Other Sega sound engines
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Other Sega sound engines
Does anyone know the names of some of Sega's arcade sound engines? Or were Sega using a variant of SMPS right from the beginning? I'd like to know, just for curiosity.
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The names of the vast majority of Sega's sound drivers are unknown. We don't even know where the name of SMPS really came from...
The sound driver used in Hang On, Enduro Racer and Out Run appear to have been written by Hiroshi Kawaguchi himself. It does seem to share some code similarities with SMPS, including memory structures. This driver was probably used on Sega X/Y board games too.
Starting in 1992 Sega used a MIDI-based driver for their later System 32 games. This would later be modified for the MultiPCM chip and used in System 32 Multi and Model 1/2 games. It's unknown exactly who wrote this sound driver.
Other arcade drivers used by Sega have not been researched yet so not much is known about those apart from the occasional sound programmer credit in some games.
The SMPS driver was initially programmed by Tokuhiko Uwabo and is derived from the sound drivers used in the Master System BIOS and other first-party Master System games. It was later forked into a few branches, maintained by different sound programmers. Those branches did sometimes exchange code with each other, so it's not perfectly hierarchical.
The sound driver used in Hang On, Enduro Racer and Out Run appear to have been written by Hiroshi Kawaguchi himself. It does seem to share some code similarities with SMPS, including memory structures. This driver was probably used on Sega X/Y board games too.
Starting in 1992 Sega used a MIDI-based driver for their later System 32 games. This would later be modified for the MultiPCM chip and used in System 32 Multi and Model 1/2 games. It's unknown exactly who wrote this sound driver.
Other arcade drivers used by Sega have not been researched yet so not much is known about those apart from the occasional sound programmer credit in some games.
The SMPS driver was initially programmed by Tokuhiko Uwabo and is derived from the sound drivers used in the Master System BIOS and other first-party Master System games. It was later forked into a few branches, maintained by different sound programmers. Those branches did sometimes exchange code with each other, so it's not perfectly hierarchical.
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- ValleyBell Offline
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Sega System C/C-2 games use a variant of SMPS 68k. (I disassembled Sonic Patrol Car a while back - it does a few things like pitch bends differently from MegaDrive SMPS though.)
New UFO Catcher uses SMPS Z80.
It should be safe to assume that almost every Sega arcade game from that time uses a variant of SMPS.
The sound driver from Out Run is also used in Space Harrier and Turbo OutRun.
New UFO Catcher uses SMPS Z80.
It should be safe to assume that almost every Sega arcade game from that time uses a variant of SMPS.
The sound driver from Out Run is also used in Space Harrier and Turbo OutRun.
Interesting info, guys.
Would it still be theoretically possible to port System C music to MD SMPS, even with its differences?ValleyBell wrote:Sega System C/C-2 games use a variant of SMPS 68k. (I disassembled Sonic Patrol Car a while back - it does a few things like pitch bends differently from MegaDrive SMPS though.
Wouldn't those games use slightly different variants of the driver? Space Harrier uses the YM2203 (I don't get why, though) unlike other Sega arcade games and Turbo OutRun has more advanced use of PCM samples.ValleyBell wrote:The sound driver from Out Run is also used in Space Harrier and Turbo OutRun.
I'm HarmoDevil. Formerly Dr Devil, but I still use the drdevil username here.
Check out my Soundcloud.
I might get back to VGM ripping someday.
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- ValleyBell Offline
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Yes. It shouldn't be too hard either.drdevil wrote:Would it still be theoretically possible to port System C music to MD SMPS, even with its differences?ValleyBell wrote:Sega System C/C-2 games use a variant of SMPS 68k. (I disassembled Sonic Patrol Car a while back - it does a few things like pitch bends differently from MegaDrive SMPS though.
Yes, it's slightly different variants due to YM2203 vs. YM2151, but the sequence format should be mostly compatible. (It's been a while since I looked at those drivers, though.)drdevil wrote:Wouldn't those games use slightly different variants of the driver? Space Harrier uses the YM2203 (I don't get why, though) unlike other Sega arcade games and Turbo OutRun has more advanced use of PCM samples.ValleyBell wrote:The sound driver from Out Run is also used in Space Harrier and Turbo OutRun.
The used PCM samples shouldn't make a difference.
