i am adding the mappers to my emulator now and wasnt sure what games depend on sound. i havent added sound yet, thought i would try a few mappers first.
games i was going to test without sound: zelda 1; smario 2,3; spy hunter; ninja gaiden 1,2,3; double dragaon 1,2,3; castlevania 1,2; 1943.
will any of these fail without sound ?
thanks
matt
very few games require sound emulation in order to run properly. All the games you've mentioned should run just fine. Offhand games i know of which uses sound IRQs are:
DMC IRQs absolutely required in order for the game to run:
Fire Hawk (071)
MiG 29 Soviet Fighter (071)
Bee 52 (071)
DMC IRQs will prevent status bar from shaking, but game will still run without them:
Time Lord (007)
The Guardian Legend (002)
APU Frame IRQs drive the music engine (game will still run without them):
Shin 4 Nin Uchi Mahjong - Yakuman Tengoku (005)
? Dragon Quest ? (003)
Number in parenthesis is the mapper number. As you can see, mapper 071 is needed for really testing your DMC IRQs -- as such it's one of the first mappers I impliment (it's also pretty simple)
I'm not 100% on Dragon Quest... I just remember hearing it uses Frame IRQs. I never actually checked. Besides... Frame IRQs are easy enough to test with blargg's test ROMs, which are mapper 0.
Most other games should work just fine without any sound stuff implimented.
Dragon Quest requires Frame IRQs for sound, but will still run without them. I believe this is also the case for a few other Dragon Quest games.
The MMC5 Mahjong game also requires Frame IRQs for sound and will not run without them (it will hang indefinitely at the titlescreen).
whoopsie. My mistake @ the Mahjong game ^^. Nice catch Q
Dragon Quest crashes after you win a battle, that's not exactly what I call "runs".
Dwedit wrote:
Dragon Quest crashes after you win a battle, that's not exactly what I call "runs".
Well, it runs for a little while...
Disch wrote:
Offhand games i know of which uses sound IRQs are:
DMC IRQs absolutely required in order for the game to run:
Fire Hawk (071)
MiG 29 Soviet Fighter (071)
Bee 52 (071)
[...]
Number in parenthesis is the mapper number. As you can see, mapper 071 is needed for really testing your DMC IRQs -- as such it's one of the first mappers I impliment (it's also pretty simple)
Do any mapper 071 games actually use DMC for its intended purpose (audio playback), or did Codemasters' reverse engineers see DMC only as a timer?
Bee 52 has a sunsoft-esque bassline in its music tracks by using the DMC. But it doesn't play music in-game.. where it uses the DMC as a timer.
Dragon Quest handle his sound engine with frame IRQs, and if not emulated, a few bugs will happen, such as :
- At title screen, the menu start-continue will never happen until you press some button on the controller. Normally, it should appear on its own after a while
- After winning a battle, the game will wait forever the music to stop, wich cause it to crash
- While sleeping, the same problem happens that when you win the battle
- Logically, the same crash should happen when you equip a cursed item or play the fairy flue or whathever, but who could do that without winning a single battle ?
I think Dragon Quest II also handle the sound engine with frame IRQs. I'm unsure if the game run or not if those aren't handled.
Anyway, the northamerican counterpart of both games, Dragon Warior & Dragon Warrior II will run fine without frame IRQs.
Disch wrote:
very few games require sound emulation in order to run properly. All the games you've mentioned should run just fine. Offhand games i know of which uses sound IRQs are:
Door Door uses sound IRQs too. Without them, the music doesn't work right, and the game plays really slow and weird. (heck, the game plays slow anyways... but without IRQs it is hosed)