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Crossed Sword II - MVS Full CD audio - stage2 (Release)

pierpa86

pierpa86

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Crossed Swords II - FUll CD AUDIO - Stereo sound effect original M1 mod​


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Hi everyone, as promised, I'm here to share one of my latest works, a missing piece for the free community.
The ROM was already free from the beginning, with the audio of the first chapter.
Well, the work has been redone, I stuck very closely to the CD version and took no artistic freedom.
I hope you enjoy it, and I hope this gesture is a step forward to improve the NeoGeo community which is currently having some problems.

The soundtracks on the CD version are really beautiful, it was a pleasure working on them, and thanks again to Razoola for the game.
Well this version integrates all the audio from the full CD version.

https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/ce0efc93-c44b-42db-a152-1901e003e823
Newlink

Update 2
Hello everyone again, Given my experience understanding the various NeoGeo CD audio drivers, I thought I'd have to do a second, more technically challenging run to preserve the audio of the NeoGeo CD effects, since they're in stereo. ( some effect are in FM :-) )
Just like Zintrick, this driver isn't the NGFX SoundBuilder one, but the original one from the CD, modified to work on MVS.
The audio tracks were added by remapping the free space after the sound effects.
As another modification, I also removed all the artistic changes made by Razoola.
The result is a near-byte exact version of the CD.
In case you weren't clear, this version aims to preserve the original gameplay 1:1, with no modifications.
A funny note discovered:
Since this driver wasn't designed for MVS, the original FM jingles had a bug in the allocated instruments dedicated to synthesizing certain notes in it..
SNK didn't intend to make a perfect driver, it just worked.
No one would have discovered it since no one would ever have thought of enabling this feature on CD.
 
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I was stoked when elrayzeur announced his, but then I got it and it was just okay. @pierpa86 thank you for all your hard work and making your version free for all.

@djsheep Please note that this is not without compromise. When you do it this way with NGFX Soundbuilder you lose all of the stereo effects for game's sound effects, which Crossed Swords II had a lot of.
 
My greatest hope for Crossed Swords II remains that the original cartridge version that the CD was based on can be found and released. Then we would have the complete cartridge arrangement and stereo sound effects as intended, no compromise.

@pierpa86's work is fantastic, along with Razoola's of course. I think I want a cart of this.
 
Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad everyone can enjoy it. if an original cassette version exists who knows what the audio is like. I think it's somewhat different from the version we know.
to make a version of this rom on snk hardware cart there is no clean way, you have to use an adapter or 2 layers of 2MB vrom.
I tried both ways, and in the end I kept the version with my ProgBKP card.

1.jpeg

2.jpeg
 
Yes its not true stereo, i choose same track on both channel to have more data to store in memory !
Otherwise i would have had to cut off the tracks.
When you work on a maximum of 16 MB of audio you realize what compression means and what it means to have space on a CD :-D
 
pierpa86 said:
Yes its not true stereo, i choose same track on both channel to have more data to store in memory !
Otherwise i would have had to cut off the tracks.
When you work on a maximum of 16 MB of audio you realize what compression means and what it means to have space on a CD :-D
Click to expand...
I'm talking about the game sound effects, not music.

Mono music seems fine.
 
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Hi pierpa86,

Thanks for the hard work :)

I want to add it to FB Neo but before doing it, i want to know if you're agreed and who i need to credit.

All the best.

JacKc
 
JacKc said:
Hi pierpa86,

Thanks for the hard work :)

I want to add it to FB Neo but before doing it, i want to know if you're agreed and who i need to credit.

All the best.

JacKc
Click to expand...
Hello, yes please. Razoola made the base base I made some mod and audio driver.
 
I want to express my gratitude to @pierpa86, thank you very much!

On another note I would like to ask if anyone could convert it to .neo format for the NeoSD cartridge? A friend of mine tried, but it said the file has errors. I have a Mac only so I cannot do it by myself.

Could somebody help me out?
 
Moonwalker said:
I want to express my gratitude to @pierpa86, thank you very much!

On another note I would like to ask if anyone could convert it to .neo format for the NeoSD cartridge? A friend of mine tried, but it said the file has errors. I have a Mac only so I cannot do it by myself.

Could somebody help me out?
Click to expand...
I dont have flashcart so i cant test it, but i have used .neoconv tool from danyo.
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/76ac1636-a49c-45e7-9570-64e5e0b874d2
Give a try.
 
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pierpa86 said:
I dont have flashcart so i cant test it, but i have used .neoconv tool from danyo.
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/76ac1636-a49c-45e7-9570-64e5e0b874d2
Give a try.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your support, it is great to see something like this nowadays.

Just a short update, the game is showing in the list and when I select it starts to load. After loading it goes to the main menu again though, so it seems the format is not correct. Sorry to ask, I do not want to ask too much and am grateful already, but could you try to convert it using NeoBuilderUI maybe?

If it is too much of a hassle, do not worry.
 
Moonwalker said:
Thank you for your support, it is great to see something like this nowadays.

Just a short update, the game is showing in the list and when I select it starts to load. After loading it goes to the main menu again though, so it seems the format is not correct. Sorry to ask, I do not want to ask too much and am grateful already, but could you try to convert it using NeoBuilderUI maybe?

If it is too much of a hassle, do not worry.
Click to expand...
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/a7247bd5-923f-4322-b0cb-7ab4fffc4b86
Using NeoBuilder
 
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