Megaman PCE thread

[Nighttrate]

Try this

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TurbografxPCEngine/

Scroll down to my post on the 5th Dec

[NecroPhile]

"You must log in to continue."

I don't farkbook. 

[TurboXray]

Have any of you guys tried out the stereo separation mode for MM, in the options? What are your opinions on it?

 I was toying with the idea of having an oscillating stereo separation feature, where you could control its rate. Basically, as if someone was turned the balance back and forth between left/right for each channel at a specific rate. Might sound trippy.

 Also, seems my music 'pak' on the site is corrupted. I'll have to re-uploaded it.

[Bernie]

I was able to grab it, but some folks are having issues.

[Nighttrate]

Have any of you guys tried out the stereo separation mode for MM, in the options? What are your opinions on it?

 I was toying with the idea of having an oscillating stereo separation feature, where you could control its rate. Basically, as if someone was turned the balance back and forth between left/right for each channel at a specific rate. Might sound trippy.

 Also, seems my music 'pak' on the site is corrupted. I'll have to re-uploaded it.

As a Dj / music producer I think it might do peoples heads, any chance we could get a version without the cd loading bit?

P.s Email me you address & ill send you a manual & thermal CD for you collection @ Nighttrate@hotmail.co.uk

[ParanoiaDragon]

Have any of you guys tried out the stereo separation mode for MM, in the options? What are your opinions on it?

 I was toying with the idea of having an oscillating stereo separation feature, where you could control its rate. Basically, as if someone was turned the balance back and forth between left/right for each channel at a specific rate. Might sound trippy.

 Also, seems my music 'pak' on the site is corrupted. I'll have to re-uploaded it.

As a Dj / music producer I think it might do peoples heads, any chance we could get a version without the cd loading bit?

P.s Email me you address & ill send you a manual & thermal CD for you collection @ Nighttrate@hotmail.co.uk

IIRC, the CD loading thing has to be there to cover up some random flicker n' stuff that shows up when loading.

[TurboXray]

Have any of you guys tried out the stereo separation mode for MM, in the options? What are your opinions on it?

 I was toying with the idea of having an oscillating stereo separation feature, where you could control its rate. Basically, as if someone was turned the balance back and forth between left/right for each channel at a specific rate. Might sound trippy.

 Also, seems my music 'pak' on the site is corrupted. I'll have to re-uploaded it.

As a Dj / music producer I think it might do peoples heads, any chance we could get a version without the cd loading bit?

P.s Email me you address & ill send you a manual & thermal CD for you collection @ Nighttrate@hotmail.co.uk

You mean the CD icon thingy? It's possible, but I use system card bios routine to call "play track" and this pauses emulation during the seek time (the bios routine only return back when everything is OK or and error has occurred). I'd have write my own CD handling routines, to avoid this. Given that I'm not that experienced with the scsi command system and status bits of the system, is why I haven't done it. Probably won't either. Though, I do want to make such a routine for hucard projects that could use a custom CD to play music, if the drive is detected. So, if I write and it's not a lot of effort - then maybe. Don't hold me to it, though It's very-very low priority. Ehh... so that's probably a 'no'. Heh. Sorry.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

In the spirit of Capcom's Fighting Street-

[Psycho Punch]

Best cover.

[OldMan]

Man Mega?

[CrackTiger]

Man Mega?

Fighting Street

[Keith Courage]

The stereo audio for mega man is great. Much better then having mono sound. However, I prefer the CD music edition best.

[Nighttrate]

Have any of you guys tried out the stereo separation mode for MM, in the options? What are your opinions on it?

 I was toying with the idea of having an oscillating stereo separation feature, where you could control its rate. Basically, as if someone was turned the balance back and forth between left/right for each channel at a specific rate. Might sound trippy.

 Also, seems my music 'pak' on the site is corrupted. I'll have to re-uploaded it.

As a Dj / music producer I think it might do peoples heads, any chance we could get a version without the cd loading bit?

