Enable MSU streaming music for Alttp

I was just shocked how fast I can get through dungeons like crystal nr 3 in the woods. I had the feeling that it took AGES as kid.

uh, that was surprisingly easy:
http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/stuff/Con/msu1_sd2snesfix_try9.ips

When you defeat blind, first track 13, then track 1a should be played, This also should be valid for every Boss.

I hope we are through then now ^^''

I just noticed that the game uses both the VBlank NMI and a V count IRQ on raster line 128 in-game.
If it were to enable forced blanking mid-screen it's no surprise there is a black bar in the middle of the screen... I'll try to investigate further. The MSU hook is probably currently running in the IRQ service routine instead of the NMI service routine...?

mh, I'm not so much into These nmi/irq thingies. Hopefully it won't require much recoding since I'd really Freak out then.

nmi Routine start
$00/80C9

irq Routine start
$00/82D8

I think (hope) I placed it correct at
$00/80D9 22 00 E9 22 JSL $22E900[$22:E900] A:0000 X:0000 Y:002E D:0000 DB:00 S:01F2 P:envMXdIZc HC:0488 VC:225 FC:21 I:00
in the nmi routine

Your most recent fix works brilliantly. It has, however, revealed that I need to find a new piece of music for the "Got Medallion/Crystal" song. The current one just doesn't work.

No coding issue hopefully. Unfortunately there's again a bug found by me:


http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/stuff/Con/msu1_sd2snesfix_try10.ips

The Music when going into a house with the same theme did not get down with volume (should be fixed in v10)

Conn wrote:
I think (hope) I placed it correct at
$00/80D9 22 00 E9 22 JSL $22E900[$22:E900]   A:0000 X:0000 Y:002E D:0000 DB:00 S:01F2 P:envMXdIZc HC:0488 VC:225 FC:21 I:00
in the nmi routine

Yes that's ok, but I see you are still blocking while waiting for the busy flag.

Code:


$22/E9CF 2C 00 20    BIT $2000  [$00:2000]   A:0001 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMXdIzC
$22/E9D2 70 FB       BVS $FB    [$E9CF]      A:0001 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMXdIZC


That explains why there is a small blackout in the screen. The original NMI routine of Zelda turns on forced blanking while doing its work. Now it looks like you have put the waiting loop before most of the original NMI routine instead of inside the forced blanking area. This way it waits for ~half a frame, then the original code forces blanking, does some stuff, and turns on the screen again, resulting in only a couple of black scanlines. I think the way to wait for the busy flag "asynchronously" as I described earlier would be ideal.
The arbitrary delaying of the original game code might otherwise have adverse effects elsewhere.
A quick and dirty solution could be to just wait for the next VBlank AFTER the busy loop. That way the forced blanking falls into VBlank anyway, but you will delay the game by one frame on track change. Not a big deal but could break recorded TASes etc.

I've found a very minor, non-critical bug. Soft-resetting the game by 'Save and Quit' causes the music to play too long. It should cut off earlier than it does. However, it doesn't impact the 'Triforce' intro playback at all.

Ikari, I think this would not affect too much to move the msu-Routine to a later Point of the nmi.
Do you have a Suggestion where to hook best?

The Retromancer... yeah well, I check

Made my own Track 19 replacement, basically an orchestral rendition of the original piece. I've updated my original archive, so if you prefer the new version, please download that.

You can hear my new version here:

https://soundcloud.com/user7986070/alttp-msu-19

Sounds nice. I've already fixed the bug when save/quit, but I wait whether Ikari will give a Suggestion before I post one hack after the other.

êdit: ah well why not posting it ^^
http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/stuff/Con/msu1_sd2snesfix_try11.ips

Guess so far we're done except Ikari finds a place to move the msu-Routine to cause even less flickering

Conn wrote:No coding issue hopefully. Unfortunately there's again a bug found by me:


http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/stuff/Con/msu1_sd2snesfix_try10.ips

The Music when going into a house with the same theme did not get down with volume (should be fixed in v10)

I was gonna mention that, but you fixed it before I got around to it

I updated the archive in the first post with v11, as this seems to be proven best and bug-free.

@TR: if you update your pcm Folder with track 19 (if I got you right this wasn't working) please post a link (dunno whether the link in the first post is the one to the updated Folder, or if each update requires a new link).

I'll be on vacation this Weekend so I can improve further first on monday (or this evening maybe) in case Ikari finds a better place to hook. Otherwise we're done

@Conn - I figured out how to replace uploads without changing the download link - the current link will always have the most recent upload available from now on.

A big round of applause to everyone who took this hack from its humble, partially-functional beginnings and made it a thing of beauty.

Conn - for being...hell, for being fricking awesome enough to code this and for putting up with my niggling, OCD-inspired bug reports.
mwreichelt - without his (admittedly buggy but still functional) code, we'd never see the transition from emulator to SD2SNES for this hack.
ikari_01 - for joining the discussion and using his tremendous expertise and knowledge to help Conn out with the really complicated stuff.
byuu - for the MSU-1, arguably the best SNES enhancement chip 'never' made, which allows all this to be possible.
EmuandCo - extensive testing in BSNES and Higan, and for double-checking my bug reports.
The Zelda ReOrchestrated Website - for re-imagining all those classic tunes we all grew up on.

Seriously - major props unto you all.

Oh man, I didn't get thread notifications for a few days and then came back to all this progress! I don't really deserve any praise as I barely did anything with this stuff for the few months.

