Oh ok so it works like Chip32 then… http://www.kvraudio.com/product/chip32_by_sam

So yeah indeed I find hard to understand how they would be able to include vocals in the games (remember too the “T and E soft presents” vocal at the beginning of Red Alarm). On the other hand, when you listen back to those vocals, they do sound very lo-fi, and have a significant amount of noise when played (the aforementioned Red Alarm sample even pops at times), so it’s possible that it’s just the 32-bytes being used as audio channels, but if it is indeed how that works it’s impossible that they coded these vocals “by hand”, they had to devise a process to convert the PCM samples into 32-byte waves.

I’m interested in how you understood the inner workings of the sound chip, did you just find some specs online ? Dissected a rom ?

In parallel to that synth cart research I have often wondered if it would be possible to finally create a dedicated VB music file format, similar to the way the SPC or GYM file formats work (SNES and MegaDrive music respectively) ?

Guy Perfect : if the only outputs on the VB are 6-bit sample outputs, why doesn’t it sound more like SNES then ? Apart from the very obviously sampled voice snippets not much else sounds like sampled instruments but more like chiptunes, like what the NES or Genesis do. It may be entirely true but then why would all the developers chose to go for this very chiptune-based sound instead of using all digitized instrument samples like what was done on the SNES ?

bigmak : a synth-cart is a cartridge which allows to use the audio components of a game console, and basically from then use the console as a synthesizer.

All for it ! As I said in the games soundtrack topic I love the chiptune sound of the VB so actually making music with it ? Sweet 🙂

I was thinking something along those lines at the time when I recorded these but the flashboy did not exist yet.

Come to think of it, I really like the VB sound chip. It would be cool to have a music application to exploit it, like the ones which already exist on the NES or the Game Boy.

Although both are way out of my scope since I’m not a programmer…

Actually that’s something I’ve wanted to know for a while, is it possible to get the music of all the games without the sound effects ? I know I tried to record some music (from Panic Bomber namely) but I could only get part of it because the actual level musics had the s.e. over it and there’s, as far as I know, no Sound Test screen (like the one in the Japanese version of Jack Bros).

If you want to hear what I’ve managed to cull from Panic Bomber here’s a zip file : http://jenesuis.net/fichiers/musiques/virtual%20boy/Panic%20bomber.rar

I was hellbent on recording the actual console and not an emulator so this is recorded from the audio output of the console onto a Zoom H4n recorder via a standard gold plated minijack/minijack cable.

I have a few cartridges with failing batteries that don’t record saved data anymore, but as far as I know all of them work fine. I could open a couple if you want to see if there’s any leakage from the battery fluids but as far as I know I have never ever heard of such an occurrence with game cartridges’ batteries.

Maybe it can happen but if it does, it must be quite a rare phenomenon.

Oh man that looks good 😀

Can’t wait to try that out myself. Wasn’t there some “generic” 3D glasses for PCs that would work with some FPSs too ? I remember seeing that somewhere. If those can be adapted for minecraft I think we’re on to something here.

Don’t ask me though I’m completely hopeless for coding.

This might be completely bullshit so don’t take my word for it, but I know a guy who’s specialized in importing hardware and software from Japan (nearly every X68000 in the area that I know of was bought from him), and he told me the quickest way to drain a save battery was to not use it for long periods of time, and that at least once every six months he’d fire up all his equipment to keep the batteries from dying early.

I have no idea if this is valid or not, but it would seem logical to me, seeing how a save battery usually drains a lot quicker when you don’t use it (the one on top of my head is the Neo Geo Pocket color one which is usually completely drained if you haven’t used it in a while).

Gookanheimer wrote:
Are there any pictures of the plug inside the JP adapter for the controller? I can’t remember if I could ever find any.

Actually I’ve just gotten my Adapter Tap in the mail (thanks Benjamin !!), and so I took pictures, which are attached in this post.

It looks like a totally standard AC adapter plug.

I haven’t gotten around to testing it yet because the universal ac I have has one of those cross things at the end with multiple different plugs, and as such even though I can plug it in it doesn’t allow me to close the lid. Besides, the voltage listed on there is 300mA. I don’t exactly know what that means but it sounds considerably higher than 1.4A…

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I know it’s usually not recommended but would it work with a “universal adapter” type thing ? The kind where you can choose the voltage and everything… Otherwise I’ll probably get the one you recommend.

Benjamin, I don’t have a paypal account but a friend does, I’ll ask him and then I’ll get back to you.

Oh ok, cool 😀

So now I just have to find a Japanese Adapter Tap…

Thanks a lot for the quick answer !!