According to online reports, if you speak into the microphone when you are in the shopkeeper's shop, you he may lower or raise his prices. In the NES conversion, retitled Kid Icarus, you press A+B on Controller 2. (It doesn't work when you are in the Black Marketeer's shop). I have been able to get this haggling function to work in the NES version, but I cannot get it to work with the FDS version in emulators that emulate the microphone function, Nestopia and FCEUX.
I have never read of anybody online successfuly claiming that they got the shopkeeper to haggle with the microphone. Everybody simply reports that the function exists. Does it really work? Is there code to support it and cause the intended effect? Are the emulators off here? Nestopia and FCEUX work with the microphone in Zelda no Densetsu : The Hyrule Fantasy, where shouting into the microphone kills the Pols Voice (you have to press the button rapidly several times).
Great Hierophant wrote:
Is there code to support it and cause the intended effect?
I don't have the right tools handy to break apart an FDS image, but the code fragments
LDA $4016 / AND #4 / STA $73 and
LDA $73 / AND #4 / BNE (address) are certainly present.
I've also wondered if this really works since I could never get it to work on my real Famicom. Famicom microphones aren't very responsive anymore (Zelda is the easiest game to get it to work in) and I'm thinking of replacing mine with a new microphone. But it's strange that it doesn't work in emulators.
It could be something like Bokosuka Wars, it needs the mic to be activated between 200 and 255 of a total of 256 mic reads in order to activate a certain cheat (
http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index ... #msg150562), which is almost impossible.
I wonder how they debugged that one o_o
I've a Famicom, FDS, and an original Palutena no Kagami disk. If my memory serves me right, however, yes it does work (all you had to do was make some general noise into the microphone). I wouldn't be surprised if emulators implemented this oddly/wrong. Will report back later.
Yes, the microphone input does work on a Famicom. However it's not just the microphone by itself that triggers the price haggle -- you have to hold A on controller 2 while saying something into the mic. I found numerous Japanese websites that say the same thing.
In the US/EU release, it was changed to simply look for A+B on controller 2.
So they basically swapped the mic input with the B button?
Oh that explains a lot. Thanks!
I received a Famicom yesterday and was able to try it with Hikari Shinwa - Palutena no Kagami. It does work, I am pleased to say. However, I only got it to work when I blow into the microphone, apparently it likes something close to white noise. Zelda works the same with the Pols Voice.
Yeah blowing is the most effective way. I still can't get it to work in Palutena though.
Was holding A required?
Pokun wrote:
Yeah blowing is the most effective way. I still can't get it to work in Palutena though.
Was holding A required?
Yes, it is
I see, guess I just need to replace my mic.
You can test your mic with this program that I had made:
http://www.chrismcovell.com/data/Waveform_Check.zip
Thanks, I did test it with your program before (I also tested it with
Makimura's Mic test program as well as with a program I wrote in Family Basic) and it's no doubt the mic is worn out.
Can you hear the mic play through the TV when you talk into it?
A lot of Famicoms seem to have the controller modded to disable the mic entirely. I think a lot of users didn't like it as a source of noise/feedback/hum. When I bought a Famicom, I discovered there was no mic at all in my 2nd controller.
I hear it, it's just very unresponsive. It works in Zelda 1 on Pols Voice, Raid on Bungeling Bay 2P-mode as well as coin insert in VS System games.