MSR and Powerstone2 music change problems

[MrQ®]

topic.

you see, after compiling new .afs files for MSR, the game goes weel until i start a rcae, then it freezes...dunno what could be, maybe something similar to ssf2x...

and for powerstone2, it's basically the same, but it freezes after the sega logo, black screen. i tried making it non selfboot, and after loading 100%, it freezes anyways.

[Da1m0n]

So how exactly do you make your .afs files, then?

[MrQ®]

you must do yer adx's first, then you have to extract the files inside the .afs , then change the ones that you want, and finally re-pack all adx's into 1 afs file.

tutorial goes like this:

Change Ingame Music The Hard Way
(c) Deacon Ross 2002

Using this You Can Change The Ingame Music Of Your Dreamcast Games.
Unfortuantly this method will only work with Backup copies of Dreamcast
games NOT originals. Also don't come to me if any thing goes wrong. If
you follow this exactly it should work.
-------------------------------------------------------
1. First of all get the song you want to use.

2. Make sure the song is in .WAV format and very loud louder than
normal becouse when you convert the file to .ADX you will lose volume.

3. Use the program Wav2Adx to to turn your song into a Dreamcast
audio file.

4. Open up windows explorer and look on your Dreamcast CD.

5. Look for any file with a .ADX or .ASF extension
eg. Song1.ASF or Song1.ADX

If you chose a .ASF file follow the next part if your using a
.ADX file go to step 15.

6. If you have a .ASF file use the program AFS2ADX to unzip all of the
files.

7. Use the program ADX2WAV to listen to what each .ADX file is or
for an easier way of doing this download the winamp plugin then you
don't need to convert the .ADX files to .WAV

8. Decide which song you would like to replace out of the several .ADX
files rename the .ADX file you converted earlier to the name of the
.ADX file your replacing.

9. After you rename your file to the one your replacing place all of
the .ADX files in one directory.

10. Create a blank text document with notepad and inside the document
name the place where your .ADX files are kept and the name of them.
eg:
C:\ADX\1.adx
C:\ADX\2.adx
C:\ADX\3.adx etc...

11. Save the text file as the name of the .ASF file you extrated
the .ADX information from but have the ending read .ALS and save
it in the same directory as the .ADX files
eg: AFS file was called Song01.afs save it as C:\ADX\Song1.ALS

12. After completing the last step use the program AFSLNK to zip your
songs in to a .AFS file. To do this unzip AFSLNK into the same
directory as the .ADX files then select your .ALS file and move it
onto AFSLNK.exe this will zip them up and create 3 files.
eg.
SONG01.afs
SONG01.alg
SONG01.h

13. Delete the .ALG and the .H file and the rest of the ADX files
so that only the .AFS file is remaining.

14. Then when reburning your dreamcast game replace the .AFS file you
ripped eg. Song01.afs. With the one you just modified with your own
music.

And If you followed these steps right you should now be able to
listen to your own music on your Dreamcast games.
-----------------------------------------------------
15. Ok you must be here if your just trying to replace a .ADX file
if you chose to get a .ASF file go back to step #6 do not pass go
do not collect $200.

16. Ok so your sure you've got a a .ADX file first of all rename your
.ADX file (the one with your music inside) to the same name that the
one your replacing eg. Song01.adx

17. Then when reburning your dreamcast game replace the .ADX file you
ripped eg. Song01.adx with the one you just changed to have your own
music

And If you followed these steps right you should now be able to
listen to your own music on your Dreamcast games.
===========================
Trouble Shooting
Q. My music files won't convert to .ADX files?
A. Make sure your Audio files are in .WAV format not .MP3 or any other
format. To change MP3s to .WAV use winamp if you go into Winamp
Preferences then into the "Output" tab and select
"Nullsoft Disk Writer Plug-in" and configure it to put WAV files in
the directory of your choice.
Note: When you finish changing .MP3 to .WAV make sure you set Winamp
back to its original settings otherwise instead of playing music it
will crank out .WAV files (and they are really big)

Q. So how do I go about burning the Game after I've converted?
A. Copy all of the files from your game to your harddrive and burn it
using Nero (http://www.ahead.com) it's the easiest thing for burning
Dreamcast games (this method is only for non-selfbootable cds for more
info on how to make your games selfbootable go here:
http://www.dcemulation.com or http://www.cdrom-guide.com

Q. I can't find any .ADX or .ASF files on my Dreamcast game.
A. Unfortuanatly this method will only work for backup DC
games as normal cd drive will not read original Dreamcast games.
==================================
Credits
(c) Deacon Ross
Kain Komics (ftp://203.0.12.1/Upload/Deek/kain_comics.htm)
Also Thanks to Alan Tang for helping me to understand how AFSLNK works
To use this guide on your webpage just email me and ask for my permission.

[Da1m0n]

I wasn't asking how to do this... I was asking HOW DID YOU DO IT. I wanted to try and see where you went wrong.

[MrQ®]

I did exactly as the tutorial says

[Cuba]

You picked probably the hardest game to do. MSR had the worst copy protection of any game i can think of. I wrote a tutorial complete with instructions/ neccessary tools but due to legal reasons I dont think think i should link it without a "ok"

Heres why MSR isnt working: MSR (unlike all other DC games) checks ALL LBAs. Most games check the first file on the disc (1st_read.bin usually) which also contains its own location (11700). Thats why with simpler games the 1st_read.bin must be hacked but the other files can be sorted in any other youd like and the game still loads.

But MSR will verify the location of EVERY FILE. If you take MSR and change the location of a file it will not work. (Im referring to LBA location, the actually order of the files physically).

Example of the repack problem: suppose there are 2 files in MSR and thier LBA locations are 100000 and 200000. Now somewhere im between (lets say 150000) them is one of the music.afs files. You repack it and put it back in the exact same file order. Now the LBA of the first file is still 100000, the music file is 150000 but the other file is now 190000. What happened? The music file you created was smaller than the original, so the locations of all the files after it has been shifted thus making the game now NOT work.

The summary: to make a repack of MSR work
1- uses good audio tools
2- preserve the original echelon file order
3- the audio files (the afs files) must not push the rest of the files out of location

to meet the 3rd requirement, your audio repack must NOT be larger than the original, if its smaller it can be padded to the exact size of the original thus allowing the files to be found in the right spots.

Heres an older thread that details what im talking about.

Good luck.

[MrQ®]

thanks a lot man, i'll try this

and what about powerstone 2?

[f2hunter]

hi im new here found this post via Google..

I also need to successfully ripp>change then put back ADX files into a single AFS file..



Ive tried following but get stuck here:

11. Save the text file as the name of the .ASF file you extrated
the .ADX information from but have the ending read .ALS and save
it in the same directory as the .ADX files
eg: AFS file was called Song01.afs save it as C:\ADX\Song1.ALS

when i try to name my text document with C:\etc i get the following windows error message "a filename cannot contain any of the following charactors: \/:*?"<>|"

how can i work around this...?
And is this the reason why AFS Linker wont even detect my ALS tect document?

anyone here successfully used AFS Linker???

Thanks..