Sharp X68000 mml2vgm

So, you want to rip X68k music from mml files (zms, mdx, etc.), right?

Well, it's best to read into the Sharp X68000 ripping guide to get an idea, and I recommend it since there's some details left out on here that this tutorial covers.

Setting up

Here are the emulators from Category:Emulators_with_VGM_logging that supports the Sharp X68000:

1. XM6 2.05 - You can load in hard-disks easily, but there's a good chance that the audio will drift due to huge CPU loads on the host system (your OS). DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IF THIS AFFECTS YOUR VGM LOGS!!!! They should be fine, once you play them back.
2. XM6 Pro-68k - Same things apply with XM6 2.05, but you have debugging features and you can mount directories from your computer as floppies for convenience. However, the PCM logs from this emulator will be jittery unlike in XM6 2.05.
3. MAME - Emulation is always being updated, but it does not support loading in hard-disks which makes it tedious for something like this.

Throttling the emulator will not have negative affects on the vgm log, so use it to save some time. Throttling on XM6 2.05 is done by selecting Tools on the top of the Window(this applies for both XM6 emulators), then selecting Options and click on the System tab and tick off the box that says No Wait Operation with VM. The machine is throttled which makes navigation hard but logging easy, so to revert back to normal speed just tick the box again. With XM6 Pro-68k, you can throttle the system by pressing the ~ key.

To make the logging process of mml files easy, I have provided a hard-disk image (.HDS) that could loaded from SCSI here. I recommend using DiskExplorer to easily move and delete files and drivers inside the disk image.

To open the SCSI image via DiskExplorer:

1. Open DiskExplorer.
2. Click on the .HDS image, then select Human 68k HDD SCSI
3. Don't worry about the folders, the only folder you should mess around is inside the music folder. So, click on that.

• While you are inside of the folder, you can drag in the driver to play back the files (i.e. ZMUSIC.X) and the corresponding music files inside.
  You'll have to be mindful of the limited space you have, so if you need if you reach the limit replace the files in the music folder with new ones.
  

It's important to note that we would need MasterDisk(v2 or v3 is fine) in order to auto-boot to the SCSI. The setup process for this very simple for XM6-based emulators.

1. Start XM6, then wait for the insert disk notice.
2. Insert MasterDisk, then wait for the menu to display.
3. Select BOOT, then switch to SCSI0
4. Finally, select the final option and press y to confirm.

For downloading drivers, you can find them here. The recommended sound drivers are ZMuSic version 2.08, PCM8 version 0.48b, MCDRV version 0.67, and MXDRV version 0.30.
My go-to music player for the X68k is MMDSP version 0.29 since it plays back files from different drivers easily.

The SCSI image provided includes MMDSP, ZMUSIC, and PCM8. Once PCM8 is activated, the vgm will balloon in size since the OKI is always on writing values even when nothing is going on.
To load in the SCSI drive, select Tools > Options > SCSI:

1. For SCSI Interface, select Internal.
2. For SCSI Disk, tick the number of Drives to 1 and Click on the bar that says ID 0 then select the .HDS provided to you.

As mentioned earlier, XM6 Pro-68k allows you to load in directories like floppies and to do so is very simple:

1. Click on Floppy Drive #x, then select Insert Directory....
2. Select the directory you want load in.

MAME will automatically create a vgm within the session on the machine you emulate, but if you restart the session the vgm from the previous session will be overwritten. So, make sure to back up your logs after each session!

To create the vgm from the XM6 emulators, you navigate to Tools on the top of the window, then select VGM Dump.... It will let you select where you want it saved and what to title it. This will create the vgm log and to stop the log, you just click on VGM Dump... again. The nice part is that you can toggle it to create multiple vgms within the same session.

Ripping music

1. Start up XM6 2.05 or Pro-68k. You should be on a gray screen with the words Main Selector Area on the bottom right. Press the Escape key.
2. Navigate to the music folder.
3. Inside select the music driver of your choice to load it in (Press Enter twice, but not too fast). If the song(s) requires PCM8, load that in first before the music driver(same as before).
4. Then navigate to the MMDSP folder and select MMDSP with the .R to enter into the player. You can use the keyboard or mouse to navigate through the interface. To enable mouse mode, you can click the scroll wheel or press the F12 key.
5. Start the vgm log now at this point, then navigate to the song you want to play, then you have created a vgm log from a mml file.

• It is key to make sure that the mml file is compatible with the driver you have selected, otherwise it will not play.

Article license

The contents of this article are given to you under the terms of Creative Commons Zero, which is the equivalent of a public domain dedication (even where such is not otherwise possible) and grants the same rights. Feel free to copy, spindle or mutilate without even worrying about credit.