Error 0x7CF wrote on 2024-02-10, 21:12:

I'm not positive (haven't checked, might later) that it can successfully export to VGM, I think ESFM is not covered within the VGM spec... But I hope it can. I just want a hardware method of playing these wicked tunes back.

It is Not supported by the VGM format, and so Furnace will not export it! Oops, my bad. Feel free to ignore.

The only way to currently play these back on hardware would be if someone implemented a player for the Furnace Text or Furnace Command Stream export formats, or plain .fur support, any of which would be an unreasonable ask of an existing VGM player...

I asked before about ESFM being added to the VGM spec, but receiving no answer I just filled out the header the same as OPL3 and then used the reserved 0xCF command for ESFM register writes. Now that ESFM is in Furnace and there are some compositions, hopefully they settle on a plan so VGMs can also be exported. Only problem is fitting the files in conventional memory...

Error 0x7CF wrote on 2024-02-10, 23:19:

Error 0x7CF wrote on 2024-02-10, 21:12:

I'm not positive (haven't checked, might later) that it can successfully export to VGM, I think ESFM is not covered within the VGM spec... But I hope it can. I just want a hardware method of playing these wicked tunes back.

It is Not supported by the VGM format, and so Furnace will not export it! Oops, my bad. Feel free to ignore.

The only way to currently play these back on hardware would be if someone implemented a player for the Furnace Text or Furnace Command Stream export formats, or plain .fur support, any of which would be an unreasonable ask of an existing VGM player...

Yes, currently ESFM isn't supported by the VGM spec. Should it get added it's not that much work to add support for it. Since Furnace is still under regular updates, I'm wondering if the command stream export format is constantly in flux or not.

bakemono wrote on 2024-02-11, 15:00:

I asked before about ESFM being added to the VGM spec, but receiving no answer I just filled out the header the same as OPL3 and then used the reserved 0xCF command for ESFM register writes. Now that ESFM is in Furnace and there are some compositions, hopefully they settle on a plan so VGMs can also be exported. Only problem is fitting the files in conventional memory...

I think the best way to possibly get EFSM added is for there to be ESFM examples from games shown. On VGMRips there are OPL3 VGMs made from MIDI files so I reckon that the significant difference in how ESFM sounds could show that there's good reason (many games using it).

SBVGM v1.44 is available from http://www.oplx.com/code/

This update includes:

• Fixed popping sound while loading instruments to OPL3/OPL4 for RP2A03 emulation.
• Fixed bug where OPL3/OPL4 was not properly reset after playing RP2A03 VGMs.

Thanks to @evgs for pointing out this bug!

OPLx wrote on 2024-02-12, 12:29:

Since Furnace is still under regular updates, I'm wondering if the command stream export format is constantly in flux or not.

In the export menu, the command stream format is specifically called out as constantly being in flux and being largely for development purposes, yeah.

Hardware playback method, requires XP system with ISA slots. Not relevant to this thread directly but worth noting there are now ways to do it.

https://github.com/gtr3qq/furnace_newdemotune … ull/tree/master

Under the official v0.6.1 release assets, there seems to be a pre-built WinXP version. I don't have a machine running WinXP, so I've no idea if it will work. Hopefully ESFM will get added in to the VGM spec at some point in the future.

Having said that, I still think the OPL3 has a lot of tricks up its sleeve!

Wondering if anyone can help me - I just tried running SBVGM 1.44 on my Tandy 3100 486 machine, with a Sound Blaster 16 installed. Every time I run the program, it immediately crashes the computer. I've tried a few different .vgz files.

I have tried running SBVGM on my Tandy 2500 386, and it works fine on that machine... Any ideas as to what I should troubleshoot?

Mr.Tibb wrote on 2024-03-09, 18:56:

Wondering if anyone can help me - I just tried running SBVGM 1.44 on my Tandy 3100 486 machine, with a Sound Blaster 16 installed. Every time I run the program, it immediately crashes the computer. I've tried a few different .vgz files.

I have tried running SBVGM on my Tandy 2500 386, and it works fine on that machine... Any ideas as to what I should troubleshoot?

