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Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 9:21 pm
by Evil_Goddess
Hello,

I really love the English version of Lunar: Eternal Blue for the Mega/Sega CD and still play it every few years, however I could never get myself to appreciate the song they added for the Star Dragon tower at the end, it is just not a good theme and doesn't fit into the overall work done by Noriyuki Iwadare.

Since my Sega CD isn't working anymore I plan to play the game next time via an emulator on a computer connected to my tv and rip my game CD on the computer as an ISO and that makes me wonder, is there a way to patch the ISO or replace a file in there to remove this song from the game and have the original song there again that was there in the Japanese version (I guess the one from Zophars Domain like in the Saturn/PSX remake?)?

If anyone has done that or an idea how this could be done I would be happy about some assistance, this game and this version is still my favorite JRPG and if there is one thing that could improve it for me, it would be getting rid of the added song ;-)

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 1:54 am
by Leo
:lol: at actually asking us to help you alter Vic's work.

I suggest Rosetta Stone. Having read and comprehended the game in its original translation and WD's take on it should ESPECIALLY deepen your appreciation for the game.

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 9:59 am
by Evil_Goddess
And I suggest reading posts till the and before writing such useless replies and not compare compare apples and oranges :lol:

I think I made it clear in my post that I like the game by saying that it is still my favorite JRPG, so it should be clear that I appreciate WD work like the overall translation and I even like the voice acting (normally I prefer the original Japanese voice acting and watch most anime with subtitles).

Still that doesn't change the fact that imo the added song was a mistake because to me it sounds like crap and doesn't fit in and since in the PSX remake they didn't add it again, WD realized too that it would be better to pretend this piece of music didn't happen :oops:

Sorry if I should just hurt your religious feelings, but as much as I appreciate WD and Victor Ireland's work, that doesn't mean to me, that they are infallible spiritual leaders who made no mistakes ;-)

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 2:27 pm
by Leo
I read your post. Coming here and wanting someone to help you get into the coding and change stuff is laughable. It'd be on par with someone asking how they can get in and remove the pop culture references they didn't enjoy and throw in a few lines of their own. I stated in another thread that I didn't care for the fourth wall breaking, but I didn't seek out some way to remove it. lol

Also I'm not religious in any sense of the word. There is no God. lol

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 3:32 pm
by Alunissage
It's not a laughable request at all, nor is it on par with changing the text. I'm not a programmer, but I'd suspect it'd be replacing one sound file with another. Don't recall it coming up here before though so I have no specific advice.

It's the first time I've heard of someone complaining about that particular song, though. (If it were me I'd replace the dragon cave thud-thud-thud piece.) WD intended to put it in the PSX remake and said as much, but weren't able to get it recoded for the PSX's midi and had to settle for including it on the soundtrack disc. I rather like it myself and can think of other pieces that stick out to me more, but it is of course a matter of opinion.

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 3:58 pm
by Evil_Goddess
Leo wrote:Coming here and wanting someone to help you get into the coding and change stuff is laughable. It'd be on par with someone asking how they can get in and remove the pop culture references they didn't enjoy and throw in a few lines of their own. I stated in another thread that I didn't care for the fourth wall breaking, but I didn't seek out some way to remove it..
Your opinion no problem, however I don't think this is an issue which is about being right or wrong. I just have a different opinion, learn to live with it. I could understand your reactions if we'd be talking about a re-release on WiiU Virtual Console and ask for changes that would affect anyone buying this version, but I am just thinking about doing a change to an ISO from MY disc on MY computer for MY PERSONAL use.

And it is about reverting a change that no one can argue is at least worth discussing about. Get real, there are blood and nude patches out there for many games and shared among the internet, here I just want to do a minor change about a song just used in the very last (and not even long) dungeon and just for PERSONAL use.

I have no problem with all the pop culture references they put in the game too, but would have no problem either if someone did a fan translation of the game with the goal to be more faithful to the original Japanese version. Doesn't mean everyone has to use it.
Leo wrote:Also I'm not religious in any sense of the word. There is no God. lol
You sure you are not religious, because your behavior reminds me a lot of religious opinionated fanatics (like not respecting others opinions), one difference is just that you say "lol" after every sermon and not amen like some of them.

