 22050Hz (and it works in Gens now!).

Like always, here's a ROM which showcases the new driver (it uses 6 22050Hz music files):
Link to Test ROM

The reason the ROM is 4MB is because it uses 22050KhZ compressed files; if I had used 11025KhZ instead like in the other demos I posted, it would be <2MB.

Also, here's the music list:

GHZ: Slash Man's Stage [Mega Man VII]
MZ:  Burning Heat [Gradius 2 Arcade]
SYZ: Collision Chaos Present [Sonic CD Jap]
LZ:  Undersea Sector [The Guardian Legend]
SLZ: Stardust Speedway GF [Sonic CD Jap]
SBZ: We're The Robots [Mega Man 9]

NOTE: LZ and SBZ's songs are not the original versions, but rather remastered ones.

Also, here's the compiled Z80 driver, and the ASM source. For instructions on how to integrate this driver into the Sonic 1 ROM, see this topic, at the bottom.

Sound files should be compressed with s1sndcomp.exe for best results. The link on jman2050's site doesn't exist anymore, so here's a mirror on my Fileden account. You probably shouldn't use 22050Hz WAVs like I did for the demo; 16000Hz would probably be better for a hack.

Hopefully this will help people overcome the filesize limit for PCM files.

You might remember the various PCM demos I've posted over the past year, which played WAV files as level music in a Sonic 1 ROM. However, the quality of these past demos wasn't that great, to say the least.

Over the past few weeks, I've been optimizing the Z80 driver (now it's 3x faster) and finding other various ways to improve the sound quality. The playback quality is pretty much perfect now, and the driver can also support a file up to 22050Hz now.

Here's a test demo of the new, improved driver:

Link to Test Demo
EDIT: Link fixed.
EDIT 2: Just found this out; sound doesn't work in Gens. Would someone be willing to test if this works on real hardware?

Music list for the demo, in a fancy code box that preserves formatting:

PCMDriverLoad: ; XREF: GameClrRAM; TitleScreen
		move.w #0,($A11200).l
		move.w #$100,($A11100).l
		move.w #$100,($A11200).l

WaitForZ80_2:
		btst #0,($A11100).l
		bne WaitForZ80_2

		lea (Z802),a0
		lea ($A00000).l,a1
		move.W #Z802End-Z802,d1

LoadDriver:
		move.b (a0)+,(a1)+
		dbf d1,LoadDriver
		move.b	#$01,($FFFFFFFC).w
		rts
		
Z802:
		incbin sound\PCMD.bin
Z802End:

This is the code that actually loads the new PCM driver. It also incbin's the PCM driver (I'm assuming here that you put it in the sound folder of the split disassembly, and didn't change the name), and sets a special driver byte at $FFFFFFFC (this will be needed later).





Step 3:


Find the SoundDriverLoad subroutine, and replace it with this:

SoundDriverLoad:			; XREF: GameClrRAM; TitleScreen
		nop	
		move.w	#$100,($A11100).l ; stop the Z80
		move.w	#$100,($A11200).l ; reset the Z80
		lea	(Kos_Z80).l,a0	; load sound driver
		lea	($A00000).l,a1
		bsr.w	KosDec		; decompress
		move.w	#0,($A11200).l
		nop	
		nop	
		nop	
		nop	
		move.w	#$100,($A11200).l ; reset the Z80
		move.w	#0,($A11100).l	; start	the Z80
		move.b	#$00,($FFFFFFFC).w
		rts	

The only new thing here is the line of code at the end that sets the driver flag to 0. So when the driver flag is 0, the regular S1 drum driver is in use, but when the driver flag is 1, the new PCM driver is in use.






Step 4:

Find the subroutine labeled "sub_71B4C", and replace it with this.

sub_71B4C:				; XREF: loc_B10; PalToCRAM
		cmpi.b	#$01,($FFFFFFFC).w
		beq.s	loc_71B82
		move.w	#$100,($A11100).l ; stop the Z80

loc_71B5A:
		btst	#0,($A11100).l
		bne.s	loc_71B5A

		move.b	($A01FFD).l,d0
		btst	#7,d0
		bra.s	loc_71B82
		move.w	#0,($A11100).l	; start	the Z80
		bra.s	sub_71B4C

This is what we needed the driver flag for. Without this subroutine, the regular S1 drum driver won't play, but it's unnecessary to the new PCM driver, and also decreases the quality of the new PCM driver without this modification (since it stops the Z80). However, it's changed so that if the new PCM driver is in use, it'll skip stopping the Z80, preserving the quality of the music.





