26 replies to this topic

[uptown47]

I'm busy modifying a version of Andy Capp to make a 'bespoke' machine called 'Angie and John' for my cabinet that tells the tale of me and 'er indoors and my ever-present struggle to get to the pub....

 

With the help of Guitar, Fuzion and Wizard I've managed to get the 7 segment display reading "John" instead of "Andy" and "Ang" instead of "Flo".

 

And with my limited knowledge of Paint Shop Pro I've managed to change the background so it says "Angie and John" instead of "Andy Capp".

 

It's looking good but the next part of the puzzle is to try and change the two voice samples for mine and the wife's voices where Andy Capp says "I'm oot'er here!" and Flo says "Come back 'ere my lad!"

 

I've heard tell of an old program that was written waaaayyyy back when all this was fields that allowed the editing of sound ROMs that was written by Tony Friery (Dialtone as he was known).

 

I just wondered if anyone still had a copy?

 

OR, anyone got anything equivalent that would allow me to change those two samples??

 

(Wizard, have you got anything kicking about that could do this maybe?).

 

Thanks for any help you can give me on this.

 

Cheers

 

John

Edited by uptown47, 02 August 2017 - 08:23 PM.

[Guitar]

I'm pretty sure the tool you are looking for was called "sndtool.exe". I know DialTone pretty well and he sent me a copy of it ages ago and I can't find it on my HDD, but I'm sure I have it somewhere. I'll keep looking for you.

 

If DialTone doesn't get back to you and I can't find it then I will write you a tool to do it, or if you feel like getting it a bit quicker, can you code in any language? I just don't have much time at present to do coding as I am now working again, but I can walk you through how to do it and give you some of the conversion code.

[uptown47]

I'm pretty sure the tool you are looking for was called "sndtool.exe". I know DialTone pretty well and he sent me a copy of it ages ago and I can't find it on my HDD, but I'm sure I have it somewhere. I'll keep looking for you.

 

If DialTone doesn't get back to you and I can't find it then I will write you a tool to do it, or if you feel like getting it a bit quicker, can you code in any language? I just don't have much time at present to do coding as I am now working again, but I can walk you through how to do it and give you some of the conversion code.

 

Wow Guitar! Thanks! That would be great. I have very limited coding knowledge. I've messed around with C++ in the past and I can do php and sql for websites etc. My C++ skills are extremely limited to the basics but I am able to 'edit' stuff and can pick things up pretty quick. I suppose an analogy would be someone being able to get the gist of someone speaking in a foreign language but not be able to write a paragraph in it or articulate in it themselves very well.

 

I've not had anything back from Dialtone so far. I suspect that he's just very busy or maybe choosing to ignore some random who asks him about code he wrote years ago (I didn't explain why I wanted it and simply said I'd heard he had a tool to do it and would he consider sending it to me). Perhaps if he knew the reasoning behind it he might be happier to help?

 

I will take any help you can spare, or if you find the original tool that would be superb. I'll have a google for it myself and see if it's still knocking around.

 

Once again, a big thanks

[Guitar]

I don't suppose you can use Visual Basic 6? I have a complete sound tool in that for loading and playing roms, it would just need a couple of functions added to load a .wav file to a slot, and then another to reassemble the rom with the new data.

[uptown47]

I've not done VB6 before but I'll certainly give it a go. With a bit of reading and a bit of help from Stack Exchange then I'd hopefully be able to muddle through. I've just googled it and it's free to download and there's a "learn VB6 tutorial" too that's free so I should be ok.

 

That would be superb Guitar. Thank you!

 

I'll drop you a PM with my contact details.

 

Cheers

 

John :-)

[fuzion]

Bare in mind the new samples will need to fit into the same length of the original.

Good look mate.

J

[Guitar]

Bare in mind the new samples will need to fit into the same length of the original.

Good look mate.

J

 

Only if you edit a rom manually, my tool is a reassembler and will make the rom as big as it needs to be, I think 4MB is the limit for MPU4.

[uptown47]

Bare in mind the new samples will need to fit into the same length of the original.

Good look mate.

J

 

That's what I'd thought J. But looking at Guitars comment it will be fine. That'll be even better if they don't need to be the exact same size.

[Reg]

 

Only if you edit a rom manually, my tool is a reassembler and will make the rom as big as it needs to be, I think 4MB is the limit for MPU4.

 

Excellent news !

 

Will you be giving it to UpTown, even via PM. He's building a cabinet and I guess would like it finished soon and this would be the icing on the cake for him - as your tool sounds like it's done at least he'll be able to get on and finish his rom I guess in a day or so.

