CD audio games enhancement project

[jotd]

please guys stay on topic. It doesn't matter if you burn "The best of Modern Talking" instead of the original tracks. As long as they match the levels, the boss, etc... It's just a matter of taste.

Those who don't like "CD" music can copy the CD and replace audio tracks by amiga module versions. It's just more tedious to create .wav, etc... (not for me, I registered Delitracker on windows when it was still possible )

I joined to just say the work you all do here is amazing. I've recently got back into my CD32 after decades and the nostalgia is the best.

All these compilations and new developments are exciting. I've burned about 45 CDs in 2 weeks and my CD32 has been on everyday for hours on end. So thank you for the enjoyment.

Now my dream. Shadow of the Beast, with extra button support and trainer on lèft trigger with the CD audio from PC Engine CD/FM Towns Marty. That would be a dream come true. I've wanted to play the Amiga version with the stunning CD tracks from the japanese consoles for decades ever simce hearing the reworked studio audio.

Keep up the fantastic work guys. You are geniuses.

[jotd]

I hope you didn't burn either Gods+audio or Wonderdog+audio because they're reported as "non working on CD32 real hardware" (where older CD32load versions without audio worked fine)

For Beast, if you can find those tracks as mp3 that could be a candidate. But doing those conversions is sometimes very tedious. Wonderdog was simple, but Gods was hard (and I had the resourced Atari ST code thx to Kroah else it would have been a real nightmare), because of music stopping at the end of levels, the shop, no end tune, no menu tune, etc..

Wonderdog was simple: just check when the real music is loading and put the CD one instead, and leave sfx on (it was a perfect project to start)

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by jotd

For Beast, if you can find those tracks as mp3 that could be a candidate.

I have FM-Towns images made from the original CD-ROMs for both 1 & 2 if you are interested?

[Mrz]

why shadow of the beast ?, it have music+sfx at the same time and the Amiga music is better than all other ports

yet the best candidates are

Leander
Lollypop
Alien 3

this is logic , in this games we can use their original Amiga music, there is no need to stole music from other gamesystems

[jotd]

@Mrz I tend to agree. Anyway, this project is rather time-consuming (when some whdload slaves can be written in a few hours or less for some cases when the loading system and/or the protection is simple, all games requiring this treatment need a fair amount of reverse engineering to figure out when to start & stop the music), so choices will have to be made.
I like your candidates.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Mrz

why shadow of the beast ?, it have music+sfx at the same time and the Amiga music is better than all other ports

Originally Posted by jotd

@Mrz I tend to agree.

I also agree; the Amiga versions of SotB 1 & 2 are the ultimate

...was just offering the FM Towns versions as you said:

Originally Posted by jotd

For Beast, if you can find those tracks as mp3 that could be a candidate.

[jotd]

if you can drop them somewhere... but no guarantee that this is done anytime soon.

[Retroplay]

JOTD, Beast 1 & 2 FM-Towns tracks:
https://tinyurl.com/yaq9ch9o

Extracted from the MAME software list CHDs.

[Mrz]

Originally Posted by jotd

@Mrz I tend to agree. Anyway, this project is rather time-consuming (when some whdload slaves can be written in a few hours or less for some cases when the loading system and/or the protection is simple, all games requiring this treatment need a fair amount of reverse engineering to figure out when to start & stop the music), so choices will have to be made.
I like your candidates.

ok I got another good candidate: Gulp

the music is of this game is very good , and there is soundfx but you can't choice both at the same time
The CD32 original version could have added cd audio but is the same as the floppy version

what do you think?

[turrican3]

some remix of shadow of the beast are really pro !!
one of them : [ Show youtube player ]
When one it will perhaps be done have a look to the remxes too.
Some are really but some are incredible and respect the original tune, really.

[jotd]

something I'm not getting about Lemmings: when you set the music the sfx are also there sooooo
what's the need to put CD tracks?

[Photon]

I support this project and wish all Amigas since the CDTV had gotten CD drives - for the precise reason that it frees all 4 Paula channels for sound effects.

But it has to be good music, and music that fits the game, of course.

Since Copyright is obviously not an issue, I could suggest some arcade games to pick from, like Marble Madness, Out Run (I know), Stun Runner, Super Hang-On, Space Harrier, Raiden (Mega Typhoon), Bubble Bobble & Co... the arcade game music could be recorded from MAME and would enhance them I think

CDTV versions also possible?

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by jotd

something I'm not getting about Lemmings: when you set the music the sfx are also there sooooo
what's the need to put CD tracks?

Just to give it some cd audio, or as i said the original tunes that got canned before they got Tim Wright in could be used, which would be cool.

But of course its your call, go with what you feel deserves the time and effort.

