Patch for USAS (RC-753)

Víctor Martínez created a great IPS patch for our beloved Konami's (The Treasure of) Uşas that implements:

SCC Music Arrangement with emotion support by Koichiro
Enables the TURBOCPU in PANASONIC´s TurboR & 2+ machines and in ExpertTurbo computer.
TurboFIX routine (original routine by FRS)
Joymega support: START = PAUSE (thanks to FX)
Selectable at boot: Language, sound, VDP freq., cheats...
Enhanced sprite routines: faster, and double buffer
Double PSG if a MegaflashROM SD is found (only with SCC music)
MegaflashROM SD PSG->Music, Internal PSG->Sound Effects. It must be set in "slot expander" mode
It's compatible with BiFi's "Emoticons patch"
FIXED: There is no more delay at the start of some songs, the "enter PASSWORD" routine now reads the keyboard correctly, and the pitch of the music now changes with different emoticons

You will obtain a 3 Mbit ROM with Konami SCC mapper type.
This version will work in any MSX2 or higher.

Issues: not fully compatible with Game Master 2.
Thanks to: Koichiro, FRS, David Madurga,FX and Manuel Pazos.

If you like Uşas, you will love this patch!

Relevant links:

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Commentaires (46)

Par tfh

Prophet (3317)

02-01-2018, 20:40

And in case you want to play it straight away in your browser: The Treasures of Usas Enhanced - Play Online

Par ToriHino

Paladin (826)

02-01-2018, 21:23

Great work!

Par Jorito

Mr. Ambassadors (1788)

02-01-2018, 22:16

Only suitable reply: \o/

Par meits

Scribe (6534)

02-01-2018, 22:41

Damn you're a hero! You nailed it! Hats off.

Par ren

Paragon (1932)

02-01-2018, 22:55

Nice graphic created ;-)

Par Manuel

Ascended (19308)

02-01-2018, 23:32

Haha, the patch is larger than the original game

Par Vampier

Prophet (2409)

03-01-2018, 01:05

thank you!

Also thank you for listening to feedback and implementing the music pitch changes. This is a really cool enhancement over an already great game.

Par Guillian

Prophet (3516)

03-01-2018, 08:38

Amazing! Keep on the good work, Victor!

Par wolf_

Ambassador_ (10095)

03-01-2018, 10:09

I forsee a new collective hobby, in which we're patching up old games with new music, new graphics, fixes, tweaks etc.

Par ren

Paragon (1932)

03-01-2018, 13:15

If I'm allowed the liberty, some feedback for our new admin/editor:

you could have used a list there (readability);
the forum topic is relevant enough to mention as 'relevant link' (as well).

Bonus points certainly though for the nice graphic (nitpick: could've been (a lot) smaller really, providing a link to a larger version as you wish) ;-)

Par hamlet

Scribe (4106)

03-01-2018, 13:39

Well, good points. Changed that.
And thanks for the commendation.

Par raulsantacruz

Hero (604)

03-01-2018, 13:41

Thank you very much Victor for this patch and all the previous one! Your works are amazing!!

Par fernandomanuel.garciagarcia

Master (195)

03-01-2018, 16:31

Thanks Victor, keep up your great work!

Par janghang

Master (129)

03-01-2018, 22:49

Thanks, Victor. This is really amazing.

Par alexito

Paladin (761)

04-01-2018, 04:13

Hey, Victor I tried in my real A1WX with the old MEGAFLASHROM SCC+ (just 1024KB FLASHROM and Extra PSG) but the patched game just check for the MFRSCC+ SD version when the first version also comes with Extra PSG.

Could you please ask Mr Manuel Pazos how to recognize it so other happy users like me can enjoy this game.

And thanks again for your hard work making this kind of improvement.

Par Victor

Champion (509)

04-01-2018, 06:20

alexito wrote:

I've included a IPS version that forces the "Double PSG". You can find it in the same download link.

Par alexito

Paladin (761)

04-01-2018, 13:30

Thanks Victor.

Already tested and works perfect.

