Top Gear 2 SNES MSU1 Hack?

Hello I am new to this.. I was wondering how hard it would be to use msu1 to replace the music in top gear 2. It doesnt have many tracks only like 4. I just have no idea how to program the msu 1 or what ever it is you do.

I made 4 msu-1 hacks (bszelda, AST, ALTTP, SMW). Enabling it is rather easy. It's complexity rises however with specific game stuff (like different music banks, special effects like fade out...).

I needed 3 weeks for ALTTP and 1 week for SMW. Furthermore, a music artist is needed to provide proper pcm files, as well as rh bugtesting (sd2snes).
I stop hacking msu now as these games I hacked were personal "must haves" for me. I'm not much fan of other games, and definitively not TopGear, so I must decline your request. I also think F-Zero would be more important when it comes to car games. But also popular games, like DKC, secret of Mana... ... have also higher priority to hackers I guess. Good luck in any case.

Conn wrote:I made 4 msu-1 hacks (bszelda, AST, ALTTP, SMW). Enabling it is rather easy. It's complexity rises however with specific game stuff (like different music banks, special effects like fade out...).

I needed 3 weeks for ALTTP and 1 week for SMW. Furthermore, a music artist is needed to provide proper pcm files, as well as rh bugtesting (sd2snes).
I stop hacking msu now as these games I hacked were personal "must haves" for me. I'm not much fan of other games, and definitively not TopGear, so I must decline your request. I also think F-Zero would be more important when it comes to car games. But also popular games, like DKC, secret of Mana... ... have also more priority to higher hackers I guess. Good luck in any case.

I understand what you mean. I just absolutely no programming knowledge and wouldn't know where to begin. Anyway I agree with secret of mana. I would love to hear that done. As for Top Gear 2 I love that game. I grew up playing it with my brother its just pure nostalgia.

I am sorry that I have no better News, but read this:
http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=77056&page=1&pid=1195702#p1195702

and especially all pages of this:
https://www.zeldix.net/t453-enable-msu-streaming-music

Here you can retrace what it can mean to enable msu Streaming - maybe you understand that I do not necessarily want to go down that road again not even for your beloved game ^^

Conn wrote:I am sorry that I have no better News, but read this:
http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=77056&page=1&pid=1195702#p1195702

and especially all pages of this:
https://www.zeldix.net/t453-enable-msu-streaming-music

Here you can retrace what it can mean to enable msu Streaming - maybe you understand that I do not necessarily want to go down that road again not even for your beloved game ^^

Its all good man. I'll give it a shot. thank you for your reply tho.

If you are willing to find and edit music for the game, pretty sure a ROM hacker will be willing to help you do it.

DarkShock wrote:If you are willing to find and edit music for the game, pretty sure a ROM hacker will be willing to help you do it.

I was thinking we could just use the music from the Amiga CD32 port of the game. Which I have the OST too.

Just to tell you that I started looking at the game. So far, I found the routine that transfer the music data but not the code that trigger the play. I'm also livestreaming/recording the process.

DarkShock wrote:Just to tell you that I started looking at the game. So far, I found the routine that transfer the music data but not the code that trigger the play. I'm also livestreaming/recording the process.

Ah cool. Well at least someone with the know how is doing something. I tried but I have idea what I'm doing. It's like trying to read a foreign language for me.

I just submitted the hack to romhacking.net and to github:

https://github.com/mlarouche/TopGear2-MSU1

I'll add the link when romhacking.net approves the submisssion.

DarkShock wrote:I just submitted the hack to romhacking.net and to github:

https://github.com/mlarouche/TopGear2-MSU1

I'll add the link when romhacking.net approves the submisssion.

Holy shit man you're awesome! o.o Badass as always. Thanks a million!

DarkShock wrote:I just submitted the hack to romhacking.net and to github:

https://github.com/mlarouche/TopGear2-MSU1

I'll add the link when romhacking.net approves the submisssion.

Hey quick problem. Every rom I've tried to patch ends up a black screen with the music playing. Like it shows the title screen then goes black like its loading but never gets past the black screen tho the msu 1 music is playing in the background. I am using an sd2snes to play it. is there anything im doing wrong or do i need to have a specific rom?

