Revolution X - Music Is the Weapon (Europe) // Sound music is cutting out and going back after some seconds

[Zet-sensei]

During the attract mode, the music of the game is cutting for a couple of seconds and goes back multiple times on a same track.

[YLFAndy]

Confirmed this is still occurring on the current core (20-04-24) AND with NTSC. The attract mode music is the biggest offender. In-game is pretty solid, but the attract mode music plays a few bars then acts as if the track was restarted.

[YLFAndy]

Discord user レトロジャー reports the music IS working for them without issue. So it seems maybe it's a silicon lotto issue with ram timing maybe.

[YLFAndy]

Tested on my dual ram setup with more success. The issue reproduces once after first track load (specifically of the intro track), then it doesn't reproduce again until the first time that track plays when looping in attract mode. 146MHz sustained RAM speed.

On real hardware, the first occurrence does not happen.

[srg320]

I can't reproduce the problem. Need more information.

[YLFAndy]

I can't reproduce the problem. Need more information.

I can get video examples today. Are there any good signal tap points I could grab for you that would help? I can get a trace, I just don't know what would help the most.

[srg320]

I can't reproduce the problem. Need more information.

I can get video examples today. Are there any good signal tap points I could grab for you that would help? I can get a trace, I just don't know what would help the most.

I need to see this problem for myself.

[YLFAndy]

https://we.tl/t-CsalL0zWnW

Here's a wetransfer link for the videos I captured yesterday. The only video of concern is the 1.2GB one. I let the attract mode run and the problem shows. This is single ram (143Mhz, v2.9).

[YLFAndy]

I have another single ram system and the music is perfect, so it's very device dependent.

[Zet-sensei]

I've tried once more with my Dual RAM system (measured 149MHz stable) & core (2024-04-20). Game loaded from a Sandisk USB stick, in CHD format (conversion done myself with CHDMAN 0.243).

For comparison later, I will try once more with the game on the SD card & also with a BIN+CUE version.

EDIT : No changes with a BIN+CUE version on the USB stick. I will try tomorrow with the internal SD card if necessary.

[YLFAndy]

Here's a YouTube video with comparison to original hardware: https://youtu.be/klI6cg2YImc

I've added a visual indicator when drops happen.

Dunno if this helps, but the music is SCSP Direct Sound.

Also, I noticed the core has a seam running down the center that original hardware does not, but that's unrelated to this bug. I'll file a new one if I can get more info.

[srg320]

Try this build. Saturn.zip

[Zet-sensei]

No changes for Revolution X (Europe) with that build.

I've tried :

• with a USB stick, containing the original dump (checksum verified with Redump DB) + a freshly converted CHD file + the European BIOS 1.01 (region forced & Auto was tried);
• with the internal SD card (same tests as below).

No difference between CHD & BIN/CUE files, neither from the internal SD compared to a USB stick.

Same result as in the video created by @YLFAndy

[YLFAndy]

Same for me. No change.

[srg320]

Try this build. Saturn.zip

[YLFAndy]

Try this build. Saturn.zip

That build worked for me! Thank you! @Zet-sensei, hopefully this fixes it for you as well.

[srg320]

@Zet-sensei, also test Bust-A-Move 2.

[Zet-sensei]

Perfect for me too with that last test build. Revolution X & Bust-A-Move 2 are working as intended.

[Zet-sensei]

Fixed with commit https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Saturn_MiSTer/commit/093cdc6c23fab016a9841295ffc79d313e1e66b7