Earthworm Jim: Special Edition (Windows) by birdmanager6 at 7:03 PM EDT on August 5, 2015
Hi, there. I'm working on making collections that include all the sound effects from Earthworm Jim 1 and 2. These will include every sound from most versions. Progress has been going along for the EWJ2 sound collection, but with EWJ, I've hit a roadblock. I have successfully ripped the sound effects from the SNES version, using SNESSOR95 and SNES9x, and the "Snot a problem" voice clip from the GBA version using Audacity. However, as many people know, not only is the SNES version missing some sound effects from the Genesis version to begin with, but the "Special Edition" adds many more, as well as replacing a few, so I'll need to rip that version to complete the collection. I have the Windows 95 version, and I managed to find which file the samples are located in, INIT.EW, but they are in a format that I can't rip properly. What happens is in Audacity, when I import it as an unsigned 8-bit PCM at about 9000hz, I can hear them, but they sound double speed and an octave higher. By importing it at 4500 or by slowing it down -50, I can hear it at the right speed and pitch, but in extremely bad quality. This means that they're unsigned 4-bit, because the quality is clearly much better in-game (even though the quality is still degraded in-game). Unfortunately, the farthest down Audacity can import raw data at is 8-bit. I even tried importing it as VOX ADPCM, which is a 4-bit format. There, I get the right speed and pitch at the right frequency, but it sounds extremely clipped, so it's not ADPCM. I've tried looking online for help with no avail. I found this forum (http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=38671), which has the exact same problem as me, but there's no real answer, and it hasn't been active since 2010. Apparently, SOX can convert raw audio, but like Audacity, not 4-bit. I even looked at VGSC of The Sounds Resource, but it doesn't say 4-bit PCM. I have also had this same problem with most Genesis games (strangely, EWJ2 is an exception, but I only needed it for the "C" voice clip). What I need is for one of you dedicated video game sound rippers to create a Windows application with source code that reads an entire file in a 4-bit raw audio format, and saves it as an 8-bit WAV file. The program must also have an editable frequency. It's recommended to be a command-line tool, but it doesn't have to be. That would definitely be appreciated.
@Kirishima The issue clearly isn't with stereo VS. mono, as importing it in stereo would just import it with a duplicate channel. My new theory is that I imported it at the wrong endianess, which I set to "Default endianess". I took your advice about vgmtoolbox and it worked, perfectly! I was on vacation when I got your reply, so I had to wait until two days ago to do so. In fact, I hardly even need the SNES samples, except for a few, because the Special Editon samples are better quality! Thank you!