Now on romhacking.net !

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2389/

Just a few small notes,
(1) in your readme you wrote, there's an Emulator Version called topgear2_msu1_emulator.ips, this is missing on the romhacking.net Folder.
(2)Then there's missing that it is for use on non-Header US (?) Version. This info is available on the romhacking site but it doesn't hurt to repeat it in the readme
(3) Then there's missing a bsnes tutorial in your readme (though you provide the XML), also the sd2snes tutorial could use some polish-up (like patch the Rom first

(4) A General note is that the patch file should not have the same Name as the Rom file like topgear2_msu1.sfc and topgear2_msu1.ips may cause Problems since the patch is autoapplied by some Emulators. I had the Problem with somebody applying my alttp hack and then the volume_decrease patch for Emulator Play. Then the original patch was always autoapplied again (and raised the volume again).
This may affect your provided files in case they also copy topgear2_msu1.ips into the same Folder as topgear2_msu1_emulator.ips and topgear2_msu1.sfc. In this case they apply topgear2_msu1_emulator.ips on topgear2_msu1.sfc but as soon as they load this Rom automatically topgear2_msu1.ips will be applied as well (and thus they end up with sd2snes Settings).

Better is you call the patch simply topgear2_msu.ips (not topgear2_msu1.ips - this avoids These Problems

DarkShock wrote:Now on romhacking.net !

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2389/

I tried the IPS patch hoping that would get it to work. It didn't. On the SD2SNES Flash Cart it still goes to a black screen after the title screen and stays there while the msu1 music plays in the background. Nothing I do will get pat that black screen. I left you a new message about it on the github page as an issue and I just have no idea what's wrong. I'm assuming it works in Higan and Bsnes so there must be an issue with the sd2snes I don't know.

bsnes works flawlessly. There's only one significant difference in msu between sd2snes and Emulators, the loop

Code:


LDA $2000  [$9F:2000]  
AND #$40              
BNE $F9    


takes too Long in sd2snes, I had the Problem a lot in my previous hacks - it only occurs in sd2snes due to the data stream in this Loop (which is immediately available on Emulators (bsnes/higan)). If this Loop is executed during nmi, it is possible that another nmi occurs inside the first nmi and thus the game crashes.

I sent an email to darksock notifying him about this Problem and how to solve it some weeks ago .

Conn wrote:bsnes works flawlessly. There's only one significant difference in msu between sd2snes and Emulators, the loop

Code:


LDA $2000  [$9F:2000]  
AND #$40              
BNE $F9    


takes too Long in sd2snes, I had the Problem a lot in my previous hacks - it only occurs in sd2snes due to the data stream in this Loop (which is immediately available on Emulators (bsnes/higan)). If this Loop is executed during nmi, it is possible that another nmi occurs inside the first nmi and thus the game crashes.

I sent an email to darksock notifying him about this Problem and how to solve it some weeks ago .

Ah I see. I suppose I will just have to be patient then. Thanks for the reply.

Conn wrote:bsnes works flawlessly. There's only one significant difference in msu between sd2snes and Emulators, the loop

Code:


LDA $2000  [$9F:2000]  
AND #$40              
BNE $F9    


takes too Long in sd2snes, I had the Problem a lot in my previous hacks - it only occurs in sd2snes due to the data stream in this Loop (which is immediately available on Emulators (bsnes/higan)). If this Loop is executed during nmi, it is possible that another nmi occurs inside the first nmi and thus the game crashes.

I sent an email to darksock notifying him about this Problem and how to solve it some weeks ago .

Yeah I saw but I never noticed any issue on my SD2SNES, maybe because I use a SDHC cart ?

oh yes, it is also possible that GinBunbun uses a Card that is too slow. If it works for your device then buying a faster Card will solve his Problem.

It depends. In case this Loop occurs during nmi, you should set a msu-busy flag as I wrote in the mail for you. I had several Problems when making it not this way:
- a black bar occured both in SMW and ALTTP when a new track was streamed
- in SMW the $2007 was always set to repeat (#$03) and I couln't set it to Play once only (#$01). Dunno why but Setting the flag with $2004 and playing the song ($2007) first in another nmi, solved this Problem.