Do you mind telling me how far the program gets in before it crashes? Are you running SBVGM.EXE or SBVBGM32.EXE? Does it display any information or does it immediately just crash? When it crashes does the computer hard lock or resets? Did prior versions of SBVGM crash this machine? My initial suspicions is that SBVGM might be detecting your machine as a PC-98; I just need to narrow down what the source of the problem could be.

OPLx wrote on 2024-03-10, 22:33:

Do you mind telling me how far the program gets in before it crashes? Are you running SBVGM.EXE or SBVBGM32.EXE? Does it display any information or does it immediately just crash? When it crashes does the computer hard lock or resets? Did prior versions of SBVGM crash this machine? My initial suspicions is that SBVGM might be detecting your machine as a PC-98; I just need to narrow down what the source of the problem could be.

When running SBVGM, the computer gives two system beeps and kinda jumps to the Reboot/Setup prompt you would typically get when booting the machine. The machine freezes at that point, keyboard locks up.

OPLx wrote on 2024-03-10, 22:33:

Do you mind telling me how far the program gets in before it crashes? Are you running SBVGM.EXE or SBVBGM32.EXE? Does it display any information or does it immediately just crash? When it crashes does the computer hard lock or resets? Did prior versions of SBVGM crash this machine? My initial suspicions is that SBVGM might be detecting your machine as a PC-98; I just need to narrow down what the source of the problem could be.

When running SBVGM32 I get the more extensive error shown below. Again, the computer totally locks up.

I have never tried running previous versions of the software on this machine before.

Mr.Tibb wrote on 2024-03-13, 03:41:

OPLx wrote on 2024-03-10, 22:33:

Do you mind telling me how far the program gets in before it crashes? Are you running SBVGM.EXE or SBVBGM32.EXE? Does it display any information or does it immediately just crash? When it crashes does the computer hard lock or resets? Did prior versions of SBVGM crash this machine? My initial suspicions is that SBVGM might be detecting your machine as a PC-98; I just need to narrow down what the source of the problem could be.

When running SBVGM, the computer gives two system beeps and kinda jumps to the Reboot/Setup prompt you would typically get when booting the machine. The machine freezes at that point, keyboard locks up.

As I suspected, SBVGM is detecting your computer as a PC-98 and ends up using the wrong hardware ports. The "Sound Blaster 16/98" and "OPN at 88h" shows this.

Since I don't have that hardware here, I'm going to need your help to figure out how to fix it.
As soon as I get a chance I'll make a small program to print out some information on your machine.

In the interim, do you know if there are any hardware manuals for your particular Tandy model?

OPLx wrote on 2024-03-13, 05:45:

In the interim, do you know if there are any hardware manuals for your particular Tandy model?

There are a few specification documents on oldskool.org if you search for "3100." That's all I have ever found.
http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/faxback.html

Anything on that list marked as "Sensation!" may also be relevant, as I've heard that the 3100 is basically a Tandy Sensation.

Mr.Tibb wrote on 2024-03-13, 12:42:

There are a few specification documents on oldskool.org if you search for "3100." That's all I have ever found. http://www.olds […]
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OPLx wrote on 2024-03-13, 05:45:

In the interim, do you know if there are any hardware manuals for your particular Tandy model?

There are a few specification documents on oldskool.org if you search for "3100." That's all I have ever found.
http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/faxback.html

Anything on that list marked as "Sensation!" may also be relevant, as I've heard that the 3100 is basically a Tandy Sensation.

Thanks for the link. I couldn't find anything that would give me information about the BIOS or the memory map. As soon as I have a chance, I'll make a small program to display some information on your system.

OPLx wrote on 2024-03-15, 00:16:

Thanks for the link. I couldn't find anything that would give me information about the BIOS or the memory map. As soon as I have a chance, I'll make a small program to display some information on your system.

I appreciate you taking the time to look at this. Thanks.

@Mr.Tibb, could you try this program and tell me what the output is?

OPLx wrote on 2024-03-18, 12:49:

@Mr.Tibb, could you try this program and tell me what the output is?

Here is the result!

Thank you for the information! I'll see if there is any additional information to differentiate between your hardware and a PC-98 (the same values are reported).

Here's an update to TNDYCHK. When you have a chance, could you send the output of it?