This music data was sitting unused in a rom for over 30 years. Be one of the first to hear it since 1995.
Crossed Swords 2 Reconstructed Cartridge Music is a project built with Claude AI which recovers the unused cartridge music contained in the CD release. As with all ADK games, the music was written in MML and all MML code in this release is untouched, left EXACTLY as ADK wrote it. This is a work of digital archaeology, intended to expose previously unheard music and play it back in-game as accurately as possible.
AI was NOT used to 'make up' or invent missing data. The recovered music and sound engine are authentic, original game data from ADK. This patch that makes it accessible is new work. Claude was used as a tool to extract and patch the existing Z80 code, and to help to choose the missing sound samples. ADK's unaltered MML code was used, and existing ADK sound samples were used to fill in the missing sounds where there were gaps. Notes are available which detail all changes that were made:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/...ouid=103125718634889177317&rtpof=true&sd=true
Thank you to Razoola for converting the game from CD to cartridge, which this release makes use of. Special thanks to pierpa86.
DISCLAIMER: The music in this version sounds mostly as ADK intended. Because the MML was untouched, all timing and FM is exactly as intended. Educated guesses were substituted where instruments were missing. If the true missing data is ever discovered and the instruments sound drastically different, count me unsurprised.
Download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kJ5rmsQ5U02tRDGYYwNMOdYUH_UQpLRO/view?usp=drive_link
.neo version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yeoz89g2fmNbF0oDoql3T4-eX4HxCik5/view?usp=drive_link
View: https://youtu.be/OdgRrmQzC_E
Notes:
-This versions fits on a normal-sized cartridge, like Razoola's version. The M1, P1 and V1 roms are the three files that are different from Razoola's. (If yours is split into two V roms, V1 and V2, then you only need to replace Razoola's V1 rom to build this version.)
-In addition to the 17 useable ADPCM-A instruments that were intact on the CD, 12 strong matches from CS1 and 5 substitutions from CS1 and 9 subsitutions from World Heroes Perfect were selected where the original data was missing (thank you, Claude, for helping to locate candidates).
-All 7 of the ADPCM-B instruments were missing. 3 perfect matches from World Heroes 1 were found for the trumpet samples. Apologies if you don't like the choices for the remanining 4 instruments. I did my best, given they were missing. Instruments from World Heroes Perfect were used.
-All FM is of course exactly as ADK intended it to sound, and the game uses no SSG.
-Some compositions are completely different between the cartridge music and final CD soundtrack -- Some CD songs don't exist in the cartridge songs, and some cartridge songs don't exist on the CD For example, the character select and map screen are completely different. This is likely part of the reason Razoola mentioned that songs were missing from the MML data.
-Some song locations in the game may seem strange, but I've left all of the song cues from the original P rom intact except for the final act, mentioned below.
-The final stage (Act 12) theme is missing, perhaps never implemented in the cartridge version. There is a spot for it in middle of the rom (which the game cues at Act 12) that sets the tempo and defines 11 tracks for it, but it's enpty. I substituted the Act 9 theme for this in the game. The empty song supports Razoola's conclusion that the CD game was built from an unfinished prototype.
-The end credits theme was meant to have a grand finale with recorded instruments, using a bunch of V rom space beginning at 1:02, similar to the guitar solo at the end of Ninja Combat, but my attempts to recreate this using the CD were fruitless. Instead, the samples were silenced for this release, and I think the FM and remaining instruments here do an admirable job of carrying it on their own.
-Act 5 opens with storm sound effects in this release, but I believe the song probably originally had a recorded musical intro. Since it's lost, the storm sound effects are a placeholder here in lieu of silence.
-There is one short music track that is likely unused. You can listen to it in the Unibios Jukebox at 0x0011.
Crossed Swords 2 Reconstructed Cartridge Music is a project built with Claude AI which recovers the unused cartridge music contained in the CD release. As with all ADK games, the music was written in MML and all MML code in this release is untouched, left EXACTLY as ADK wrote it. This is a work of digital archaeology, intended to expose previously unheard music and play it back in-game as accurately as possible.
AI was NOT used to 'make up' or invent missing data. The recovered music and sound engine are authentic, original game data from ADK. This patch that makes it accessible is new work. Claude was used as a tool to extract and patch the existing Z80 code, and to help to choose the missing sound samples. ADK's unaltered MML code was used, and existing ADK sound samples were used to fill in the missing sounds where there were gaps. Notes are available which detail all changes that were made:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/...ouid=103125718634889177317&rtpof=true&sd=true
Thank you to Razoola for converting the game from CD to cartridge, which this release makes use of. Special thanks to pierpa86.
DISCLAIMER: The music in this version sounds mostly as ADK intended. Because the MML was untouched, all timing and FM is exactly as intended. Educated guesses were substituted where instruments were missing. If the true missing data is ever discovered and the instruments sound drastically different, count me unsurprised.
Download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kJ5rmsQ5U02tRDGYYwNMOdYUH_UQpLRO/view?usp=drive_link
.neo version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yeoz89g2fmNbF0oDoql3T4-eX4HxCik5/view?usp=drive_link
Notes:
-This versions fits on a normal-sized cartridge, like Razoola's version. The M1, P1 and V1 roms are the three files that are different from Razoola's. (If yours is split into two V roms, V1 and V2, then you only need to replace Razoola's V1 rom to build this version.)
-In addition to the 17 useable ADPCM-A instruments that were intact on the CD, 12 strong matches from CS1 and 5 substitutions from CS1 and 9 subsitutions from World Heroes Perfect were selected where the original data was missing (thank you, Claude, for helping to locate candidates).
-All 7 of the ADPCM-B instruments were missing. 3 perfect matches from World Heroes 1 were found for the trumpet samples. Apologies if you don't like the choices for the remanining 4 instruments. I did my best, given they were missing. Instruments from World Heroes Perfect were used.
-All FM is of course exactly as ADK intended it to sound, and the game uses no SSG.
-Some compositions are completely different between the cartridge music and final CD soundtrack -- Some CD songs don't exist in the cartridge songs, and some cartridge songs don't exist on the CD For example, the character select and map screen are completely different. This is likely part of the reason Razoola mentioned that songs were missing from the MML data.
-Some song locations in the game may seem strange, but I've left all of the song cues from the original P rom intact except for the final act, mentioned below.
-The final stage (Act 12) theme is missing, perhaps never implemented in the cartridge version. There is a spot for it in middle of the rom (which the game cues at Act 12) that sets the tempo and defines 11 tracks for it, but it's enpty. I substituted the Act 9 theme for this in the game. The empty song supports Razoola's conclusion that the CD game was built from an unfinished prototype.
-The end credits theme was meant to have a grand finale with recorded instruments, using a bunch of V rom space beginning at 1:02, similar to the guitar solo at the end of Ninja Combat, but my attempts to recreate this using the CD were fruitless. Instead, the samples were silenced for this release, and I think the FM and remaining instruments here do an admirable job of carrying it on their own.
-Act 5 opens with storm sound effects in this release, but I believe the song probably originally had a recorded musical intro. Since it's lost, the storm sound effects are a placeholder here in lieu of silence.
-There is one short music track that is likely unused. You can listen to it in the Unibios Jukebox at 0x0011.
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