fafling
Gear Supporter
Here's a quick and dirty workaround to force stereo playback of CDDA tracks in some games that only output them in mono, despite said tracks having stereo effects.
Games that fell short in that regard include all 3 Lobotomy games, and a bunch of SNK ports.
Those Action Replay codes are generic because they directly force the value of the SCSP registers that set the volume and pan of the left and right channels of the CD audio :
Those codes are working for the following games to force them to output CDDA in stereo :
Games that fell short in that regard include all 3 Lobotomy games, and a bunch of SNK ports.
Those Action Replay codes are generic because they directly force the value of the SCSP registers that set the volume and pan of the left and right channels of the CD audio :
- The right channel is panned hard right to be output only by the right speaker.
- The left channel is panned hard left to be output only by the left speaker.
- The volume has to be forced because it's on the same register byte as the pan for each channel. It's set at the same value for both channels. As a consequence, when the codes are active, no volume change can be made by the game (like fade out or in) or by the player (music volume setting in options no longer work). Some sound artifacts may be heard in those cases when the volume is changed then quickly reverted back by the codes. On the other hand, it gives the ability to set the CDDA volume in games missing such option, and not just in the games that lack stereo for CDDA.
| Sound level | 0 (no sound) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 (max) |
| Codes | 35B00217 001F 35B00237 000F | 35B00217 003F 35B00237 002F | 35B00217 005F 35B00237 004F | 35B00217 007F 35B00237 006F | 35B00217 009F 35B00237 008F | 35B00217 00BF 35B00237 00AF | 35B00217 00DF 35B00237 00CF | 35B00217 00FF 35B00237 00EF |
Those codes are working for the following games to force them to output CDDA in stereo :
- Darklight conflict : codes for sound level 6 are advised.
- Doom : codes for sound level 6 are advised, with the custom master codes. Those AR codes are only needed in case you don't have a mean to use the fix patch.
- Exhumed / Powerslave / Seireki 1999 - Pharaoh no Fukkatsu
- Metal slug : only needed for the 1st version, and even then there's a workaround by setting the audio option to mono and back to stereo. The rev. A includes a fix.
- Quake : using the default master code makes the game crash. I tested with following master codes :
- For the US version : F6017918 C305 + B6002800 0000
- For the PAL version : F60074B0 C305 + B6002800 0000 (found it myself cause I couldn't get one on the net)
- Real bout fatal fury (nothing to do with the AR codes, but if using a RAM cartridge with a size selector, be sure to set it at 1MB or there will be graphic glitches, see https://youtu.be/OgNuDLk7xnI?t=1217)
- Revolution X : using the default master code can cause flickers (at least with my Action Replay cart, they don't seem to happen with PS Kai). Use F600093C C305 + B6002800 0000 to avoid that. I recommend to lower sound effects volume at least by 2 in the game options otherwise they cover the stereo music when shooting (which you do most of the time in that game).
- Striker '96 : not really worth it as the CD track only serves for national anthems, of which you only hear the first 10 seconds, during match presentations that you can (and probably will) skip. Plus the AR codes cause some sound artifacts when the game cuts the anthems with a fade out that is countered by the codes.
- The king of fighters 96 (same as Real bout fatal fury for the RAM cartridge size).
- Trash it : sound effects are also mono by default and even though they can be switched to stereo in the options, there's barely any panning applied to them.
- Duke Nukem 3D : unfortunately, that game overwrites the whole master SH2 vector table at the start, which makes it impossible to trigger the Action Replay handler function whatever the master code.
- Jonah Lomu rugby : the use of mono playback is intentional for the commentary CD track which packs different lines on the right and left channels. So the AR codes make the game playback 2 different commentaries at the same time, one on each speaker.
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