Game patch for Zanac EX

Guardian (5005)

01-01-2019, 21:43

Thank you Mstz80ax and Victor for this amazing patch! With this great FM soundtrack and in-game improvements, it looks impressive.

By Louthrax

Paragon (1991)

01-01-2019, 21:40

Poor me who wanted to go to sleep early in order to be in good shape for work tomorrow ... Anyway Thanks again Victor !

By karloch

Paragon (2033)

01-01-2019, 22:07

Amazing patch, time to finish Zanac EX again! Thank you so much for the impressive work.

By Juanmi

Expert (67)

01-01-2019, 22:17

Awesome work!! Thank you Mstz80ax for your great musical arrangements and Víctor for the improvements.
Good way to start the year for MSX!!

By J-War

Champion (412)

01-01-2019, 22:48

Just amazing ! THANKS !

By ren

Paragon (1191)

01-01-2019, 22:54

Amazing! (Should be) good times to have a (working ) real MSX really!

Mstz80ax: any plans on making the soundtrack available (YT video and/or (source) music files (XPL-A format?)) perhaps? Cheers!

By Giangiacomo Zaffini 2

Expert (119)

01-01-2019, 23:45

Yep! Amazing! I Will try It in the weekend in real hardware . On emulatore Just now.

By Manuel

Ascended (15125)

02-01-2019, 00:00

Great work! But I don't really understand the smooth scroll remark. Wasn't it already fully smooth? I think hamlet is confused with the original Zanac

By mth

Champion (480)

02-01-2019, 00:26

Maybe the scrolling is smoother because of the optimized routines? Zanac EX could slow down quite a bit with many enemies on the screen.

By Victor

Champion (462)

02-01-2019, 07:06

Thanks to Mstz80ax for these great arranged songs... and to PAC for making this possible.

These days I'll try to fix some small issues than have been reported.

Thanks for your patience...

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (2917)

02-01-2019, 09:07

Kudos for another fantastic work, Victor!

By gdx

Prophet (2563)

02-01-2019, 09:42

Fantastic! Thank you both.

Victor, have you had a look on Undeadline?

By the_knives

Supporter (11)

02-01-2019, 09:57

Really awesome Victor! I am going to enjoy this on a lot!

By journey

Champion (310)

02-01-2019, 11:44

Really great work and fantastic music!

By rvanzon

Supporter (14)

02-01-2019, 12:43

Thanks! This makes the game so much better. Much smoother and no more blinking sprites. Amazing!

By Sander

Ambassador (1838)

02-01-2019, 14:16

/me picks up his jaw and put it back in. A M A Z I N G

By valkyre

Champion (391)

02-01-2019, 18:58

Very nicely done.

By Manel46

Champion (374)

02-01-2019, 19:23

Manuel wrote:

Great work! But I don't really understand the smooth scroll remark. Wasn't it already fully smooth? I think hamlet is confused with the original Zanac

I agree.
Thanks Victor, congratulations!

By KdL

Paragon (1140)

02-01-2019, 21:52

A wonderful work!! Thanks!

By fernando.collazo.5682

Master (236)

03-01-2019, 03:20

Wow! Zamac Ex Is really a great game, now it's on pair with Aleste. Thank you Victor

By Victor

Champion (462)

03-01-2019, 04:35

gdx wrote:

Victor, have you had a look on Undeadline?

No... Sorry...

By mfeingol

Champion (265)

03-01-2019, 06:32

Zanac-Ex is one of my favorite MSX games. This rocks. Thanks, Victor.

By Giangiacomo Zaffini 2

Expert (119)

03-01-2019, 21:07

Is original rom of 64 kByte size ? Is 128 kByte patched rom a ASCII8 megaROM ? Thank You.

By Victor

Champion (462)

03-01-2019, 22:13

Giangiacomo Zaffini 2 wrote:

Is original rom of 64 kByte size ? Is 128 kByte patched rom a ASCII8 megaROM ? Thank You.

Original ROM = 128 Kbytes ASCII16
Patched ROM = 128 Kbytes ASCII16

By Manuel

Ascended (15125)

03-01-2019, 23:18

How much room is now still left in that 128kB ROM?

Also, which format are the songs in?

By PAC

Guardian (5005)

04-01-2019, 02:46

Songs are in MGS format, according to Mstz80ax they will be uploaded shortly to the MRC.