Huge thanks to Conn for making the patch I always wanted to make (and giving me a whole lot to learn from later).
Also huge thanks to ikari_01 for making the SD2SNES and for helping out in this thread. I was over the moon the day you left that comment on my blog offering advice, but then things got busy at work and I never got back to you.
Sorry about that.

I've clearly got a lot to learn about SNES hacking though. Gonna see what I can learn from Conn's hack and think about if there isn't something better I can do to help with cool MSU hacks like this.

@mwreichelt - *cough* Mega Man X3 *cough*

Don't sell yourself short, mate - sure, your patch wasn't perfect, but it was extremely important. Without your patch, none of this would have been possible.

I'm trying to get a list of where each of the tracks can be found in the game for testing purposes, and there are a few I'm not sure on a few of them, can anybody help me fill in the blanks?  Initially, I was just curious about the difference between tracks 18 and 24 (18 is played in a lot of caves such as the one in NW Kakariko Village, and so far the only place I've found that plays track 24 is Sahashrala's hideout near the eastern palace), but I figure this list might be helpful for anyone looking to compile their own track list.  I'm guessing tracks 28-35 include Ganon's theme and the ending tracks (and maybe the item collection fanfares?), but as I said, I'm not sure, and i haven't gotten that far in this playthrough to test them. I don't necessarily care about a comprehensive list of everywhere a particular track is played, but I'd like at least a single known place that I can say "go here if you want to hear track X".

Code:

01 - Opening title sequence
02 - Hyrule field (light world)
03 - Hyrule field (during storm)
04 - Death mountain (rabbit)
05 - Lost Woods
06 - Opening story sequence
07 - Kakariko Village
08 - [Event] Mirror warp
09 - Dark world overworld
10 - [Event] Get the Master Sword
11 - File select screen
12 - [Event] Soldiers alerted in Kakariko Village
13 - Turtle rock
14 - Treasure box house
15 - ??
16 - Hyrule Castle
17 - Light world dungeons
18 - Cave in northwest Kakariko Village
19 - [Event] Get pendant
20 - Sanctuary
21 - Boss battle
22 - Dark world dungeons
23 - Fortune Teller's house
24 - Sahashrala's hideout
25 - [Event] Rescue Princess Zelda
26 - [Event] Rescue maiden
27 - Fairy's fountain
28 - ??
29 - ??
30 - ??
31 - ??
32 - ??
33 - ??
34 - ??
35 - ??

Theme list (both hex and dec in clamps for your pcm)

Code:

Overworld:
-01 (01)Triforce + title screen
-02 (02)Overworld
-03 (03)Rain
-04 (04)Rabbit
-05 (05)Lost Woods
-06 (06)Introduction
-07 (07)Kakariko Village
-08 (08)Portal SFX
-09 (09)Dark World
-0A (10)Master Sword
-0B (11)Name select screen
-0C (12)Guard summoned
-0D (13)Skull Woods
-0E (14)Minigame
-0F (15)Title screen only

Indoors:
-10 (16)Hyrule Castle
-11 (17)Light World dungeon
-12 (18)Cave
-13 (19)Medallion/crystal acquired
-14 (20)Sanctuary
-15 (21)Boss
-16 (22)Dark World dungeon
-17 (23)Fortune Teller
-18 (24)Cave (appears to be identical to -12)
-19 (25)Zelda rescued in prison
-1A (26)Sage rescued in crystal
-1B (27)Fairy spring
-1C (28)Ganon's theme only
-1D (29)Ganon appears in Agahnim's shadow
-1E (30)Face-to-face + Ganon's theme
-1F (31)Ganon battle

+ 3 ending themes
20(32), 21(33),22(34)


0F(15) appears (to the best of my knowledge) to be unused in-game.

Ok, thanks Retromancer.  That gives me what I need.

TheRetromancer wrote:@mwreichelt - *cough*  Mega Man X3 *cough*

Don't sell yourself short, mate - sure, your patch wasn't perfect, but it was extremely important.  Without your patch, none of this would have been possible.

If I'm working on it, my precious Mega Man X will come before X3!

My SNES hacking was a whole bunch of reading specs and then flailing around trying to figure out what I was doing after work and on weekends. I need to make a more dedicated study of this sort of thing. Consequently, if anyone knows where to look for this sort of guidance let me know.

I kind of want to set up a website for MSU specific hacking, patch downloads, etc, but I don't think I have enough understanding yet about how this stuff works.

Edit: TheRetromancer's tracklist above matches my personal notes. Roommate and I hunted for track 15 and couldn't find it anywhere in the game.

Also, Track 35 is only used if you use the patch that allows you to insert an .avi after starting a new game.

If I had to guess, Track 15 was used in an earlier build of the game where either the 'Triforce Intro' was either a separate .spc or not included at all.

And maybe secret of mana ^^ and as soon as Luigiblood gave me his Roms... dkc2 ^^

emuandco wrote:And maybe secret of mana ^^ and as soon as Luigiblood gave me his Roms... dkc2 ^^

Oh, SoM. How much content did we lose when you were cut down from being the first SNES-CD game?

I have a personal MSU-1 wishlist:

Mega Man X
Mega Man X3
Final Fantasy III/VI
Secret of Mana
Secret of Evermore (I know it's not as popular as the 'real' Seiken Densetsu games, but I still love it)
Mega Man VII
DKC 2

Yeah, you can find this tracklist inside the doc tutorial attached in the patch Folder.
Updated the doc also with credits for you.

The Video is a nice already debugged add-on; SepH already created an awesome example Video, but I can't find it anymore... seph, do you know where it is?

I believe youtube took it down for the copywrited song I used in it.

I'll upload it elsewhere when I get home if my crazy women leaves me some time on the computer that is!