P.s Email me you address & ill send you a manual & thermal CD for you collection @ Nighttrate@hotmail.co.uk

You mean the CD icon thingy? It's possible, but I use system card bios routine to call "play track" and this pauses emulation during the seek time (the bios routine only return back when everything is OK or and error has occurred). I'd have write my own CD handling routines, to avoid this. Given that I'm not that experienced with the scsi command system and status bits of the system, is why I haven't done it. Probably won't either. Though, I do want to make such a routine for hucard projects that could use a custom CD to play music, if the drive is detected. So, if I write and it's not a lot of effort - then maybe. Don't hold me to it, though It's very-very low priority. Ehh... so that's probably a 'no'. Heh. Sorry.

Yes mate I was on about the swelling cd looking thing that comes up every time the game loads a level or boss, but thanks for getting back at me. i see you doing a RPG, I pretty good at making artwork & would like to get involved if you fancied the help?

[ParanoiaDragon]

Well, I'm having a significant amount of frustration with Elec Man's tune.  In trying to flesh it out, one of the extra tunes I was playing with(Elec Man's Mega Man Soccer tune) just is not working out.  I have off & on again thought about Hivolt's theme from Mega Man ZX, if I can get it 'Elec' sounding enough, but, just not sure. 

Does anyone have any ideas of electric related tunes thruout the entire series, that gives them any kind of Elec Man'ish feel?  I do have one tune that I think is working great, it's called Electric City, from Battle Network 4, but I need another one besides that.  As stated before, I'd rather stick to the original series(MM, MMX, MMZ, MMZX, MML).  Also, I want to avoid using pieces of tunes from MM's 1-6, but 8-10(including MM&B) I don't mind.  This also includes that Rockboard game, & anything else related to the original series, just, any ideas would be a blessing!  I'd love to pull something from Mega Man Legends(including Tron Bonne), but I've only played MML2, & I can't think of anything offhand from that, that would work.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Ok, Elec Man is done!  Been concentrating on ideas for expanding Gutsman, arguably the shortest Robot Master theme!

[ccovell]

Gutsman theme's slightly disco-y, so maybe you could borrow motifs from Crash Man's stage music and expand on them?

[ParanoiaDragon]

Hmm, never would've thought to put those 2 together.  Unfortunately, Crash Man wouldn't fit in my plan.  Since he's a bomb type character, I'd associate him with Bomb Man, but, if I end up doing MM2, I'd want to leave Crash Man alone.  Here's my method of madness.  I try to stay away from MM's 2-6, incase Bonknuts ever decided full cd versions of the NES games.  From there, most or all MM games are fair game in general, however, there's a still restrictions.  I try to think of character's &/or levels from those games that have similarities to the Robot Master I'm working on.  For instance, with Gutsman, I think of construction, masonry, mining, & the fact that he's the bruiser of the group, but I also look for songs with the basic rhythm & sound of a level & hope they are neutral tunes, rather then character specific.  So, here's what I'm thinking about besides other versions of Gutsman theme's:

Armored Armadillo from MMX1(this one's a must!)
Tunnel Rhino from MMX3
Express UG from MMZ1(yes, it's a train stage, but, I can picture mixing Guts with it, plus, I really want to try to get some MMZero music in atleast one of my songs)
Yosyonke Abandoned Mine from MML2
Drill Crush! from MMBN5
Answer! from MMXCM(not related to anything in particular, but kind of has a similar sound, probably won't work out though)
Garudoriten from MML1

from there, I also have various versions of Gutsman to pull from:

Powerfighters/battles(mainly want the organ solo, though, it'll be a lil' tough to make sure I get every note right, since I don't have a version with the solo itself & no background music to obsure it)
Battle & Chase(there's 2 songs associated to him, however, they are very Japanese sounding, so proably won't work)
Powered Up(not a huge fan of it, but I think it does have a few neat ideas I can glean from it)
BN 4.5(might take some ideas from it)

Also, there's a Rockman Special Arrange CD with a Gutman cover, might be able to get an idea or 2 from it, but, probably not.

[Sarumaru]

In the spirit of Capcom's Fighting Street-

Dis be pretti. Where can get dis ?

[TurboXray]

Gutsman theme's slightly disco-y, so maybe you could borrow motifs from Crash Man's stage music and expand on them?

Hey Chris, you have experience in BRAM handling, right? Would you be interested in writing something for MM1 CD for save progress, options setting, etc?