By Victor

Champion (462)

04-01-2019, 07:06

Manuel wrote:

How much room is now still left in that 128kB ROM?

Not too much... some bytes here and there... I had to compress part of the code to keep the original size...

Manuel wrote:

Also, which format are the songs in?

As PAC has said -> Songs created with the MGSEL driver by Mstz80ax. This is the first time he works with MGSEL... and you can see the result... amazing...

By Victor

Champion (462)

04-01-2019, 07:04

Well ... I've fixed the known issues. This evening I'll update the patch.

By o.geerdink

Hero (525)

04-01-2019, 09:25

Wow already online playable: https://www.file-hunter.com/MSX/index.php?id=zanacex-e

By Pentarou

Master (160)

04-01-2019, 23:51

Can someone confirm that the patched game works in RAM or Megaram on real hardware?
I tried a few loaders and the game doesn't work (but works if installed in ROM): It either freezes on the bumper screen (with the "press ..." blinking) or gives a white screen.

By fernando.collazo.5682

Master (236)

05-01-2019, 04:22

The scroll is super ultra smooth in my Turbo R
Now the game is much better than the NES one! Thank you again Victor

By lintweaker

Expert (122)

05-01-2019, 09:02

@Pentarou, have the same issue on real hw. Freezes are detecting MSX-MUSIC (i.e. does not react on any key).

By Louthrax

Paragon (1991)

05-01-2019, 09:48

lintweaker wrote:

@Pentarou, have the same issue on real hw. Freezes are detecting MSX-MUSIC (i.e. does not react on any key).

Have the same problem here. Could also be related to the fact the when loaded in RAM the "AB" header is removed ? (the problem also happens when flashing on a flash device with SofaRun, that also removes this header).

Launching the game in RAM is interesting on turboR (using the internal mapper), as this gives the best performance. Must say the game is also indeed harder in turbo mode !

By Louthrax

Paragon (1991)

05-01-2019, 11:04

Made some more tests this morning:

The problem is not related to "AB" header.
Games works fine with SofaROM on devices requiring no ROM patching (MFR, Carnivore, GR8Net, Multi-MSXRAM), if you use the "No disk driver" option (/X). The disk driver is enabled by default by SofaROM, is option frees some RAM.

By Pentarou

Master (160)

05-01-2019, 13:48

Victor wrote:

Well ... I've fixed the known issues. This evening I'll update the patch.

Maybe this will fix the problems? But I still see only v 1.00

Louthrax wrote:

Games works fine with SofaROM on devices requiring no ROM patching (MFR, Carnivore, GR8Net, Multi-MSXRAM), if you use the "No disk driver" option (/X)

Victor's USAS enhanced seems to have the same problem with SofaROM (needs the /X and doesn't work with Mapper/MegaRAM)

btw, what is a Multi-MSXRAM???

By Maggoo

Paragon (1188)

05-01-2019, 14:41

Fantastic job, Zanac was already one of my favorites and now it is perfect!

Is there any way the line interrupt glitch under the score can be fixed? Maybe using one display off line to mask it?

By PAC

Guardian (5005)

05-01-2019, 20:23

Already here!. Thanks to mstz80ax we can enjoy the complete soundtrack of ZANAC EX arranged for MSX-MUSIC in our favourite MSX sound player.

mstz80axさん、どうもありがとうございます！ ;)

By Pentarou

Master (160)

06-01-2019, 00:59

The game works with EXECROM and a Megaram! But without FM music
Load the ROM with the /R5 option and then force PSG sound (keep "P" pressed).
It seems that OPL detection doesn't work correctly, as it always says "OPLL(MSX-Music) found!!", even if the device is not present, and then freezes.

By Victor

Champion (462)

07-01-2019, 12:10

New version on my Github account with some fixes.

By alexito

Champion (326)

07-01-2019, 12:17

thanks Victor, for the great improvement I love play games at 50hz refresh because I used to see more details when everything is almost slow motion
My test with GR8NET was excellent I just fake the OPLL detection via _netfkopllr command before call netbrowse that make the trick for get FM Music.

By alexito

Champion (326)

07-01-2019, 20:31

I have tested patch ver1.00 and ver1.02 both run fine on my NMS8280 but still I can't achieve to boot holding "D" key forcing Dual PSG doesn't works for me with this MSX Computer and GR8NET

By Victor

Champion (462)

07-01-2019, 21:05

alexito wrote:

I have tested patch ver1.00 and ver1.02 both run fine on my NMS8280 but still I can't achieve to boot holding "D" key forcing Dual PSG doesn't works for me with this MSX Computer and GR8NET

What's the problem ? No sound in the other PSG, or it doesn't boot??

