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Portable Music History by Knurek at 7:11 PM EDT on March 20, 2012
Well, Portable Music History just went public beta.

So far there are two sets available for download, with new ones added every 6 hours. For the next few weeks there should be only Game Boy rips there, but once we reach October of 1990 (in about 100 games), Game Gear ones will start showing up too.

All sets will be fully timed, and when possible tagged as well - feel free to provide tagging data for those that aren't though.

Please make sure to share your thoughts or questions here - the site is still missing some functionality (like better integration with SNESMusic.org, RSS feed for updates/new sets, search function), but should be fully usable nevertheless.
by Mouser X at 1:53 AM EDT on March 22, 2012
Hey, this is pretty neat! Of the ones posted so far, the GB bios and Tetris are the ones I've wanted the most (I already had Tetris though). I looks forward to more updates! I really appreciate the amount of work that undoubtedly went into tagging/timing/ripping these sets! Mouser X over and out.
by kalemvar at 10:33 AM EDT on April 15, 2012
This is much appreciate all the work you are doing.

After Game Gears, are you going to add Gameboy Colors Games? :)

edited 10:36 AM EDT April 15, 2012
by Knurek at 3:45 PM EDT on April 15, 2012
Yes, both Super, Color and Advance Game Boys will be supported, alongside with Wonderswan, NeoGeo Pocket, PSP and Nintendo DS.

And if someone created a format for Virtual Boy or Atari Lynx, Watara Supervision or game.com I'd add them as well.
by TheUltimateKoopa at 1:24 PM EDT on April 16, 2012
Just a little note... Dr Mario's tags are wrong (I think).
"Player 1 Attack" is actually the 2x Chain jingle, and "Player 2 Attack" is the 3x Chain jingle.
by Electric Keet at 3:32 PM EDT on April 16, 2012
@TheUltimateKoopa:

I thought I thoroughly tested those tracks, but I'm willing to go back and investigate. (It's a bit of a pain in the butt to test two-player stuff, but all in the name of accuracy, aye?)


@Knurek:
I should have asked this before, but is there a changelog for the site anywhere? I know sets are added chronologically, but for the case that already-released sets have updates after the fact....
by Knurek at 5:25 PM EDT on April 16, 2012
@Electric Keet: I think that we haven't actually implemented anything yet, I'll need to talk with datschge about changing the RSS feed to handle the updates as well - if he hasn't done so yet.

There has been no notable changes to the already released sets so far IIRC.
by Electric Keet at 3:17 PM EDT on April 26, 2012
@TheUltimateKoopa:
I double-checked with extensive testing (all right, all I did was rig up a quick game, but I was swamped with other work until today) and as Player 1, executed a 3x chain and got the same jingle as a 2x chain. If you find some other way for Player 1 to get the other jingle, let me know and I'll gladly change the tag, but right now it seems accurate. Thanks for keeping an eye on it, though! I've been known to make errors like that before. :)
by Electric Keet at 3:17 PM EDT on April 26, 2012
(( Huzzah! The post has been doubled! ))

edited 3:18 PM EDT April 26, 2012
by Knurek at 5:04 AM EDT on April 27, 2012
Since I'm a bit further ahead than you, time-wise, let me just say that even though Game Gear's sound hardware is pitiful compared even to Nintendo's Game Boy 'no frills' approach, in capable hands (say, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Yuzo Koshiro) it can create some amazing music.
by Knurek at 1:49 AM EDT on April 28, 2012
Okay, regarding set updates, datschge told me that they should show up in the RSS feed. If you want to check if they do, I've just put an update to Kininkou Maroku Oni on the site.
by hcs at 1:40 PM EDT on May 2, 2012
I found this somewhat amusing: in the recent Shanghai II (GG) posting, BGM #07 is the title screen music for Journey to Silius (NES), also by Sunsoft and released a few months earlier (in August).

edited 1:41 PM EDT May 2, 2012
by banshiryuu at 5:50 PM EDT on May 4, 2012
Wait, so do we just use the RSS feed on SNESmusic for updates? I don't see Oni on it, so that's why I'm a bit confused, I guess...
by Knurek at 2:19 AM EDT on May 5, 2012
There's a feed on http://snesmusic.org/pmh, but I've been told that it's constructed in a way that can cause the updates not to show up - did it not show for you?

If so, I can ask Datschge to tweak it a bit.
by TheUltimateKoopa at 11:18 AM EDT on May 5, 2012
I was wondering why it still had up to December 1991 (or December 1990, I forgot)

Also, I had the Game Boy version of Dr Mario, and I can tell you that the 2x chain and 3x chain are different... unless that's something to do with version differences.

edited 11:20 AM EDT May 5, 2012
by banshiryuu at 2:58 PM EDT on May 5, 2012
Ah, nevermind. I got it to work.
We were both right. by Electric Keet at 1:44 PM EDT on May 6, 2012
@TheUltimateKoopa:

All right, so I triple-checked the sound effects, and it turns out that we were both right. I'd previously only bothered checking the chain jingles in two-player mode... and on testing them in one-player mode, it turns out that the 1P attack jingle is also the Chain 2 jingle, and the 2P attack jingle is also the Chain 3 jingle. Oops! Updated playlist submitted to Knurek.
by TheUltimateKoopa at 12:02 AM EDT on May 7, 2012
Well... I never played VS Mode :P

Also, are sets uploaded in order of when they were first released (regardless of where), or specifically by a regional release date, e.g. US release?

edited 12:06 AM EDT May 7, 2012
by Knurek at 12:51 AM EDT on May 7, 2012
The former, where possible - the release dates for European and USA games for earlier consoles are kind of lackluster.

edited 2:55 AM EDT May 7, 2012
by TheUltimateKoopa at 1:59 PM EDT on May 7, 2012
Yeah, I noticed there are a lot of "1991-??-??" or similar.
by Knurek at 7:35 AM EDT on May 11, 2012
So, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but there has been some changes to site's frontend recently:

1) RSS feed links to single game page, not to actual download
2) Main SNESmusic site now links to PMH entries for both composer/company/contributor entries, with linking from PMH to SNESmusic to come hopefully soon.