Step 5:

Find the subroutine labeled "Sound_81to9F", and add this code to the beginning:

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PlayMusic81:

		jsr Sound_E4
		
		jsr PCMDriverLoad
		
		move.w #$100,($A11100).l ;Stop the Z80
		
WaitZ80_81:
		btst #0,($A11100).l
		bne WaitZ80_81 ;Wait for z80 to stop

		move.b	#1,($a00039).l		;turn the driver on
		
		move.b #(((Music81+$34)&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003c).l ;location - $__xxxx
		move.b #(((Music81+$34)&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003b).l ;location - $xx__xx
		move.b #((Music81+$34)&0xFF),($a0003a).l ;location - $xxxx__
			
		move.b	#(((Music82-Music81)&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003f).l	;length - $__xxxx
		move.b	#(((Music82-Music81)&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003e).l		;length - $xx__xx
		move.b	#((Music82-Music81)&0xFF),($a0003d).l			;length - $xxxx__


		move.b	#$0C,($a00046).l	;sample rate (00=22050Hz, 05=16000Hz, 0C=11025Hz, 15=8000Hz)

		move.b	#$01,($a0004A).l	;looping flag ($00=no,$01=yes)


		move.w	#$0,($A11100).l		;Start the Z80

		rts

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the code that would actually play song $81. From the comments, you should be able to pretty much tell what it does. (Just in case you can't figure out, (Music82-Music81) equals the length of Music81.) You need to do one final thing to get it to play:


Add this at the beginning of Sound_81to9F:

Sound_81to9F:				; XREF: Sound_ChkValue
		cmpi.b #$81,d7
		beq.l PlayMusic81
		jmp Continue8129F
		nop

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PlayMusic81:

		jsr Sound_E4

		
		
		jsr PCMDriverLoad
		
		move.w #$100,($A11100).l ;Stop the Z80
		
WaitZ80_81:
		btst #0,($A11100).l
		bne WaitZ80_81 ;Wait for z80 to halt

		


		move.b	#1,($a00039).l		;turn the wav playing script on
		
		move.b #(((Music81+$34)&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003c).l ;addr - $__xxxx
		move.b #(((Music81+$34)&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003b).l ;addr - $xx__xx
		move.b #((Music81+$34)&0xFF),($a0003a).l ;addr - $xxxx__
			
		move.b	#(((Music82-Music81)&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003f).l	;addr - $__xxxx
		move.b	#(((Music82-Music81)&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003e).l		;addr - $xx__xx
		move.b	#((Music82-Music81)&0xFF),($a0003d).l			;addr - $xxxx__


		move.b	#$0C,($a00046).l	;sample rate (00=22050Hz, 05=16000Hz, 0C=11025Hz, 15=8000Hz)

		move.b	#$01,($a0004A).l	;looping flag ($00=no,$01=yes)


		move.w	#$0,($A11100).l		;Start the Z80

		rts

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Continue8129F:
		jsr		SoundDriverLoad
		cmpi.b	#$88,d7		; is "extra life" music	played?
		bne.s	loc_72024	; if not, branch

Let's say that, in your split disassembly, music82.bin was also a wav file, and you wanted it to play too. Then the subroutine would look like this:

Sound_81to9F:				; XREF: Sound_ChkValue
		cmpi.b #$81,d7
		beq.l PlayMusic81
		cmpi.b #$82,d7
		beq.l PlayMusic82
		jmp Continue8129F
		nop

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PlayMusic81:

		jsr Sound_E4

		
		
		jsr PCMDriverLoad
		
		move.w #$100,($A11100).l ;Stop the Z80
		
WaitZ80_81:
		btst #0,($A11100).l
		bne WaitZ80_81 ;Wait for z80 to halt

		


		move.b	#1,($a00039).l		;turn the wav playing script on
		
		move.b #(((Music81+$34)&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003c).l ;addr - $__xxxx
		move.b #(((Music81+$34)&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003b).l ;addr - $xx__xx
		move.b #((Music81+$34)&0xFF),($a0003a).l ;addr - $xxxx__
			
		move.b	#(((Music82-Music81)&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003f).l	;addr - $__xxxx
		move.b	#(((Music82-Music81)&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003e).l		;addr - $xx__xx
		move.b	#((Music82-Music81)&0xFF),($a0003d).l			;addr - $xxxx__


		move.b	#$0C,($a00046).l	;sample rate (00=22050Hz, 05=16000Hz, 0C=11025Hz, 15=8000Hz)

		move.b	#$01,($a0004A).l	;looping flag ($00=no,$01=yes)


