PC Engine CD - Japanese List Request

[PhilExile]

Hey Tomaitheous,

 

Thank you for the info! It sounds like you know PCE CD well! Would you mind helping us with providing the information to Madmab that will assist in correcting the music playback issue in the PCE emulator for Xbox?

 

I hear what you're saying about iso/wav rips being preferable to iso/mp3, but keep in mind, we have a limited amount of space on our Xbox HHDs.

 

Talk soon

[elconejotres]

Thanks for the info Tomaitheous, you're right in some points but I've studied the system of this particular emu and that's the error, now I'am a little confused because as you say giving different indexes to the tracks you obtain other results, have you tried this particular emu on your xbox? have you tried an HCD file? they all starts at sector 0000 and that's the way I play all the pcecd's on my PSP and run like a charm, besides with this method I fixed Ranma 1/2 datou (the semi fighting one) it was just trial and error and erasing the wrong LBA and pointing the starting sector at 0000, but like I said before my knowledge about programming is limited and you're the expert (you're THE TOMAITHEUS right? you even know the god of pce and fan translations Nightwolve right? right? (yeah man, both of you are kinda famous here in my country )

Besides I was referring to the option for ISO/MP3 for HU-GO in turborip, because that's the most of us uses to make our rips for the xbox mednafen emu, but if you can figure it out another solution, by all means please help us kind sir.

 

P.S. Phil, don't think I forget about the list, but I made some discoveries and tried some things, will write about all that in the list of bugs and crashes, besides now my work keeps me travelling but will be finished soon ok? talk later

 

Cheers guys

[tomaitheous]

you're THE TOMAITHEUS right?

Yup, that's me My random PCE coding blog is: http://pcedev.wordpress.com/

 

you even know the god of pce and fan translations Nightwolve right? right? (yeah man, both of you are kinda famous here in my country )

 

Yeah, but I haven't talk to him in over 8 months or so. Famous, eh? Which country?

 

Thanks for the info Tomaitheous, you're right in some points but I've studied the system of this particular emu and that's the error, now I'am a little confused because as you say giving different indexes to the tracks you obtain other results, have you tried this particular emu on your xbox? have you tried an HCD file? they all starts at sector 0000 and that's the way I play all the pcecd's on my PSP and run like a charm, besides with this method I fixed Ranma 1/2 datou (the semi fighting one) it was just trial and error and erasing the wrong LBA and pointing the starting sector at 0000, but like I said before my knowledge about programming is limited and you're the expert (you're THE TOMAITHEUS right? you even know the god of pce and fan translations Nightwolve right? right? (yeah man, both of you are kinda famous here in my country )

Besides I was referring to the option for ISO/MP3 for HU-GO in turborip, because that's the most of us uses to make our rips for the xbox mednafen emu, but if you can figure it out another solution, by all means please help us kind sir.

 

What's the emulator fork/version are you guys using of mednafen? I've worked with the author over the years doing REing of the system (CD and base), and she's constantly updating it (I talk with and do tests for AamirM's TurboEngine emu too, though I don't think there'll ever be an xbox port of that). I don't have my xbox modded (yet) mostly because I already have my PC in the living room area. I don't use ISO/MP3 setups. I've heard from the author that MP3 conversions can though off the audio timing a bit (relative to the audio data itself. Sort of like variable rate audio resampling that goes in and out of sync. Temporal stretching and shrinking of the audio data). I did do have some OGG sets though (ISO/CUE/OGG) that I think I've used with the PC version of mednafen. OGG preserves the temporal domain, so it works as a supplement to WAV files (I guess OGG is both a container and a compression codec? Strange). I can see why MP3 is desirable, but it still has inherent problems of effecting audio lengths (the lossy conversion is the least of any of the problems). Sorry that I probably can't be too much help specifically with the xbox version.

