http://home.att.ne.jp/wave/applepop/encyclopaedia/erg_m.html
According to the above URL, there are some Famicom games which apparently have some way of reading if there's data coming across the microphone port on the 2nd controller of the Famicom.
If this is in fact true and not bullshit, does anyone know which register this is mapped to? I've never seen it mentioned anywhere in register docs and the like, so I guess I'm having a hard time believing it...
Thanks.
Yeah, it's strange but true. In Nintendo's service cart/test program (aka cart.nes) at the end where it shows the controller buttons it can show "MIC" on the screen.
I forget which register and bit it is, but I know it's the same one as the coin input on the VS Unisystem.
Now you've made people scream "plunk!" into old VS. games' coin slots trying to get free credits
According to the NES schematic, any input from the Microphone should appear at 4017.D2.
I'm afraid you read the schematic wrong - it's connected to 4016 bit 2, not 4017 bit 2.
As I don't know anything much about the Famicom, excuse this if this is silly, but:
Did any games actually use the microphone?
And, what use would a mic be on such a system as the Famicom?
Has anybody tried making a program that repeatedly polls the microphone and writes the output to D6 of $4011? I wonder whether the microphone circuitry is sensitive enough to read the actual audio from the mic, or whether it's just a level detector like the mic in the DK Bongos.
The only game I know of that acutally used the microphone was The Legend of Zelda for Famicom Disk System.
You remember the Polvoice?
You could yell into the microphone and they would all die, probably because they had big ears.
tepples wrote:
Has anybody tried making a program that repeatedly polls the microphone and writes the output to D6 of $4011? I wonder whether the microphone circuitry is sensitive enough to read the actual audio from the mic, or whether it's just a level detector like the mic in the DK Bongos.
According to the page linked by the initial post, it's just a level detector.
I heard that Kid Icarus for the Famicom Disk System uses it so that you can speak into it and get lower prices from shopkeepers and Raid on Bungeling Bay uses it so the second player can command the planes to attack the first player. Im' not sure how well it works in Raid on Bungeling Bay and I can't get it to work in Kid Icarus. The Zelda trick does work, apparently, in VirtuaNes.
[quote="tepples"]Now you've made people scream "plunk!" into old VS. games' coin slots trying to get free credits
[/quote
Maybe a red box will work.