10/31/2023: Localization News - Dead of the Brain 1!

No, NOT a trick, a Halloween treat! Presenting the Dead of the Brain 1 English patch by David Shadoff for the DEAD last official PC Engine CD game published by NEC before exiting the console biz in 1999! I helped edit/betatest and it's also a game I actually finished in 2023, yaaay! Shubibiman also did a French localization. github.com/dshadoff/DeadoftheBrain
twitter.com/NightWolve/PCENews
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Messages - touko

#1
QuoteI think you need to set mednafen to use the alternate 6280A sound mode
Already tested, and no change  :(

QuoteI think it's default for anything that's a .sgx file
I also think it's enable when you force the SGX mode .
It works fine on real hardware, it's the principal  :D
#2
Congrats, a really well coded game .  :wink:
All in C (I have some doubts,but) ??
#3
QuoteThis ones pretty good.   It's also awful with headphones because Paula is a moron.
This is really a bad exemple of what an amiga can do.
A little exemple with shamber of shaolin, with his softsynth sound (not in real time) :
hybris :
ninja warrior :
Lotus 3:
double dragon 2 :
Or the first amiga module ever :
With games and demos,there is a ton of impressive musics .
#4
Oh, of course there are a tons of simple but addictive apple 2 games to convert .
I can suggest karateka:
https://youtu.be/wKqk9kosCs4

Arkanoid would be cool too .
Choplifter is really a catchy game, but it's better to do an arcade perfect rather than converting the apple 2 version .

Quote from: arkhanThe link to it is dead though.   I wonder where it went.  Toukos still around, hopefully he sees and says something.
It's finished at 99.99% now  :wink:
Finishes are always the most boring things to do to finish a game,and correcting the bugs i find when i do not search them, is also time consuming.  :lol:

EDIT: How, my bad, i have not seen, it's a resurrected topic #-o
Sorry to not have answered more lately.
#5
Hi, a little late but i confirm that my PCM driver works not so bad on my SGX (but really bad on mednafen,and maybe PCE) .
The bad noise/distortion i experienced with mednafen, seems not present on the real thing,or it's really not audible,it's hard to tell.

I'll really use this driver for my next devs on SGX as it use 5x less of CPU power than the classic brute force method for the same frequency .
#6
QuoteAnyway, good to see the scene is still active.
Active ??, yes but with one foot in the tomb !! . :mrgreen:
#7
Hi tom, glad to see you again  :thumbsup:
#8
Quote2. Anything past 64 kb might complicate how you handle bankswitching for both consoles.
bankswitching on the PCE is really easy and to have all in 8k banks help a lot .
#9
Hi elmer, can you update your mednafen version ?,because there is a bug with the SGX window in the old versions .
It's corrected since the 0.9.41 .
Thanks in advance ;-)
#10
Galad:What version of huc you're using , the old 3.21 or elmer's one ??
#11
I was sure you used squirrel, it sounds piramid plunderish !!  :-k
#12
Really good, i like the music ;-)
#13
i found this on bonk's site :
https://pcedev.wordpress.com/2015/10/31/pcm-player/

You can see it plays a 56khz sample with the buffer technique, and it sound not bad at all !!!
#14
i have an idea, i'll test ASAP this technique with the bonk's 4 channels mixing for outputing 4, 8bits samples into the 10bits paired channels .
The CPU usage should be negligible <4% i think for 7khz .

EDIT: I experienced some bad noise with high-pitched sounds  :?
This is that elmer spoke .
#15
QuoteI wish I could read French... Joystick issue 8 - September 1990.
it's better to not reading,because there is some bullshits .   :-s
#16
QuoteBut perhaps touko is doing something really clever to reload the waveform data that avoids turning the channel off.
no, i use the standard method:
lda     #%010_00000
sta     $0804      
stz     $0804

Quotetouko: Would you mind sharing your code for reloading the waveform?
Yes of course  :wink:

I set the timer to 31, and the used psg voice to 512 .
User_Timer_Irq:
stz $1403 ; // ACK TIMER

; // On reactive les interruption pour pas bloquer
; // Les interruptions HSYNC
cli

; // Save REG A
pha

; // We save the banks 3 and 4
; // We assume bank 4 is always bank3 +1
tma     #3
pha

; // If voice is on
bbr0 <sample_voix1_on , Fin_Timer_Int

lda <sample_bank_voix1
tam #3
inc A
tam #4

lda #VOIX_PCM1
sta $800

; // Reset the wave pointer
lda     #%010_00000
sta     $0804
                stz     $0804

; // We fill the wave buffer
TIN_Buffer_Voix1:
tin $0000 , $806 , 32

        ; // Enable the voice 1
lda #%10011111
sta $804  

; // ---------------------------------------------
; // Processing for the next 32 bytes to send
; // ---------------------------------------------

; // If all samples are < 16ko
lda #32
clc
adc MODIFIE_TIN_VOIX1
sta MODIFIE_TIN_VOIX1
bcc .pas_add_high
inc MODIFIE_TIN_VOIX1 + 1

