Snes MSU-1 - No Place for Purism!

Inviere · 18-05-2017 7:10pm #1

Anyone ever hear of this MSU-1 thingy? Basically, the creator of Bsnes/Higan created this "Media Streaming Unit", or MSU, which...

"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."

http://www.smwiki.net/wiki/MSU1

It seems to me, that this could have been what the Snes CD would have given us. While not exactly authentic, it's still interesting to see how cd quality music can affect, change, alter, and potentially even enhance the games we all know & love. It works on real hardware via the SD2Snes, and obviously in Bsnes too. Check it out:

CiDeRmAn · 18-05-2017 7:56pm

Very good.

Only question is....

How much do you change a Snes game before it ceases to be a Snes game?

Say the next innovation was in the visuals, and after that the controls, does it become a Triggers Sweeping Brush scenario?

That said, the enhancements give a glimpse into what the CD unit was, indeed, probably going to bring to the Super Nintendo format.
I'm not sure history would have played out quite the way it did, without Sony and, later, Microsoft changing the face of gaming, with first Sega and later Nintendo losing their leading positions.

Certainly, we would probably never have had an N64, and the joys that system brought.
If they'd have moved earlier to CD based media, Square would have stayed on board, who knows if Sony would have ever struck out on their own.

Inviere · 18-05-2017 8:59pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

That said, the enhancements give a glimpse into what the CD unit was, indeed, probably going to bring to the Super Nintendo format.

That's pretty much how I see it, & even then, it's only a "what if" scenario. I'm not normally into rom hacks or things like that, but this does have a certain technical appeal. The Super Metroid one is very interesting, the music changes the mood & atmosphere a lot...it's very cinematic! Again, nothing can replace the existing material, though these are interesting primarily because they could have been actually possible...

Steve X2 · 18-05-2017 9:53pm

I'm not a huge fan of the video content that gets added. But the cd audio added to some games is totally worth it.

It does add up to a fair amount per rom though.

Retr0gamer · 19-05-2017 12:24am

There's a really impressive conversion of road avenger for msu.

80s Synth Pop · 19-05-2017 12:37pm

MSU is a homebrew creation. I think the SNES CD prototype is of what could have been released. Since the prototype SNES CD bios was dumped I wonder in the future if there may be SNES CD conversions of the MSU games or if that is even possible?

KeRbDoG · 20-05-2017 3:35pm

80s Synth Pop wrote: »

MSU is a homebrew creation. I think the SNES CD prototype is of what could have been released. Since the prototype SNES CD bios was dumped I wonder in the future if there may be SNES CD conversions of the MSU games or if that is even possible?

Who knows, but then there would be only one hardware SNES/PlayStation that could play it

Steve X2 · 20-05-2017 4:11pm

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Who knows, but then there would be only one hardware SNES/PlayStation that could play it

The MSU-1 roms/folders run fine on the SD2SNES. So at least the can be played on real hardware that way.

KeRbDoG · 20-05-2017 5:33pm

Steve X2 wrote: »

The MSU-1 roms/folders run fine on the SD2SNES. So at least the can be played on real hardware that way.

I believe 80s Synth Pop was asking if the MSU-1'd ROMs could be ported to the SNES CD, hence my response - limited customer base of just one machine that is known

Steve X2 · 20-05-2017 6:03pm

KeRbDoG wrote: »

I believe 80s Synth Pop was asking if the MSU-1'd ROMs could be ported to the SNES CD, hence my response - limited customer base of just one machine that is known

Ah, I get ya.

Relikk · 21-10-2017 4:11pm

A little update on this. There's been a slew of MSU releases in the past few months. Someone finally did the Street Fighter II games with the arcade soundtracks, something I've wanted for years but, the latest release in the past couple of days is Final Fight. I knew that when someone finally got around to doing it that they would use the Mega CD soundtrack instead of the arcade so, I've spent most of my afternoon editing, looping and converting the PCM's and adding my own arcade soundtrack to the release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJQksPCPK5w

There's a download link in the description of the video if anyone is interested.

