Can the Famicom not properly play Solstice's BGM?

[wyrdwad]

I recently got ahold of a complete-in-box Japanese Famicom copy of one of my favorite NES games, "Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos," and after acquiring a Famicom and a means of hooking it up (since it only outputs through RF, which is getting progressively harder to work with as time goes on), I popped it in... and was shocked to hear the main game BGM sounding VERY DIFFERENT than it was supposed to.

Since I also have an NES copy of Solstice lying around, I went out and bought an NES-to-Famicom conversion cartridge, and decided to try playing the NES original in my Famicom as well, to see if perhaps the music had been altered for the game's Japanese release. But nope! The same unfamiliar percussion greeted me when Shadax was first dropped into the castle.

I've tried a few different RF cables to see if perhaps the cable I was using was the source of the problem, but nope -- same deal every time. Ditto when trying to play the game on a CRT versus an HDTV. I've also tried playing other NES and Famicom games on the system to see if any other titles had similar audio discrepancies, but not a single one of them does -- they all sound exactly as they should, to my ear. Even the rest of Solstice's soundtrack sounds fine to me on the Famicom -- it's ONLY the in-game BGM that's off.

My friend theorized it may just be the RF connection that's to blame, but when I was a kid playing Solstice on my parents' TV, I remember distinctly that my NES was hooked up to it via RF, and the music sounded as it should. So I'm pretty sure it's not the RF's doing.

My theory is that whatever crazy sound driver Tim Follin developed for use with this game makes use of some of the minor hardware differences in the sound board of the Japanese Famicom versus the overseas NES systems, and a few specific sounds that it produces simply aren't compatible with the Famicom.

Or, there could just be an internal problem with my particular Famicom -- a very, very specific problem!

Anyway, I made this comparison video in case someone with more knowledge of Famicom/NES tech specs might be able to identify the source of the discrepancy. And also to document that Japanese Solstice players were most likely missing out a bit, since the Japanese version of the in-game BGM is notably less atmospheric than the intended original version (at least IMHO). Let me know what you think, and thanks for checking this out!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf98lbVcz10

-Tom

[condroid]

I can't find the source for this right now, but I remember Tim Follin saying that his music was written with the RP2A07 (PAL) in mind and sounds incorrect on the RP2A03 (NTSC). By default the music on the RP2A03 would play faster and with a higher pitch and these differences were probably not adjusted when the NTSC ports were done.

What is your point of reference for the "correct" version of the soundtrack, a PAL or NTSC NES module? Going by the American .nsf file, the music plays incorrect there as well.

Btw, here is a video by Steve Ruddy (who programmed the sound driver) that shows the thing in action:

[wyrdwad]

See, I played it on an American NES as a kid, and I distinctly remember hearing the correct audio -- like, the second variation there is what I heard growing up, and what I associate with Solstice (and I played a LOT of Solstice as a kid!). So that's a bit odd, if true, and makes me wonder how I was able to hear the audio correctly on an NTSC system.

Could it be that the RP2A07 was used in all versions of the NES (be they NTSC or PAL), while the RP2A03 was used in all versions of the Famicom? Because the EU NES was based on the American model, not the original Japanese Famicom, so I imagine internally, it was pretty similar to the American NES.

-Tom

[wyrdwad]

Per "Nerdly Pleasures" on YouTube, I may have gotten an answer to this question. You can find his/her comment on the video linked above.

The comment reads as follows:

"Your problem is not in your Famicom's RF modulator but in your Famicom's CPU, which contains the Audio Processing Unit (APU). In the oldest (1983-84) Famicoms, the CPU is a chip labeled RP2A03. In 1984 the CPU was revised as the RP2A03E. The "E" revision modified the APU by adding a new mode to the noise channel. On E and later CPU revisions, you can have the noise sound like "shhh" or "tink". On the CPUs without a revision letter, you only get "shhh" This feature would available for every Famicom and every official Nintendo home console made in the year 1985 or later, including every NES ever made. Other games in which you can hear "shhh" instead of "tink" on your Famicom are Mega Man (Fire Man's stage) and Mega Man 2 (Quick Man's stage)."

This sounds entirely legit to me (though do let me know if it's not), and I thought it might be of interest to some of you, so I figured I'd share it here.

-Tom