Par sinus

Expert (85)

04-01-2018, 20:49

Hurray to the patch generation!! Look at that creation now, and listen to that sound! It really emphasizes Konami's programmers' work, and amongst them Miss Kinuyo Yamashita's sound scape! Even more exceptional thant it used to be!
And thanks a million for bringing the pitch shift to meet the feedbackers' expectations, I realize how important this original feature is.
Happy new year to the team, Wit, Cles and every one here!
Sinus

Par alexito

Paladin (761)

05-01-2018, 04:21

is true Patching a good game sometimes is 1000 times better than make a whole big new game from the ground. Congratulations all the participants and happy New Year you all.

Par TheKid

Paragon (1238)

05-01-2018, 17:23

Great patch, thanx. Just for the record I would like to mention that the emoticons patch was made bij Tsunami.

Par meits

Scribe (6534)

05-01-2018, 17:45

wolf_ wrote:

I forsee a new collective hobby, in which we're patching up old games with new music, new graphics, fixes, tweaks etc. B-)

I forsee wolf_ getting back behind his MSX as soon as someone is going to update Topple Zip and needs help

Par Victor

Champion (509)

05-01-2018, 17:59

Meits wrote:

I forsee wolf_ getting back behind his MSX

We dream with that day...

Par wolf_

Ambassador_ (10095)

05-01-2018, 20:03

Ohwell, I dunno. Graphics/maps I make with my PC tools, MJTT, Pill, Shift and Jailbreak had music that was made on PC. If I'd be creating something for MSX, I wouldn't really need an MSX for that, except perhaps Moonsound music.

But, as for Topple Zip: if someone could make the player sprite feel less sluggish, and perhaps make the enemies move less randomly... It's really a colourful MSX1 game, you know...

Par Randam

Paragon (1431)

05-01-2018, 20:07

Does that mean that you would make updated music for Topple Zip in that case, Wolf_?

Par wolf_

Ambassador_ (10095)

05-01-2018, 20:20

Probably not. Although I don't know for sure. See, the way I've made MSX music on PC (MJTT, Pill etc.) was by means of my own trusty Win98 PC that hasn't been switched on since, oh, 2011 or so? It's bacause of a specific tracker and soundcard I've used on that machine. I have it standing right next to me on the floor, but I've no place to add a monitor 'n such.

If not, I'd support/mentor John Hassink in doing it. In the end, it's only two tunes anyway. In fact, I wouldn't even know what to uplift the music to... SCC? FM? Neither is a logical next step for this game, in such a way that uplifting Usas to SCC was (considering the year of release).

Par Randam

Paragon (1431)

05-01-2018, 20:32

Well the PC-88 version I have lying around here has FM music (OPN). So perhaps there is a logical next step...

Now I wonder if this game is much different from the msx versions...

Par wolf_

Ambassador_ (10095)

05-01-2018, 20:39

This one you mean?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePPRF8CcDf0

Sounds pathetic, if you ask me. By the way: the game was made by 'Trump Magic'. Can I say "Let's make Topple Zip great again" ? :hannibal:

In fact, all this patching-up of old things could raise ethical questions; how far can one go in fixing someone else's game? The MSX version of TZ has only two main tunes (not counting the warps here). Nothing at the title screen, no game over tune. Would it perhaps be 'not done' to make new music for such sections of the game, or would no-one care? The title screen has its name in blue full-size character blocks, not exactly the highest form of art. If someone would revamp the graphics of this title screen and insert it in a patch, would that be an okay thing to do?

Par Randam

Paragon (1431)

05-01-2018, 20:48

Yeah the music sounds a bit bleak... But there is a 3rd song in there (can't remember ever hearing that song and I finished Topple zip on msx 2).

If someone would add new music in the same style and/ or new art in a fitting style that would be okay in my books or optional patches if people would want to have the choice to implement or not.

Par hamlet

Scribe (4106)

05-01-2018, 21:01

@ wolf_ I just bought Sgt. Pepper the fifth time now. On tape, vinyl, cd, mp3 and now the mixed up version. It makes me hear the songs again, which I love. It gives me a reason, to hear my old vinyl again and compare the versions. That´s reason enough for new versions. Even from TZ tunes.

Par JohnHassink

Ambassador (5665)

05-01-2018, 22:26

Listening to it again, I really do have some ideas how to upgrade that Topple Zip music for FM.

Par Kai Magazine

Paragon (1424)

08-01-2018, 10:09

Bravo!
Keep up the good work, Victor!

