Kung Fu Master - POKEY replacement?

[Synthpopalooza]

Ok ... I have been thinking about doing Kung Fu Master music in POKEY.  If I can do this ...

 

Is there anyway that the cart can be hacked to play the POKEY music in place of the current TIA music?  Or some way to disassemble the ROM to hack in the music?  A recent facebook post about KFM kinda inspired me in this direction ...

[Shawn]

Not really. Not very easily anyhow. That is why when I see these sound files for all types of different games being made it makes little sense to me cause they can't be implemented into pre-existing programs nor into new programs that didn't have such a thing in mind in the first place. It would be neat if it could but realistically it's not gonna happen.

[Synthpopalooza]

I'll do it anyway.  If someday someone decides to repro the game, the sounds will be there. 

[KevinMos3]

13 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said:

Is there anyway that the cart can be hacked to play the POKEY music in place of the current TIA music?  Or some way to disassemble the ROM to hack in the music?

Yes, it can.  It's not something I know how to do, but @tep392 has done this with Donkey Kong and was going to do Donkey Kong Junior and Mario Bros, but I believe he had too much on his plate with the XM to finish those.  Double Dragon is my biggest hope for this.  KFM is a 32K game, so disassembly is less challenging than if it were bankswitched.  If it were to get the upgrade treatment I'd like to see some additional features and sprites added, like the jumpkick and fall-away enemies.  But, all this would probably require it to be bumped up to 48K and upgraded music would still be nice to have.

[Synthpopalooza]

Yes ..  I had done some preliminary POKEY music on Mario Bros for him.

 

 

[Synthpopalooza]

A preliminary idea:

 

AUDCTL=$61, square wave bass on second channel, $0x pink noise on first channel, gets the in level music with 2 channels free for sound fx.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Synthpopalooza

[Lynxpro]

On 5/9/2020 at 11:17 AM, KevinMos3 said:

Yes, it can.  It's not something I know how to do, but @tep392 has done this with Donkey Kong and was going to do Donkey Kong Junior and Mario Bros, but I believe he had too much on his plate with the XM to finish those.  Double Dragon is my biggest hope for this.  KFM is a 32K game, so disassembly is less challenging than if it were bankswitched.  If it were to get the upgrade treatment I'd like to see some additional features and sprites added, like the jumpkick and fall-away enemies.  But, all this would probably require it to be bumped up to 48K and upgraded music would still be nice to have.

 

I think one would want to add the music first before expanding the game out further. You wouldn't want to end up with the kernel being "too busy" like with other 7800 games. It would be cool to have POKEY - dual POKEY via PokeyMax - music as an option for those who have an XBoard, an SD Cart with POKEY socket, or say a hacked Ballblazer cart and aren't going to be getting an XM. Because if an updated game supported the XM, then the arcade's YM2151 audio could be added.

 

Crom knows the 7800 versions of Kung-Fu Master and Double Dragon could really use those audio mods...

[Giles N]

I think cooperation and swapping ideas and codes are the things needed (contra keeping secrets for themselves 30+ years after the hardware was at its prime of competition).

 

—

Just my thoughts as another retro-gamer.

[Synthpopalooza]

Kung Fu Master doesn't need double POKEY.  It has a standard AY chip for sound (3 square plus 1 noise) not dissimilar from what Colecovision has.  POKEY is more than capable.

 

In fact, the main in game music can be done using a bass square wave, and 1.79 mhz pink noise, with 2 POKEY channels free for sound fx.

[Synthpopalooza]

Also:

 

POKEY can do 4-bit audio sampling.  You write $10 to $1F to AUDCx very quickly.  This plays a sample.  Drawback is it takes 100% CPU so can't be done in game.  It can be used for that kung fu yell at the beginning, or when you lose a life (freeze screen while sound plays, then resume).  Berzerk for 5200 does this for robot voices.

[CPUWIZ]

The first thing you need to determine is, if you have enough scanlines left for the RMT playback, next you need to check if there is enough RAM left for RMT.  Otherwise it should be doable.

[Synthpopalooza]

RMT not needed.  I am using Pac Man Plus music routine.

[CPUWIZ]

The answer is still the same, just replace RMT with PMPM.

[Synthpopalooza]

OK, here you go ... main music.  Only 2 POKEY channels.