If you manage to spot any errors, or have something to say about this, please do so here. Thanks. :)
by Knurek at 12:55 PM EDT on May 20, 2012
Not sure if you will find this useful, but here's a Python script one of my friends whipped out that takes PMH M3U playlists, and creates miniM3U files (one file per song) with proper tags applied.

This makes GBS files behave more like PSF/miniPSF. Sadly, this doesn't work with foo_gep, but if you're using NEZPlug++, go for it.

The script can format the files with whatever tags you want, it supports SPCAmp tag notation, so you can easily have GBS/KSS files match SNESMusic.org SPCs tag-wise.

Just edit the following text in the script:

default="%2[%2|?] - %4[%4|?] - %3[%3|?] - "+chr(0xA9)+"%6 %5[%5|?]"

split_m3u.py
by dissident93 at 1:54 AM EDT on May 21, 2012
Is this the right place to report this? If not, my apologies.

I've confirmed from Manami Matsumae that the composer to DuckTales is Hiroshige Tonomura. Assuming the GB version has the same music as the NES one, of course.

edited 1:54 AM EDT May 21, 2012
by Knurek at 2:06 AM EDT on May 21, 2012
It is, thank you. I'll update the set when I'm home from work.
by dissident93 at 5:18 PM EDT on June 4, 2012
Fumito Tamayama did the music to Super Golf and Baseball Fighter (I don't think that one is up yet.)

edited 5:18 PM EDT June 4, 2012
by Knurek at 5:37 PM EDT on June 4, 2012
Could you please give me your source for this information?
by dissident93 at 2:24 PM EDT on June 7, 2012
http://web.archive.org/web/20010724174848/http://www.parkcity.ne.jp/~cliche/html/ca_tama.htm

And if it isn't listed here, it was confirmed by Tamayama himself on Facebook some weeks ago.
by Mouser X at 1:16 PM EDT on June 24, 2012
Okay, I have a question. In the "release list" (or the spreadsheet or whatever), there's games that are highlighted in green, yellow, and red. As near as I can tell, those that are green are those that are tagged and timed. Those that are yellow are bad rips (aka, doesn't loop, missing songs, sounds bad, etc.). Those that are red are not ripped.

If that's the case, why is Zelda: Link's Awakening not highlighted green? It's listed as both timed (Knurek and Vague Rant), and tagged (Vague Rant). Is it still missing some tags? Which ones? I'd be thrilled to add any input on this that I can, if it's not completely tagged. LA is one of my all time favorite games. Hopefully, if the tags are incomplete, I can provide some missing information.

Anyway, I've just been wondering about those highlighted colors, and that was bugging me, so I thought I'd bring it up. Mouser X over and out.
by Knurek at 2:20 PM EDT on June 24, 2012
Ah, you're right, it should be green. Fixed that locally for now, I'll upload the updated one once I'm done with first three months of 1994.
by Mouser X at 8:24 PM EDT on July 2, 2012
I keep meaning to send an email, but I never check my email, so I haven't gotten around to it. So I'll mention it here instead. Someone ported the Game Music Emu library to Rockbox, and thus Rockbox now supports all the formats that GME does (Rockbox supported NSF/NSFe quite awhile back, thanks to HCS porting NotsoFatso to Rockbox. But the GME code was apparently better, so the NSF/NSFe code from GME has replaced HCS's port, if I recall correctly. SPC support was added due to HCS as well, and is largely based on GME, but with help from blargg to port it to Rockbox. Thus, the GME implementation of SPC isn't actually ported, as it was decided the SPC support already present in Rockbox was better, and more suited to Rockbox). Thus, GBS, KSS, VGM, and SGC files are all playable in Rockbox (among others). Unfortunately, the M3U tags aren't supported (yet?), only the files themselves work, similar to the support that Audio Overload has for GBS files. Considering that Rockbox is intended for portable players, I think that mention of this should be made on the site, for those who want to take their GBS/SGC music listening on the go.

Anyway, I've been meaning to mention that. Hopefully you'll include it on the site at some point in the near future. Thanks again for this great site. Looking forward to more as they (slowly) come out! Mouser X over and out.
by CapComMDb at 7:38 AM EDT on July 3, 2012
Cool! I really like how this is set up as a timeline. The information here is really great, too!

