Topic: Does any version of CV3 have working SFX for Medusa?

[TheouAegis]

CV3 has a bunch of sound effects, but a few of them seem to be broken. I had issues getting the evil laugh during the password screen to play, but I chalked that off as not having the right channels open, because I got the DPCM files to play when I actually hacked them during the password screen. However, no matter where I was in the game, I couldn't get the sound effects for Medusa's attacks nor those teeter-totters.

And before you pipe up that they don't have sound effects: Yes, they do indeed have sound effects. The teeter-totter uses sound offset $35, Medusa's gaze uses $3A, and Medusa's arrow uses $3B.

I'm running an emulated Japanese version. Does anyone know if this is just a Japanese version issue or if it's an emulator issue, or if there was a bug in the game? On the latest version of FCEUX, Medusa's sounds actually freeze the game sometimes. If I knew how to convert APU code to FamiTracker NSF info, I might be able to recreate the intended sounds, but I have no fucking idea where to even start.

[TheouAegis]

Things just got even more annoying.

So here's the list of all the sound offsets in the game. You can hear any sound by setting a break point in FCEUX for execution of $E249 and replacing the value of the accumulator with one of these.


  $01  Low Hi-Hat Hit Closed (DPCM?)
  $02  High Hi-Hat Hit Closed (DPCM?)
  $03  Ride Cymbal (DPCM?)
  $04  Hi-Hat Hit Open (DPCM?)
  $05  Hi-Hat Close (DPCM?)
  $06  Crumbling Room
  $07  Footsteps
  $08  Rough Landing
  $09  Door Slam 
  $0A  Bouncing Slime Landing
  $0B  Giant Rotating Gear
  $0C  Mudman Appearance
  $0D  Crumbling Ledge
  $0E  Corrosive Water Corrosion
  $0F  Ceiling Smash | Ledge Fall
  $10  Crumbling Bridge
  $11  Axe Weapon Toss
  $12  Dagger Toss
  $13  Cross Toss
  $14  Holy Water Shatter
  $15  Invincibility Potion
  $16  Get Coins
  $17  Timer Tally
  $18  Hearts Tally | Name Letter Select
  $19  Get Heart | Name Letter Enter
  $1A  Get Weapon
  $1B  ****UNKNOWN****
  $1C  Water Attack (Lightning in v.US)
  $1D  Alucard Fireball
  $1E  Flowing Water
  $1F  Ice Spell 
  $20  Emerge Splash
  $21  Submerge Splash
  $22  Corrosive Water Splatter
  $23  Fire Spell (for Water Dragons also)
  $24  Resilient Enemy Hit
  $25  Roaring Waterfall
  $26  Owl Flap
  $27  Enemy Shattered (e.g., skeletons)
  $28  Ineffective Attack
  $29  Cyclops Pound
  $2A  Boss Hit
  $2B  Mystery Meat
  $2C  Thunder
  $2D  Title Screen Thunder
  $2E  Bat Form
  $2F  Water Dragon Emerge
  $30  Water Dragon Submerge
  $31  Bone, Spit, Tears, et al Attack
  $32  Object Destroy
  $33  Block Break
  $34  River Freeze
  $35  Teeter-Totter (removed)
  $36  Trap Door Turn
  $37  Collapsing Tower | Leviathan Stomp
  $38  Frozen Enemy Shattered
  $39  Creature Stomp
  $3A  Medusa Beam (removed)
  $3B  Medusa Arrow (removed)
  $3C  Clocktower Quake
  $3D  Sunken Room Quake
  $3E  Stopwatch Tick
  $3F  Flooding Sunken Room
  $40  Prayer Thunder
  $41  Big Thunder
  $42  Invalid Password
  $43  Partner Saved
  $44  Flame Pillar
  $45  Wisp Explode
  $46  Pazuzu Laser
  $47  Doppelganger Change
  $48  Partner Change
  $49  Pazuzu Hit
  $4A  Crystal Ping
  $4B  Time's Up
  $4C  Rosario
  $4D  1UP
  $4E  Health Refill
  $4F  Pause 
  $50  Life Loss
  $51  "Beginning"
  $52  "Mad Forest"
  $53  "Stream"
  $54  "Dead Beat"
  $55  "Clockwork"
  $56  "Aquarius"
  $57  "Rising"
  $58  "Anxiety"
  $59  "Nightmare"
  $5A  "Demon Seed"
  $5B  "Anxiety" (duplicated)
  $5C  "Aquarius" (duplicated)
  $5D  "Deja Vu"
  $5E  "Riddle"
  $60  "Overture"
  $61  "Boss Fight"
  $62  "Big Battle"
  $63  "Big Battle" (fast)
  $64  "Epitaph"
  $65  "Blk Clear"
  $66  "All Clear"
  $67  "Game Over"
  $68  "Prelude"
  $69  "Prayer"
  $6A  "Evergreen"
  $6B  "Flash Back"
  $6C  "Pressure"
  $6D  "Encounter"
  $6E  "Destiny"
  $6F  Floor Tom (DPCM)
  $70  Low Tom (DPCM)
  $71  High Tom (DPCM)
  $72  Snare Drum (DPCM)
  $73  Bass Drum (DPCM)
  $74  Whip Attack / Main Menu Select
  $75  Trevor Hurt
  $76  Grant Hurt
  $77  Sypha Hurt
  $78  Alucard Hurt
  $79  Death Laugh (DPCM)
  $7A  Whip Attack (duplicated)
  $7B  Ominous Laugh (DPCM)
  $7C  Flying Heads Scream (DPCM)
  $7D  Boss Scream (DPCM)


