Sound problems

[MiCV2]

Hi,

 

in the demo "Portal" I don't hear the Covox speaking voice. TIA is way too loud. The video shows it fine.

 

 

 

I don't hear any music in the demo "Bad Apple".

Bad Apple by Playsoft :: pouët.net (pouet.net)

 

 

Portal (Demo) (PAL) (20230813) (9E5AAC54).a78

Edited Sunday at 10:00 PM by MiCV2

[Hasan Coskun]

Has your 7800 been A/V modified or are you using the video output from the GD?

[SainT]

I know those work, so the headers are bad on your ROMs such that covox isn’t enabled for portal and YM isn’t enabled for Bad Apple.

If you want to alter volume levels you can go to the sound options while playing any ROM and alter them.

[Trebor]

@MiCV2 Utilize these files for the demos instead:

 

Portal (Demo) (PAL) (20230813) (9E5AAC54).a78

Bad Apple Demo (PAL) (20221213) (D477F043).a78

[MiCV2]

Thanks for the answers.

 

my A7800 (Pal) is not modified, I use the AV output from GD7800. The Bad Apple demo works now. Portal demo warns at the beginning "Wrong header" and covox is not available.

Why doesn't Portal work with covox for me?

 

Thanks 👍

Edited Monday at 02:49 PM by MiCV2

[MiCV2]

7 hours ago, SainT said:

If you want to alter volume levels you can go to the sound options while playing any ROM and alter them.

Yes, I know that. But in general I find TIA to be too loud. I can also reduce the volume globally by half, no problem.

[+playsoft]

I only have my NTSC 7800 set up at the moment, which is not ideal for testing the Portal demo (PAL only) but it does run to a certain extent.

 

I get the same (wrong header, no covox). I copied the header bytes to a completely different program and that loaded without issue.

 

I modified a couple of unused bytes in the demo and the wrong header warning went away. I don't know if the GD is doing something specific for this demo? You now get the covox audio although the pokey music is very quiet (compared to what it was before).

 

Looking at the header bytes, it has irqpokey2 set. This should really be irqpokey1 (I use the pokey @ $450 for the IRQ). I set this instead and it didn't make any difference.

 

Portal (Demo) (PAL) (20230813) (9E5AAC54).a78

[MiCV2]

@playsoft , your version works for me with covox! But the demo freezes after 10 seconds. Always at the same point. But it is complete with sound..😀

 

 

Edited Monday at 04:36 PM by MiCV2

[MiCV2]

It says here that the portal - covox problem was solved with a firmware update. Not for me, I have the latest firmware installed.

Maybe the PAL consoles behave differently?

 

 

[+playsoft]

17 hours ago, MiCV2 said:

It says here that the portal - covox problem was solved with a firmware update. Not for me, I have the latest firmware installed.

I think I know what's going on. Firmware 23.11.2863 added "auto-fix for bad headers for known ROMs":

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/353425-news-firmware-update-notifications/?do=findComment&comment=5356799

 

With the file @Trebor posted, the GD checksums the cart image and identifies it as the Portal demo and assumes it's the original version without the covox or irq bits set in the header (which didn't exist at the time). It decides to correct the header - but has forgotten to set covox! In the file I posted a couple of unused bytes are changed, the checksum no longer matches and the header from the file is used.

 

Regarding the crash, are you running with break disabled? The break functionality inserts extra code which can cause issues. Unless you are looking to cheat a game, I would recommend always running with break disabled.

[MiCV2]

6 hours ago, playsoft said:

Regarding the crash, are you running with break disabled? The break functionality inserts extra code which can cause issues. Unless you are looking to cheat a game, I would recommend always running with break disabled.

Hi, where can I set that? I'm still a a7800 newbie.

[+playsoft]

Just now, MiCV2 said:

Hi, where can I set that? I'm still a a7800 newbie.

On the GD menu, move to the game and press the right button which will bring up a sub-menu. On the break option, moving the joystick left/right will toggle between enabled/disabled. Change it to disabled then move down to start game and press the left button to launch it.

[MiCV2]

wow, it works now - great thanks 👍

 

But what does that mean for the GD7800 firmware? As a newbie, I would never have managed it 🤔

[Trebor]

9 hours ago, MiCV2 said:

wow, it works now - great thanks 👍

 

But what does that mean for the GD7800 firmware? As a newbie, I would never have managed it 🤔

A future firmware release will automatically by default disable the menu break for the updated ROM posted according to the checksum it provided.