Need some minigsf help by Troika at 4:12 AM EDT on June 20, 2009
I want to get the music from Zoids Legacy, so I've tried ripping it with saptapper and running it through gsfopt, but gsfopt says it's an unknown format. I found this forum through google, and apparently the problem is that the game uses a different driver or something.
Are you looking for this? If yes, then it sounds to me like you ran it through saptapper wrong. Otherwise, you're looking for a game that is not saptapper compatible. If it can't be ripped with SapTapper, than the only other option is to either find someone to rip it for you (unlikely. Most of those people have better things to spend their time on), or to learn assembly and rip it yourself.
If you were to rip it yourself (which, if the file I linked is what you're looking for, then you shouldn't need to), you'd have to have a way to decompile the ROM, so that you could read the instructions (this is why you need to know assembly, so that what you see isn't simply giberish). From there, you'd have to have a way to identify what set of instructions pertain to audio code. Then, once you've narrowed that down, you'd have to find what part of the code to modify, to play a specific song. Once you've got that (and you know that <this value> plays <this song> and <different value> plays <different song>), then you need to start removing blocks of code which are unimportant to the audio playback engine. This part is often largely done through experimentation, and trial and error.
Hopefully the file I linked you is the one you're looking for. Otherwise, I strongly suspect you're out of luck. Honestly, it sounds to me like you ran it through saptapper incorrectly in the first place (again assuming the file I linked is what you're looking for).
Also, if you find that link helpful, you should give a visit to vgm.hcs64.com to see more collections of various video game formats. Hopefully you find this post somewhat helpful. Mouser X over and out.
tldr: if it doesn't work with saptapper it generally means it's a custom driver, which requires manual ripping. however, this set does actually appear to have been ripped with saptapper, so i'm not sure why it wasn't working for you. in any case, the link's there. i believe all GBA games that use the generic driver have already been ripped (much more than what appears on caitsith2's site - kind of misleading.)
that said, where's Advance Guardian Heroes and Gunstar Super Heroes?! :p
I don't know what's with the later Treasure games. If I recall correctly, Saptapper works on the Japanese version of Astro Boy but not the US version, and although there are some notable differences (mainly improvements) between the two, the only musical difference I know if is that the theme when you first fight Pook has a few extra seconds at the intro. It worked on their two earlier GBA games (Tiny Toons and Hajime no Ippo), but not on their two later GBA games (AGH and GSH).
I actually was tagging a Zoids Legacy saptapper set (quite a bit before all saptappable games were ripped and timed), but I stopped because the game is so unbelievably tedious despite the amusingly incompetent translation and how much I loved the music (which sounds identical to all the other GBA RPGS composed by Salamander Factory but is nonetheless good listening).