[ccovell]

Sure, but I've been told that my tools/games that use BRAM don't seem to work on Tennokoe 2s... only CD BRAM?  I have no idea why, as I'm mostly using the HuC/MKit routines.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Ok, after working on Guts for a few days, I went back to Elec, since I was burnt out on it, & I do have some touch up's to do.  I have most of them ironed out, but, the song just sounds a little too much of the same thruout, so I'm adding in a little more variety in the instruments, & had to turn down some of the drums that were too loud.  I know it can't be perfect, but, this all seems necessary.  Shoudn't take me long to be back to the Guts.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Ugh, Guts be movin' slow.  I'm stuck on the 2nd break, which'll lead into the finale of the Guts theme.  Maybe I've have some form of writers block.  My day jobs have been slow, so you'd think I'd have more time, though I have been trying to get more done around my house, as this is the slow time of the year for me.  Still, I feel like I should be done by now.  Either way, I do think this could end up being one of my favorites of the soundtrack, but it's taking it's time to really come to fruition.

[Dicer]

Ugh, Guts be movin' slow.  I'm stuck on the 2nd break, which'll lead into the finale of the Guts theme.  Maybe I've have some form of writers block.  My day jobs have been slow, so you'd think I'd have more time, though I have been trying to get more done around my house, as this is the slow time of the year for me.  Still, I feel like I should be done by now.  Either way, I do think this could end up being one of my favorites of the soundtrack, but it's taking it's time to really come to fruition.

Perfection takes time, keep at it 

[EvilEvoIX]

Yes please.  Mega Man two on the PCE would be nothing short of Perfection.  I would almost insist upon chip tunes however but streaming audio is still good.


Anyone playing Mega Man 1 on the PCE notice any slow down?  The only thing I've noticed is the Boss Load but that is it.  So strange to play without slowdown.

[TurboXray]

Yes please.  Mega Man two on the PCE would be nothing short of Perfection.  I would almost insist upon chip tunes however but streaming audio is still good.


Anyone playing Mega Man 1 on the PCE notice any slow down?  The only thing I've noticed is the Boss Load but that is it.  So strange to play without slowdown.

Load? You must be playing the CD version (it's loading the CD track to play). Yeah, the NES2PCE stuff usually eliminates the slowdown, because even though there's emulation overhead for audio and video - the main game code is basically running 4 times faster inside the 1/60 frame, so it tends to get everything done in time. I have a hack that uses larger sprites, and this actually frees up even more cpu resource (small sprites are one reason why the nes games slow down). I'm debating about if I should take this summer off from school and finish up MM1 enhancement.

 Megaman 2 will happen on CD, but it will have to be the new extended ram system card. It won't fit otherwise. I could do AC version, but that's extra work. I rather do something with the new system card.

[esteban]

Yes please.  Mega Man two on the PCE would be nothing short of Perfection.  I would almost insist upon chip tunes however but streaming audio is still good.


Anyone playing Mega Man 1 on the PCE notice any slow down?  The only thing I've noticed is the Boss Load but that is it.  So strange to play without slowdown.

Load? You must be playing the CD version (it's loading the CD track to play). Yeah, the NES2PCE stuff usually eliminates the slowdown, because even though there's emulation overhead for audio and video - the main game code is basically running 4 times faster inside the 1/60 frame, so it tends to get everything done in time. I have a hack that uses larger sprites, and this actually frees up even more cpu resource (small sprites are one reason why the nes games slow down). I'm debating about if I should take this summer off from school and finish up MM1 enhancement.

 Megaman 2 will happen on CD, but it will have to be the new extended ram system card. It won't fit otherwise. I could do AC version, but that's extra work. I rather do something with the new system card.

Wow. Very interesting projects looming in the distance.

[ParanoiaDragon]

El Guts Mano...es el done....o'!  Now it's off to Bomb Hombre.  I've already got some neat ideas for this one, even though it seems to have the least amount of covers/arrangements.  I have I think enough stuff from other MM games that will blend in nicely.

Edit-And for the record, I took Chris Covell's advice(on Guts Man), & gave it some disco influence in part of the song, partially based on a version of the song from one of the Battle Network games.

[esteban]

Hombre Hambre.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Just a heads up, still working on Bombman.  There's really not a lot of official versions of his theme, so I think that's holding back my progress.  Some might find my choice of filler/breakdown material in this song odd, but it ultimately all fits & hopefully should be a great song all in all.  I'm on the final part of the song, where I'll start heading for the finale to finish it(not sure how else to word that).  The finale itself is from one of the ZX games, I'm hoping it'll work, otherwise, I DO have some other ideas for the finale, but felt this particular one will work best.

