Difference between revisions of "Ken Moore (NES Driver)"

Revision as of 05:35, 16 October 2019

Ken Moore is an unofficial name of the sound driver used at Sculptured Software. According to Sculptured Software's main composer Paul Webb, it was programmed by Ken Moore.

Paul would write the music on his keyboards. However, he doesn't remember exactly how his compositions were converted over to the NES. According to Mario Gonzalez, the music was done by him using a sequencer and then typing the music in assembly on a computer.

Ken Hedgecock says that he used a piece of software by Yamaha, but doesn't remember the name of it. Graeme Devine said something about using AdLib Visual Composer as well.

Release History

The first game released to use Sculptured's sound driver was Spot: The Video Game, developed by Virgin Games.

While Sculptured Software was developing The Empire Strikes Back for NES, members of Active Enterprises were taken to Sculptured and used their development tools to make Action 52 and Cheetahmen II. Mario Gonzalez got to use their sound driver to compose the music and sounds to Action 52 and Cheetahmen II.

The last released game to use Ken Moore's NES driver was Tecmo NBA Basketball, released near the end of 1992. A few unreleased games also used the driver such as Dino Hockey (unknown year), The Legend of Robin Hood (1990), and War on Wheels (1991).

The sound driver was used in games released in North America, Europe, and Japan, and is one of the few sound drivers to be used in each country.

Output

Ken Moore's sound driver outputs to the RP2A03 and RP2A07. The DPCM channel is used in rare instances (Day Dreamin' Davey and Monopoly), but not for music. The driver utilizes the triangle channel with the noise channel to produce better percussion, but is also used as a melodic and bass line.

Games

Released	Title	Sample
1990-09-??	Spot: The Video Game (NES) (スポット)
1990-12-24	Metal Mech: Man & Machine (NES) (メタルフレーム サイバスター)
1991-??-??	Action 52 (NES)
1991-??-??	Monopoly (NES)
1991-10-??	Roger Clemens MVP Baseball (NES)
1991-11-??	Eliminator Boat Duel (NES)
1991-11-??	Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (NES)
1992-??-??	WWF WrestleMania: Steel Cage Challenge (NES)
1992-03-??	Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (NES)
1992-06-??	Day Dreamin' Davey (NES)
1992-10-??	Stanley: The Search for Dr. Livingston (NES)
1992-10-??	T&C II: Thrilla's Surfari (NES)
1992-11-??	Tecmo NBA Basketball (NES)
1993-??-??	Cheetahmen II (NES)
Unreleased	Dino Hockey (NES)
Unreleased	The Legend of Robin Hood (NES)
Unreleased	War on Wheels (NES)

Technical

Frequency Registers

B-6 = 1B
A#6 = 1D
A-6 = 1F
G#6 = 21
G-6 = 23
F#6 = 25
F-6 = 27
E-6 = 29
D#6 = 2C
D-6 = 2E
C#6 = 31
C-6 = 35
B-5 = 38
A#5 = 3B
A-5 = 3E
G#5 = 42
G-5 = 47
F#5 = 4A
F-5 = 4F
E-5 = 54
D#5 = 59
D-5 = 5E
C#5 = 64
C-5 = 6A
B-4 = 70
A#4 = 77
A-4 = 7E
G#4 = 86
G-4 = 8E
F#4 = 96
F-4 = 9F
E-4 = A9
D#4 = B3
D-4 = BD
C#4 = C9
C-4 = D4
B-3 = E1
A#3 = EF
A-3 = FD
G#3 = 10C
G-3 = 11C
F#3 = 12D
F-3 = 13F
E-3 = 152
D#3 = 166
D-3 = 17B
C#3 = 192
C-3 = 1AA
B-2 = 1C3
A#2 = 1DE
A-2 = 1FB
G#2 = 219
G-2 = 23A
F#2 = 25B
F-2 = 27F
E-2 = 2A5
D#2 = 2CD
D-2 = 2F8
C#2 = 325
C-2 = 356
B-1 = 387
A#1 = 3BD
A-1 = 3F5
G#1 = 430
G-1 = 473
F#1 = 4B5
F-1 = 4FE
E-1 = 54B
D#1 = 59B
D-1 = 5EF
C#1 = 64A
C-1 = 6AD
B-0 = 70E
A#0 = 77A
A-0 = 7EA

Addresses

Action 52: $1BCA5-$1BD3A
Cheetahmen II: $23975-$23A0A
Day Dreamin' Davey: $1BAC1-$1BB56
Dino Hockey: $1490A-$1499F
Eliminator Boat Duel: $10682-$10717
Legend of Robin Hood: $3491D-$349B2
MetalMech: $1C590-$1C60D (JU) (Note: Not all frequency registers are shown.)
Monopoly: $9ED2-$9F67 (J) $A148-$A1DD (U)
Robin Hood: $3464F-$346E4
Roger Clemens MVP Baseball: $1F8F0-$1F985
Spot: $7E71-$7F00
Stanley: $1E161-$1E1F6
Star Wars ESB: $1FC00-$1FC95 (JU)
T&C II: Thrilla's Surfari: $11E72-$11F07
Tecmo NBA Basketball: $1F983-$1FA18
War on Wheels: $1A05C-$1A0F1

Links