		move.w	#$0,($A11100).l		;Start the Z80

		rts

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------


; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PlayMusic82:

		jsr Sound_E4

		
		
		jsr PCMDriverLoad
		
		move.w #$100,($A11100).l ;Stop the Z80
		
WaitZ80_82:
		btst #0,($A11100).l
		bne WaitZ80_82 ;Wait for z80 to halt

		


		move.b	#1,($a00039).l		;turn the wav playing script on
		
		move.b #(((Music82+$34)&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003c).l ;addr - $__xxxx
		move.b #(((Music82+$34)&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003b).l ;addr - $xx__xx
		move.b #((Music82+$34)&0xFF),($a0003a).l ;addr - $xxxx__
			
		move.b	#(((Music83-Music82)&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003f).l	;addr - $__xxxx
		move.b	#(((Music83-Music82)&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003e).l		;addr - $xx__xx
		move.b	#((Music83-Music82)&0xFF),($a0003d).l			;addr - $xxxx__


		move.b	#$0C,($a00046).l	;sample rate (00=22050Hz, 05=16000Hz, 0C=11025Hz, 15=8000Hz)

		move.b	#$01,($a0004A).l	;looping flag ($00=no,$01=yes)


		move.w	#$0,($A11100).l		;Start the Z80

		rts

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------





Continue8129F:
		jsr		SoundDriverLoad
		cmpi.b	#$88,d7		; is "extra life" music	played?
		bne.s	loc_72024	; if not, branch

Hopefully you understood all of that...as I've said many times, I'm not good at explaining things. If you have any questions about this, just ask. =P

====================

tl;dr: You can put WAVs in for your level music now. You'll have to read the whole post to see how.

You might remember the new S1 sound driver I released October of last year, which could play streaming PCMs for level music (or any other purpose) through the Z80. The sound quality of the driver was extremely distorted and crappy (which was actually not the driver itself's fault). Since then, I've found a way to make the PCM playback sound much better. Here's a S1 ROM showcasing the improvement:

S1 PCM Test

For comparison, here's an old PCM test without the fixes I made:

Old PCM Test

Details on how to integrate the PCM driver, along with the fixes I made, will come soon.


Music Choices for New PCM Test:

GHZ - Collision Chaos Good Future Jap.
LZ - Lost World (Chased By a Rock!)
MZ - Volcano XZ (Sonic Xtreme)
SLZ - Stardust Speedway Good Future Jap.
SYZ - Casinopolis
SBZ - Metallic Madness Present Jap.
Title - Super Smash Bros. Brawl Main Theme

Latest Update:
November 28, 2009 - Chimpo Man's Stage - Video

Note that almost all of the below information and pictures in this post are obsolete; they are simply the original images I posted of this hack. The original post dates back to March of 2008.
========================

Behold my awesome new hack! I call it "Dustin Wyatt's Epic Adventure".





So basically Tweaker decides to kick some ass so he gets his blaster and starts shooting things (like Down Syndrome Sonic heads!).

Current plans for levels (don't know the rest yet; feel free to suggest!):

GHZ: Intro Stage (the one in the picture)
MZ: Chimpo Man's Stage
SYZ: Shade Man's Stage
FZ: Sazpai Man's Stage

also, sum music:

http://www.fileden.c...488/junkman.vgm
Chimpo Man's Stage theme


http://www.fileden.c...150488/bass.vgm
Boss theme

prepare for a tl;dr post guys.

As you may or may not know, I've been experimenting with different ways to play full PCMs over the past few weeks, and came up with a new S1 PCM driver based on the one that came with drx's code template which can support a 3-byte length, variable pitch, and looping (based on a looping flag). The driver doesn't work perfectly in S1 yet, there's still some distorted sound. Tweaker says the DAC works best when the 68K is frozen, but I don't know how to do that without slowing down/stopping the game, so some music sounds distorted and crappy.

Anyway, here's the ROM. Music choices are:

GHZ = Emerald Coast (Azure Blue Sky)
MZ = Red Mountain (Mt. Red - A Symbol Of Pride)
SYZ = Casinopolis (The Dreamy Stage)
LZ = Lost World (DANGER - Chased By A Rock!)
SLZ = Speed Highway (whatever the first song's name is)
SBZ = Final Egg (Mechanical Resonance)
Boss = SCD Jap. Boss Theme (yes, I know this isn't from Sonic Adventure)
FZ = Perfect Chaos

GHZ and LZ sound a little distorted, but they still sound like the original song.





