Is there an SCSI ODE with Audio Support?

[twistedsymphony]

I recently picked up a Konami GV System, specifically Susume! Taisen Puzzle Dama. This system uses an SCSI CD-ROM drive similar to CPS3, UNLIKE CPS3 however it does use the CD for in-game music. So it's got your typical data-track with the game code then a series of audio tracks on the disc.

The drive on the unit I bought was dead, I did swap in my CPS3 drive to and got the game booting. The jumpers have to be configured for termination, as well as drive ID "2" and the parity jumper needs to be set as well.
This was enough to use the CPS3 drive on this hardware and get the game playing, but unfortunately the CPS3 drive uses a non-standard Audio connector so I couldn't get that in and the game was missing music.

I managed to find another drive of the same model as the original GV drive on eBay to replace it, but I'd like to use an SCSI ODE for easy game swapping, faster loading etc.
Unfortunately it seems that most of the SCSI ODEs don't actually have support for audio.

The one I did find was MacSD https://www.tindie.com/products/ymkdevices/macsd/
Contacting the shop selling this it seems however that it doesn't support the parity function for CDROM emulation, which makes it a non-starter.

Anyone know of any other alternatives here?

There aren't a whole lot of titles on this platform, and even fewer good one but the only thing that needs changing per game is the EEPROM and disc. So I do wonder if some simple disc patching and then an ODE with a disc selector would essentially allow you to DIY a multi here.

 

[twistedsymphony]

I managed to find another drive of the same model as the original GV drive on eBay to replace it

for anyone interested I got the drive in today and got the game fully working again. Would still love to replace with an ODE. the game actually had the classic PS1 era freeze for 2 seconds when switching scenes as it spins up the drive and then delayed music start as it seeks to the right position, so an ODE would make a nice upgrade.

I did also swap from the JP version of "Susume! Taisen Puzzle-Dama" to the English Language Asia version "Let's Attack Crazy Cross" by just burning a new disc. Most games can be swapped by changing the disc and re-flashing the EEPROM. the region swap on this game though didn't require an EEPROM update. though I did have to boot up while holding the test button to reset the settings portion of the EEPROM before the game would boot with the new disc.

 

[twistedsymphony]

Doing some more searching I came across this thread: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=94513
which lead here: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/dac-attack-for-zuluscsi-audio.44480/
and here: https://github.com/saybur/dac-attack

basically a newer ZuluSCSI firmware added audio support and this person designed an add-on board called "DAC Attack" to add in add in the necessary hardware and connector.

Two problems with this
1 is that I would have to fab this add on board myself (not a big problem but annoying and time consuming), and
2 the ZuluSCSI RP2040 board needed as the base was sold out nearly everywhere unless I wanted to pay some way inflated prices.

So I contacted Rabbit Hole Computing asking when they'd get more in stock and asked if they were considering carrying the DAC Attack board only to discover that they were literally releasing a new Zulu SCSI board TODAY that includes an optional audio board:
https://shop.rabbitholecomputing.com/products/zuluscsi-blaster

it's called the ZuluSCSI-Blaster or the ZuluSCSI RP2350B

The reason the older ZuluSCSI RP2040 was sold out is that they were depleting stock of the old version before releasing the new. So I've just placed my order and will report back once I get it in and have a chance to set it up.

 

[buffi]

Thats pretty cool. Looks like something that would be great for scsi boot on Fm Towns computers too.