Upcoming MD+ & MSU-MD Releases

I was about to review all the patches anyway, so I guess we can expect some re-releases as MD+ in the not too distant future ^^

Sounds good.

Taking a look at the Vectorman stuff now. Is there a track map for this, or does it follow the sound test order?

There was one situation where my DoubleDragon patch failed, but I got it fixed finally and added the patch to github.
I had to change the track order to reduce code complexedy, pls see notes.md for a trackmap.
The arranged pack sounds awesome, only the Boss music is a little awkward compared to the other tracks.

I'd like to dedicate this patch to Relikk for his love for arcade games, for his perfect soundPacks and for having the weekend coming up ^^

Thanks, I'll take a look.

The Vectorman track map is proving troublesome, as most stages share themes and they're not all listed in the sound test, but I think I've got it.

Code:

01 Title
02 Port (Bamboo Mill)
03 Arctic Ridge (Hydroponic Lab)
04 Bunker (Rock N Roller) (Underground Vault)
05 Info & Field (Death Alley)
06 Options
07 Ocean (Nightscape) (Bonus)
08 Disco (Stayin Alive)
09 Stage Clear
10 Intro
11 Twist And Shout
12 Train (Metalhead)
13 Ending Theme
14 Superstructure (Dark Ruins)
15 Absolute Zero (Worldlink Center)
16 Sega?
17 MDPlusJingle

There are also no sound effects at all with the beta patch.

Double Dragon has issues with the SFX on boss fights. There are also instances in the later stages where the original FM and wave files play at the same time. I think it was a "stage clear" on the penultimate round, and the ending theme.

Damn, sorry about the missing sfx in Vectorman and FM being present in DD, I'll have a look and a new priority list:

1. Vectorman SFX
2. Double Dragon FM
3. Insector X Music-Gaps
4. MWIV MD+

Task#1
Vectorman: missing sfx
completed

Updated patch is on github

Relikk wrote:
The Vectorman track map is proving troublesome, as most stages share themes and they're not all listed in the sound test.

For GEMS games you can use GemsPlay by ValleyBell, which will play all the available tracks by their respective ID, so the sound test becomes obsolete ^^
It's not really "plug'n'play", you'll have to use GemsTools' GemsScan first to extract stuff like instruments, samples, envelopes and sequences first and use those 4 files to feed GemsPlay, but after that working with this setup is very nice for GEMS games.

edit:
Use this package for convenience:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lq9Re1w7ySjxw9rhCzNy7QYrkiM29wfu/view?usp=share_link
Just extract, drag the 4 vectorman bin files altogether on GemsPlay.exe and use cursorKeys|Up/Down + Return for PlayBack, ESC to exit.

Relikk wrote:Double Dragon has issues with the SFX on boss fights. There are also instances in the later stages where the original FM and wave files play at the same time. I think it was a "stage clear" on the penultimate round, and the ending theme.

There is no general "playMusic" function in this game, instead there are individual calls to play music throughout the code which makes this one a bit more tricky. I must have missed some calls due to not having a complete disassembly. I'll try my best to catch the remaining ones.

BTW, I have a cheat hardcoded in this patch as you sure already have noticed ^^

Thanks for testing!!
It would be really cool if there were more ppl testing while Relikk could concentrate on the soundPacks and I do the coding.

ArcadeTV wrote:Task#1
Vectorman: missing sfx
completed

Updated patch is on github

Good, good. Gave me a chance to listen to the music against the FX. I'm not 100% certain with it yet, as it's late and I have to go, but I've uploaded the Vectorman audio and both Double Dragon sets (they should be okay).

Sweet, a heartfelt THANK YOU for all your work!

Likewise. Thank you. Vectorman was another enjoyable soundtrack to listen to while editing. The majority of the tracks are from the Sega Tunes CD, four from the Remixed files, and one original YM track because there's no arranged "Stage Clear" track. Odd game, but technically very impressive.

Agreed :-) A real SEGA curiosity.
I'll take care of the missing track.

Double Dragon will receive an update in a few minutes as well.

edit:
Update is live. Removed the cheat and added cheat info to notes.md

A couple of issues with Double Dragon still.

The penultimate stage, after defeating the boss, the YM stage clear jingle plays instead of the wave file.



After defeating the final boss, it plays track 3, it should be track 8.

Sometimes I feel like I'm getting old
I've mistaken ID 3 with TRACK 3 in the call for the ending music.
The "BONUS" music was added twice in the updated patch that I just pushed to github, so there must have been another "Round Clear" without CD audio.
Should be good now ^^

Thank you for playing!!!

Yip, should be good now. Last playthrough was solid. Cheers.

I updated Insector X and added a logic not to restart any music that is currently playing. Hopefully this won't break anything else...