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Re: Other Sega sound engines
I'm sorry to bring up a long-neglected topic, but I want to say something:
I scanned all ROMs of Master System and Game Gear using birdmanager6's vgmid, everything matches, but there are some nuances:
- Sega's first standard sound driver, first used in Hang-On. Some games supports FM Sound Unit, especially, Alien Syndrome, OutRun, Fantasy Zone II and Mahjong Sengoku Jidai. This driver was also used in some Game Gear games by Arc System Works and Nova, especially in Pengo, Taisen Mahjong KaoPai and Mappy. And yes, the first two games were composed by Katsuhiro Hayashi, who worked at Sega, before he moved to Arc System Works. Mappy seems to be use modified version of same driver. It seems that this driver was possibly developed by Hayashi, since he keeped it for same two Game Gear games by Arc. About Mappy, Norihiko Togashi can update this driver, as with case with GB games by Nova, which composed by him.
- Sega's updated standard sound driver. Unlike the first driver, most of the games use FM Sound Unit, especially Japanese version of Phantasy Star. The rest of games uses PSG.
- Sega's final sound driver, which i called 8-bit version of SMPS Z80. Sometimes it makes the same sounds as the Genesis driver. For example, in Moonwalker. It used in post-1990 Master System games and most of Game Gear games, including games by Aspect, SIMS and Now Production. Driver was possibly programmed by Tokuhiko Uwabo, who programmed original version of SMPS Z80 driver, while Masayuki Nagao is credited in Kenyuu Densetsu Yaiba, as sound driver, but he joined Sega only in 1991, after SMS version of SMPS was developed.
There is also a sound driver that was developed in the American division and first used in Spider-Man vs Kingpin. And it used in 42 games, that developed by Western developers (including Brazilian games by Tec Toy and games by Novotrade). It can be developed by Paul Hutchinson, since it first used in same Spider-Man game.
I just made a list of all the games after I scanned all the ROMs: https://vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title= ... ivers#Sega
If someone does not agree with some games, I will correct my list. And yes, I've never done any reverse engineering or extracting original music files from ROMs. I saw that someone had already extracted music from a small part of 8-bit games. I would like to continue my research, but it's too late. No one has time anymore, even ValleyBell.
I scanned all ROMs of Master System and Game Gear using birdmanager6's vgmid, everything matches, but there are some nuances:
- Sega's first standard sound driver, first used in Hang-On. Some games supports FM Sound Unit, especially, Alien Syndrome, OutRun, Fantasy Zone II and Mahjong Sengoku Jidai. This driver was also used in some Game Gear games by Arc System Works and Nova, especially in Pengo, Taisen Mahjong KaoPai and Mappy. And yes, the first two games were composed by Katsuhiro Hayashi, who worked at Sega, before he moved to Arc System Works. Mappy seems to be use modified version of same driver. It seems that this driver was possibly developed by Hayashi, since he keeped it for same two Game Gear games by Arc. About Mappy, Norihiko Togashi can update this driver, as with case with GB games by Nova, which composed by him.
- Sega's updated standard sound driver. Unlike the first driver, most of the games use FM Sound Unit, especially Japanese version of Phantasy Star. The rest of games uses PSG.
- Sega's final sound driver, which i called 8-bit version of SMPS Z80. Sometimes it makes the same sounds as the Genesis driver. For example, in Moonwalker. It used in post-1990 Master System games and most of Game Gear games, including games by Aspect, SIMS and Now Production. Driver was possibly programmed by Tokuhiko Uwabo, who programmed original version of SMPS Z80 driver, while Masayuki Nagao is credited in Kenyuu Densetsu Yaiba, as sound driver, but he joined Sega only in 1991, after SMS version of SMPS was developed.
There is also a sound driver that was developed in the American division and first used in Spider-Man vs Kingpin. And it used in 42 games, that developed by Western developers (including Brazilian games by Tec Toy and games by Novotrade). It can be developed by Paul Hutchinson, since it first used in same Spider-Man game.
I just made a list of all the games after I scanned all the ROMs: https://vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title= ... ivers#Sega
If someone does not agree with some games, I will correct my list. And yes, I've never done any reverse engineering or extracting original music files from ROMs. I saw that someone had already extracted music from a small part of 8-bit games. I would like to continue my research, but it's too late. No one has time anymore, even ValleyBell.