T2 - The Arcade Game

I would love to see a MSU-1 variant of T2: The Arcade Game SNES release with the music used from the original stand up arcade machine made by Midway. Is there any way to do this assuming access can be had to the original arcade music/sound effects? I'm not experienced with creating MSU-1 hacks but I just wanted to throw it out there to see if anyone has taken a shot at it. Thanks for reading. Sorry if this is the wrong location for requests, didn't know where else to post.

iray1979 wrote:Sorry if this is the wrong location for requests, didn't know where else to post.

Moved to the correct subforum.

Interesting idea, but apart from this YouTube video I can't find any good lossless rips of the arcade soundtrack, but if that's the only source, then so be it. Unless the person that uploaded that video wants to share their audio files or the commands used to access the tracks via MAME's debugger.

From what I can hear everything seems to be there, except for the equivalent of the SNES versions "Game Over" jingle.

Relikk wrote:

iray1979 wrote:Sorry if this is the wrong location for requests, didn't know where else to post.

Moved to the correct subforum.

Interesting idea, but apart from this YouTube video I can't find any good lossless rips of the arcade soundtrack, but if that's the only source, then so be it. Unless the person that uploaded that video wants to share their audio files or the commands used to access the tracks via MAME's debugger.

From what I can hear everything seems to be there, except for the equivalent of the SNES versions "Game Over" jingle.

.
The soundtrack can be ripped direct from the rom using M1 and the Bridge Front End.
I ripped some tracks from the term2.zip arcade rom, @iray1979 you can rip all the tracks from the rom.

Here are some test rips
https://www.mediafire.com/file/3c18jojyf7pr6mh/waves.rar/file

And here is the M1 and the Bridge front end, just copy the rom to the roms folder and load the rom on it and you can rip all the tracks from it.  First  load the rom, press record and play the music from the first track and the program gives you the tracks 1 by 1.
This program can also rip de SFX, but I think the MSU1 only goes with music or SFX,but not shure.


I prepared all the files and configs for you.  But you need to download the term2.zip from your own T2's arcade machine  
https://www.mediafire.com/file/83233l9e6oor9qz/M1.rar/file

yes, MSU1 can only play music or SFX, not both. when it's doing "both" it's actually some clever trickery where the SFX (voice usually) is part of the music track.

Cubear wrote:yes, MSU1 can only play music or SFX, not both.  when it's doing "both" it's actually some clever trickery where the SFX (voice usually) is part of the music track.

I would be perfectly ok with just the music honestly, doesn't have to be the sound effects too (even though that would be pretty awesome as well, not gonna lie). Unfortunately I'm not skilled or experienced enough to compile something like this to work properly and I was hoping someone more astute/skilled/experienced than I am could create this since since I don't think I can. I know there are some wizards on here that could definitely pull it off, I just don't know the first thing about how to do it myself unfortunately. In either case, I think it would be pretty awesome for everyone to get ahold of, and hopefully there are enough fans of the game to want something like that. I'm actually surprised no one has done it yet after all of the other amazing MSU-1 content I have experienced originating from here for other games. Either way it was just a random brainstorm idea that I had and wanted to put it out there as a request. It would just be great to have a MSU-1 arcade music variation of the game. Thanks for all of the responses and potential interest in the idea.

jerrymh wrote:The soundtrack can be ripped direct from the rom using M1 and the Bridge Front End.

Ah, right. Cool. I didn't think it was possible based on the comments in the YouTube video, but I see now that they were mainly referring to creating VGM's as the DAC isn't supported for them.

The balance between the FM synth and DAC is out of whack, compared to the YouTube video, on default settings, but thankfully there's a mixer. Setting the YM2151 to 30% seems to sort it out. I'll take a look/listen. Thanks.

Cubear wrote:yes, MSU1 can only play music or SFX, not both.  when it's doing "both" it's actually some clever trickery where the SFX (voice usually) is part of the music track.

There's definitely a way to do both using the MSU data file, converting SFX samples to BRR and loading them into the SPC the same way the original ROM would, but only gizaha knows for sure how to do that, for the moment. The BRR samples are trivial, but compiling them into the MSU data file and then coding to read from it etc. is no doubt the tricky part.

