MSU1 for..... the megadrive ! The Mega SD

I don't know if you guys saw this news  : A kind of SD2SNES for Megadrive, the mega SD will be launched, in August 2019.
You can play Mega CD rom on any Megadrive / Genesis / Nomad (yeah even nomad... wow !), but..... you can enhance "Mega Drive games with CD audio and Mega-CD / Sega CD hardware (MSU1 like)"..!
So new perspective for megadrive, after the SNES and MSU -1 !
Interesting, don't you think ??
only cons here : the price : 232 EUR ! oh my ....   And As always with Terraonion, the production is very limited..... So If you can't grab one now....  


Mega SD
I also include the Developers' PDF for the How to add CD music to games....

PS : I'm not affiliate with this company.... i'm just amazed that this "magic" sound of MSU-1 is also possible on Megadrive !!

I grabbed one yesterday, it's very interesting. But I get the impression you need one of these to actively develop the MSU1 type features for it, unless there's an emulator out there for the Mega Drive/Mega CD like the SNES has with BSNES, higan, SNES9X etc, that can interpret the coding. If there was, it probably would have been a feature that would have been taken advantage of already.

It's going to be pretty exclusive, and reliant on people that have a Mega SD if there's no emulator that can utilise that feature.

Yes.. that's the big problem for me....
But nice hacking anyway !

Relikk wrote:I grabbed one yesterday, it's very interesting. But I get the impression you need one of these to actively develop the MSU1 type features for it, unless there's an emulator out there for the Mega Drive/Mega CD like the SNES has with BSNES, higan, SNES9X etc, that can interpret the coding. If there was, it probably would have been a feature that would have been taken advantage of already.

It's going to be pretty exclusive, and reliant on people that have a Mega SD if there's no emulator that can utilise that feature.

Well, according to this link here http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Higan

Higan would be the only emulator that I guess could do mus1 like for the mega drive games, at least in theory.Actual game play would have to be tested of course, and I would hope that mega drive games would be some what the same as snes games for asm wise. But I do not know.

It all depends. Like MSU1, and in the same way that byuu created MSU1, the code that Terraonion used to implement that feature might not be native to the system, but the system can read it and interpret it. Since MSU1 didn't exist when SNES emulators were created, they then had to be coded in such a way to look for the new MSU1 code. I think the same applies to Mega Drive/Genesis emulators now.

But we know very little at the moment, and MegaSD's won't be in the hands of Joe Public until August. Or we need someone like Conn or Pev to look over the manual and give us their opinion on whether it's possible or not with current emulators.

As Relikk stated, TerraOnion’s version of MegaSD MSU-like code is found in their developers manual. It does contain how to enable MSU and how to use it. Unfortunately, like him, I would also have to wait until August to test.

Hopefully, an emulator with debug features has this implemented sometime in the near future. That would definitely speed ROM patching along. It is very possible. Just need an interested Emu developer to implement it. Perhaps, the Blastem emu developer would be interested in doing it? He is very active now with his emulator.

pepillopev wrote:
Hopefully, an emulator with debug features has this implemented sometime in the near future. That would definitely speed ROM patching along. It is very possible. Just need an interested Emu developer to implement it. Perhaps, the Blastem emu developer would be interested in doing it? He is very active now with his emulator.

http://info.sonicretro.org/SCHG:Music_Hacking
I suggest you reach out to sonic retro first, if they caught word about this, someone is well on their way to updating some emulators.
Too bad gens+ isn't being updated, otherwise that might be the first way to go about msu-1 programming it.

But is not there a similar feature for Sega Genesis as the Sega CD Mode 1 that runs on both the original hardware and Kega Fusion?

I have here Sonic 1, Rock'n Roll Racing and Michael Jacksons' Moonwalker running with this feature:





Unfortunately the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive's hacking community did not devote much to this project as it was done here on Zeldix.net.

@darthvader Is this patch similar to what Pier Solar does? Or a pure Genesis to Sega CD conversion?

Pier Solar required the game cartridge and CD in tandem to get the best of both worlds (fast cartridge loading and CD music).

A Sega CD conversion would mean the patched Genesis ROM would have to be burned to a CD to play with the Red Book Audio on real hardware. The Micheal Jackson game via the YouTube link says it uses MP3s, which makes me believe it only works on KFusion emulator. Sega CD uses Red Book audio, not MP3s.

I wonder which method was used? Any link that I can visit to look into this?

It looks like it's almost the same Solar Pier system, so much so that first you need to load the rom and then load the bin / cue or mp3 / cue as Sega CD iso, I'll have my files for you to take a look at.