[ParanoiaDragon]

*sigh* I think Bomb Man..........is DONE!  Glad to have it out of my hair.  Took me some 3+ months.  I just have to hope I don't discover some needed tweaks down the line!   Ice Man, here I come you cold hearted filthy bastard!  I actually feel like finishing up Dr. Wily's first castle tune, but, I may as well finish off the last robot master before I do that.

[tbone3969]

In the spirit of Capcom's Fighting Street-

Dis be pretti. Where can get dis ?

Wow.  That looks so sweet.  I wish I could get one of those.  Very Nice. 

[TurboXray]

I'm not sure if I showed this, but this was the last WIP change I had made to MM:





I removed the score display, but more importantly - I added a new meter display. The green is health, and when you select a weapon the energy bar splits into two and the red side is the weapon energy. I have finished it, but below it is supposed to be a box and an icon to show which weapon is selected (MMX style). The bar is fully functional, so it's not just mockup screens. It was to do, because it's pixel plotting code. Not that I probably needed it, but the resource from removing the score display was more than adequate for the routine to work.

Anyway, all the enemies for level one are redrawn with extended colors. It takes a little bit time though, because of how I have it hacked - it has to check for every "room" of monsters (this is at the beginning of the level). So I still need to create hack tables for the other levels outside of Cutman. Probably a few full days of solid work.

Just to be clear, this project isn't cancelled. It might take me forever to finish it - but it will be a PCE-obey-fied version of Megaman when I'm done with it.

I'm also thinking of releasing the source code in intervals, as I go along. Well, for the curiously minded.



Hmm.. so slowdown is eliminated from the game simply because the PCE runs the game code faster than the NES. But these sprite hacks actually have a secondary purpose other than color enhancement; they actually speed up the game logic code because it's faster to use PCE large sprites than it is to use NES small 8x8 sprites to make larger ones. The other thing is that larger sprite cells over the native NES ones, which I've converted all sprites in the game to, also reduce the sprite flicker limit - by a huge amount! This means I can add background or foreground sprites for parallax and other similar effects. For instance in Cutman's level, I want to add scrolling clouds as a second BG layer behind the graphics. I'm also going to add a gradient sky effect via hsync. Freeing up cpu resource allows me to allocate it else where like these effects.

6 button controller support is in place already, just not functional. I'm going to assign quick weapon select for the extra buttons. Just need to receive my 6 button controller.

[VenomMacbeth]

Did you hack in the ability to aim up?

It's looking fantastic, so far.  Can't wait to see when it's done!

[shubibiman]

Looking great so far !

[esteban]

Utterly fabulous!!!!!!!

[saturndual32]

Definitely one of my top 5 homebrew projects going on for retro consoles right now. All the stuff you want to improve sounds so cool!

[ParanoiaDragon]

Sweet, parallax, here we come! 

As for me, I'm still working on Ice Man.  It's looking like it'll be a 5 minute plus song(which is also how long Bomb Man ended up being).  It might be too long, still deciding on that.  I'm currently working on a second breakdown(most levels I've done have 2 breakdowns inbetween the original tunes, & then a finale).  I've got some more composing to do for it, & perhaps a little rearranging.  I don't want this song to take as long as Bomb Man did, but, I want to do it right(though it won't be perfect ofcoarse).

So, what I've got to do is finish:
Ice Man
Dr. Wily's Castle 1
Title screen(mainly taken from MM1 GB's title screen)

I have some touch up's to do on the regular boss theme & Dr. Wily's Castle 2.  And I may add one extra mini tune for when you select Dr. Wily's level(taken from MM1 on GB).

So Bonknuts, is Frag still working on gfx?  Or someone else?

[DeshDildo]

I love you guys.  Just playing through the original release was great.  I love how this is coming together.  It will be amazing when completed.  Thank you for all of the hard work!

[TurboXray]

Sorry that the project is taking so long. It's a lot of work to dismantle the original code and put in new stuff.
 
