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First post, by Great Hierophant

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I would like a definive answer of whether this particular card supports capital tone fallback. For those of you who have no idea what that is, here is a concise summary of the feature and which modules support it and which do not :

Roland GS devices, which are also functionally General MIDI compatibile, support 128 capital tones (or instruments) and 128 variation tones for each capital tone. In theory, a GS module could support 16,256 variation tones but early modules only define a very small portion of the maximum. Thus in the early Roland GS modules, if a midi file requested a variation tone where none was present, the module would playback the capital tone. This feature is present on all Roland MIDI modules and devices based on the Roland SC-55, including the CM-300, CM-500, JV-30 (Keyboard), SCC-1, and SC-155.

Roland removed this feature in modules based on the Roland SC-55mkII synthesizer, including the SCB-55, SCP-55, SC-55ST, SC-33, SC-50, JV-35 & 50 (Keyboards), and did not restore it in their SC-88 or later devices. For these devices, an attempt by a game above to access an undefined variation tone will result in no instrument playing, leading to a loss of sound and a NO INSTRUMENT error message on those devices with a LCD.

Since the SCC-1A board was an update of the SCC-1 with the 354 sounds of an SC-55mkII, I am not sure whether it has the capital tone fallback feature and I would like to know whether it does or not.

Games affected include :

Lands of Lore
Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen
Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen (combined with IV to form Worlds of Xeen)
Space Quest V: The Next Mutation

How to cause the issue :

Using one of the Xeen games or both in Worlds, in the install program select "Roland Canvas/GS" for Music/FX and None for Speech. Run the game, start new a game and immediately fire an arrow without moving. You should hear an arrow sound effect. Then move your characters forward a step or two, then fire a few more arrows.

If the SCC-1A supports capital tone fallback, you should hear the arrow sound effect every time, no matter how much you move.

If the SCC-1A does not support capital tone fallback, you should hear either the wrong sound effect or no sound effect after you move and every time thereafter.

Let us know your results.

I repeat that this test must be run on a board marked SCC-1A. The board marked SCC-1 does support capital tone fallback.

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/ - Nerdly Pleasures - My Retro Gaming, Computing & Tech Blog

Reply 1 of 3, by dacow

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Hi Mr Heiro, finally decided to pull my finger out and try this. Been real busy and didn't really have much time to go pull the computer out from storage to do this test.

I did exactly as you suggested with loading up Clouds of Xeen with Roland Canvas/GS and no Speech.. only get the first arrow noise and nothing else.

jJWmz.jpg

Reply 2 of 3, by Great Hierophant

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dacow wrote:
Hi Mr Heiro, finally decided to pull my finger out and try this. Been real busy and didn't really have much time to go pull the […]
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Hi Mr Heiro, finally decided to pull my finger out and try this. Been real busy and didn't really have much time to go pull the computer out from storage to do this test.

I did exactly as you suggested with loading up Clouds of Xeen with Roland Canvas/GS and no Speech.. only get the first arrow noise and nothing else.

jJWmz.jpg

Thank you for checking, that confirms that the SCC-1A does NOT support capital tone feedback. It does seem like the SCC-1A is sort of an intermediary step between the SC-55 and SC-55mkII. Like the former, it only has a 16-bit DAC and 24 voice polyphony, but like the latter it will respond to a GM reset, does not support capital tone fallback and supports 354 sounds.

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/ - Nerdly Pleasures - My Retro Gaming, Computing & Tech Blog