 

Yeah, data itself is OK regardless of the pregap size. The system card (bios) records the absolute LBA of index 01 of the current data track (you can select any number of tracks once the game boots), and adds that the relative LBA sector offset sent the bios read commands. So data will always be in the right place regardless of the pregap size or even starting track number (and this is why my Lords of Thunder CD works. I also changed the data track from 2 to 1 on the PCE side). I've never seen a game read data beyond the data track it's currently in, unlike CDDA (CD audio) requests. That's the problem I was talking about if you change the pregap offset. But if emulation itself it getting it wrong, then you could very well be applying a bandaid fix that corrects this (though it doesn't correct the original issue, which can show up on another emulator). Adding/changing post gap will also effect this. Hell, anything can because like I said; it changes the absolute LBA offset of all audio tracks. And games that rely on this method (LBA vs track play) will have out of sync audio (cinemas or in game). I've seen it go as far back as it playing the end of one track before starting the next. Or even the ending part of a data track >_> It's highly game dependent.

 

I would first figure out and make sure the emulation is correct/accurate (not to bad mouth the PCE emulator on PSP, but accuracy is the last thing that comes to mind for PSP emulators). You have a number of variables you're dealing with. MP3 temporal domain distortion, unknown accuracy of the emulator, unknown reliability of the downloaded rips (you can never be completely sure unless you did the rip from the original yourself and use the correct ripping method/tool).

 

Anyway, if you found a work around that fixes the problem, even if by trial and error, that's probably the best you guys can do given the situation - no? Assuming it meant specifically for that version of that emulator. Heh - I was just looking for Ruin RPGs pics/snaps for the game when I came across this thread (wanted to see what some of the later parts of the game were like). And just wanted to correct the two bits about the sector offset, the index 01 issue, and how it can effect games. That's how it works on the real hardware. Hopefully that can be of some help? If you're still confused about either, I can try to explain them in more detail.

 

Again, nice compact list of the games with shots and short description. Mind if I link this thread for others (post #3,4, and 5) ?

 

On a side note, Esperknight was new to the PCE translation scene and was working on Tengai Makyō (far east of eden). It's a great series (though TM2 is just an incredible game even compared to other consoles). He took a break, but I think he's back now (from what we've talked). He's also doing a special version of mednafen. It's a script based text overlay system. It's based on sector offsets (read requests). There's a script file that goes along with the game, and the LBA read request triggers the script. The script does things like overlay translated text and such over the video so you can read what the cinemas or ADPCM parts (voice only in game) are talking about. I take it this would be something of interests for the xbox version?

Edited February 12, 2011 by tomaitheous

[elconejotres]

Thanks for the reply man, this emu was ported some time ago that's because we are searching for fixes, besides I only fix partially and my discoveries was very limited, I have the hope that madmab find this useful for making some fixes.

 

Yeah I don't mind if you point to my post of the games, just ask a moderator if that don't go against the rules ok?

[BritneysPAIRS]

tomaitheous

let me know if you want to talk about this stuff with your help I maybe able to find the issue and sort it on the Xbox...

[fumanchu]

i always enjoyed playing gradius 2 on the pc engine cd,fantastic port.i only recently discovered a game called mystic fortune for the pc engine cd a little gem of a game and reminds me a lot of undeadline on the megadrive.

[PhilExile]

Hey Tomaitheous/Elconejotres

 

I posted over at and MadMab, the author currently working on Xport's PCE emu, replied to it with some info:

 

 

 

Tomaitheous, would you mind pointing MadMab in the right direction? Elconejotres has been working hard for a while now trying to get these issues fixed.

 

BP, thank you for offering your assistance as well!

 

Thanks all!

Edited June 19, 2011 by Robert

[BritneysPAIRS]

this looks pretty easy to sort with some knoweldge of pregap stuff...looks like the rips will have to be done right as well....but coding side it looks easy

[PhilExile]

The rips shouldn't be a problem. The new set I made was generated with TurboRip from the TOSECs.

[BritneysPAIRS]

ok so tell me what format is Turbo rip in ? what files do you get.... im ready to fix this stuff up when ever someone that understand this stuff is ready and the right rips are there (rips are know by the right person helping on how things should run)

[PhilExile]

Hi,

 

The rips are output as cue/toc/iso/mp3 files. The MP3s are encoded at 320.

[elconejotres]

But if you need it, I can do any class of rip from my original discs, BIN/CUE, ISO/CUE-WAV/APE/OGG/MP3 you name it and I'll do it BP, I have an almost pcecd complete collection of original discs