I'll also take this topic to release the new driver, with instructions on how to integrate it into the ROM. Here's the new sound driver. It doesn't replace the old one, but instead works as a second driver for the PCM songs. To make this driver work with the S1 ROM, first put this at the end of the ROM:

PCMDriverLoad:			; XREF: GameClrRAM; TitleScreen
		move.w	#0,($A11200).l
		move.w	#$100,($A11100).l
		move.w	#$100,($A11200).l
		
WaitForZ80_2:
		btst	#0,($A11100).l
		bne	WaitForZ80_2
		
		lea	(Kos_Z80_2),a0
		lea	($A00000).l,a1
		move.W	#KosZ802End-Kos_Z80_2,d1
		
LoadDriver:
		move.b	(a0)+,(a1)+
		dbf	d1,LoadDriver
		rts

That's the subroutine that loads the PCM Driver. You'll also need to insert the second sound driver after that, which would be like this:

Kos_Z80_2:
		incbin	sound\PCMD.bin
KosZ802End:

PCM playing is handled at the beginning of the subroutine Sound_81to9F. At the beginning of Sound_81To9F, put a jump to SoundDriverLoad, which loads the original DAC sound driver for regular songs. To actually play a PCM song, put this before the jump to SoundDriverLoad:

		cmpi.b	#$81,d7
		beq.l	PlayMusic81
		jmp	Continue8129F

Replace the #$81 and PlayMusic81 with the respective values (e.g. #$82 and PlayMusic82) for respective songs. After that code, we need to put the actual code that plays the song, which would look like this:

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PlayMusic81:

		jsr	Sound_E4
	
		move.w	#$100,($A11100).l	;Stop the Z80

WaitZ80_81:
		btst	#0,($A11100).l
		bne	WaitZ80_81		;Wait for z80 to halt

		jsr	PCMDriverLoad



		move.b	#1,($a00039).l		;Turn PCM Playing Flag ON


		move.b	#((Music81&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003c).l	;addr - $__xxxx
		move.b	#((Music81&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003b).l		;addr - $xx__xx
		move.b	#(Music81&0xFF),($a0003a).l			;addr - $xxxx__
		

		move.b	#(((Music82-Music81)&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003f).l	;addr - $__xxxx
		move.b	#(((Music82-Music81)&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003e).l		;addr - $xx__xx
		move.b	#((Music82-Music81)&0xFF),($a0003d).l			;addr - $xxxx__


		move.b	#$06,($a00046).l	;sample rate (06=8000KHz)

		move.b	#$01,($a00048).l	;looping flag ($00=no,$01=yes)

		move.w	#$0,($A11100).l		;Start the Z80

		rts

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Again, replace all respective values. The Music82-Music81 is signifying the length; Music82 starts at the end of Music81, so Music82-Music81 is the length of the song Music81.

Make more subroutines just like that and do more compares for more PCMs you want to play. After the end of the subroutine PlayMusic81, just put the label Continue8129F. And you're done. The whole thing should look like this:

Sound_81to9F:				; XREF: Sound_ChkValue
		cmpi.b	#$81,d7
		beq.l	PlayMusic81
		jmp	Continue8129F

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PlayMusic81:

		jsr	Sound_E4
	
		move.w	#$100,($A11100).l	;Stop the Z80

WaitZ80_81:
		btst	#0,($A11100).l
		bne	WaitZ80_81		;Wait for z80 to halt

		jsr	PCMDriverLoad



		move.b	#1,($a00039).l		;Turn PCM Playing Flag ON


		move.b	#((Music81&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003c).l	;addr - $__xxxx
		move.b	#((Music81&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003b).l		;addr - $xx__xx
		move.b	#(Music81&0xFF),($a0003a).l			;addr - $xxxx__
		

		move.b	#(((Music82-Music81)&0xFF0000)>>16),($a0003f).l	;addr - $__xxxx
		move.b	#(((Music82-Music81)&0xFF00)>>8),($a0003e).l		;addr - $xx__xx
		move.b	#((Music82-Music81)&0xFF),($a0003d).l			;addr - $xxxx__


		move.b	#$06,($a00046).l	;sample rate (06=8000KHz)

		move.b	#$01,($a00048).l	;looping flag ($00=no,$01=yes)

		move.w	#$0,($A11100).l		;Start the Z80

		rts

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continue8129F:
		jsr	SoundDriverLoad
		cmpi.b	#$88,d7		; is "extra life" music	played?
		bne.s	loc_72024	; if not, branch
		tst.b	$27(a6)

It should be fairly obvious how to add more songs. I hope you understood what to do, because I suck at explaining things =P

Hopefully this will open up the gates to much more awesome-sounding music in Sonic games.