So when you test the stream ready (loop:bit $2000 bvs loop) inside a nmi you always should set a free ram address to a msu busy flag

Means instead:

Code:


Loop:
bit $2000
bvs loop


This is better:

Code:


LDA $1e00    ; free ram in SMW, check "MSU1 busy pending" flag
BNE checkmsuready

;if flag is Zero, set the flag together with $2004
LDA #track
STA $2004    ; play msu track
STZ $2005
LDA #$01  ;set "MSU1 busy pending" flag
STA $1e00
RTL

;here you get in the next nmi Frame:
checkmsuready:
bit $2000; check if msu is ready
BVS End ; if not wait for next nmi frame
LDA #$01 or #$03
STA $2007 ; Play theme
LDA #$FF         
STA $2006
STZ $1E00  ; clear msu busy flag
End:
RTL



Conn wrote:oh yes, it is also possible that GinBunbun uses a Card that is too slow. If it works for your device then buying a faster Card will solve his Problem.

It depends. In case this Loop occurs during nmi, you should set a msu-busy flag as I wrote in the mail for you. I had several Problems when making it not this way:
- a black bar occured both in SMW and ALTTP when a new track was streamed
- in SMW the $2007 was always set to repeat (#$03) and I couln't set it to Play once only (#$01). Dunno why but Setting the flag with $2004 and playing the song ($2007) first in another nmi, solved this Problem.

So when you test the stream ready (loop:bit $2000 bvs loop) inside a nmi you always should set a free ram address to a msu busy flag

Means instead:

Code:


Loop:
bit $2000
bvs loop


This is better:

Code:


LDA $1e00     ; free ram in SMW, check "MSU1 busy pending" flag
BNE checkmsuready

;if flag is Zero, set the flag together with $2004
LDA #track
STA $2004     ; play msu track
STZ $2005
LDA #$01   ;set "MSU1 busy pending" flag
STA $1e00
RTL

;here you get in the next nmi Frame:
checkmsuready:
bit $2000; check if msu is ready
BVS End ; if not wait for next nmi frame
LDA #$01 or #$03
STA $2007 ; Play theme
LDA #$FF          
STA $2006
STZ $1E00  ; clear msu busy flag
End:
RTL



My SDHC Card is fast. And all the other msu1 hacks I have on it run fine.

Conn wrote:Just a few small notes,
(1) in your readme you wrote, there's an Emulator Version called topgear2_msu1_emulator.ips, this is missing on the romhacking.net Folder.

Hi DarkShock, as noted by Conn, there is no patch file that can be used for emulator yet. Can you provide the patch file mentioned in the readme?

VideogameScrapbook wrote:

Conn wrote:Just a few small notes,
(1) in your readme you wrote, there's an Emulator Version called topgear2_msu1_emulator.ips, this is missing on the romhacking.net Folder.

Hi DarkShock, as noted by Conn, there is no patch file that can be used for emulator yet. Can you provide the patch file mentioned in the readme?

The volume with the path is fine in the emulator as well, that's why I didn't provide a emulator patch, sorry for the confusion.

I updated the hack with a fix for black screen issue, thanks to Conn for sharing how he fixed it on Super Mario World

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2389/

Hi, there's a bug in this game related to the engine sounds. The four engines available has its unique sound, but due to this bug, the sound of engine from player 1 is swapped with the sound of engine from player 2. If you're playing alone, you keep the engine 1 sound forever, since there's no player 2 to change the engine.

I don't know nothing about programing on SNES, but since this forum is related to change the game music, I'm hopping to someone saying it's not thaaat difficult to correct.

It's easy to replicate the problem. Just use any 2-player password with enough money to buy any engine.

Thanks in advance

Yeah, well. Darkshock and kurrono are gone.
Also I don't know which code you use, there's this kurrono patch:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1743-top-gear-2-more-racing-tracks-hack
Darkshock didn't share his source and kurrono is complicated, he has attached 2 source codes. So maybe we must live with that