 PD: I haven't talked with Frag in quite some time. I'm in the middle of getting my IRC stuffs setup again. Maybe he still hangs out in the old channels. He's done a lot of artwork for the enemies so far, so I've got a decent amount to work with. Sprite code work is done, I just need to make some more tables for the new sprites. I do this by hand, so it takes some time. Background replacement maps and tiles should go a lot quicker than sprites. With sprites, I had to make dual NES and PCE compatible routines - before I could remove the NES stuffs. That takes a bit of time with translation tables, alt code detection, and all. With BGs, I'm won't need to do that. So it should, in theory, go quicker.

 This hack is going to bust the SuperCD ram limit. So it's gonna be rom/flashcard, with CD audio support, or flash card with extended ram (Stupid CD 4.0, ED v2.0, etc - to load off the CD). I don't need work ram per se, just space for graphics. Unless I have it load in between levels... but that sounds like a pain.

[NightWolve]

Hey, he's looking more like SNES Megaman! You are very leet hacker.

[esteban]

This hack is going to bust the SuperCD ram limit. So it's gonna be rom/flashcard, with CD audio support, or flash card with extended ram (Stupid CD 4.0, ED v2.0, etc - to load off the CD). I don't need work ram per se, just space for graphics. Unless I have it load in between levels... but that sounds like a pain.

When you say "pain" you are referring to your side of the table (coding), correct?

In the off-chance you were referring to the player's experience, I would not mind each level loading.

Anyway, it's great to see this project resume.

[Dicer]

This hack is going to bust the SuperCD ram limit. So it's gonna be rom/flashcard, with CD audio support, or flash card with extended ram (Stupid CD 4.0, ED v2.0, etc - to load off the CD). I don't need work ram per se, just space for graphics. Unless I have it load in between levels... but that sounds like a pain.

Why not AC CDrom? Loading between levels seems fine, because the audio tracks will have to jump as well anyway

Limiting it to Stupid/ED 2.0 seems like shrinking an already small audience even further...

[spenoza]

I really like the idea of ROM with CD support. That seems the best option, because then you could choose to leave in the original music for folks who want to play on the go or without CD. It also ensures the widest possible enjoyment.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I had a thought.  Besides my soundtrack added to this, what about Rushjet1's soundtrack?  It uses the NES sound engine, however, it utilizes some of the extra chips, notably, the VRC6.  Would that be possible to hack into this?  If nothing else, maybe atleast his renditions could be redbook.  Here's what I'm talking about, I think he did a great job on these!

http://rushjet1.bandcamp.com/album/mega-man-remade

[Opethian]

speaking of RUshJet his sounds of the 2A03 is legendary

[esteban]

I had a thought.  Besides my soundtrack added to this, what about Rushjet1's soundtrack?  It uses the NES sound engine, however, it utilizes some of the extra chips, notably, the VRC6.  Would that be possible to hack into this?  If nothing else, maybe atleast his renditions could be redbook.  Here's what I'm talking about, I think he did a great job on these!

http://rushjet1.bandcamp.com/album/mega-man-remade

What a rich sound.

And in stereo.

I will offer PCE fans an a cappella rendition of entire soundtrack (I'll record it myself).

[ParanoiaDragon]

Some of his ideas for expanding the MM1 soundtrack are similar to mine, though I tend to do more medley's with my tunes than he does.  Either way, it's a great soundtrack IMO.  Accapella sounds nice as well, maybe I'll take a stab at it!

[esteban]

Some of his ideas for expanding the MM1 soundtrack are similar to mine, though I tend to do more medley's with my tunes than he does.  Either way, it's a great soundtrack IMO.  Accapella sounds nice as well, maybe I'll take a stab at it!

I can't wait to hear your friggin' work!

[technozombie]

It's awesome to see that this is still being done. Bonknuts you are something else that's for sure.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Some of his ideas for expanding the MM1 soundtrack are similar to mine, though I tend to do more medley's with my tunes than he does.  Either way, it's a great soundtrack IMO.  Accapella sounds nice as well, maybe I'll take a stab at it!

I can't wait to hear your friggin' work!

Thanks!  To be clear, when I said it's a great soundtrack IMO, I meant his, not mine.  However, I enjoy my version as well, probably my favorite still being the final boss tune/medley I mixed up for Wily himself, sometimes that song gives me goosebumps, not even sure how I pulled it off!