Hey all!
I have gotten and installed a COPYNES board, and I've also got a RAM cart. My goal is to be able to write my tracks in MML, converting to NSF and transfering to the NES for playback and recording of the output.
I'll probably be laying down my ideas with my other more hands-on gear and logic, but when I have something ready I want to transcribe it to the NES.
The problem is, I understand I can only use non-bankswitched NSFs on a RAM cart, otherwise I need an NSF cart. But will it really be a problem for me to rely on non-bankswitched NSFs? I'll only be sending my own NSFs to the cart, and I'll be soloing parts to record them separately.
I'm mainly a musician, and I mess around alot with synths and programming them and stuff, but programming of the NES is not very obvoius to me yet, so I don't understand this bankswitching stuff fully yet. I have started to make a basic understanding of writing MML though.
Does bankswitching mean that the NES can only view a certain ammount of memory locations, but you have more available and a way to access this is to switch between these locations?
Is this only relevant when you have music together with a game, and not needed when you just write music?
Then there's another problem. When I try to transfer a very simple NSF to the RAM cart for playback, it doesn't work. I've tried adding a #NO-BANKSWITCH but it doesn't seem to make any difference.
The CopyNESW client says:
Initializing parallell port...
Resetting CopyNES...
Setting CopyNES to NSF player mode...
Uploading NSF header...
Then it stops and I get this error:
An error occurred during the previous operation!
My songdata.mml looks like this:
Yeah it's just some basic stuff off of the mck/mml tutorial.
The PC seems to connect with the copynes, because when I run CopyNESW.exe it says:
Querying CopyNES BIOS version
Waiting for reply
CopyNES identified as version 2
I've also tried just running the original program without the windows client:
When I run QBASIC and start NESDUMP2.BAS, and try to "Play NSF" it says "Invalid directory - no .NSF files found!" But it seems that no matter how I edit COPYNES.INI, all paths are set to SAVE_PATH1=
So - when I enter OPTIONS, .PRG save path, .CHR save path etc etc are all set to whatever I write in "SAVE PATH1=". I tried setting this to ./NSF/, but I still get invalid directory.
I've tried reading around at this forum, but there's really a lot of information to sort out.. If this already have been adressed though, I would appreciate it if I could just get a nudge to the right thread.
This looks like a nice place, I've already learned a lot just looking around.
Best,
Alex
I have gotten and installed a COPYNES board, and I've also got a RAM cart. My goal is to be able to write my tracks in MML, converting to NSF and transfering to the NES for playback and recording of the output.
I'll probably be laying down my ideas with my other more hands-on gear and logic, but when I have something ready I want to transcribe it to the NES.
The problem is, I understand I can only use non-bankswitched NSFs on a RAM cart, otherwise I need an NSF cart. But will it really be a problem for me to rely on non-bankswitched NSFs? I'll only be sending my own NSFs to the cart, and I'll be soloing parts to record them separately.
I'm mainly a musician, and I mess around alot with synths and programming them and stuff, but programming of the NES is not very obvoius to me yet, so I don't understand this bankswitching stuff fully yet. I have started to make a basic understanding of writing MML though.
Does bankswitching mean that the NES can only view a certain ammount of memory locations, but you have more available and a way to access this is to switch between these locations?
Is this only relevant when you have music together with a game, and not needed when you just write music?
Then there's another problem. When I try to transfer a very simple NSF to the RAM cart for playback, it doesn't work. I've tried adding a #NO-BANKSWITCH but it doesn't seem to make any difference.
The CopyNESW client says:
Initializing parallell port...
Resetting CopyNES...
Setting CopyNES to NSF player mode...
Uploading NSF header...
Then it stops and I get this error:
An error occurred during the previous operation!
My songdata.mml looks like this:
Code:
#TITLE test chip
#COMPOSER flipside
#PROGRAMER flipside
#NO-BANKSWITCH
@v0 = { 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 }
@v1 = { 15 15 14 14 13 13 12 12 11 11 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 6 6 }
ABCDE t150
A l8 o4 @01 @v0
A [c d e f @v1 g4 @v0 a16 b16 >c c d e f @v1 g4 @v0 a16 b16 >c<<]2
#COMPOSER flipside
#PROGRAMER flipside
#NO-BANKSWITCH
@v0 = { 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 }
@v1 = { 15 15 14 14 13 13 12 12 11 11 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 6 6 }
ABCDE t150
A l8 o4 @01 @v0
A [c d e f @v1 g4 @v0 a16 b16 >c c d e f @v1 g4 @v0 a16 b16 >c<<]2
Yeah it's just some basic stuff off of the mck/mml tutorial.
The PC seems to connect with the copynes, because when I run CopyNESW.exe it says:
Querying CopyNES BIOS version
Waiting for reply
CopyNES identified as version 2
I've also tried just running the original program without the windows client:
When I run QBASIC and start NESDUMP2.BAS, and try to "Play NSF" it says "Invalid directory - no .NSF files found!" But it seems that no matter how I edit COPYNES.INI, all paths are set to SAVE_PATH1=
So - when I enter OPTIONS, .PRG save path, .CHR save path etc etc are all set to whatever I write in "SAVE PATH1=". I tried setting this to ./NSF/, but I still get invalid directory.
I've tried reading around at this forum, but there's really a lot of information to sort out.. If this already have been adressed though, I would appreciate it if I could just get a nudge to the right thread.
This looks like a nice place, I've already learned a lot just looking around.
Best,
Alex