This is great community work - thank you Guitar.

 

[uptown47]

 

Excellent news !

 

Will you be giving it to UpTown, even via PM. He's building a cabinet and I guess would like it finished soon and this would be the icing on the cake for him - as your tool sounds like it's done at least he'll be able to get on and finish his rom I guess in a day or so.

This is great community work - thank you Guitar.

 

 

Hi Reg, 

Guitar has already very kindly offered to help me with that 'bespoke' version of Andy Capp I'm messing around with.

 

By the way, the guide you made has been invaluable for me working my way through MFME. It's brilliant.

 

There's absolutely no rush for anything sound-editing related though so please just whatever help I can get - as and when. 

 

I'm hoping to get the cabinet in it's final home tomorrow (son in law let me down today and didn't show up to give me a hand with it) and when it's there I'll have a go at making a video on the "build".

 

I've been learning quite a bit from everyone and from the forums and I'm hoping I can contribute something back to the community via videos of the build and also just through knowledge learnt.

 

I would be great to see more 'home builds' like yours, No1 Stoneys, Andy's etc....

 

Edited by uptown47, 04 August 2017 - 06:52 PM.

[Guitar]

 

Excellent news !

 

Will you be giving it to UpTown, even via PM. He's building a cabinet and I guess would like it finished soon and this would be the icing on the cake for him - as your tool sounds like it's done at least he'll be able to get on and finish his rom I guess in a day or so.

This is great community work - thank you Guitar.

 

 

I need to write it first, or rather, write the bits to allow it to reassemble the rom. I already have a sound tool which can load pretty much all the FME sound roms apart from MPU5/6 and Flash card games. But what it can't do (yet) is save a rom out.

 

The bits I need to add are a tool to load in a .wav file (there are plenty of .xyz > .wav converters out there) and then a function to save the rom out and update the data table at the beginning of the rom with the relevant details. I intend to look at it on Saturday, there's not a lot to it. But I am only adding these bits for OKI format roms, which includes Andy Capp. If the need arises at a later date I can always add support for NEC or YAM sound chips.

 

I will upload the final product here when its ready.

[Guitar]

If Wizard is reading this, can you confirm the maximum allowed sound MPU4/OKI ROM size in MFME please.

Edited by Guitar, 04 August 2017 - 10:36 PM.

[Wizard]

The OKI chip itself can address 16Mbits which is 2MB, but I think the program cards only take 4Mbit EPROMs max which is 512KB

 

It's would be wise to include an output ROM size option, so it can be split into multiple parts if necessary.

 

Also be sure to include the sample rate bits in the header table.

Edited by Wizard, 04 August 2017 - 11:31 PM.

[Guitar]

Thanks for the reply. Looking at Red Hot Fever, it has 4 * 512KB ROMs which would seem to tally up. I believe they are dual banked so that would mean 2 * 1MB sound rom sets with their own table.

 

The software already detects sound bank switching if present, and I'll add it as an option.

 

Can MFME 5.x cope with the full 2MB? I assume it does.

 

Edit to add: Volcano I believe uses 3 * 512KB ROMs and has only 1 table. The bank switching is only required if more than 111 samples are used.

Edited by Guitar, 05 August 2017 - 12:35 AM.

[Wizard]

Red Hot Fever uses the whole 2MB as 4 512KB chips with just one table, so yes MFME will support the whole 2MB

 

Volcano also uses 4 512MB chips but has more than 111 samples, so is split into two banks of 1MB each with it's own table.

 

Another thing to bare in mind is that the core frequency of the OKI chip can be varied as it can be driven by the PTM on the sample board, this means that a particular sample

has a rate determined by the game, so any replacement wav would need to be the same sample rate.

[Guitar]

Just a quick note to say I haven't forgotten you, I'll try and get to this more during the week. I have made a start, but haven't got as far as hoped as time has been at a premium this weekend.

[uptown47]

Just a quick note to say I haven't forgotten you, I'll try and get to this more during the week. I have made a start, but haven't got as far as hoped as time has been at a premium this weekend.

No explanation needed at all Guitar. I'm just very grateful that you're doing this at all. It's really good of you.

[fuzion]

Any luck at all with this tool mate?

 

J

[uptown47]

Any luck at all with this tool mate?

 

J

 

Not yet Fuzion. I dropped Guitar a PM the other day but nothing back as yet so not sure if it's still a work in progress or not.

 

Hopefully he'll see this and post back.

 

[Wizard]

Can you spot a pattern here?