By alexito

Champion (326)

07-01-2019, 21:32

i have tested already Zanac EX Enhanced with Patch Ver1.02 storaged on GR8NET and Yamaha CX5MII (USA) 1024K And FM Light and everything work fine so I can affirm the Problem with the NMS8280 (NETHERLANDS) could be the Keyboard layaout

@"What's the problem ? No sound in the other PSG, or it doesn't boot??"

Well, the PSG sound fine on NMS8280 at 3.5Mhz but I want to try the Extra PSG on GR8NET at 7mhz because this Computer have 7mhz Switch and at 7Mhz everything look and sound better inclusive other games at 7mhz BGM sound good check this link about XENON enhanced at 7Mhz where the BGM is on the Extra PSG.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqnSTMU-6cg

By Victor

Champion (462)

07-01-2019, 22:26

alexito wrote:

i have tested already Zanac EX Enhanced with Patch Ver1.02 storaged on GR8NET and Yamaha CX5MII (USA) 1024K And FM Light and everything work fine so I can affirm the Problem with the NMS8280 (NETHERLANDS) could be the Keyboard layaout

Ok.. really strange.. but you can do this:

- Take an HEX editor with the patched ROM. In position 3DC6h of the file, change the C0h with a C8h.

With that, you will get the "D" key function inverted

By alexito

Champion (326)

07-01-2019, 23:15

@ "- Take an HEX editor with the patched ROM. In position 3DC6h of the file, change the C0h with a C8h."

I did but still I don't get the Extra PSG on GR8NET activated just the internal PSG is working I can assure that because the External Audio Output for EPSG,YM2413,Y8950,PCM On GR8NET is Connected to my RIGHT Speaker and NMS8280 Audio Output (PSG) on LEFT Speaker.

By Victor

Champion (462)

07-01-2019, 23:16

alexito wrote:

I did but still I don't get the Extra PSG on GR8NET activated just the internal PSG is working I can assure that because the External Audio Output On GR8NET is Connected to my RIGHT Speaker and NMS8280 Audio Output (PSG) on LEFT Speaker.

But, do you hear the sound FXs?? Those must be heard in the second PSG (ports 10h & 11h)

Sorry, but if you don't hear any FX is because the routine works correctly... That's a GR8NET problem... are you sure you have activated the second PSG in the GR8NET??

By alexito

Champion (326)

07-01-2019, 23:53

Yes is activated all the time when you TURN ON or RESET the MSX. GR8NET offer to SAVE the Setting and the INFO SCREEN at booting confirm that. Like I told you before the same GR8NET cartridge was tested with other MSX2 Computer and all the features works flawless.

and yes just the SFX on Internal MSX NMS8280 (PSG) is working fine seems like the changed 0xC8 doesn't affect nothing on NMS8280. Do you have a more radical approach to force the Extra PSG get activated ?

By Victor

Champion (462)

08-01-2019, 04:38

alexito wrote:

Do you have a more radical approach to force the Extra PSG get activated ?

Here you'll find a version with the Double PSG forced

By alexito

Champion (326)

08-01-2019, 11:43

I have patched Zanac Ex with the Double PSG Forced but for our bad luck NO Extra PSG through GR8NET Audio Output yet with my lovely NMS8280. You can Test this version also via OpenMSX --> My Setup was NMS-8245 and MegaFlash ROM SCC plus.

Thanks Victor for all your effort.

~~Let me do something interesting by my part just replacing the IO ports 0xA0 and 0xA1 to 0x10 and 0x11 and will see what happen.~~

On Zanac Ex with Patch Ver 1.02 and OpenMSX when The Main Game Title show up push BREAK button on Debugger and change 3 offsets in Z80 RAM:

0XE1EF 10
0XE1F4 11
0xE1F8 10

and you can hear on OpenMSX with Mega Flash ROM SCC Plus the BGM on the Main Title executing very well using just the Extra PSG on MFRSCC+

so I did a quick patch to this ROM just changing 3 offsets:

0x1BC6F 10
0X1BC74 11
0X1BC78 10

and the Extra PSG on GR8NET now it replace the internal PSG (NMS8280) but it is not what I want to hear I want to hear both PSG Audio Chips so I can feel the improvement. Sorry for be too demanding.

