Lordmonkus Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 For those of you that don't know what this is. http://www.smwiki.net/wiki/MSU1 "MSU1, also named "Media Streaming Unit revision 1", is a homemade enhancement chip made by byuu for the SNES. It allows the SNES to have 4 GB of storage space and CD quality Stereo Audio. It can be used for every SNES games, but is so far only emulated by bsnes, and supported by future SNES flashcart, sd2snes. You can add MSU1 registers just by having .msu with the ROM. (since bsnes v081)" So basically what this does is that allows people to have CD quality audio and FMV "injected" into the games. Now by injected I don't mean it's placed directly into the rom. You need to have a folder with a patched rom, a bunch of pcm audio files and xml file for it to all work together. As of right now there is only 2 ways of playing these games, through an SD2Snes cart and the bSnes / Higan emulator. Patching the the rom and injecting the music is not a simple task but it has been done for several games and if you look around you can find them pre patched and compiled for you (search Google). One game you will not find done for you is the Chrono Trigger but the rom patch file is easily gotten on romhacking.net but you will need to get the flac format sound track "Chrono Trigger Symphony (Vol. 1,2,3) - Blake Robinson Orchestra" and convert all the music yourself. When you do find these pre patched games they are designed to be played through the SD2Snes cart and playing them through an emulator is hit and miss at best but I have had the best luck using bSnes version 0.88. Some games work with earlier versions but not newer, while some work with newer versions and not previous. Version 0.88 gave me the best all around compatibility but I did have to use 0.75 for MegaMan X2. Do a youtube search for Snes MSU-1 and check out some videos showing off how cool this stuff is. It is a pain in the ass to find these pre patched games but it is worth it in the end. The list of games that has had this done for them is not very big but the notables are Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Link to the Past, Mario World, DKC 2 Super Metroid, the MegaMan X series and a couple of others. Hopefully someone does this for other games like Final Fantasy, Castlevania and Super Ghouls N' Ghosts, these games are just crying for CD quality audio. Let me know if any of you have found a better and more reliable emulator than bSnes 0.88 for playing these games. Now if only someone can figure out a way to do the same thing for the Genesis since Watermelon was able to do it with Pier Solar on the physical hardware. Edit: I forgot to mention that these need to be played through the standalone version of bSnes. I had no luck in my attempts to get them working through Retroarch using any of the bSnes cores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Yea it's a cool idea that ultimately didn't really take off and is kind of left buggy. However, have you tried it with Higan? Higan is the continuation of Byuu's work. Also edited your post a bit to remove references to a specific rom site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 I did try with Higan and had no luck, I spent a few nights messing with different versions of bSnes and finding the best version was a royal pain but I eventually settled on 0.88 for all the MSU enhanced games I got except for MegaMan X2 which worked only with 0.75 which is weird because according the that link it says that this feature wasn't implemented until 0.81. I had varying degrees of success with each version of emulator used. I tried bSnes 073, 075, 088, Higan 095 and 097 and still have those versions on my hard drive. I also tried other versions I had to dig around for but deleted them. For example one version will load 1 or 2 games with the CD music files but none of the other games or it will load with either no sound or very mangled sound. 088 really was the best middle ground I could find. I'm not sure of why Higan doesn't work for me but my best guess for now is because of the way Higan made it's own folders for roms and all that mess. I do know the latest version of Higan allows for just straight loading roms, I might give it another try later tonight. The other problem was that these games that are patched and compiled were more or less done so with the SD2Sness cart in mind rather than an emulator, might just be a side effect if an emulator actually works. No problem on the edit to remove the mention of that site, I will keep that in mind in future posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 lordmonkus said No problem on the edit to remove the mention of that site, I will keep that in mind in future posts. Yea, I've probably messed up and mentioned them before too, but I gotta try and keep us safe in the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 Their forums are such a treasure trove of goodies though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted March 30, 2016 Author Share Posted March 30, 2016 Just an update on this topic. I have been able to get some of the MSU patched games to now work with the bSnes Mercury Balanced core within Retroarch. To do this you need to point Retroarch at the manifest.bml file that comes with the patch files. My hit to miss ratio on this seems to be about 50/50 though. Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Metroid, MegaMan X, X2 and X3 all work. Donkey Kong Country 2, Zelda and TMNT did not work however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin_Flynn Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 @lordmonkus were you ever able to get this to work for Legend of Zelda in Retroarch (BSNES-Mercury Balanced)? Is there a specific naming convention possibly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 19, 2017 Author Share Posted January 19, 2017 Yes, Zelda was one that just worked right away with out mucking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin_Flynn Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 (edited) Could you share your folder structure? If I load the .bml I get a black screen. Edited January 20, 2017 by Kevin_Flynn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 20, 2017 Author Share Posted January 20, 2017 Ignore the zip file in the folder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin_Flynn Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 (edited) Ah - thanks. I had the same thing. What I had to do was modify the .bml and I got it working. If anyone else has issues with Zelda: lltpdx, this is what I used. cartridge region=NTSC board type=1A3B revision=11,12,13 rom name=loz3-dx.sfc size=0x100000 ram name=loz3-dx.srm size=0x2000 map id=rom address=00-1f,80-9f:8000-ffff mask=0x8000 map id=ram address=70-7d,f0-ff:0000-ffff msu1 rom name=loz3-dx.msu1 size=0x0000 map id=io address=00-3f,80-bf:2000-2007 track number=1 name=loz3-dx-1.pcm track number=2 name=loz3-dx-2.pcm track number=3 name=loz3-dx-3.pcm track number=4 name=loz3-dx-4.pcm track number=5 name=loz3-dx-5.pcm track number=6 name=loz3-dx-6.pcm track number=7 name=loz3-dx-7.pcm track number=8 name=loz3-dx-8.pcm track number=9 name=loz3-dx-9.pcm track number=10 name=loz3-dx-10.pcm track number=11 name=loz3-dx-11.pcm track number=12 name=loz3-dx-12.pcm track number=13 name=loz3-dx-13.pcm track number=14 name=loz3-dx-14.pcm track number=16 name=loz3-dx-16.pcm track number=17 name=loz3-dx-17.pcm track number=18 name=loz3-dx-18.pcm track number=19 name=loz3-dx-19.pcm track number=20 name=loz3-dx-20.pcm track number=21 name=loz3-dx-21.pcm track number=22 name=loz3-dx-22.pcm track number=23 name=loz3-dx-23.pcm track number=24 name=loz3-dx-24.pcm track number=25 name=loz3-dx-25.pcm track number=26 name=loz3-dx-26.pcm track number=27 name=loz3-dx-27.pcm track number=28 name=loz3-dx-28.pcm track number=29 name=loz3-dx-29.pcm track number=30 name=loz3-dx-30.pcm track number=31 name=loz3-dx-31.pcm track number=32 name=loz3-dx-32.pcm track number=33 name=loz3-dx-33.pcm track number=34 name=loz3-dx-34.pcm information title: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past DX [MSU-1] region: NTSC revision: 1.6 board: SHVC-1A3B-12 serial: SNS-ZLDX-USA configuration rom name=loz3-dx.rom size=0x100000 ram name=loz3-dx.sram size=0x2000 Edited January 20, 2017 by Kevin_Flynn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 MSU-1 hacks can be a bit wonky to get working. The way the hacks are implemented varies from one hacker to the next, probably because the process is so poorly documented. I've got some notes and some bml manifests for download in this thread you may want to look at if you're still having trouble with any other MSU-1 hacks at this point. I think I have all of the ones that have been released but admittedly I haven't checked if there are any new ones in the last few months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin_Flynn Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 @ZombeaverIt also varies between emulators, Higan vs. BSNES. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 It does, yes. I've been using RA (BSNES) for all of it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicalEgo Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 I have managed to get 98% of all SMU games running through RA BSNES balanced. Most of the problems come from the .bml files and just needing to edit them a little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 Just so you guys are aware, Snes9x now supports MSU-1 hacks. Both the stand alone 1.54 betas and Retroarch core supports them but of course it's early support so don't expect it to fully work or work without major sound issues but some games are perfectly fine. Snes9x just wants you to load the patched rom instead of the .bml file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stremon Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 For the msu1 emulation, after trying many versions of higan/bsnes (which has many graphic issues) and snes9x (which has problems with sound), I found that the best emulator to use is the latest unofficial version of bsnes, bsnes plus: http://www.emucr.com/2017/01/bsnes-plus-git-20170123.html It has both a very good compatibility, can be used easily with opengl shaders, and of course plays the msu1 games very well. The msu1 file standards for this version (because Byuu made so many different useless changes with every new version...) is the same as the SD2Snes, except you have to add the corresponding ".xml" file in the folder, and check if the file names inside match your msu files name. Hope that helps 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 29, 2017 Author Share Posted January 29, 2017 Yeah I have used various versions of bSnes with varying degrees of success but I have all of my MSU games working with the RA bSnes core after some fiddling around with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stremon Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 (edited) 6 hours ago, lordmonkus said: Yeah I have used various versions of bSnes with varying degrees of success but I have all of my MSU games working with the RA bSnes core after some fiddling around with them. you managed to make the BS Zelda (maop 1, 2, 3) work with the video msu, the voiced stream and all ? That was one of the games that didn't work for me. Beside, both Higan emulator and bsnes core are pretty bad for smooth graphic emulation and input lag, even on high end configuration. For instance the scrolling in many game isn't smooth, like Donkey Kong Country (when you scroll fast in a level) or in Super Metroid (especially visible on the animation when you pass a door). It does the same no matter which mode (directx , opengl...) and configuration you use. I didn't had the issues in any other emulator, so I first supposed that the original hardware was also not so smooth, and since bsnes/higan is supposed to be accurate... But I checked the real games on the real snes, and guess what, everything was super smooth! Then I tried Bsnes plus, and realized that was actually an issue with all the Byuu versions (even the most recent ones), and was recently corrected by the guys who made the unofficial version. Now it works smoothly, without input lag or sound issues, doesn't require as much power as the retroarch core, and is waaayyy more simple to use especially with msu1 roms Edited January 29, 2017 by Stremon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.