VGMPlay MSX

Copyright 2015 Laurens Holst

Thanks go to l_oliveira, popolon(fr), Pencioner, Supersoniqs and JunSoft for support.

Project information

Plays back VGM music files on MSX with the supported sound chips.

• Author: Laurens Holst laurens@grauw.nl
• Site: http://www.grauw.nl/projects/vgmplay-msx/
• Source: https://hg.sr.ht/~grauw/vgmplay-msx
• Issues: https://todo.sr.ht/~grauw/vgmplay-msx
• Support: http://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/software/vgmplay-msx
• License: Simplified BSD License

VGMPlay can play back music for quite a number of sound chips using various common and less common sound expansions for MSX, such as the PSG, MoonSound and Yamaha SFG. A detailed list can be found below.

Both the VGM and VGZ formats are supported. The compressed VGZ format takes longer to load but also consumes less disk space. If so desired, VGZ files can be manually decompressed to VGM with gunzip for MSX or PC.

The timing resolution is 50 or 60 Hz on MSX1 machines with a TMS9918 VDP, 300 Hz on machines with a V9938 or V9958 VDP, 1130 Hz if a MoonSound or OPL3 is present, and 4000 Hz on MSX turboR.

For collections of VGM music see:

• http://vgmrips.net/
• http://www.smspower.org/Music/VGMs
• http://opl.wafflenet.com/

System requirements

• MSX, MSX2, MSX2+ or MSX turboR
• 128K main RAM
• 16K video RAM
• MSX-DOS 2

Supported sound chips

• AY-3-8910 PSG / YM2149 SSG x2
  • Internal PSG, Darky, MegaFlashROM SCC+
• YM2151 OPM x2
  • Yamaha SFG
• YM2413 OPLL
  • MSX-MUSIC, FM-PAC
• YM3526 OPL x2
  • MSX-AUDIO, Music Module, MoonSound, OPL3
• YM3812 OPL2 x2
  • MoonSound, OPL3
• YMF262 OPL3 x2
  • MoonSound, OPL3
• YMF278B OPL4
  • MoonSound, DalSoRi R2 (4MB mode)
• Y8950 MSX-AUDIO x2
  • MSX-AUDIO, Music Module, MoonSound (no ADPCM), OPL3 (no ADPCM)
• K051649 Konami SCC
  • Konami SCC, Konami Sound Cartridge
• K052539 Konami SCC+
  • Konami Sound Cartridge
• SN76489 DCSG x2
  • Musical Memory Mapper, Playsoniq, Franky, PSG
• YM2203 OPN x2
  • Makoto, Neotron, Yamaha SFG + PSG
• YM2608 OPNA
  • Makoto, Yamaha SFG + PSG + MSX-AUDIO (no drums)
• YM2610 OPNB
  • Neotron
• YM2610B OPNB-B
  • Neotron + Makoto
• YM2612 OPN2 x2
  • Makoto + turboR PCM, Yamaha SFG + turboR PCM
• SAA1099
  • SoundStar

Usage instructions

Run VGMPlay from MSX-DOS 2, specifying the VGM file to play on the command line.

Usage:

vgmplay [options] <file.vgm>

The compressed VGZ format is also supported.

Options:

• /l Number of playback loops. Default: 2.

  Many VGM music loops once the end of the song is reached. With this setting you can specify how many times VGMPlay should play the repeating part before exiting. The amount is specified like /L15. Use /L or /L0 to loop infinitely. This setting will have no effect for songs which don’t loop.

• /b Enter blackout mode during playback.

  This setting makes the screen go black during playback. For machines with a lot of VDP interference on the audio output, this may reduce the amount of interference.

To configure Multi Mente to play VGM files, add the following lines to MMRET.DAT:

.VGM    VGMPLAY $T
.VGZ    VGMPLAY $T

Development information

VGMPlay is free and open source software. If you want to contribute to the project you are very welcome to. Please contact me at any one of the places mentioned in the project information section.

You are also free to re-use code for your own projects, provided you abide by the license terms.

VGMPlay depends on the library projects Neonlib and Gunzip; it is recommended to clone the project with Mercurial so they will automatically be pulled in at the correct version, otherwise you have to download them manually:

hg clone https://hg.sr.ht/~grauw/vgmplay-msx

Building the project is easy on all modern desktop platforms. On MacOS and Linux, simply invoke make to build the binary and symbol files into the bin directory:

make

Windows users can open the Makefile and build by pasting the line in the all target into the Windows command prompt.

To launch the build in openMSX after building, put a copy of MSXDOS2.SYS and COMMAND2.COM and some VGM files to test with in the bin directory, and then invoke the make run command.

Note that the glass assembler which is embedded in the project requires Java 8. To check your Java version, invoke the java -version command.