Ap0c
Offline
Philadelphia, PA

Been writing new stuff in Deflemask and now I want to try to play it back on my TG-16.  Before I order a Turbo Everdrive and get this going, I'm just curious as to exactly HOW to play my file on the hardware.  I've looked around for about 2-3 hours and maybe I'm looking in the wrong places but I can't seem to find the answer.

What I did find (and maybe this is how it works) is a VGM -> PCE Converter.  I imagine I run the converted PCE off the Everdrive and we're good to go.  I really don't understand VGM files (is it just all the data collected and read?  etc) but I would hope that it does preserve the original integrity of the music somehow.  If that's not the case, I'm wondering if there's any other way.

Also, yes, I tried Husic.  I'm a Famitracker guy so I'd much rather use Deflemask.

Thanks guys!

Saskrotch
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Chicago IL

I'm pretty sure the standard PCE music files are .hes. VGM is more of a container format (i mean technically they all are), usually used for Genesis/MD songs because it supports multiple chips (YM/PSG), not totally sure why it would be used for PCE/TG16 music.

But basically a VGM -> PCE converter should (unless it's not coded well) convert the .VGM into a PCE rom with the music fully intact. I've used a similar thing for turning VGM files into BIN files for Genesis playback.

Saskrotch
Offline
Chicago IL

Oh wait the thing you linked converts VGM to HES, not PCE. I figured it would load it as a self playing ROM.

If the Turbo Everdrive doesn't support HES playback, you'll need something else to make the HES into something the Turbo Everdrive does support (probably a rom)

Saskrotch
Offline
Chicago IL

Did a little bit of research

someone,somewhere wrote:

The file format specification is included with the two 'official' HES packages. Here's an online version:

http://www.proc.org.tohoku.ac.jp/befis/ … esspec.txt

All HES files have a player appended to the last 256 bytes of bank 0. The player is just there so you can run the HES file like a regular ROM image and listen to the music in an emulator, etc. The components of a HES file include some assembly bits the ripper wrote to interface the concept of song request numbers with whatever the game's sound engine uses internally.

so you should be fine with the .hes files

Ap0c
Offline
Philadelphia, PA

Ahhhh makes sense.  So Delflemask only gives me the option to export files as VGM files.  All I need to do is convert them and theoretically, it should work.  Well, hopefully.

Saskrotch
Offline
Chicago IL

Yeah I dunno. I've only used xpmck for pce music, which spits out a hes file. not really sure why it would be a vgm.

Delek
Offline
Buenos Aires, Argentina

PCEngine, unfortunatelly, is the only system that lacks ROM exporting in DefleMask. This is like this because I don't have the appropiate HW requeriments to do a bunch of tests, in order to confirm the correct playback on the actual Hardware.

However, I'm writing .HES exporter for DefleMask, among other things, will be available in the next update (as I said to Ap0c in his PM).
I don't know after all if I will include it in the final release, test will be only emulated, so, I will not be sure that it will work on an actual PCE.

Last edited by Delek (Sep 5, 2013 8:07 pm)

Ap0c
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Philadelphia, PA

Cool!  Looking forward to the update!  My Turbo Everdrive should be here soon so I'll do some tests to see what it sounds like when converted from VGM (non technical of course).  Thanks!

Ap0c
Offline
Philadelphia, PA

Update:  I tried using the converter on files I exported via Deflemask as VGMs.  It will actually compile and read a .PCE ROM image that has the name of my track, date, my name, etc but it will not playback audio.  I've tried playing any of the TG-16 VGMs I've exported via Deflemask on any of the known VGM players and all I get is silence.

Is there something I'm doing wrong?  The example track (the Chuck Rock file) actually DOES compile on my TG-16 hardware on my screen, as advertised.  Any tracks I try to use that I've exported via Deflemask as a VGM, though, do not.

Last edited by Ap0c (Sep 18, 2013 10:59 pm)

Delek
Offline
Buenos Aires, Argentina

What VGM2PCE are you using?, all of what I can find are SN76489 VGM to PCE. If you are using these then silence is 100% correct.

Ap0c
Offline
Philadelphia, PA

Yeah, I've realized that I've been using the wrong thing after I posted this (The SN76489 to PCE file).  Wasn't really sure how or why it was working that way but I've had to explained to me, so yeah, that's my mistake there.  I'm sorry for the confusion.

I'm trying to figure out if there's a way using I can map the VGM files I'm exporting from Deflemask successfully to an HES file that will playback on my hardware, mainly or better yet, come up with another alternative based on the export from Deflemask.

I have all the TG-16 hardware needed for playback and I'm willing to try anything you guys can come up with if you want to test it.  Please let me know!  Thanks again and I appreciate your responses, Delek.

Delek
Offline
Buenos Aires, Argentina

I don't know if there's a PCE VGM to HES converter. The PCE support in the VGM format is very recently, was added in 1.60 (for that reason anything related to PCE before 2012 is done to process another chip, SN76489 for example).

You could send a email to Michael Stamper or mic, the ones behind various VGM to ROM converters, maybe they want to done a true PCE VGM to ROM soon or later.

Michael's Site:
mjsstuf.x10host.com/

Last edited by Delek (Sep 19, 2013 2:50 pm)

Ap0c
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Philadelphia, PA

Great, I emailed him.  I'll update here what he says.  This is exciting.  I hope he can do it.  Thanks for you help, Delek.  I really appreciate it.