Link Tomlin (NES Driver)

Link Tomlin

Released 1992-??-?? Programmers Link Tomlin Language 6502 Assembly Formats Unknown

Link Tomlin is an unofficial name of the sound driver used at Source. According to Source programmer Eddie Gill, the driver was programmed by Link Tomlin. His brother Chris Gill was the only one to compose music on the driver. He would compose MIDI files on Pro24 for the Atari ST, which were then converted to Link's sound engine via a conversion utility.

Release History

The driver was only used in two games; one being a North American exclusive release, and the other being a European exclusive release. Therefore, the driver was never used in Japanese games. It's hard to tell which game used the driver first because Noah's Ark's exact release date isn't known. Both games were released in 1992, but Motor City Patrol was released in January of that year.

Source developed an NES game titled Scarabaeus (known as Pyramids of Ra on Game Boy), but the prototype ROM contains no sound, but it is assumed that Tomlin's driver would have been used since it was by the same developers. It is unknown what countries the game would have been released for, but the Game Boy version was released in North America, so it may have been the same for the NES version.

Output

The driver outputs to the RP2A03 in North America and RP2A07 in Europe. Noah's Ark uses digitized percussion on the DPCM channel as well as utilizing the triangle channel, whereas Motor City Patrol only uses the two square channels at the noise channel.

Games

Released	Title	Sample
1992-??-??	Noah's Ark (NES)
1992-01-??	Motor City Patrol (NES)
Unreleased	Scarabaeus (NES)

Technical

Frequency Registers

B-7 = 0E
A#7 = 0F
A-7 = 10
G#7 = 11
G-7 = 12
F#7 = 13
F-7 = 14
E-7 = 15
D#7 = 16
D-7 = 18
C#7 = 19
C-7 = 1B
B-6 = 1C
A#6 = 1E
A-6 = 20
G#6 = 22
G-6 = 24
F#6 = 26
F-6 = 28
E-6 = 2A
D#6 = 2D
D-6 = 30
C#6 = 32
C-6 = 35
B-5 = 39
A#5 = 3C
A-5 = 40
G#5 = 43
G-5 = 47
F#5 = 4C
F-5 = 50
E-5 = 55
D#5 = 5A
D-5 = 5F
C#5 = 65
C-5 = 6B
B-4 = 71
A#4 = 78
A-4 = 7F
G#4 = 87
G-4 = 8F
F#4 = 97
F-4 = A0
E-4 = AA
D#4 = B4
D-4 = BE
C#4 = CA
C-4 = D6
B-3 = E2
A#3 = F0
A-3 = FE
G#3 = 10D
G-3 = 11D
F#3 = 12E
F-3 = 140
E-3 = 153
D#3 = 168
D-3 = 17D
C#3 = 194
C-3 = 1AC
B-2 = 1C5
A#2 = 1E0
A-2 = 1FC
G#2 = 21B
G-2 = 23B
F#2 = 25D
F-2 = 281
E-2 = 2A7
D#2 = 2CF
D-2 = 2FA
C#2 = 327
C-2 = 357
B-1 = 38A
A#1 = 3C0
A-1 = 3F9

Addresses

Motor City Patrol: $8543-$85D8
Noah's Ark: $184A0-$18535