You'll notice a few things. The first few may or may not be sound samples. I haven't actually checked where the data gets written to. It sounds like noise channel, but $01 through $05 are written to $E249, whereas normally the noise channel is in the song's data itself. The teeter-totter and Medusa have bugged sound effects, like I said in the previous post. Then there's sound $1B. The sound actually exists. It's a bit of a SHMUP explosion. Here's the problem: I can't find an assignment for it anywhere in the ROM data. All the other ones that I overlooked the first couple times playing through the game (I played it multiple times last night), I was able to find by going into the ROM, searching for the assignments, then seeing what other sounds were assigned in the same page. (For example, I already had $3F, so when I was looking up the assignment for $3D, I saw the assignment for $3F and knew it had to do with the Bone Dragon King).

By the way, here is sound $1B. If you know where it's from, please let me know. It sounds like Dracula's flame pillar--maybe the smaller ones because I already have the big one--but it's never assigned in the code, like I said!
http://www.mediafire.com/?4eby6fcm7040gdb

[TheouAegis]

Crisis is speechless!


Ok. Update. Due to some coding differences between Akumajou Densetsu and Castlevania 3, the breakpoint is no longer $E249. You're better off setting the break point to a write to $00EF, as this aspect of the code never changed.

Furthermore, the US version of CV3 is missing two sounds. I haven't figured out which ones, yet (I just got home). All I know is it used to set the DPCM breakpoint at $6F, but in CV3 it's $6D. I verified this even further by noting that "Epitaph" is $64 in AkuDen, but is $62 in CV3. More on this turn of events later.

DPCMs are definitely after "Destiny". Not sure why the first 5 sounds are treated as sound effects. Must be some limitation in the APU's music processing. "Life Loss" counts as a melody according to the code (and reVamp too), so I should put quotes around that.


...wow when I look through this little snippet of code... the amount of data they had to rewrite just to port to the US...

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

@Crisis:
Please refrain from responding without a response, or responding with just an image macro.
It's against forum rules (counts as spam and/or special quirk trolling).
**deletes post**

@Theouaegis:
It may be that, because of the chip conversion from Akumajo Densetsu's music to Castlevania III's music, some samples that probably would have played in the original game, no longer get to play because they're being used up by the USA's music.  I've not played the Japanese version in a long while, but even in that version I do not recall hearing many differences between the sounds.

Also, can I have the sound effects for the percussion?  I can incorporate 'em into my NES Soundfont. :3

[TheouAegis]

You need WAV files? If I knew how to rip DPCMs, I would be very happy.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

WAV is fine.  You can put 'em up on Mediafire. 

[TheouAegis]

I found a "DPCM ripper" but all it did was convert the entire ROM into audio data. Ow, my ears.

By the by, the demonic screams were really just a guy screaming, but played at a lower octave. It sounds funny. The demonic laugh was at the same level, though.

[TheouAegis]

http://www.mediafire.com/?85y1m3v25x7oetl

That's all the DPCM files in a single WAV file. I will see if I can get a lower sample rate up in a few minutes. If I don't detect any change at a lower sample rate (assuming I get a lower sample rate), then I'll know that the first 5 sounds really are PCM, otherwise they're just funky noise channels; maybe noise+triangle sounds.

OK, so here's the lower rate sample. It's about a quarter the frequency. Nothing I can do about the 16 bit sampling -- that's built in to FCEUX.

http://www.mediafire.com/?586gyuyr7276vo3

If you listen to the two files, you should notice the first five sounds have significantly degraded quality in the second file, whereas there's very little difference between the other sounds. This means the first 5 sounds weren't PCMs but in fact noise+square/triangle combination sounds. I don't know how the game knows when to load those instructions into the PPU, but I think that's a nifty little trick. I don't think you can do that in FamiTracker. Well, you can, but you'd have to manually enter the breaks (can only play one note per channel at a time, i think).


