Forums

Sega Master System / Mark III / Game Gear
SG-1000 / SC-3000 / SF-7000 / OMV
Home - Forums - Games - Scans - Maps - Cheats - Credits
Music - Videos - Development - Hacks - Translations - Homebrew

View topic - Were there any SMS or GG games that play samples DURING gameplay?

Reply to topic
Author Message
  • Joined: 26 Jun 2006
  • Posts: 55
  • Location: Albany, NY
Reply with quote
Were there any SMS or GG games that play samples DURING gameplay?
Post Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2002 1:25 am
Were there any SMS or GG games that played samples during gameplay, besides playing them after stopping the game? I know there's at least one game that does that. I thought I heard these drums in the character selection screen in Mortal Kombat 3. Download the rom and you'll see what I mean. You'll mostlikely hear these "samples" using Pastorama, the SMS/GG emulator. Are there any games that use samples for drums besides noise, like MK3? Is there even a way to accomplish this?
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Site Admin
  • Joined: 19 Oct 1999
  • Posts: 14685
  • Location: London
Reply with quote
No...
Post Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2002 4:57 pm
Quote
> Were there any SMS or GG games that played samples during gameplay, besides playing them after stopping the game?

Basically, the CPU has to manually control the PSG to play back samples. At 100% CPU use it manages 8kHz or so, so if the CPU was also having to do other things (interrupt processing, game engine, etc) that rate would have to be much lower. In particular, the VBlank is a busy time for the CPU; this unevenness would be detrimental to the playback quality, which would also have to be at a much lower sampling rate.

Having said that, the Music Station SG demo manages to play back audio, with decompression, while showing an oscilloscope-style trace of the audio, and a text scroller. So maybe it is possible, but certainly not for games of any great complexity.

Quote
> I know there's at least one game that does that. I thought I heard these drums in the character selection screen in Mortal Kombat 3. Download the rom and you'll see what I mean. You'll mostlikely hear these "samples" using Pastorama, the SMS/GG emulator.

Why would Pastorama make me more likely to hear them? I'm just curious... I'll download it and see.

Anyway, I tried the game (GG and SMS version). The drums on that screen are done entirely with the noise channel, albeit in ch2-following mode to allow any shift rate. It's updated very quickly to give the effect, but not as fast as sampling.

Maxim
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 26 Jun 2006
  • Posts: 55
  • Location: Albany, NY
Reply with quote
Re: No...
Post Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2002 2:04 am

Quote
> Basically, the CPU has to manually control the PSG to play back samples. At 100% CPU use it manages 8kHz or so, so if the CPU was also having to do other things (interrupt processing, game engine, etc) that rate would have to be much lower. In particular, the VBlank is a busy time for the CPU; this unevenness would be detrimental to the playback quality, which would also have to be at a much lower sampling rate.

What the heck is VBlank?

I played the ROM, Space Harrier, for the SMS. When you die, both the sample of the man screaming plays and the man falls down simultaneously. So either the rate, for some reason, didn't require 100% of the CPU, or the CPU time was set to more than 100%. Were there any other games that both played a sample and showed some action without the player managing to move a character?
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 16 May 2002
  • Posts: 1355
  • Location: italy
Reply with quote
VBlank
Post Posted: Thu May 16, 2002 11:20 am
Quote
> > Basically, the CPU has to manually control the PSG to play back samples. At 100% CPU use it manages 8kHz or so, so if the CPU was also having to do other things (interrupt processing, game engine, etc) that rate would have to be much lower. In particular, the VBlank is a busy time for the CPU; this unevenness would be detrimental to the playback quality, which would also have to be at a much lower sampling rate.

> What the heck is VBlank?

It's a sort of control signal for video output, I think. See on S-8 dev section for learn more. They are very clever.
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Reply to topic



Back to the top of this page

Back to SMS Power!