Had a question for Knurek though regarding the timing on Metroid II. I chose the lengths below for the rip on my site. Not saying they're wrong, just curious why you'd chosen that particular timing, as I've never seen the actual data files. All I know is half the tracks never looped cleanly, so it was a real pain to decide on these :)

http://www.metroid-database.com/m2/music.php
by Knurek at 12:23 PM EDT on July 3, 2012
@Mouser X: Sorry, I can't really process more than 4 games per day. Maybe once we reach GBA/NDS era, since most of those are already ripped and timed. :)

@CapComMDb: Not sure, the timers were either submitted by the tagger or I did the best I could with them. If you think any of them are faulty, feel free to submit corrections.
by TheUltimateKoopa at 3:48 PM EDT on July 3, 2012
Well the fact that most of the M2 music is that god awfully annoying "multirhythm" thing where you get a random melody with a certain loop, but another channel will have random enviromental or weird sound effects that have a completely different loop. I've mentioned Game Boy Camera with this kind of thing as well, in the past. You get a tune in that game that's seemingly about 5 seconds long, yet because of all the annoying background noises, it might not loop until at least 14 minutes, heck one of the GBC music has a loop of 21 minutes. It'll be the same thing with these, some not having a true loop of maybe more than 30 minutes, thus for 2 loops, we'd be talking over an hour.
Metroid II timings. by Electric Keet at 8:06 PM EDT on July 3, 2012
I seem to recall that my thought process on those timings went something like this: "Oh, the way these tracks are generated, they would go days before hitting an actual loop point, possibly longer. How about I just take the most prominent line in each and look for a point that meets two criteria: first, it must sound like a reasonable loop point to most non-discriminating ears, and second, it must be short enough that it won't drive anybody insane."

Truth is, I nearly went insane picking loop points, because there just simply is no good way to do it if listenability is taken into account. I know. I tried. I tried a lot. I began to hear things... see things....
by Mouser X at 8:08 PM EDT on July 3, 2012
Really? I thought there was a tool for timing GBS files.... Though, if my memory is correct, it required converting the GBS to a GB, and then converting the GB to a GSF set, and running it though GSFopt. I think ugetab even created a series of tools to automatize the process somewhat. That being said, I don't know how accurate GSFopt is, when timing GBStoGSF conversions. Though, it seems like it'd still be worth a try, as it might be accurate enough, and therefore save time.

I didn't realize that all these sets were, essentially, being timed manually. That's a lot of work! As appreciative as I was for the site (and the work that goes into it), I'm even more so now than I was before, since I had assumed you had a tool that could time the sets for you. Wow! Thanks again for what you've done! O_O That's a lot more work than I realized you were doing. Mouser X over and out.
by Knurek at 1:07 AM EDT on July 4, 2012
@Mouser X: I'm using the auto-timer, but it can be wrong at times (either outputs one loop or just plain weird times), so I still have to listen to all the sets and correct the times. And with games like Legend of Zelda having more than an hour of music, it takes a while (though usually Game Boy games have 15-20 minutes of music per game).

Plus, of course, this method doesn't work for Game Gear games, so those need to be timed manually unless there's a VGM set available on SMSPower.
Metroid II Timings by CapComMDb at 8:23 AM EDT on July 4, 2012
@TheUltimateKoopa: Thanks for the term! I could never figure out what to call it :) However, I don't believe all the tracks use random environmental or weird SFX. They're basically multirhythm loops, so you have to look at each sound channel individually. (see below)

One thing you WILL notice is there ARE random clicks and pops that are incorporated. I did multiple recording tests off the actual hardware and the 3DS Virtual Console. I concluded that since a) the clicks and pops appeared in random times in different recordings and that b) they appeared to be absent from the 3DS version, they might not have been intended by the composer. So I used Audio Overload to record (it doesn't play the clicks and pops, except in one track, and I just edited it out of that one manually).

@ElectricKeet: I used a similar process to you when working on the game rip I put up. I used a player that would allow me to isolate individual channels, then recorded five-minute loops for each one (just to be on the safe side). I plugged them in to a multi-track WAV editor and picked whichever channel was the longest and used that to determine track length. With the more annoying tracks (Metroid nest and Metroids hatched on your playlist - as well as Omega Metroid area, which is exceedingly long), I just used a single loop. Metroid hatchling is definitely the hardest track to find the loop point in unless this method is used and is the best example of multirhythm music in the soundtrack.

@Knurek: Alas, I am untrained in the arts of timing GBS files. That's why the rip I did was done manually :)

I wasn't aware of other games that did this, but you say Game Boy Camera has it? Very interesting...

edited 8:26 AM EDT July 4, 2012
by TheUltimateKoopa at 4:23 PM EDT on July 4, 2012
gsfopt is relatively accurate but then not all the time.

It managed to pick out that the Stage Results theme from Wario Land 3 stops playing the 'noise channel' after about 4:37 or something.

Listen to this video and somewhere between 4:30 and 4:40 the percussion will just stop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peLMSvk1G9g
by dissident93 at 12:50 AM EDT on July 22, 2012
Some updates.

Hit the Ice = Toshiko Tasaki (I've confirmed with her personally that she is Seriinu/Seline.)

Batman Returns = Motohiro Kawashima (Yuzo just did supervising work)

Super Golf = Fumito Tamayama (His site lists it)

by Knurek at 11:51 AM EDT on July 22, 2012
Updated all three entries, thank you.
by Knurek at 4:56 AM EDT on July 24, 2012
In case you haven't been using the RSS feed for new entries, the site itself now has a note when the next set should be released. Hope this is helpful, I'll talk with Datschge about implementing a normal countdown if there's interest in that.
by TheUltimateKoopa at 4:04 PM EDT on July 24, 2012
A small note about the timing of Super Mario Land 2.

Space Zone: Stage Music 2 only goes for 1:10, but it should go for just over 3 minutes. One loop is around 1:27.
by dissident93 at 5:59 PM EDT on July 28, 2012
Lemme see if i can find corrections before they're put on the site.

Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse = Tomonori Sawada, Izuho Numata, Keisuke Tsukahara

Dynamite Headdy = Katsuhiko Suzuki, Yasuko, Koji Yamada, Kazuo Hanzawa (Aki Hata did South Town's Theme and That's the Way the Boss is Killed)

Samurai Shodown = Fumito Tamayama

Lucle = Fumito Tamayama

Aguri Suzuki F-1 Super Driving = Remove Hitoshi Sakimoto from the artist field, as he only did Sound FX and "manipulation".

Alien vs Predator: The Last of His Clan = Same thing (Remove Sakimoto)
In fact, remove Sakimotoi from every game except Bubble Ghost and Devilish, as he only did porting/SFX/arranging for all the other games he's currently credited to.

Also, the notes for DuckTales still states that Yoshihiro Sakaguchi did the NES music, but I'm not sure if it's that important to change. I hope i'm not being too bothersome. xD
by TheUltimateKoopa at 7:39 PM EDT on July 28, 2012
Um, why isn't Project 2612 working?
by dissident93 at 4:37 AM EDT on July 29, 2012
No clue, maybe whoever ran the server got tired of hosting it or something.
by JFD62780 at 7:28 AM EDT on July 29, 2012
Or the Spambots finally bogged the site down that badly. (You reading this, Pulse?)
by dissident93 at 8:16 PM EDT on July 29, 2012
It's back up.
by Knurek at 4:06 PM EDT on July 31, 2012
@dissident93:

Re: Sakimoto - set comments for Suzuki Aguri no F-1 Super Driving (GB)(1993-05-28)(Pixel)(LOZC):
Motoaki Takenouchi composed the music, Hitoshi Sakimoto did the Game Boy sequencing
For Alien vs Predator - The Last of His Clan (GB)(1993-09-24)(-)(ASK Kodansha): Noriyuki Iwadare composed the music, Hitoshi Sakimoto did the Game Boy sequencing

I think having someone as high profile as Sakimoto doing engineering work for those two games warrants a mention, so these two will stay unchanged.

Re: Dynamite Headdy - any source citation for those names? PMH's set matches P2612 one ATM.

Rest should be updated (alongsite tags for two sets contributed by an email), let me know if there's anything else you can find.
by jhouse at 4:32 AM EDT on August 1, 2012
this is very good thing to hear i do hope that game gear really does deliver like what you said becasue a friend of mine is really planning on creating music from it and some of my friends highly doubted him im sure he will win this bet if he does know the ins and outs of it!
by Mouser X at 3:49 AM EDT on August 15, 2012
I downloaded the Zelda GBS, and I was wondering why you weren't using ugetab's version of the rip (he has a note on his site about it, and I didn't want to directly link the file)? My two best guesses are that his rip includes a track from LA DX (and could/would likely be considered the GBS for that game when it comes time to put it on the site), or that track 60 (DMG-ZLJ.gbs::GBS,60,Marin's Song\, The End,3:19,,1) has been "shortened" by "removing" the 20+ seconds of silence, and you were going more for the original game (aka, as you'd experience it in the game).

That said, it'd be ridiculously easy, now, to change the M3U accordingly, to match ugetab's rip, so I guess it's not a big deal. Still, I was disappointed (actually just a little frustrated) when my favorite song (#60) didn't start as soon as I expected (I've obviously grown used to ugetab's rip, I guess), and when I realized one of the tracks was missing (the "Color Dungeon" track, #96 in the M3U).

Is that the idea, then? To use ugetab's rip/edit when it comes time to put Zelda LA DX on the site? That'll be a long wait.... But as I already mentioned, I guess it's not really that big of a deal. Thanks for the Zelda GBS/M3U. I think I'll be using it on ugetab's version though. That said, if I were to pull some of the "jingles" out of the SFX rip (mostly just the stuff from the ocarina) and create a M3U for them, would you accept that? I can only think of 4 jingles off-hand (Ballad of the Windfish, Manbo's Mambo, Song of Soul, and my personal favorite of the bunch, the "Unlearned Ocarina"), so maybe it wouldn't be worth it? The hard part is finding them, without getting so bored I lose track of what I'm listening too....

Anyway, thanks again for the release of Zelda LA! It's probably my favorite game on the GB (well, Tetris is great too, but I now prefer the DS version of Tetris). And, I can listen to it on the go using Rockbox (which I mentioned earlier, but you haven't added a note about that to the site. Though, Rockbox doesn't handle the M3U data yet...), so it's even better! I appreciate the obvious care and time you spend on doing these releases. You're awesome. Mouser X over and out.
by Knurek at 6:13 AM EDT on August 15, 2012
Just like you say, the rip that went up is for the Game Boy version of the game, ugetab's Game Boy Color version will be up... In a year or so, I guess.

Feel free to contribute anything you want, I'll accept everything other than obvious troll attempts.

I've talked with Datschge about putting notices on the site about various player plugins, he's not too happy about that. Maybe once Rockbox (or anything else) supports M3U playlists, sorry.
by Mouser X at 3:04 AM EDT on August 16, 2012
Rockbox is an operating system, not a plugin. That said, there is a version of Rockbox that runs in Android (as an application), and even one that runs on the PC (Linux, Windows, and Mac). Rockbox is closer to Windows/Linux, than it is to a plugin (Rockbox even runs its own applications, like an operating system...). It is a stand-alone player, like Winamp, or Foobar2000, or Audio Overload (except that, unlike those programs, Rockbox is also in charge of making sure the hardware turns on, the disk spins, the files save/read, etc., which all of those other programs, rightfully, leave up to the operating system). But unlike Winamp etc., it can be used on numerous portable media players (Android OS based, Toshiba Gigabeat, Sansas, iPods up to and including 6th gen, and many many more) by *replacing* the existing operating system (though, in most cases you can dual-boot between the original firmware, and Rockbox, as I do on my Sansa e200, and Gigabeat S60).