Chris_Heilong · 28-10-2017 2:47am

Relikk wrote: »

A little update on this. There's been a slew of MSU releases in the past few months. Someone finally did the Street Fighter II games with the arcade soundtracks, something I've wanted for years but, the latest release in the past couple of days is Final Fight. I knew that when someone finally got around to doing it that they would use the Mega CD soundtrack instead of the arcade so, I've spent most of my afternoon editing, looping and converting the PCM's and adding my own arcade soundtrack to the release.

There's a download link in the description of the video if anyone is interested.

Well done on all your hard work, I do however much prefare the Mega CD soundtrack but this is great for those who want the arcade fm tracks.

Relikk · 05-04-2018 2:44pm

A few updates on hacks I've contributed to since last time...

Mortal Kombat series with arcade soundtracks:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1663-mortal-kombat

https://www.zeldix.net/t1655-mortal-kombat-2

https://www.zeldix.net/t1664-mortal-kombat-3-ultimate-mortal-kombat-3

Turtles In Time with the arcade tracks that are available (not all game tracks are MSU'd):
https://www.zeldix.net/t1443-tmnt-iv-turtle-in-time#21216

Super Mario All-Stars with original NES soundtracks in stereo:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1584-super-mario-allstars

U.N. Squadron with arcade soundtrack:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1557-un-squadron-msu1

Gradius III with arcade soundtrack:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1522-gradius-iii-msu1

Mega Man X with a Mega Drive YM2612 style soundtrack:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1438-mega-man-x

Demon's Crest orchestrated soundtracks:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1645-demon-s-crest

There's been loads of new releases lately to add to that list. ActRaiser 1 & 2, Earthworm Jim 1 & 2, Axelay, Yoshi's Island etc.

Doge · 05-04-2018 3:03pm

Absolutely awesome work Relikk!
You don't post often but when you do its mighty!

Relikk · 05-04-2018 3:05pm

Oh, and not to forget that SuperFX is now a reality on SD2SNES... http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=7451.0

Ignore the opening of the original post, it's been a week or so since then and he's released two working firmwares. It's very nearly finalised.

Inviere · 05-04-2018 7:38pm

Superb Reilkk, as always....and thanks for the updates! There goes next weekend...

Relikk · 05-04-2018 7:43pm

Relikk wrote: »

Mega Man X with a Mega Drive YM2612 style soundtrack:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1438-mega-man-x

In case anyone is wondering what the Mega Man X soundtrack sounds like, it uses this one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CzkswHHxQI

Relikk · 12-04-2018 9:44pm

Super Star Wars Trilogy: https://www.zeldix.net/t1672-super-star-wars-trilogy

Relikk · 06-05-2018 11:13pm

Prince of Persia: https://www.zeldix.net/t1704-prince-of-persia

Relikk · 06-08-2018 11:31pm

Some more...

Captain Commando (Arcade): https://www.zeldix.net/t1749-captain-commando

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ2T8FbMWwA

Sunset Riders (Arcade): https://www.zeldix.net/t1754-sunset-riders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmsRWWPrwT0

E.V.O. - Search For Eden (SNES Arranged and PC-98 Arranged OST's): https://www.zeldix.net/t1756-e-v-o-search-for-eden#27631

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EccgtIeT64Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BLN90U5OBk

Wild Guns (Reloaded): https://www.zeldix.net/t1762-wild-guns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnHE9fTKPro

Fighter's History (Arcade): https://www.zeldix.net/t1769-fighter-s-history

Sound glitches have been fixed since this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2uh3CYj5C8

Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius (PS1 and Saturn OST): https://www.zeldix.net/t1774-jikkyou-oshaberi-parodius

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHGJFUbOwfs

Snes MSU-1 - No Place for Purism!

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