It has some side effects - for example the tracks in sound test do not restart when triggered repeatedly.

edit:
I just tested things in a quick playthrough in G+GX with cheats on:
The music in the specific sub-level skips is now playing continuously.

ArcadeTV wrote:I updated Insector X and added a logic not to restart any music that is currently playing. Hopefully this won't break anything else...

It has some side effects - for example the tracks in sound test do not restart when triggered repeatedly.

The music also doesn't restart when you die, but that's not a bad thing. The tracks are longer than the stages usually, and a lot of them get cut off by restarting when there's a player death. I like that they keep going so you get to hear more than you normally would.

It works well, IMO.

Thanks again for testing and all the good feedback!
I want to integrate 'switches' for multiple patches in my setup anyways, so I can just perform one build process and get MD+, MSU-MD, hardcoded cheat, no-cheat and stuff like this music behaviour all at once.
For Insector X this means that there will be patches with different options in the zip file.

Looking at the task-list, I guess I'll convert MWIV to MD+ next.
This was my MSU-MD soundPack back then:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vqH2ambar_WjOuRMgYnEDC-cQd_lhRl5/view?usp=share_link

Oh, I forgot to ask but it's been on my mind for quite some time...
Relikk, I know you've been most efficient when stripping the jingles from the soundpacks and that's a good thing in the first place, but I'm afraid ppl will not unterstand they have to include the 2 wave files themself.
Also, I've been using just one SEGA voice placeholder for the last patches, but in fact I was using a different one for each patch when I made all those MSU-MD patches, depending on what matched best to the game.
I'd like to continue doing that and once we decide that a patch is ready I'd love to see a complete soundpack with a matching SEGA voice.
This is not high-priority and we don't have to repack all the soundPacks right now, but maybe when a patch is considered ready, I think it would be a good thing then.

Porting of the MSU-MD to MD+ patch for Monster World IV is complete ^^

Patch is on github. I made waves from the bin/cue of the old soundPack with human-readable filenames:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18DHqPRfoRjBBG-VN-kHxUOybxqSXNX6D/view?usp=share_link

pls note that this pack has a different SEGA voice.

----------

This concludes my tasklist and I'll experiment a little until somebody makes a wish ^^

Here's a missing track:
Vectorman - Stage Clear

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vbaS1-yupKRRC5nHvTSpYCXFtZ_eyeD-/view?usp=share_link

ArcadeTV wrote:Porting of the MSU-MD to MD+ patch for Monster World IV is complete ^^

Thanks. Is there an issue with saving? When I reset or restart after the first save point there's nothing there except "New Game".

ArcadeTV wrote:Here's a missing track:
Vectorman - Stage Clear

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vbaS1-yupKRRC5nHvTSpYCXFtZ_eyeD-/view?usp=share_link

Thanks. Sounds good.

ArcadeTV wrote:I'm afraid ppl will not unterstand they have to include the 2 wave files themself.
Also, I've been using just one SEGA voice placeholder for the last patches, but in fact I was using a different one for each patch when I made all those MSU-MD patches, depending on what matched best to the game.
I'd like to continue doing that and once we decide that a patch is ready I'd love to see a complete soundpack with a matching SEGA voice.
This is not high-priority and we don't have to repack all the soundPacks right now, but maybe when a patch is considered ready, I think it would be a good thing then.

It can be used to expose people who don't read ReadMe's. I know it's not in there currently, but there's also a folder called "Jingles" on Mega that's staring them in the face. Admittedly (and this is just me), I love the MD+ splash screen, but unless the stock ROM had something originally, or if a remake or an arcade original had something there I like to keep the intros silent.

Relikk wrote:
Thanks. Is there an issue with saving?

Shoot. I recall having that issue with the first MSU-MD patch but I had it fixed, so I gotta port that stuff to the MD+ variant as well.
Note to me: pay more attention to changelogs and keep track of such issues.

Relikk wrote:
It can be used to expose people who don't read ReadMe's. I know it's not in there currently, but there's also a folder called "Jingles" on Mega that's staring them in the face. Admittedly (and this is just me), I love the MD+ splash screen, but unless the stock ROM had something originally, or if a remake or an arcade original had something there I like to keep the intros silent.

I totally agree - nobody is reading readmes anymore and that's a shame.
I see the intro and SEGA voice modifications as 'artistic freedom' ^^ but I don't want to force anybody to like them.

Can we agree on this?
- I'll include the intro and SEGA voice as optional patches in each set. To make things easier to manage, the SEGA voice and MD+ jingle are included in every soundPack, always at the end of a pack.

Speaking of managing... I'll add a table to the repository of some kind to have an overview of all patches and their status.

I updated the MWIV patch and tested the saving process.
Also I included 2 variants as described:

1. Clean without Intro and SEGA voice
2. With Intro and SEGA voice (Extras in filename)

soundPack is the same for both.