My point is, to call it a plugin is a terrible misunderstanding. If Foobar2000 etc. are listed, I'm confused as to why Rockbox wouldn't be worthy of consideration as well (especially since Audio Overload is listed, and doesn't support M3U lists either...). Also, and I realize that this is only intended for comparison purposes (meaning that PMH is obviously not intended to be SNESmusic.org), SNESmusic.org lists various players, and systems, that can play SPCs. Under "Portable Players" Rockbox is listed (and even lists it as "jukebox firmware", and not a plugin).

That said, I would assume that Datschge is aware of what Rockbox really is (and thus would know it's not a plugin), which again raises my confusion. I guess, more than anything, I'm confused as to how Rockbox differs enough from Winamp etc., to justify it *not* being listed. Obviously it's not my site, and you're both welcome to do with it as you please. I'd just like to know why, exactly, you (or Datschge) wouldn't want to list Rockbox. Obviously you're more than welcome to ignore clarifying this for me (it's a "free" internet after all), but I would think that you'd want to expand your audience, by letting them know what else is out there (and especially on non-desktop PC devices).

And after all that, I'm sure I've typed too much. I by no means intend to offend. Obviously I'm somewhat enthusiastic about Rockbox, but even more than that, I'm enthusiastic that I can play GBS files on my MP3 player! And *that's* why I consider it a worthy mention, because (regardless of Rockbox or not) I can take the GBS files (and other formats) on the go, instead of having to lug my laptop around with me.

Sorry for the "mountain" of text. It's late, and I didn't bother trying to cut it down to a more reasonable size (or even read over it again to correct for errors). At least I've given all the information I felt was useful. So if after this PMH still makes no mention of playing GBS files on portable media players, then I'll know there's no more that I can say on the matter, and I'll leave it at that.

Thanks again for all your great work. I'm sorry if somehow this post is a nuisance. I assure you, I won't bother you with this anymore (except maybe to say thank you?). I appreciate your (and Datschge's) consideration regardless. Mouser X over and out.
by Knurek at 4:41 AM EDT on August 16, 2012
I know what Rockbox is, seriously, there's no need for a wall of text stating the obvious.

And as I've said, we won't mention any new plugin/players on the site unless they support all features needed by the site (truth be told, were it not for the fact that there are a few Mac users out there, I would remove AO mention as well), that is:

1) Game Boy (both GBS and VGM)/Game Gear (both KSS and SGC)/Wonderswan/GB Advance/NDS (both 2SF and streams) emulated formats playback
2) Support for tags/timers in both xSF and NEZPlug formats
3) Being free (no sense in giving a plug to a 5$ or so Android/iPhone app)

Let me know once Rockbox has all of the above, I'll pester Datschge to add it to the site then.
by Knurek at 3:45 PM EDT on August 20, 2012
You might notice that the site's frontend has gone through some notable changes - all entries (Publisher, Developer, Composer, Ripper, etc) in the set information should lead into proper SNESMusic.org page which should have links to all relevant PMH entries.

Which should make finding sets by your favorite composer/company a bit easier. :)
by Mouser X at 12:45 AM EDT on August 21, 2012
Regarding the newest GBS [Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Boxing (GB)(1993-07)(Gremlin)(Virgin).zip], the "Notes" say it doesn't play correctly with Nezplug++ 21.10b. Nezplug++ updated Aug. 7th to 21.11b. Does it play correctly with the newest version? I'm asking, because I wouldn't know what it's supposed to sound like either way.

And yes, I did notice the changes. I *thought* that was a new feature! It's great. It really does make it easier to navigate the page. Once again, thanks for your invaluable work on the site. I don't know why, but the GB is one of my personal favorites, so I love that the GBSes are receiving such attention. Even if you don't hear it from anyone else, please know that there's at least one person who really appreciates your hard work. Mouser X over and out.

edited 12:46 AM EDT August 21, 2012
by Knurek at 10:27 AM EDT on August 21, 2012
Nezplug++ doesn't seem to play the Noise channel correctly for this rip, so unless you're hearing percussion for the songs, it's not being played correctly.
by dissident93 at 3:22 PM EDT on August 21, 2012
Knurek, for any game in white in the release schedule, that means it has a rip available?

Because I couldn't find it at http://kss.joshw.info

The game in question is Ninku, and I see the composer tag is left empty, but I know it's Tatsuyuki Maeda (his old Wave Master page lists it for music and sfx)EDIT: I dunno if my eyes or playing tricks on me but I see Maeda there now.. xD

ALSO! Any reason why the Sega Pico is unsupported by this project? I'm going to assume that the music isnt as easy to extract/rip as the other systems.

edited 3:30 PM EDT August 21, 2012

edited 3:30 PM EDT August 21, 2012

edited 3:46 PM EDT August 21, 2012
by Knurek at 3:49 PM EDT on August 21, 2012
Pico doesn't really look like a handheld console - besides, I don't see the point in adding gobs of systems without any emulated music formats, this is a music site first and foremost. :)

Yes, everything in the release schedule that isn't marked in red has been ripped, timed and uploaded.
Everything that has GBgbs or SGMkss credited as the ripper are new, never before seen rips.

I think you must have looked at the Super Game Boy version by an accident, the Game Gear one has Tatsuyuki Maeda credited. ;)
by dissident93 at 5:42 PM EDT on August 22, 2012
Huh, wasn't aware there was a SGB version. That seems to be what happened.