Update: OK, shit just got weirder. I opened the US version of CV3. So yeah, two sounds were removed: the teeter-totter and both of Medusa's attacks were relegated to sound $06.  And get this: $06 is coded to be skipped over. What the hell?!

[Inccubus]

http://www.mediafire.com/?85y1m3v25x7oetl

That's all the DPCM files in a single WAV file. I will see if I can get a lower sample rate up in a few minutes. If I don't detect any change at a lower sample rate (assuming I get a lower sample rate), then I'll know that the first 5 sounds really are PCM, otherwise they're just funky noise channels; maybe noise+triangle sounds.

OK, so here's the lower rate sample. It's about a quarter the frequency. Nothing I can do about the 16 bit sampling -- that's built in to FCEUX.

http://www.mediafire.com/?586gyuyr7276vo3

If you listen to the two files, you should notice the first five sounds have significantly degraded quality in the second file, whereas there's very little difference between the other sounds. This means the first 5 sounds weren't PCMs but in fact noise+square/triangle combination sounds. I don't know how the game knows when to load those instructions into the PPU, but I think that's a nifty little trick. I don't think you can do that in FamiTracker. Well, you can, but you'd have to manually enter the breaks (can only play one note per channel at a time, i think).


Update: OK, shit just got weirder. I opened the US version of CV3. So yeah, two sounds were removed: the teeter-totter and both of Medusa's attacks were relegated to sound $06.  And get this: $06 is coded to be skipped over. What the hell?!

Maybe those sounds really were bugged and they just moved them over to a placeholder sound value instead of trying to fix them?

[TheouAegis]

I think so too, but that shit right there is weird. I mean, there's still some room left over in both ROMs. They could have added sound effects in still.

[buijon]

Any chance you completed ripping the CV3 sound effects as wav files? I've only found a zip file on https://www.sounds-resource.com a good 70% of the sounds were not ripped properly so they are just noise or super distorted versions of the sounds. It's a long shot, but you seemed to be onto something way back then, and I see you still log in here.

http://www.mediafire.com/?85y1m3v25x7oetl

That's all the DPCM files in a single WAV file. I will see if I can get a lower sample rate up in a few minutes. If I don't detect any change at a lower sample rate (assuming I get a lower sample rate), then I'll know that the first 5 sounds really are PCM, otherwise they're just funky noise channels; maybe noise+triangle sounds.

OK, so here's the lower rate sample. It's about a quarter the frequency. Nothing I can do about the 16 bit sampling -- that's built in to FCEUX.

http://www.mediafire.com/?586gyuyr7276vo3

If you listen to the two files, you should notice the first five sounds have significantly degraded quality in the second file, whereas there's very little difference between the other sounds. This means the first 5 sounds weren't PCMs but in fact noise+square/triangle combination sounds. I don't know how the game knows when to load those instructions into the PPU, but I think that's a nifty little trick. I don't think you can do that in FamiTracker. Well, you can, but you'd have to manually enter the breaks (can only play one note per channel at a time, i think).


Update: OK, shit just got weirder. I opened the US version of CV3. So yeah, two sounds were removed: the teeter-totter and both of Medusa's attacks were relegated to sound $06.  And get this: $06 is coded to be skipped over. What the hell?!

[Eric Roman]

That is a LOT of sound effects; here I thought I caught most of 'em way back when.   o_o  I would love to hear what was in those ZIPs...!

[TheouAegis]

Any chance you completed ripping the CV3 sound effects as wav files? I've only found a zip file on https://www.sounds-resource.com a good 70% of the sounds were not ripped properly so they are just noise or super distorted versions of the sounds. It's a long shot, but you seemed to be onto something way back then, and I see you still log in here.

I haven't been on these forums in a long time. lol

I'll reupload the ZIP file if I can find it on my flash drive.


Update: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2po34hiu4hgvti/cv3sfx-clean.zip?dl=0

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

The teeter totters do make sounds in certain ROM versions, but I don't know which.
I've never heard Medusa/SnakeHeadSentinel's effects, though.

[buijon]

I haven't been on these forums in a long time. lol

I'll reupload the ZIP file if I can find it on my flash drive.


Update: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2po34hiu4hgvti/cv3sfx-clean.zip?dl=0

HOLY CRAP! It never notified me that you replied! Not to worry I'm only just getting back to working on my game after life had it's way with me :/ and I was once again after the sounds and this thread popped up in my search haha. I downloaded the sounds so thank you very much! You kick ass! Any chance you did this for Contra and Super C as well?