Okay, here are PCM's for T2 Arcade, based off of the tracks listed on Zophar's.

https://mega.nz/file/9qpHVJSR#65nbWleRx6QYvh0OuYXOoGRBVpi8PBT0oY-9Rb3Mm8c

Relikk wrote:

Cubear wrote:yes, MSU1 can only play music or SFX, not both.  when it's doing "both" it's actually some clever trickery where the SFX (voice usually) is part of the music track.

There's definitely a way to do both using the MSU data file, converting SFX samples to BRR and loading them into the SPC the same way the original ROM would, but only gizaha knows for sure how to do that, for the moment. The BRR samples are trivial, but compiling them into the MSU data file and then coding to read from it etc. is no doubt the tricky part.

Really, I'd probably consider the tricky part dealing with the SPC700, since inserting .brr into an expanded rom is trivial, there's no need to load them via MSU1 for the most part.

At some point it might be more efficient to replace everything on the SPC700 with a custom or known engine.
Myself086 has made a fairly impressive custom one that streams .brr audio at 11025 Hz via HDMA, but I'm not sure how viable it is to do a replacement like this in an actual game.

Beta patch attached to this post:

fadein/out implemented on pause
tracks play. loops/noloops set up (i think)

not tested very far into the game, however.

track map:

renamed Relikk's arcade tracks sound pack:

Code:

https://mega.nz/file/SOoB2DyT#spIJcetRX_rBCz4SfQm7njrV58VMKDklKDswoo5g2sM

Cubear wrote:Beta patch attached to this post:

fadein/out implemented on pause
tracks play. loops/noloops set up (i think)

not tested very far into the game, however.

track map:

renamed Relikk's arcade tracks sound pack:

Code:

https://mega.nz/file/SOoB2DyT#spIJcetRX_rBCz4SfQm7njrV58VMKDklKDswoo5g2sM

This was pretty awesome Cubear and thank you for doing it! I actually tested it and noticed that the music/sound effects worked up until the 2nd level then for some reason the music stopped working by the 3rd level and so did the sound effects. It was pretty impressive playing the first 2 levels with the arcade music though. I ended up using the infinite continue and automatic level skip code at start up so I am not sure if skipping levels had something to do with the music not working after the 2nd level or not, it was just something I noticed. Either way it was pretty killer to experience what playing this game is like with the arcade music on the SNES and it showed a great deal of promise from what I experienced. This was definitely the best port out of all the 16 bit ports of T2 the arcade game and I think it would be really impressive to have the original arcade music working on all of the levels. Even having the arcade music at the title screen would be pretty cool as well, assuming its even possible. I also saw above that you mentioned that the sound effects from the arcade game in theory might be able to be brought over as well from what was mentioned in your previous post which would also be mind blowing, but its not a make or break situation when compared to just getting the full arcade music fully working on all levels. I'm also using a Supa Retron Snes clone which has been a bit finicky to say the least with MSU-1 video content as just an example, so it might just be my system at fault on this one. Thanks again for doing this and I look forward to your response if to see if you experienced the same issues I did when testing. kudos to you sir and thanks again!

i see what you mean. the third level doesn't have a backing track and for me, the music starts on level 4 but then the sound does break.
i'll have to look at what's going on later.

another issue: the end of level music doesnt play as well. seems like there's a lot more to do here.

i wouldn't hold out hope for arcade SFX. the less tinkering i do on the SPC700 side the better. lol

Cubear wrote:i see what you mean. the third level doesn't have a backing track and for me, the music starts on level 4 but then the sound does break.
i'll have to look at what's going on later.

i wouldn't hold out hope for arcade SFX. the less tinkering i do on the SPC700 side the better. lol