PS: I start thinking the problem is NOT the Keyboard Layout.

By Dolphin101546015

Rookie (30)

08-01-2019, 12:24

Patch is broke game. I go full game to the end, and it hang on last boss with music. Nothing going on.
Original game is working nice.

By Victor

Champion (462)

08-01-2019, 12:42

Dolphin101546015 wrote:

Patch is broke game. I go full game to the end, and it hang on last boss with music. Nothing going on.
Original game is working nice.

With version 1.02?

By Dolphin101546015

Rookie (30)

08-01-2019, 14:41

Working now! I guess it was some error when i patching with online service (idk, it was random site)

Now its working pretty nice.
Thank you for this good work!
You gift me lovely game again, with best music for MSX!
Good luck ;)

By alexito

Champion (326)

08-01-2019, 15:27

I have modified 2 offsets only after applying patch Ver 1.02 and we get SFX output on GR8NET (ExtraPSG):

0x1BB37 10
0x1BB3C 11

switching at 7mhz on NMS8280 the SFX via GR8NET sound pretty good but Internal PSG sound little high pitch but not bad after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2aee4LNocs

PS: Definitely no problem with the KEYBOARD Layout (NMS8280) because I have tested "I" key and I got Infinite LIVES.

By ppeccin

Champion (341)

12-01-2019, 05:00

Hey Victor, nice work!

I am adding a "Double PSG" Extension to WebMSX so it can play this version to the full!
It already has the 2 PSGs working OK with the "D" forced mode.
But if fails to enable the 2 PSGs by default since the check for the MegaFlash SD fails.

WebMSX does not yet support the MegaFlash SD (and there is no plans to fully support it, since it already has Nextor support and FlashROMs are not really needed in emulators).

I read somewhere that the 2nd PSG is undetectable by itself, so this is probably the gotcha here.

So I ask you: can you please explain the check that is performed to detect the 2nd PSG? Does it NEED to check for the MegaFlash, or could it check in any "more generic" way?

Maybe I can emulate just the part that gets checked so we can activate the double PSG by default.

Thank you!
Paulo

By Victor

Champion (462)

12-01-2019, 07:12

ppeccin wrote:

Hey Victor, nice work!

Thanks my friend!!

ppeccin wrote:

I am adding a "Double PSG" Extension to WebMSX so it can play this version to the full!

Woooww!! Great news!!

ppeccin wrote:

I read somewhere that the 2nd PSG is undetectable by itself, so this is probably the gotcha here.

So I ask you: can you please explain the check that is performed to detect the 2nd PSG? Does it NEED to check for the MegaFlash, or could it check in any "more generic" way?

The main problem is that in almost all devices, only the writable PSG channels are in the other PSG (ports 10h and 11h), so you can't check it directly...

I just check for the MegaflashROM SD firmware.. that's all

It's easy to detect, for example, the GR8NET, but in this device you can disable the double PSG (in config)... so it's not good to force it... The same with FLASHJACKS device...

ppeccin wrote:

Maybe I can emulate just the part that gets checked so we can activate the double PSG by default.

There is a version with the double PSG forced...

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (2917)

12-01-2019, 15:02

I'm a bit confused with the double-PSG thing. Is it really necessary for the OPLL soundtrack?

I mean, I originally thought that it was meant to be used to play the SFX, only for the PSG soundtrack, since the original game steals music channels to play the SFX and the music ends up being played on a single PSG channel most of the time.

But for the OPLL soundtrack, I thought that this would be unnecessary, as there are plenty of channels available, and Mstz80ax's in-game soundtrack seems to use only the PSG channel-1 for complementary drumkit sounds, leaving its channels 2 and 3 free for the sfx.

And, of the game sound effects, only two of them use the channel 1 (sfx 0Bh and 1Ch), but:

- 0Bh was remade as "WARP.MGS" in the OPLL soundtrack.
- 1Ch was remade as "BOSSDEST.MGS" in the OPLL soundtrack.

So, is the double-PSG feature really necessary when the OPLL soundtrack is played, or is this feature only necessary for the PSG soundtrack? If that's the case maybe it could be made a bit more clear in the README?

By Victor

Champion (462)

12-01-2019, 16:18

sd_snatcher wrote:

I'm a bit confused with the double-PSG thing. Is it really necessary for the OPLL soundtrack?

