Panzer Dragoon Saga music/sound test

[Drenholm]

Hello,

Recently I was browsing CD1 of the Sega Saturn game Panzer Dragoon Saga when I found the file SNDTEST.PRG. Inspection with a hex editor proved that this file does seem to be a sound test for the game, which was removed or hidden for the final relase, as it has the names of music files (.SEQ) from the disc.

I have been trying to find a sound test for this game for ages! I have also been looking for a .SEQ player, but to no avail.

Is there anyone who would be willing to help me patch in this file for execution on a real Saturn using a CD-R and the swap trick, or knows anything about a routine to play Sega Saturn .SEQ (CyberSound MIDI files) ?

Please respond if you have any ideas. I would be willing to work with anyone in any way I can help, to help either patch in this Saturn binary to the game or to develop a .SEQ player.

Thanks in advance for any help! Hope to hear from anyone who wants to investigate this.

Daniel

 

[antime]

CyberWarriorX wrote a document on the SEQ format and a SEQ to MIDI-converter. You can get both from his website.

 

[CyberWarriorX]

I also wrote a ton->dls file converter as well which should be on my page.

A while ago I did experiment on a seq/ton winamp plugin that ended up being far too buggy. And given the fact that Neill Corlett has plans for supporting the saturn in his psf format, I figured why bother working on that idea.

Cyber Warrior X

 

[Borisz]

when using the seq2mid on your site, I get an error message about c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt not being configured properly to run this type of programs (or something like that, this is a rough translation).

 

[Quakester2000]

Originally posted by Borisz@Wed, 2004-11-17 @ 09:33 PM

when using the seq2mid on your site, I get an error message about c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt not being configured properly to run this type of programs (or something like that, this is a rough translation).

[post=123950]Quoted post[/post]​

Its a pitty that Seq2mid doesnt work with nights into dreams.

 

[CyberWarriorX]

when using the seq2mid on your site, I get an error message about c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt not being configured properly to run this type of programs (or something like that, this is a rough translation).

I searched google and found this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;324767

I hope that fixes your problem.

Its a pitty that Seq2mid doesnt work with nights into dreams.

It's not so much that it doesn't support nights, as much as it doesn't support it in it's original form on the disc. It seems they're using some kind of encoding or compression on the disc so seq2mid can't find it. It did work however when I did a sound ram dump and ran seq2mid on that.

Cyber Warrior X

 

[Borisz]

that worked, now it works perfectly. thanks!

 

[Borisz]

holy fucking shit, that soundfont converter is AWESOME. I can actually load it with my SB Live and give the MIDI's some insane sounding.

When I use tools like this is when I wonder, how come Saturn emulation is so nonexistant.

 

[ExCyber]

Saturn emulation doesn't exist?

 

[Borisz]

compared to Kega Fusion, ZSNES, VICE, FCEUltra (and so on) you can pretty much say it doesn't exist.

Or you mean a bunch of unplayably slow and/or unplayably buggy emulators are considered hot stuff?

 

[ExCyber]

Or you mean a bunch of unplayably slow and/or unplayably buggy emulators are considered hot stuff?

They are if you have any actual interest in emulation beyond "can I play warez with it?".

 

[CyberWarriorX]

Well, it's certainly quite a bit easier to write a tool that converts the formats than it is to emulate all the various chips on a real saturn. Of course emulation would probably be far more accurate than my tools could ever be.

Cyber Warrior X

 

[RockinB]

For me it would be of more interest the other way around: midi2seq conversion. Hasn't someone been working on an unreleased version of such a thing?

CyberWarriorX?

 

[CyberWarriorX]

I initially started on one, but I guess I just lost interest.

Cyber Warrior X

 

[M3d10n]

Just a correction: the sound test *is* in the game.

If you beat the game with the final dragon form (the one without feet and that leave trails behind the wings), you get to unlock a special location on the map, with many baby dragoons walking around and a music box.

 

[Drenholm]

Originally posted by M3d10n@Sun, 2004-11-21 @ 03:10 AM

Just a correction: the sound test *is* in the game.

If you beat the game with the final dragon form (the one without feet and that leave trails behind the wings), you get to unlock a special location on the map, with many baby dragoons walking around and a music box.

[post=124121]Quoted post[/post]​

Really? I thought that the music box just played a couple of tinkly songs from Zwei in a music box stylee. Maybe I'm wrong though!

I always thought the Solo Wing (white and blue one from the first game) was the final form, but maybe it can't unlock the sound test.

I've been at the location you were talking about but there was nothing there really, it was pretty rubbish!

Let me know if you ever get the sound test to work.

Thanks!

Drenholm (Daniel)

 

[Quakester2000]

Originally posted by antime@Tue, 2004-11-16 @ 05:12 AM

CyberWarriorX wrote a document on the SEQ format and a SEQ to MIDI-converter. You can get both from his website.

[post=123841]Quoted post[/post]​

Its a shame that doesnt work with nights into dreams, is there any software that can descramble nights sound files? Also what was the URL of Cybersounds website back in the day?

 

[Drenholm]

Quakester2000, are you sure that the NiGHTS sound files are scrambled? Maybe they are just on the "hidden" track of the disc.

As far as I know, the NiGHTS CD has

Track 1 as Mode 1 Data,

Track 2 as Mode 2 Data and

Tracks 3-xx (can't remember off hand) as Audio (Mode 1 I think).

So normally in your PC only Track 1, the first bit of the game data, is visible. I think if you find a way to view the files of Track 2, you're sorted, mate! :banana

There is probably a really easy way to do that but I'm not sure of it yet. I'll let you know what I find and I can send you an archive containing whatever SEQs I find, if, like you said, they are not scrambled.

Daniel

 

[antime]

Track 2 contains the start animations. The *.cpk and *.adp files are links into this track (you can see this using eg. IsoBuster and comparing the LBA addresses).

 

[Drenholm]

antime, thanks for clearing that one up!

Anyway, remember how the music in NiGHTS changes depending on the mood of the Nightopians? I've heard quite a few different versions and I'm not quite sure which files they are.

Hopefully we can find them!

Daniel