Hironari Tadokoro (NES Driver)

From Video Game Music Preservation Foundation Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Hironari Tadokoro
Released 1987-12-18
Programmers Hironari Tadokoro
Language 6502 Assembly

Hironari Tadokoro (NES Driver) is an unofficial name of the sound driver used by the composers at Marionette. The driver was programmed by Marionette programmer Hironari Tadokoro. According to Hironari and Seiji Toda (composer of Pool of Radiance), the way to create music and sound in the driver was by Music Macro Language.

Release History

The first game to use the driver was "Mezase Pachi-Pro Pachio-kun". The game was exclusive to Japan. With the exception of Phantom Fighter and Pool of Radiance, all of the games that used the driver were released exclusively in Japan. According to Hironari Tadokoro, he made several changes to the driver with each game release. The final game to use the driver was Pachio-kun 5, released in 1993. After this, it appears Tadokoro stopped working on games altogether.

Output

The driver outputs to the RP2A03. None of the game's Marionette developed were released it Europe, so the driver was never optimized for the RP2A07. The DPCM channel is never used. For the two Famicom Disk System games that used the driver, they used the extra channel.

Games

Released Title Sample
1987-12-18 Mezase Pachi Pro: Pachio-kun (FC) (目指せパチプロ:パチ夫くん)
1988-09-16 Phantom Fighter (NES) (霊幻道士)
1988-11-?? Dr. Chaos (NES)
1988-11-12 Pachinko Grand Prix (FDS) (パチンコGP)
1989-01-30 Pachio-kun 2 (FC) (パチ夫くん2)
1989-12-19 I Love Softball (FC) (アイラブソフトボール)
1990-10-26 Pachio-kun 3 (FC) (パチ夫くん3)
1991-06-28 Pool of Radiance (NES)
1991-07-19 Pachinko Daisakusen (FC) (パチンコ大作戦1)
1991-11-22 Pachio-kun 4 (FC) (パチ夫くん4)
1992-07-19 Pachinko Daisakusen 2 (FC) (パチンコ大作戦2)
1993-06-18 Pachio-kun 5 (FC) (パチ夫くん5)

Technical

Frequency Registers

The game's frequencies are actually programmed below what the NES can play. The driver goes from a low B to another B one octave higher. The driver then uses an algorithm to divide each note by 2 to attain higher note frequencies.

B-0 = 710
A#0 = 780
A-0 = 7F0
G#0 = 868
G-0 = 8E8
F#0 = 970
F-0 = A00
E-0 = A98
D#0 = B40
D-0 = BE8
C#0 = CA0
C-0 = D60

Links