; // Else
;lda #32
;clc
;adc MODIFIE_TIN_VOIX1
;sta MODIFIE_TIN_VOIX1
;bcc .pas_add_high
;inc MODIFIE_TIN_VOIX1 + 1
;bpl .pas_add_high
; // Si changement de bank, on remape la nouvelle bank sur le mpr3
;lda #$60
;sta MODIFIE_TIN_VOIX1 + 1
;inc <sample_bank_voix1

  .pas_add_high:
; // we decrement the number of remaining buffer fill
dec <taille_sample_voix1
bne Fin_Timer_Int
dec <taille_sample_voix1 + 1
bpl Fin_Timer_Int

stz <sample_voix1_on
stz     $804

Fin_Timer_Int:
; // we restore the banks 3/4
; // We assume bank 4 is always bank 3 + 1
pla
tam #3
inc A
tam #4

; // We restauring REG A
pla

rti

I place the timer code in RAM because i use some self modifying code .
The channel is turned off for 209 cycles(the TIN duration), at 6992 htz you have 1024 cycles before the buffer start to process the next sample .

Maybe a little bit dirty, but not seems to work so bad for my use, i'll definitely go with that for my future games .
Of course you can do some optimisations, like using a ZP buffer rather than directly in ROM at the expense of CPU used for preparing data done after all the transferts.

i'll post a regular .pce rom soon for testing.

EDIT: Ok here is a standard PCE rom if someone want to test :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q7zrmts9ov9e8ny/test_samples.pce?dl=0
#17
Quote from: guest on 12/17/2017, 05:54 PMDoes it still generate noise when changing waveforms as is normal with the standard Hu6280?
i don't know, i have only a SGX for testing .
#19
Quote from: ccovell on 12/14/2017, 08:24 PM
Quote from: touko on 12/14/2017, 01:47 PMFor timer interrupt code,it's ~300 cycles per voice, and for exemple, playing a 7khz sample, a timer interrupt is fired every 32768 cycles .
Sounds cool!  Is there a 7khz/32 overtone or sound glitch for every time you have to reload the PCE wave buffer?
For now i tested only on mednafen sorry, the driver needs some adjustments but it's ok, no glitches or something else .
I'll do some tests on my SGX this week end to see if all is really ok.  [-o&lt;

QuoteVery cool, thanks for sharing the info! Is this something that is available for homebrew use, and if so can I ask on how to go about learning/trying to use it
I want validate it on real hardware first, and if the driver is ok, I first want to validate it on real hardware, and if the driver is correct, i'll try to help you to use it with Huc.
#20
Quote from: Gredler on 12/14/2017, 01:17 PMCool I hate to ignorantly ask the question, but is this something that can be used in HuC for implementing music and or sound effects?
No worry ;-)
i think yes it can be integrated in HUC because even if it's coded in ASM,the driver it's not CPU taxing and an user timer interrupt can be defined easily .
For timer interrupt code,it's ~300 cycles per voice, and for exemple, playing a 7khz sample, a timer interrupt is fired every 32768 cycles .

For music you can easily (IMO) play the fragmare's musics with his 32khz samples if the driver don't needs timer for other things than samples playing .
#21
Hi, i developed a new PCM driver based on the PSG buffer .
For now i'am playing only 7khz samples (only for size reason) ,it works very well and use a very little CPU budget, i was at 5% with my previous driver, and now i'am at 1% for the same quality .
Now with this technique you can play a 32khz sample with the same CPU than the old classic 7khz .
#22
Quote from: synbiosfan on 12/10/2017, 10:05 PMI bought one for my SuperGrafx but I'll keep my Duo-R for homebrews.

Best of both worlds.
Yeah, i'am very interested for my SGX too, i'am expecting this device to be very useful for my future SGX developments(mainly scdrom²+AC),coupled with the ccovell's PCEmon to have a very good devkit system..
Can you doing some feedbacks when you'll receive it ??
#23
I did it, it's only a discussion no ??

EDIT:damn you're right  :wink:
#24
If you want more info about this device :
It's like an everdrive, but also for scdrom²(BRAM and ADPCM) and AC,a next step for hombrews .
a little bit expensive 240€, but not really if you consider all that it offer.
A scdrom²+AC+everdrive+rvb, i thing they cost mush more .

It feature:
HuCard Games
CD Games
Super CD Games
Arcade CD Games
Quality RGB
Amplified Sound
Save RAM Support
System Card Support (Additional RAM and BIOS)
#25
An outstanding device, I don't know if somebody already knew it.
It's like an everdrive, but also for scdrom² (BRAM and ADPCM) and AC, a next step for homebrews.
A little bit expensive 240€, but not really if you consider all that it offers.
A scdrom²+AC+everdrive+rvb, i think they cost mush more.