Edit:
Alunissage wrote:I'm not a programmer, but I'd suspect it'd be replacing one sound file with another. Don't recall it coming up here before though so I have no specific advice.
Well thanks, will have a look into the ISO, if all the tracks are in there as sound files, maybe it will be just as easy as you said. Too bad they didn't use normal CD tracks like in case of TSS ;-) If sound files are in there, anyone maybe knows what format/file extension they use and if there is a way to play them?
Alunissage wrote:but it is of course a matter of opinion.
Couldn't agree more :-)

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 10:02 pm
by Leo
I can't help that you make me chuckle. =P

And yes. 100% sure.


Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 1:00 pm
by Evil_Goddess
Leo wrote:I can't help that you make me chuckle. =P

And yes. 100% sure.
lol :roll: ;-)

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 1:22 pm
by Sonic#
I'm just interested to hear what you find and are able to do with the ISO. There's a lot that can be learned by delving into game files, something the Earthbound community has long learned and mastered.

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 11:08 pm
by Kizyr
I won't be able to help with the modification myself (lack of technical know-how), but the song that was in the original Japanese Mega CD version was the usual tower theme (the one that played in the Mystic Ruins and Blue Spire, among other places), not any of the ones in Zophar's Keep. KF

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2015 12:50 am
by LazloPsylus
I know I'm a couple of months late to the party on this, but as someone who's currently working on digging through the guts of this game, I can tell you that a simple file swap isn't going to change what song's playing. In order to do that, you'd have to find the particular MD WRAM module that holds the Star Dragon Tower data and code and alter the song pointer that's sent to the PCM driver on the SubCPU on the MCD. Unfortunately, my research is still very much in-progress, and I currently don't have a MainCPU module breakdown and identification yet, so I can't identify the file that needs to be altered nor where or what the pointer needs to be altered to. Just thought I'd at least shed some light on the subject, though.

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2015 7:31 am
by Silver Phoenix
I liked the song they added. They wanted something more epic and important sounding, but it didn't fit into the soundtrack theme overall because the style was very different. I actually missed the song in EB remake because the music was the crappy cave music.

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:41 am
by LazloPsylus
Yeah, I personally don't mind the new song much either, but that being said, I do get that not everyone did. The idea of altering the US version of Eternal Blue to use an altered track is within the realm of possibility, just not currently feasible with the current research available. I've been slowly documenting pieces of it over the past couple of years, but one person with a lot of projects means progress is pretty slow, and my interest lies in a different segment. If I can get part of the PCM driver call structure documented well enough and can pinpoint which MainCPU file is used for the Star Dragon Tower, I may look into how to modify it proper. I can't promise anything, though.

Would be cool to know some of the guts of one of the best MCD games though, eh?

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2015 11:11 pm
by Alunissage
Very cool, yes. I've been wanting to muck around with that game for years, though I don't have the programming chops to actually do anything, so I'm glad to hear that someone else is poking at it. ^_^

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 9:05 am
by LazloPsylus
Heh, yeah, I'm a bit of a roaming researcher that has spent quite a bit more time mucking around with the MegaCD and Mega Drive than I should probably admit. After playing through the game, I wanted to add the game's PCM driver to the pile of research. Of course, as most of these research projects tend to go, to figure out the PCM driver required digging deeper. Trying to dig into this thing isn't easy, that's for sure. Takes advantage of a few particular behaviors of the hardware to get the job done, which can be disorienting at times.

Anyway, I'll try to pop in from time to time, and who knows, maybe I'll release my notes at some point. There's probably plenty of goodies to find in this haystack. If I find anything in particular regarding this request, I'll definitely drop a few lines for how to patch. Should make at least one person happy.

Re: Remove the added song for Star Dragon Tower?

Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 4:10 pm
by Kizyr
Can't we just replace all the dungeon music with the music from the Giggle Hut? KF