Par Vampier

Prophet (2409)

19-01-2018, 03:37

Finally got around making a video of the first ruins and played a bit of the 2nd ruin song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_l86vEQaHA

This is really high quality stuff!

Par mfeingol

Champion (293)

18-02-2019, 18:18

I finally patched the Usas ROM and tried it out in openMSX. Apparently openMSX doesn't like something about the ROM size or layout. Is this error expected?

Fatal error: Error in "ROM" extension: Treasure Of Usas, The: invalid rom size: must be smaller than or equal to 64kB and must be a multiple of 8kB.

Par Victor

Champion (509)

18-02-2019, 18:50

mfeingol wrote:

I finally patched the Usas ROM and tried it out in openMSX. Apparently openMSX doesn't like something about the ROM size or layout. Is this error expected?

Yes.. You're right... This is something in the last version...

mfeingol wrote:

Fatal error: Error in "ROM" extension: Treasure Of Usas, The: invalid rom size: must be smaller than or equal to 64kB and must be a multiple of 8kB.

The size is correct. Force the mapper to "Konami with SCC"

Par mfeingol

Champion (293)

18-02-2019, 19:48

Thanks, that worked. Do you think you might be releasing a version with a fix for the auto-detection, or are you done? :-)

Par Manuel

Ascended (19308)

18-02-2019, 21:25

For me it auto-selects the normal Konami mapper and I indeed needed to force the Konami-with-SCC mapper.

It really sounds amazing! Fantastic work.

Par Victor

Champion (509)

18-02-2019, 23:17

Manuel wrote:

For me it auto-selects the normal Konami mapper and I indeed needed to force the Konami-with-SCC mapper.

Then the type detection isn't too exhaustive... searching in the ROM file with an HEX editor, you'll find:

For SCC mapper type(in HEX):
32 00 50, 32 00 70, 32 00 90 , 32 00 B0... even you'll find the most relevant: 3E 3F 32 00 90

For NO-SCC mapper type(in HEX):
only two 32 00 60 (that could be perfectly for an ASCII8 or ASCII16)...

So...

Manuel wrote:

It really sounds amazing! Fantastic work.

Thanks Manuel!!

Par Manuel

Ascended (19308)

18-02-2019, 23:44

Ah, when hard-patching the file I do get the error that Max got. The cause is that it is in the softwaredb.xml with a wrong type... When I remove it from the database, it is auto-detected correctly.

About the mapper type detection when soft-patching: possibly it is trying to detect it based on the unpatched ROM. I'll have to check that.

Par Vampier

Prophet (2409)

19-02-2019, 20:04

https://romdb.vampier.net/archive.php

fixed in latest ROMDB(see link)

Par Manuel

Ascended (19308)

19-02-2019, 21:06

And now also fixed in the XML file that comes with openMSX...

Par Victor

Champion (509)

19-02-2019, 21:18

Vampier wrote:

https://romdb.vampier.net/archive.php

fixed in latest ROMDB(see link)

Manuel wrote:

And now also fixed in the XML file that comes with openMSX... :)

You two... are the best!! Thanks!!

Par Manuel

Ascended (19308)

19-02-2019, 21:22

Well, it was our mistake to make... sorry for the inconvenience!

Par Manuel

Ascended (19308)

19-02-2019, 21:52

Hmm, when I start the game, I cannot use the cursor keys to control Wit & Cles. But when I touch the plugged in joystick, I can move them. And after that, I can suddenly also use the cursor keys to control them... odd..!

Par Manuel

Ascended (19308)

20-02-2019, 00:35

Manuel wrote:

About the mapper type detection when soft-patching: possibly it is trying to detect it based on the unpatched ROM. I'll have to check that.

Detection was done on the patched ROM, but it first tried to find the unpatched ROM in the database and used the mapper type that belonged to that. Which is wrong in this case... I now let it also look for the patched ROM in the database before looking for the unpatched ROM. If the patched ROM is not in the database, this may still give wrong output, but it's hard to decide what's better: assuming the patched ROM has the same mapper type as the unpatched ROM (often the case, but not here) or that auto-guess will work correctly...

Par mfeingol

Champion (293)

20-02-2019, 04:19

Glad this is fixed! Thanks, Manuel and Patrick.

Par technet

Supporter (4)

08-03-2019, 18:12

Thank you for taking the time to do it!
Great work!

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