 

AUDCTL=$41

 

00 - $0x noise snare

01 - $Ax square bass

 

Two channels free.

 

Emulation:  Use A7800, not Prosystem, Prosystem won't play the snare.

 

 

kfm-main-4000.A78 kfm-main-4000.asm kfm-main-4000.bin kfm-main-450.A78 kfm-main-450.asm kfm-main-450.bin

Edited May 16, 2020 by Synthpopalooza

[Synthpopalooza]

The other musics as follows:

 

Opening:  $Ax in 16-bit mode, and $Ax in 8-bit ... only two channels

Stage Clear:  $Ax in 16-bit, and 2 $Ax 8-bit channels

Defeat Boss: Same as above

Game Over:  Same as opening, only two channels.

 

This is easily doable with standard POKEY $Ax settings.

[Synthpopalooza]

So really, we can scoop out the TIA sound code, perhaps, and replace it.  POKEY can handle all effects.

[Synthpopalooza]

Just looked it over ... the original game doesn't even have the "Sons of the Dragon will entertain you" opening.

[+Trebor]

22 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said:

OK, here you go ... main music.  Only 2 POKEY channels.

Real Hardware: Kung-Fu_Master_Main_Theme_Real_HW.mp3

[Synthpopalooza]

Yep as expected

[Synthpopalooza]

Kung Fu Master intro music.

 

Simple setup:

 

$00 - silent

$01 - $Ax 16-bit square wave - bass

$02 - $Ax standard 8-bit square - lead

 

Works perfectly in both Prosystem and A7800.

 

All of the music will rely on the standard square waves.

kfm-intro-450.A78 kfm-intro-450.asm kfm-intro-450.bin kfm-intro-4000.A78 kfm-intro-4000.asm kfm-intro-4000.bin

[Synthpopalooza]

Updated main music.  I transposed the bass into the correct octave.

 

 

kfm-main-450.A78 kfm-main-450.asm kfm-main-450.bin kfm-main-4000.A78 kfm-main-4000.asm kfm-main-4000.bin

[Synthpopalooza]

Game over music

 

This time, the music is played in standard 8-bit square waves in the last two channels.  The bass channel never goes below B2 (255 on the standard square table), and putting the music on the last two here, allows for AUDCTL to stay at $50.  The fewer changes we have to make to AUDCTL, the easier this will be to hack in.

 

As before ... emulation (Prosystem or A7800) is 100% to real hardware.

 

 

 

kfm-gameover-4000.A78 kfm-gameover-4000.asm kfm-gameover-4000.bin kfm-gameover-450.A78 kfm-gameover-450.asm kfm-gameover-450.bin

[+Trebor]

On 7/1/2020 at 11:15 PM, Synthpopalooza said:

Kung Fu Master intro music.

KFM - Intro - Real HW - 20200702.mp3 (x3 Pressing Reset when finished)

On 7/1/2020 at 11:23 PM, Synthpopalooza said:

Updated main music. 

KFM - Main Theme - Real HW - 20200702.mp3 (~1 Minute loop)

On 7/2/2020 at 12:02 AM, Synthpopalooza said:

Game over music

KFM - Game Over - Real HW - 20200702.mp3 (x3 Pressing Reset when finished)

[Synthpopalooza]

Last two.

 

Stage complete:

 

AUDCTL=$50

 

0 - silent

1 - $Ax bass

2 - $Ax lead

 

 

Game complete

 

AUDCTL=$50

 

0 - silent

1 - $Ax bass

2 - $ax lead

3 - $Ax harmony

 

All of these work 100% in either Prosystem or A7800

 

Now ... someone hack this into the 7800 game.

 

 

kfm-complete-450.asm kfm-complete-450.bin kfm-complete-4000.A78 kfm-complete-4000.asm kfm-complete-4000.bin kfm-complete-450.A78 kfm-endstage-450.asm kfm-endstage-450.bin kfm-endstage-4000.A78 kfm-endstage-4000.asm kfm-endstage-4000.bin kfm-endstage-450.A78

[Shawn]

2 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said:

 

 

Now ... someone hack this into the 7800 game.

 

 

Do you have the means to burn eproms or flash a dev cart for use with your XM yet or are you still getting others to test on real hardware after you write these? Would be a real shame if you don't have the means to do so on your own.