[Gzegzolka]

Lotus3 and Jaguar XJ220 - I wonder would it be possible to have both car engine sounds and music?

[jotd]

@Amigajay actually Lemmings isn't too difficult to adapt to CD tracks, so I think I'm going to it anyway. If people don't want it, well, they won't run it. EDIT: making good progress. CD track is already playing in the first stage

I've checked Leander with some cheat, and damn the game is HUGE (but slightly boring too) and only 1 music for 10 levels, plus some parts where the music stop & the sfx are enabled again (strange head-boss which appears in the later levels).

@Photon: Marble Madness is a good idea too. The visuals are faithful but the music is not that good compared to the arcade. Yeah, worth it. Updating the main post.

CDTV would be possible, but it's clearly missing a lot of software (reading files from CD is currently done with Psygore routine, we don't have the source, and I doubt he wrote that by himself rather hacked RN routine so noone really has the knowledge for this apart from him maybe). That plus the raw read (Toni says it's easy) and the audio CD play (all those are completely different from CD32)

And memory limitations would prevent 1MB games to run. So, doable, of course but is it worth the effort?

Thanks to all who contribute/have interest in that thread.

[jotd]

DISCLAIMER: all releases (Gods, Wonderdog, Lemmings) are reported NOT TO WORK on real hardware yet, only on WinUAE. This isn't related to CD play, but rather to a change made to CD32load to accept CD play, which crashes on a real console only (I LOOOVE those bugs). I'll investigate as soon as my console is repaired, which will take some time... Bummer!!

That doesn't stop us from discussing on which games would be good candidates. CD32load used to work on real HW, the new version doesn't but it will! So efforts are not wasted.

[Amigajay]

I dont mind still burning the odd test disc if you feel you made a breakthrough on something that could make it work, i have plenty of discs atm so its not a problem.

[jotd]

thanks, what would be very useful would be a user with a terrible fire / floppy disk & a keyboard. I've created a test bootup for this. If I had my console working, that wouldn't be a problem...

Update: I just bought another CD32 console for 200 euros on ebay just in case the repairs on the other one are too expensive. So I'll probably get it in a week or so, and I'll be able to conduct the tests myself and I'll make that damn thing work. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, continuing the adaptations!!

[Toni Wilen]

I'll reply here, PMs usually get lost and forgotten..

I managed to duplicate the hang in emulation. It is timing related because it always seems to happen if winuae is debug build.

05-326 [543 000-000]: PAL mode V=49.9204Hz H=15625.0879Hz (227x312+1) IDX=10 (PAL) D=0 RTG=0/0
05-705 [564 134-129]: AKIKO INTENA 00000000 PC=001f9942
05-709 [564 223-229]: AKIKO INTENA 10000000 PC=001fece8
05-709 [564 187-231]: AKIKO INTENA 18000000 PC=001fefde
05-710 [564 083-232]: AKIKO INTREQ c0000000 PC=001ff078
05-710 [564 199-232]: AKIKO INTREQ c0000000 PC=001ff078
05-710 [564 087-233]: AKIKO INTREQ c0000000 PC=001ff078
05-711 [564 202-233]: AKIKO INTREQ c0000000 PC=001ff078
05-711 [564 089-234]: CD32: IN 15 00 (EA) 
05-712 [564 089-234]: CD32: Akiko INT 08000000
05-712 [564 089-234]: CD32: LED=0
05-712 [564 089-234]: CD32: Akiko INT 08000000
05-713 [564 090-234]: AKIKO INTREQ c8000000 PC=001ff078
05-713 [564 092-234]: CD32: Akiko INT 08000000
05-713 [564 113-234]: AKIKO INTENA 18000000 PC=001ff090
05-714 [564 009-235]: AKIKO INTREQ c8000000 PC=001ff078
05-715 [564 123-235]: AKIKO INTREQ c8000000 PC=001ff078
05-715 [564 011-236]: AKIKO INTREQ c8000000 PC=001ff078
05-715 [564 126-236]: AKIKO INTREQ c8000000 PC=001ff078
05-716 [564 015-237]: AKIKO INTREQ c8000000 PC=001ff078
.. forever..

What happens is command 5 (status led) is send using DMA (I assume it is RNC loader sending it because audio part uses only PIO) and when drive responds, no one is handling the interrupt ("DMA data available from drive" 08000000 intreq mask). I assume RNC interrupt handler isn't active at this point, which would have handled it normally.

You should clear bit 23 of akiko intena to prevent this interrupt from triggering. I thought I already had said that all Akiko interrupts should be disabled if RNC loader interrupt handler is not active. Except bit 29 which audio CD routine needs.


It may be also good idea to wait 1/2 sec or so before taking over RNC exception handler so that it has enough time to finish receiving return codes from the drive and not getting in (possibly) out of "sync".