No worries about the SFX, the arcade music only is perfectly fine by me if that is all that can be done, it was mainly more of a "what if" idea really. I did want to ask you a question though on more of the technical end with MSU-1 sound, what is the maximum bitrate that the SNES can playback as far as sound files? For example, I create music files at 320 kbps in the MP3 format when doing vinyl record music rips. Can the SNES truly output CD level quality music if comparing to CD rip WAV files or high bitrate MP3s for example? It just a curiosity of mine as far as what the max capability of the SNES is. Maybe there is a FAQ or a technical spec database somewhere on how far the SNES can be pushed with any kind of media that I have yet to find. I see that sound files are in the .pcm format but I have yet to research the highest bitrate .pcm files can do for the maximum quality. How difficult would it be to create music files only that the SNES can output without video assuming it can be done? is there an on the fly converter somewhere where I could put soundfiles on an SD card/SD2SNES for the SNES to playback? Apologies on my ignorance on the subject, I am just really fascinated about old tech and how far you can "push" the hardware limitations on the SNES...lol.

The snes (via MSU) outputs at 44.1 khz.

via SPC700, i think the maximum reached was 32khz? but at that point the entirety of the CPU cycles are dedicated to managing and transferring bytes to the SPC700.

for Myself086's custom engine (via HDMA) i think he got it down to using 50kb/s with HDMA for an 11 khz streaming audio, with about 55000 cycles left over for whatever else you might want to run, game-wise.

Cubear wrote:The snes (via MSU) outputs at 44.1 khz.

via SPC700, i think the maximum reached was 32khz? but at that point the entirety of the CPU cycles are dedicated to managing and transferring bytes to the SPC700.

for Myself086's custom engine (via HDMA) i think he got it down to using 50kb/s with HDMA for an 11 khz streaming audio, with about 55000 cycles left over for whatever else you might want to run, game-wise.

That's pretty impressive actually. Some of the other msu1 stuff that I have run on my SNES sounds pretty good to these ears actually. I don't hear any obvious compression artifacts with the sound, even when I play it through a pretty decent/loud stereo system i have connected to my TV. I do notice lousy sound quality when playing other low compression mp3 song files that I have created in the past, especially at 128kbps or lower. Whatever wizardry you guys are utilizing to keep the sound quality at what it has been, all I have to say is keep up the amazing work! I look forward to seeing any new updates that are developed in the future on this. Definitely off to an impressive running start!

Cubear wrote:Beta patch attached to this post:

fadein/out implemented on pause
tracks play. loops/noloops set up (i think)

not tested very far into the game, however.

track map:

renamed Relikk's arcade tracks sound pack:

Code:

https://mega.nz/file/SOoB2DyT#spIJcetRX_rBCz4SfQm7njrV58VMKDklKDswoo5g2sM

Wow Cubear,  you are on fire this days   Thanks for the patch

there's lots left to fix on this one, unfortunately. that's why it's in Beta

Cubear wrote:there's lots left to fix on this one, unfortunately. that's why it's in Beta

Greetings Cubear! Not trying to pester you or anything, but I was just curious to see if there have been any further developments on your excellent work so far? I know it's kind of a niche request on maybe not so much of a popular game for the snes, but I definitely enjoyed seeing where it was going/what you have achieved so far. Are there any complexities with this game that makes it more difficult to implement the full msu-1 soundtrack for all levels, including the title/"attract" screens opposed to other snes games that is a difficult roadblock? I would be happy to lend a hand on this somehow if I knew the what I was doing to get it working to help. Thank you again for getting it going. I look forward to your response.

no developments on my end. it was at the point where i'd nearly need to start from scratch so i set it down and haven't returned since. not to say i won't be completing this, but other projects currently have my attention. sorry for the (probably very long) wait this will be

Cubear wrote:no developments on my end. it was at the point where i'd nearly need to start from scratch so i set it down and haven't returned since. not to say i won't be completing this, but other projects currently have my attention.  sorry for the (probably very long) wait this will be

I completely understand, thank you for the response.

"our idea of an MSU-1 variant for T2: The Arcade Game on SNES sounds epic! While I'm not a pro at MSU-1 hacks, reaching out to forums or communities dedicated to SNES modding might be a great start. Collaborating with those experienced in sound design and MSU-1 could help bring that arcade magic to your console.

By the way, while you're diving into the world of mods, ever thought about exploring passive income? It's like modding your financial game without constantly tweaking. Whether it's investments, real estate, or other ventures, passive income could be your side quest for financial stability.