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Post by Ex on Feb 20, 2020 23:39:42 GMT -5
Found out today, there's a new Windows based Genesis emulator being actively developed: www.retrodev.com/blastem/BlastEm is an open source, highly accurate emulator for the Genesis/Megadrive that runs on modest hardware. It is the first emulator to properly run Titan's impressive Overdrive 2 demo and it is the only other emulator besides Genesis Plus GX that can properly run the original Overdrive. It is the only emulator other than Exodus that passes Nemesis' VDP FIFO Testing ROM, can display "Direct Color DMA" demos and emulates CRAM contention (aka CRAM dots).
Features
savestates integrated debugger GDB remote debugging joystick/gamepad support Mega/Sega Mouse emulation XBAND and Saturn keyboard emulation support for homebrew using the SSF2 mapper with Mega Everdrive compatible heuristics save RAM and EEPROM support Cartridge lock-on for both Sonic & Knuckles and XBAND turbo and slow modes configurable low pass filter single pass GLSL shaders Sega Master System emulationGonna have to check it out.
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Post by toei on Feb 20, 2020 23:58:40 GMT -5
Tried that one a while back, and IMO it sounded worse than Kega Fusion so I just went back to my old standby, "most accurate" or not.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 21, 2020 7:43:01 GMT -5
I just posted the Overdrive's in the general music thread!
Though here are the "demo" versions too with visuals, which yeah I was reading was probably impossible on actual hardware, until now?
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 22, 2020 20:38:26 GMT -5
I cannot emphasis enough how much I hate the GBA sound... VBA-M has some audio options here and there. But does anyone know if there's some good settings or a way to make this sound smoother?
Was testing out Sonic Advance but my ears were instantly bleeding.
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Post by toei on Feb 22, 2020 20:54:59 GMT -5
Xeogred I don't know of any. I think the idea with GBA music was that it didn't matter how bad it sounded because you could barely hear it with that tiny speaker.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 22, 2020 21:03:54 GMT -5
I can't really buy that with how awesome GB sound is to me personally along with the Game Gear (guess that's shared SMS tech though). Maybe Nintendo just didn't really care as much with the GBA though, I'm pretty sure technically it had far more range than the SNES. Googling around, this sounds like a severe issue across all GBA emulation. This was pretty insightful I guess.
*shrugs* Not like it could really be saved with some emulation options. The Castlevania and Mega Man Zero games have some good music on the system to me all things considered, but beyond that... I despise this sound chip.
I guess if I really play some Sonic Advance I'll just turn the volume down real low. Skimming videos of the trilogy I could already instantly tell I wouldn't walk away loving any of this music, which is a bummer, since classic Sonic music is one of the best features of the series to me.
I don't know how you could make a worse first stage song:
I NEED CPR!
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Post by toei on Feb 22, 2020 21:34:02 GMT -5
Xeogred This is hilariously bad. Wow. Bad composition, made even worse by heavy compression and everything else they went into in that post you linked. And man, that Sonic 1 OST hits. One GBA track I love, from Mother 3: I swear this is one of my all-time favorites, and it's just a short naming screen theme.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 22, 2020 22:04:31 GMT -5
That's really good, hard to believe it came from the GBA haha.
Maybe Sonic Advance 1's OST is just extra obnoxious... I was not prepared for that noise when I loaded it up. The emulation sounds just as bad as this YT video too, since sometimes they make compression even worse.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 22, 2020 22:33:13 GMT -5
Well, here's the problem with the GBA... it's not really a sound chip at all, not as you'd think. It's just two 8-bit DACs that either play back wave streams or software-mixed wave samples. Getting good quality eats up CPU time, so often, the playback frequency is quite low, which is why it sounds rather rough. 11 KHz or even lower isn't uncommon.
It does have the GBC sound channels, but often doesn't use them.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 22, 2020 23:24:27 GMT -5
Yep, that adds up to what I was briefly skimming through online. Really makes me wonder what games out there, if any, stuck with the classic GBC sound channels and chiptunes? I'm guessing most devs would have considered that regressive though, were too lazy, or the skill of doing such music was starting to fade in the early 2000's.
I like what I've heard of DKC3 GBA though, seems like David Wise knew what he was doing with the hardware. But yeah... never going to be a big fan of the GBA sound. The two Metroid's especially, I wish they sounded completely different and suffer a bit from the GBA, there's some good tunes in there, but I don't think they have even half the atmosphere that Metroid and Super have. Simply because of that fuzzy small sound.
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