(In fusion.ini, place this option: CartBootEnabled=1)

Already the Sonic 1 version is the one planned and never released for the Sega CD:

I had found this after I clicked on @darthvaderx youtube video, I had found another video that showed a hack that you could DL. I explored the website fourm and I found this https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/amps-ample-music-playback-system.38583/


Could this program be of any help for a MSU1 like for the mega drive?

@Polar No, this method is solely dependent on the emulator KFusion. Same applies to Gens32. Thanks anyway for your assistance.

But I've already been able to run Solar Pier on Genesis Plus GX / Retroarch with the CD track. And @pepillov, received the P.M. with the files?

@darthvaderx Yes, I have your files but I was looking more like source code to see if it this implementation matches TerraOnion’s MegaSD method.

Nonetheless, I will have to wait to get my MegaSD to write some code to test. Unless someone has a copy of the Outrun patched for MegaSD+ features to dis-assemble and review.

pepillopev wrote:@darthvaderx Yes, I have your files but I was looking more like source code to see if it this implementation matches TerraOnion’s MegaSD method.

Nonetheless, I will have to wait to get my MegaSD to write some code to test. Unless someone has a copy of the Outrun patched for MegaSD+ features to dis-assemble and review.

I've posted a question about this on Terraonion's forum.

https://forums.terraonion.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1027

So far they've said the code hasn't been ported to an emulator, yet. I've asked them for the ASM for the Out-Run hack.

pepillopev wrote:@Polar No, this method is solely dependent on the emulator KFusion. Same applies to Gens32. Thanks anyway for your assistance.

Hey, No problem dude, Thank you for letting me know that it was for the KFusion emulator. Your Welcome

Code was posted.

https://pastebin.com/f0AiBAG1

@Relikk, sweet, I have taken a look at it, would normal pcms work with it? Or am I way off on that.

No idea, to be honest. The manual seems to indicate that we need a .cue file and .bin files along with the ROM. So, I'm guessing the music files will need to be converted to .bin, somehow. Even though the code suggests track looping is in there, I'm not sure if we can loop them in the way we can for MSU1.

The instructions don't elaborate on the file type, either...

neodev wrote:once you have the megasd, just create a directory, patch outrun usa/eu with that ips and place the .md file there
and also add an audio cd with at least 4 tracks
1 - magical sound shower
2- splash wave
3- passing breeze
4- last wave

Again, links to IPS patch and source are below.

IPS

Source

@Relikk, music files to a bin? So kinda like when a person rips a cd to flac bin and cue, Or cd.cue/rom/.bin. Like a hybrid? I am really confused on this. I had saw the track looping part, but the rest of the code was a lot different from what is usually MSU1. I will try to take a crack at it, but I am taking a shot in the dark.

Update: I found two links that may be able to fill in the blanks I hope. :-)

https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/comments/95o5v4/how_do_i_make_it_so_mp3_tracks_work_with_my/

https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/714n7g/pbp_vs_chd_for_mednafenbeetle_psx_opinions/dn88vqt/?sort=top

They're not 100% for the topic, but could this be what the instructions fail to say. I think?

So, I received my MegaSD last week. Some things to mention with regard to the MD+ functionality...

The music files don't have to be BIN files. They can be WAV and they'll work fine. They just have to be specified inside the CUE file that accompanies the ROM.

The tracks do loop seamlessly. I did a small test where I used a 2 second drum beat that would loop and it was perfect, but I'm not sure if they can be triggered to loop back to a specific point like MSU1 PCM's can.

I've done an OutRun arcade music pack for anyone that has a MegaSD and wants to use it. Here is the link...

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ahue7izQZmougeVCMvbsPetGBmiOOw?e=dAzbDL

WAV files, CUE file and the original patch for the game is included in the ZIP. Not even sure if it's a requirement (but it makes sense)... Rename the CUE file to the same name as your ROM file, or vice versa.

Of course there's no emulator to test these on, but Neodev said he's working on a version of MAME with a debugger that supports MD+.

I'm gonna test out this MegaSD..
I don't like the brand so (terraonion..) I lived in Europe and got big import taxes.. due to the fact that this company is now implanted in Andorra, an offshore country for financial optimisation...
Really uncool !

Same. €72 extra by the time it got here. Unless they move back to Spain, I don't see myself buying anything else from them if that's what we have to look forward to. Ah, well. It is what it is.

same here. "now you see me.. now you don't !"
but the product is rather cool.
The " cracktro " GUI , "back in the days" is awful !
Try to change settings : it's unreadable !
Taking the SD in or out is a pain in the *** (and I don't have big fingers...)
But maybe we will be able to play Street of rage with the last re release in vinyl soundtrack .. could be awesome !

Talking to a guy on Discord earlier, he managed to get Streets Of Rage to run with CD audio using an emulator called Regen that has a debugger.

https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/758/