Well, the Pico uses the SN76489, which the KSS and VGM format also uses. I could always log the game to VGM in Kega (since Pico used Genesis hardware and therefore can be played in Kega), but I was just wondering if there was a way to extract all the music data in one step.
by Knurek at 2:31 AM EDT on August 23, 2012
I don't think so, both KSS and SGC formats are for Z80 CPU based systems, Pico has an additional Motorola 68000.

I'd suggest that you stick with VGM logs if you need anything from the system ripped.
by TheUltimateKoopa at 4:32 PM EDT on September 23, 2012
Well I'm sure you don't mind people posting corrections for tags, or timers or anything, right?

It's not a lot, just 3 of the tracks for Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3.

'Unknown Song 1' is the Stage Theme for the 2nd course of Stove Canyon...

'Unknown Song 2' is the piece that plays just before Syrup Castle blows up.

'Unknown Jingle' is the Time Up jingle.

Also, for convenience reasons, some of the Stage Themes could be moved around, as, for example, you have the theme that mostly plays on Ice themed stages, as 'Stage Theme V' after 'Stove Canyon' which is pretty much the exact opposite.
Pagination by henke37 at 9:54 AM EDT on October 3, 2012
Do you mind adding pagination to the listing? My browser doesn't scroll smoothly with such a big page.

Also, it is bad usability to mess with list lengths like the page is doing. The scrollbar becomes useless if the list changes while scrolling. Please don't do the expansion thing.

Also, it would be nice with some condensed tables. The current layout is nice and should be kept, but it is very space consuming. A tabular listing without the screenshots would use space much more efficiently.
by Knurek at 4:21 AM EDT on October 4, 2012
Okay, I'm wrapping up 1998 at the moment. Anyone here who could help with hacking in a sound select code for a bunch of Neo Geo Pocket games without a sound test?

@henke37: You can always use single set view and just click next whenever you feel like listening to new music.

Sets can also be found on main Snesmusic.org site in the composer/company/contributor sections.
by Dais! at 12:33 PM EDT on October 4, 2012
what games in particular are you looking for? I admit I can't help, but I'm curious.

I assume it's all stuff that can't be logged via this method, or where there's tracks missing from the dumped files, or if you just don't trust that method for accuracy compared to sound select hacking in the original game (perfectly understandable).

Really, when I found that and played around with it, I should have said more to ValleyBell about tracks missing when dumped that way or games that won't dump that way for whatever reason. I got caught up playing Dark Arms (which seemed fine at first but has a variety of problems), and then I got distracted by something else, because I have the attention span of a goldfish.

the state of NGPC emulation is kind of disgraceful :(

edited 12:34 PM EDT October 4, 2012
by Knurek at 1:25 AM EDT on October 5, 2012
Are there really some missing songs when going the musicdump route? I know that the tool doesn't support all driver versions, but I was under the impression that what it supported it supported correctly.

Can you be more specific?
by Dais! at 2:23 PM EDT on October 5, 2012
well, let me check my terrible notes.....going with the tracks numbered from 00-whatever

Dark Arms:
I never found the uses of 02, 09, 32, 34-36, 43, and a few SFX-sounding ones. Not a big surprise, especially given I never got around to figuring out how to test the multiplayer. Also I have the uncanny ability to listen to a song twice and not register that it's the same track.

From playing the game, I seemed to be missing the following:
-Main menu bestiary/weapons list
-Map (nighttime)
-Dark Grab (nighttime)
-The song that briefly plays right when you first confront the boss in the Tower of Fate
-The theme for the conversation with Joyce after that boss battle/events
-The theme for the last conversation with Raison before the staff roll

Additionally, 44-46 were all apparent duplicates of the boss fight theme (22), although the .bin sequence files were slightly different sizes. That seemed suspicious given that there were no other duplicates in the game, but on the other hand, there are four boss fights total that use this theme.

Puzzle Link 2, I was apparently missing all of the following:
-Round clear theme
-Card received fanfare/card data theme
-Stage clear fanfare (similar but not identical to 12)
-Theme that plays when you're challenged to the special course (sounds somewhat like 06)
-Endless mode power up (both the fanfare and the theme that plays during power-up)
-Possibly others - like Dark Arms, there were about a half-dozen dumped tracks I didn't identify, but in the case of 06 and 12 there seemed to be different versions of the same song

I wonder why this works but the original Puzzle Link doesn't.


On the other hand, Magical Drop Pocket seems to have no problems. It's definitely on a game-by-game basis.

Sorry I don't have more information, but you know how lazy I am. I'm not sure where exactly the problem lies - it doesn't seem like it would be a case of musicdump grabbing one index of sequences but missing another. Maybe it relies on some internal count of how many sequences there are, and can sometimes misread that number or something. I dunno.
by dissident93 at 6:29 PM EDT on October 28, 2012
I have some more tag updates.

Fumito Tamayama composed Power Racer/Head On. I seemed to miss this listing on his site, when I was going over his worklist.

On the Zan Gear set, Masaaki Uno composed "Tears of Mortification" and "Spring of His Life". Sakuraba did the rest, per the OST.
by Knurek at 12:01 PM EDT on October 29, 2012
Made those two fixes, though I would greatly appreciate citing source for the Zan Gear info - my composer list doesn't list him for this game.