It feature:
HuCard Games
CD Games
Super CD Games
Arcade CD Games
Quality RGB
Amplified Sound
Save RAM Support
System Card Support (Additional RAM and BIOS)
#26
Wahou, very complete and instructive, thanks a lot .  :wink:
#27
Even with a "simple" music player chris push some impressive/cool effects .  :mrgreen:
#28
Simple, but very fun to play, thanks .
#29
QuoteSince it was my last chance to design a boss, I wanted to do some kind of mecha Mega Drive, but also reference Shockman.
Wahou, those bosses are really beautiful  :D
Same thing for backgrounds, very colored (with taste) and detailled,they remind me commercial games quality,good job .

QuoteThe Megadrive boss didn't work out as originally planned for a couple of reasons. First of all, there were too many sprites in the arms and it caused large amounts of flicker
Arf, damn  :x
May be you can only deploy the boss's arms at a certain moment and one at a time when he don't fire to limit flickering .

QuoteDamn sprites-per-line limit... :(
It's time to go on SGX then  :mrgreen:
#30
i like it,and this evil transformed MD is excellent .
#31
QuoteAnd... this poll got weird.  We're in a uhhh... 7 way tie?!  Lol, really???
You have some work for the next ten years .  :mrgreen:

QuoteMagnificent song.
you didn't know ?

I like also the gleylancer's level 2 tune :
#32
No entry for this ??:
:?

I vote for :
Gley Lancer - Stage 1 -
Elemental Master - Stage 1 -
Thunder Force III - Siren -
Thunder Force III - Haides -
Contra Hard Corps - The Hard Corps -
#33
I don't know the dragon fury's version . :-k

Yes,elemental master also has some great tunes .
#34
TF3 venus fire for me .

A little bit disappointed to not find any glaylancer's music .
#35
Quote from: SignOfZeta on 08/21/2017, 08:27 PMAs long as you didn't mind mid-level loading (see: CD versions of Metal Slug) I don't see why Pulstar couldn't work very well. All it's really doing is "lots of animation" on top of R Type. AC games can do "lots of animation" pretty well and we all know the PCE works with R Type.
Because you are also limited by how much data you can transfert in vram,the NG don't suffer of this because his "VRAM" is connected directly to cartridge .
Changing a big chunk of tiles is something like changing the PCE's scroll values ,very easy .
#36
Quote from: guest on 08/10/2017, 11:46 PMThe biggest crime SNK committed is not getting Windjammers on more consoles.
i think you can do a pixels perfect(or very close) port on SGX,even on PCE but it should be more difficult to do .
#37
QuoteHave you tried using it?
No  :P

QuoteEven though it says "free", the last time I downloaded it, it still required you to purchase a license file in order to actually compile anything.
I thought it needs only registration  :-k

QuoteAnd you're screwed anyway if you really want to deal with bank-mapped hardware like the PCE.
Yes, but if someone want to go with a new (and better) asm compiler,i thought it was a good start,but if it not free, it's useless .

EDIT:i tested wdctools and it's free ,maybe the others are free too .
#39
There is no better program for 8/16 bits pixels art,all is a question of interface and feeling .
#41
Gimp 2.6 (not above) .
grafx2 works fine on windows 8.1,it should works on win10 too .
#42
QuoteAhhh ... sorry. I applied my license key to unlock the "full" version before I got annoyed-enough with the splash screen that I wanted to turn it off.
Don't worry, in fact it's not annoying because on windows 8 it's fast, it's only on my win7 which is slow, and i thought it was because of splash screen + free version .  :wink:
#43
Quote from: elmer on 05/29/2017, 05:18 PM
Quote from: touko on 05/29/2017, 04:02 PMseems to be a very good program, but the free version is so slow to start .
If you mean the annoying "ProMotion" animation ... then just turn it off in the File->Preferences menu.
thanks, but i think there is a problem with my win7, because on windows 8.1 it start normally,and splash screen cannot be disabled in free version .
#44
seems to be a very good program, but the free version is so slow to start .
#45
QuoteMOAR music.
Some(like 3/4) are already done too  :wink:

I also have to migrate my current code which is too old now, to my last devkit,and have to redone some parts.
#46
Thanks, i must redoing the pods rotation because it is not really rounded,and i want to  add a shield effect .
#47
Quote from: shubibiman on 05/26/2017, 06:11 AMIt's not a problme as back in the time, developers could access to an SFX library. There's nothing wrong with picking sfx from existing games :)
thanks shubi for this information, i was a bit (morally speaking) embarrassed to rip some sfx from other games .
#48
Yes in this demo the sfx are a bit awfull,and volume level is too hight.
They are all redone , and the result is way better now,the problem is the volume difference between mednafen and the hardware and it's hard to find the good compromise.

QuoteCould I perhaps suggest the satisfying "ploop ploop" shot sounds from Gate of Thunder?
i don't think that they are particularly good,except adpcm ones,in most cdrom titles the PSG sfx are often really poor and bad .
In GoT i can pick some ones,but they are better sfx to rip in hucard(sorry but i'm not good at making sfx from scratch) .
#49
Yes, and the X68000 too  :mrgreen:
#50
Thanks, but it's fragmare's pixel arts that look great .