Yes

sd_snatcher wrote:

I mean, I originally thought that it was meant to be used to play the SFX, only for the PSG soundtrack, since the original game steals music channels to play the SFX and the music ends up being played on a single PSG channel most of the time.

No , Double PSG it's only for the OPLL soundtrack.

sd_snatcher wrote:

But for the OPLL soundtrack, I thought that this would be unnecessary, as there are plenty of channels available, and Mstz80ax's in-game soundtrack seems to use only the PSG channel-1 for complementary drumkit sounds, leaving its channels 2 and 3 free for the sfx.

And, of the game sound effects, only two of them use the channel 1 (sfx 0Bh and 1Ch)

I thought the same when I started with this project.. but when PSG SFX write in PSG register 6, then the PSG sound is channel 1 (for music in OPLL) is corrupted.

sd_snatcher wrote:

So, is the double-PSG feature really necessary when the OPLL soundtrack is played, or is this feature only necessary for the PSG soundtrack?

It's not necessary.. it just sound better in OPLL mode... that's all...

sd_snatcher wrote:

If that's the case maybe it could be made a bit more clear in the README?

No, it's not relevant.

By ppeccin

Champion (341)

13-01-2019, 23:33

Victor, thanks for the reply.

Victor wrote:

The main problem is that in almost all devices, only the writable PSG channels are in the other PSG (ports 10h and 11h), so you can't check it directly...
I just check for the MegaflashROM SD firmware.. that's all

I see...
Maybe you could try to detect the PSG from reading its ports first, and if that is undetectable, then try to find the specific devices?

I think it would be a good approach, and also much more future-proof, since it would correctly detect any extra PSG that is already readable now, and also any new hardware that may have it in the future!

Would that be possible/not too difficult?

Paulo

By Victor

Champion (462)

14-01-2019, 04:29

ppeccin wrote:

Maybe you could try to detect the PSG from reading its ports first, and if that is undetectable, then try to find the specific devices?
Paulo

Yes, I'll do it. No problem.

By Victor

Champion (462)

15-01-2019, 19:32

ppeccin wrote:

Maybe you could try to detect the PSG from reading its ports first, and if that is undetectable, then try to find the specific devices?

Done. Version 1.03 is available here.

By ppeccin

Champion (341)

15-01-2019, 20:20

Victor wrote:

Done. Version 1.03 is available here.

Wow, thanks! Real quick! :-)

By Randam Hajile

Resident (49)

15-01-2019, 20:46

This is so awesome. I love this game and with the new music it feels like an epic upgrade. Thanks and well done.

By alexito

Champion (326)

17-01-2019, 10:02

Patch ver 1.03 tested with GR8NET but still --> NOT EXTRA PSG Sounds output through my right speaker where GR8NET is connected.

By Victor

Champion (462)

17-01-2019, 11:38

alexito wrote:

Patch ver 1.03 tested with GR8NET but still --> NOT EXTRA PSG Sounds output through my right speaker where GR8NET is connected.

Sorry, but I think that the problem is your computer audio mixer...

By Victor

Champion (462)

17-01-2019, 12:07

alexito wrote:

Patch ver 1.03 tested with GR8NET but still --> NOT EXTRA PSG Sounds output through my right speaker where GR8NET is connected.

Have you tested with other software that support double PSG? Is the problem only with this game?

By Grauw

Enlighted (7843)

17-01-2019, 14:52

GR8NET PSG is not configured on port 10H by default I think. It shows on the boot screen, if it says A0 then you need to use CALL NETSETPSG(3) and then CALL NETSETPSG. See GR8NET manual §8.4. (Not sure why it’s not just immediately reconfigured and you need to call it a second time without argument.)

By alexito

Champion (326)

18-01-2019, 09:56

Mine was configured for port 0x10 and the info screen at boot confirm that.
@Victor: yes it was tested successfully with Sky Jaguar Dual PSG.

By mganai

Supporter (1)

28-01-2019, 06:07

Impressive what you've been doing.

Did you ever consider remastering the sprites with more colors to take advantage of MSX2/+/etc.? Or would it be too much work/too taxing on the games as is?

By Victor

Champion (462)

28-01-2019, 12:39

mganai wrote:

Impressive what you've been doing.

Did you ever consider remastering the sprites with more colors to take advantage of MSX2/+/etc.? Or would it be too much work/too taxing on the games as is?

Original game is in MSX2 with sprites in mode 2... I can't do anything else...

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