How to rip GB/GBC Sequences? by dj4uk6cjm at 10:33 PM EDT on April 18, 2018
Is there a way? I noticed this section of the video game music hacking community doesn't get as much attention and has been dead for many years but I'm genuinely interested in getting my hands on some midis from my favorite Gameboy/Gameboy Color games like Link's Awakening, so is ripping even possible?
I'm pretty sure it works game-by-game, as I don't think there was a "standard" for sequences for the GB. I think your best bet is to look for a disassembly of whatever game it is you want and then write a script to translate the ASM to a MIDI file. That's actually what I've been doing with Pokemon Crystal recently. And since I've looked at it, I can say this--the GB does sequences a good deal differently than any modern sequence format; you're going to need to keep track of a lot of things. If you can't find a disassembly (or some documentation at least), you have no choice but to research the format on your own.
Ah that's unfortunate :( at least it's do-able in a sense. I doubt I could attempt something like that though but good luck with your Pokemon Crystal project!
That method using an emulator is even more time consuming and not really worth it without having an in-game sound test in each game, I wouldn't mind having a simple program implemented from that in the future though since the midis it outputs are pretty accurate.
Some vgm rips can be converted to midi with vgm2mid depending on if the chip is supported. The only problems are: 1: Whether the Gameboy's soundchip is supported. 2: How well is it supported.(IE, does it sound good? Is anything missing?) 3: Was the game even ripped to vgm format.