Streets of Rage 2 - Go Straight Beatmix (TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine Cover)

[fragmare]

Turbo Everdrives are hit and miss when it comes to playing .hes files. They often distort sounds, miss entire channels, change the speed, etc and many don't work at all. Different revisions have different results for the same files and there is no consistency for newer or older models being better or worse. Sometimes an old TED will play a particular soundtrack better but it will play another soubdtrack worse.

Also, some soundtracks will only work on a particular TED if you rename them to .pce

That sounds more like somebody screwed something up making the song, tested it on a shitty emulator that didn't pick up the error, thought everything was ok and released the track.  An HES file is a PCE file and a PCE file is an HES file, that is to say they are both simple ROM image files.  The only difference is an HES file has a built in PSG music player.  As to the quality of that PSG player, that probably depends on who/what is building the HES file.  It's well known the Deflemask ROM builder makes an HES file that is highly un-optimized for any kind of game usage, but it should sound fine on real hardware.

[Black Tiger]

We're talking about a flashcart that doesn't consistently run game roms on real hardware.

The sound roms and hes files I've had mixed results with are the same ones ripped from published games and have been online for years and work in emulation, winamp, etc.

The 2 meg minimum size seems to affect both sound roms and .hes files.

I also forgot to say that you'll also get random results from various TED and hardware combinations.

If you can get the .hes file for Legend of Xanadu II to work on any TED and hardware combo, I'd appreciate it if you can let us know, because I'll gladly track down those specific models just to finally be able to record the soundtrack.

[fragmare]

We're talking about a flashcart that doesn't consistently run game roms on real hardware.

The sound roms and hes files I've had mixed results with are the same ones ripped from published games and have been online for years and work in emulation, winamp, etc.

The 2 meg minimum size seems to affect both sound roms and .hes files.

I also forgot to say that you'll also get random results from various TED and hardware combinations.

If you can get the .hes file for Legend of Xanadu II to work on any TED and hardware combo, I'd appreciate it if you can let us know, because I'll gladly track down those specific models just to finally be able to record the soundtrack.

Ew.  I was thinking of getting an SGX+Everdrive, but now I'm not so sure.  What the hell is the TED doing to the ROM data before it hands it to the hardware?

[elmer]

Ew.  I was thinking of getting an SGX+Everdrive, but now I'm not so sure.  What the hell is the TED doing to the ROM data before it hands it to the hardware?

Given the shortage and cost of decent 5-volt memory, the TED v2 is using modern 3.3V memory and components, and then using a 3.3V-5V buffered level-shifter to talk to the HuCard slot.

There's nothing wrong in-principle with that, but it has proved to be much more sensitive to the actual voltage on the HuCard slot than older designs.

Basically ... the v2.4-and-higher Everdrives seem to be pretty solid, but none of them play well with crappy Multi-Region mods that degrade the standard voltages or slow down the bus signals too much.

I've not had any problems with the TED v2.3 on my unmodified SuperGrafx.

The TED v2 specifically states on the site that it's not guaranteed to work with consoles that have 3rd-party region mods.

Basically, neither the TED, nor a region-mod are original spec equipment.

For now, it seems like you have to pick one or the other. Trying both sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't.

[fragmare]

Ew.  I was thinking of getting an SGX+Everdrive, but now I'm not so sure.  What the hell is the TED doing to the ROM data before it hands it to the hardware?

Given the shortage and cost of decent 5-volt memory, the TED v2 is using modern 3.3V memory and components, and then using a 3.3V-5V buffered level-shifter to talk to the HuCard slot.

There's nothing wrong in-principle with that, but it has proved to be much more sensitive to the actual voltage on the HuCard slot than older designs.

Basically ... the v2.4-and-higher Everdrives seem to be pretty solid, but none of them play well with crappy Multi-Region mods that degrade the standard voltages or slow down the bus signals too much.

I've not had any problems with the TED v2.3 on my unmodified SuperGrafx.

The TED v2 specifically states on the site that it's not guaranteed to work with consoles that have 3rd-party region mods.

Basically, neither the TED, nor a region-mod are original spec equipment.

For now, it seems like you have to pick one or the other. Trying both sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't.

Lol, by "region mod" are you talking about where somebody takes a small sharp instrument and pries up on Pin #29 (iirc?) of the HuC6280 chip?  If so, yea, I can see that screwing with a TED.  Isn't there a switcheroo or something on some of these flash carts, maybe some TEDs, that allows it to play on either NA or Jp region natively?

[Pokun]

Yes the Everdrive has a switch that switches between Japanese and US HuCard pinout.

What the hell is the TED doing to the ROM data before it hands it to the hardware?

The only thing I know it does, is to scan the ROM for the region protection code that US games has. If it finds it, it dummies out that code.
Unfortunately there's currently no option to disable this, but I don't think it's causing any problems either.

I have yet to run into a ROM that doesn't work for me, but HES files oftens doesn't work.
Theoretically all games should work except Ten no Koe BANK because it doesn't support the on-board battery backed RAM. The battery RAM on Populous is claimed to be supported though.

[esteban]

Thanks.  I was originally going to use Speedy's Go Straight cover as a base to work from, but the beatmix version was just too different and i needed to change too much stuff, so I redid it from scratch.  I think this will probably be my last chiptune I do for a while.

Marvelous.

I had listened to and approved of this on SoundCloud when you uploaded it, but let me officially approve of it here, too, at pcefx.

[fragmare]

Bit of an update on this one too.  Holding off on starting anything new, since I'm going to be starting the Raiden II track here soon.  New links in original post.

[esteban]