Thank you.
by fridgey at 12:28 PM EDT on October 29, 2012
http://vgmdb.net/album/8625
this?

edited 12:29 PM EDT October 29, 2012
by dissident93 at 1:41 AM EDT on October 31, 2012
http://vgmdb.net/album/2999

I was actually referring to this, but I suppose that gives the same info.
by dissident93 at 4:16 PM EDT on November 3, 2012
Also, the Ninku set is by Tatsuyuki Maeda, and the release schedule reflects this, but not the main site.
by Dais! at 12:32 AM EDT on November 4, 2012
edit: ah, nevermind, sorry, I'll use single-set view

edited 12:33 AM EDT November 4, 2012
by Knurek at 5:01 AM EST on November 4, 2012
@dissident93: Haven't we talked about this already? Game Gear set (id 1070) - Tatsuyuki Maeda, Game Boy set (id 1066) - no composer.
by Knurek at 4:29 AM EST on November 10, 2012
The definition of mixed feelings - seeing a Game Boy/Color Konami game pop up next on your queue.

Great because they usually have amazing music.
Not so great because they usually don't work with autotimer, and as such require much more work to do.

And boy oh boy, did they release a lot of stuff for Game Boy Color. Usually at least two games per month.
by Dais! at 8:51 PM EST on November 10, 2012
dealing with the VGM format (or, uh, anything else) makes my head hurt, but as I'm sure you're aware, a number of Game Boy games have been logged that way, including some Konami games. Those games might be exceptions to the rule, but unless you've already found it doesn't work, you might try GBS-->GB, logging a troublesome game like Castlevania Legends in modified MESS and then seeing what vgmlpfnd from ValleyBell's VGMTools pack tells you about the loops.
by Knurek at 11:03 AM EST on November 11, 2012
Yeah, haven't thought of that, thanks.

Although VGM (even with ValleyBell's excellent tools) is such a PITA to work with, I much rather prefer to time the songs manually.

Those 60+ Neo Geo Pocket games I need to log into it are enough.
by dissident93 at 6:39 PM EST on November 13, 2012
Yea my bad about the Ninku thing.

Also, how would I go about trying to rip the music to those Virtual Boy games? Since they're not available, I'm assuming it wont be easy.
by Knurek at 3:44 AM EST on November 14, 2012
@dissident93

np, sorry if it did sound a bit rude.
As for VBoy, I honestly I have no idea. Maybe someone will figure something out, ugetab was kind of close with a few of the games.

I've added them just in case since the site's frontend doesn't allow adding earlier entries.
by TheUltimateKoopa at 8:48 PM EST on November 17, 2012
Why aren't you including the Game Boy Color version of Donkey Kong Country?
by Knurek at 3:25 AM EST on November 18, 2012
What the eff? That game was released in November of 2000 and the site is currently wrapping up 1995 so either you're clairvoyant, posting from the future or just smoking something clearly illegal.
by TheUltimateKoopa at 9:15 AM EST on November 18, 2012
I meant it wasn't even in the spreadsheet. I know it was released in 2000.
by Knurek at 12:50 PM EST on November 18, 2012
You might have noticed that the spreadsheet ends on 1999.03 at the moment.
So no worries, I'm not forgetting any Game Boy Color games.

edited 12:54 PM EST November 18, 2012
by TheUltimateKoopa at 8:46 PM EST on November 18, 2012
Well I saw some games on there that had releases in other regions in 2000, so I assumed you were going until 2000, but seeing as the last GBC game was released in 2002 IIRC, eventually you'll be going as far as then, right? For example, you can't forget the Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons :D
by TheUltimateKoopa at 4:27 PM EST on November 20, 2012
So, looking at the "xxx.joshw.info" thread, it says that gbs.joshw.info is "on hiatus", and says to look at the "portable music history" thread. And then it lists all the other portable music archives on joshw.info, and basically says "see above", so does that mean PMH will eventually include more recent portable consoles like GBA, DS etc?
by Knurek at 4:32 PM EST on November 20, 2012
Well, the site is called portable music history and not game boy music history, right?
by TheUltimateKoopa at 4:48 PM EST on November 20, 2012
You do realise that the Game Gear/Master System isn't a Game Boy? Actually I originally thought it was only for 8-bit portable systems.
by dissident93 at 2:56 PM EST on November 21, 2012
"The site will cover all notable portable game systems with existing emulated music formats, starting with the original Game Boy."

Says it right at the top of the page.
by TheUltimateKoopa at 8:11 PM EST on November 21, 2012
Well I don't read the top <_<.
by Knurek at 5:29 AM EST on December 19, 2012
Okay, guys, I have a question.

Would you prefer to have things the way they are now, with 4 portable games released daily, or would you prefer to have the number of releases reduced to 2, with the other two games being released on Console Music History (starting with NES, I guess)?
by Dais! at 7:11 PM EST on December 20, 2012
I think you'd probably garner more interest with two simultaneous sites.
by strugglepoo at 9:53 PM EST on December 20, 2012
Option 2
by banshiryuu at 10:07 PM EST on December 20, 2012
Option 2 all the way, man.
by Knurek at 3:17 AM EST on December 21, 2012
Here's a list of consoles, to give you some idea what I'm talking about. Let me know if I'm missing anything.

1983.07.15: NES/Famicom. Formats used: NSF+M3U, VGM
1983.07.15: SG-1000. Formats used: SGC+M3U, KSS+M3U, VGM
1985.10.20: Sega Master System/Sega Mark III. Formats used: same as SG-1000
1986.02.21: Famicom Disk System. Formats used: same as NES.
1987.10.30: TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine. Formats used: HES+M3U, VGM
1988.12.04: TurboGrafx-CD/PC-Engine CD-ROM². Formats used: HES+M3U, VGM, Redbook Audio
1988.10.29: Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive. Formats used: VGM
1989.11.30: SuperGrafx. Formats used: Same as TurboGrafx-16
1990.10.21: Super NES. Formats used: SPC, SNSF
1991.07.01: Neo Geo AES. Formats used: VGM
1991.12.12: Sega CD/Sega Mega-CD. Formats used: VGM, Redbook Audio
1993.09: Commodore Amiga CD32. Formats used: Amiga exotic formats, Redbook Audio.
1993.10.04: 3DO. Formats used: Streams, Redbook Audio
1993: Atari Jaguar. Format used: MOD files in some games, no true rip format.
1994.09.09: Neo Geo CD. Format used: Redbook Audio
1994.11.14: Sega 32X. Formats used: VGM
1994.11.22: Sega Saturn. Formats used: SSF, Redbook Audio, Streams
1994.12.03: PlayStation. Formats used: PSF, Redbook Audio, Streams
1994.12.23: PC-FX. Formats used: HES+M3U, Redbook Audio
1995.09: Atari Jaguar CD. Formats used: Redbook Audio?
1996.07.23: Nintendo 64. Format used: USF
1998.11.27: Dreamcast. Formats used: DSF, Redbook Audio, Streams
2000.03.04: PlayStation 2. Formats used: PSF2, Streams
2001.09.14: Nintendo GameCube. Format used: Streams. No true rip format for many sequenced games.
2001.11.15: Xbox. Format used: Streams
2005.11.16: Xbox 360. Format used: Streams
2006.11.11: PlayStation 3. Format used: Streams
2006.11.19: Wii. Format used: Streams


edited 5:52 AM EST December 21, 2012
by Dais! at 5:25 PM EST on December 21, 2012
can't think of anything to add to that list. A few of those I didn't know about (redbook for Dreamcast, streaming formats on 3DO). I was also unaware of (or had forgotten) the console-focused nature of the CD32.

Oh, CD-i. I guess?
Similarly, the Playdia. And the LaserActive. CD-based systems which would presumably use redbook.
There's supposedly some games made specifically for the FM Towns Marty, but I'm unaware of what those are.

oh, and the Super A'Can, of course. I'm sure there's a lot of sets out there for it, just waiting to be found with a Google search. There's a number of other obscure cart-based consoles with very small game libraries, which I guess might eventually be supported via the VGM format and rippable via MESS, but I doubt that's likely to happen soon.

I wonder what the Zeebo uses? Streaming formats and MIDI, I guess.
by kalemvar at 12:03 PM EST on January 12, 2013
by kalemvar at 12:05 PM EST on January 12, 2013
Option 2,

NES deserve quality rip/treatment like you are doing for GB/SGB/GBC

I strongly suggest a second webpage for the ''console'' series :)

edited 12:27 PM EST January 12, 2013
by Pixel_Crusher at 3:02 PM EST on January 16, 2013
Option 2! :D
by Knurek at 12:01 PM EST on January 18, 2013
Okay, I have some good news and some bad news.

The good first - cmh should be up and running... well, soon-ish, I need to make some preparations, and generate enough buffer so that the site doesn't run out of entries.

The bad is that I gave the matter some thought, and here is the revised list of supported systems:

1983.07.15: NES/Famicom. Formats used: NSF+M3U, VGM.
1983.07.15: SG-1000. Formats used: SGC+M3U, KSS+M3U, VGM.
1985.10.20: Sega Master System/Sega Mark III. Formats used: same as SG-1000
1986.02.21: Famicom Disk System. Formats used: same as NES.
1987.10.30: TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine. Formats used: HES+M3U, VGM.
1988.12.04: TurboGrafx-CD/PC-Engine CD-ROM². Formats used: HES+M3U, VGM, Redbook Audio
1988.10.29: Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive. Formats used: VGM.
1989.11.30: SuperGrafx. Formats used: Same as TurboGrafx-16
1990.10.21: Super NES. Formats used: SPC, SNSF
1991.07.01: Neo Geo AES. Formats used: VGM
1991.12.12: Sega CD/Sega Mega-CD. Formats used: VGM, Redbook Audio
1993.09: Commodore Amiga CD32. Formats used: Amiga exotic formats, Redbook Audio.
1994.09.09: Neo Geo CD. Format used: Redbook Audio
1994.11.14: Sega 32X. Formats used: VGM
1994.12.23: PC-FX. Formats used: HES+M3U, Redbook Audio

So, only the earliest 32-bit systems. I'm still thinking whether Amiga CD32 should be included or not, so it might get the axe as well.

There's simply no way to process CD-based 32-bit (and up) systems to my satisfaction - No-Intro romsets for those are not even close to complete. Not to mention the fact that set sizes increase with geometrical progression with those systems - I'm not sure if hcs would be okay with hosting 100+ GB of PlayStation rips.

If you want music from those systems, they should be available at JoshW mirrors for the foreseeable future.

Hopefully everyone is all right with that?
by Pixel_Crusher at 6:08 PM EST on January 18, 2013
Sound mighty fine to me Knurek. Having that too many systems for you to gather/rip music would be a monumental task anyway.

Besides, it's not like you can't revise the whole chronology for more systems when HD space and lack of game dumps no longer become an issue. ;)
by strugglepoo at 2:34 PM EST on January 19, 2013
Having just those systems archives is still quite the feat, so don't sweat it. Thank you for all the hard work and dedication!

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