Redbook CD Audio Support?

[monoksidec]

TL;DR: Does anyone know if support for Redbook audio is in the works for the ao486 core?

I just took the plunge and put together a Mister (can't believe I waited so long - what an awesome project!). One of the big reasons I did it was to play 90s PC games on the ao486 core, but I immediately noticed on my first boot up of one of my favorite games from that era - The 7th Guest - that there is no Redbook audio support

Backstory: The 7th Guest came out when I was 12, and my parents couldn't get it working on our brand spanking new 386 DX PC. I wanted to play this game so bad (I had never played a PC game before at all), that I read all of the manuals, taught myself about PC hardware, taught myself DOS, and figured out the problem (which was related to the autoexec.bat and config.sys files).

When it actually loaded and I started a new game, I was so excited and proud of myself, that the moment was burned into my memory. The awesome music, the animation, the whole package was just magic to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULiskaGXVsc

I actually decided at that moment that I wanted to work with computers for a living, and ended up becoming a software engineer. So you can say that The 7th Guest's intro actually changed my life, LOL.

Anyway, I know that there are other ways to play The 7th Guest (and I have) but I want to recreate the magic of that authentic experience, and it will never be complete until the Redbook audio plays

So, my question is, does anyone know if or when this feature might be added to the ao486 core? I haven't been able to find anything to suggest that it might be in the works. In fact, I found a thread somewhere where it was mentioned that there might not be enough room on the fpga due to the core's complexity. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't the case though. Thanks for reading my short story if you got to this point

[Bas]

Love the story! The MegaCD implements Red Book.. should be doable if it fits I guess.

[LamerDeluxe]

Haha, yeah, I loved reading that story as well, such determination. Redbook audio would be a really good addition, it was a big part of CD-ROM games at the time.

I happily skipped the whole MS/DOS era, as I had Amigas which were superior back then. The whole concept of having to configure DOS to be able to run a game is really odd to me, so I still don't know very much about the specifics. This makes it interesting for me to try the AO486 core.

[Bas]

Heh I lived through DOS because my dad thought it prudent to buy a massively overpriced PC right before I finally saved enough for myself to buy an A500. I did get one years later out of nostalgia. Amiga is still superior in many ways. The crap one takes for granted in Microsoft-land boggles the mind.

The 7th guest was one stunning game at the time, but a real piece of work to fit the CD drivers, mouse and whatever else was needed into the first 640KB of memory.

[LamerDeluxe]

Somewhere in the late nineties someone used to working with PCs told me using an Amiga always felt like some mechanical things inside the computer had been fixed, making everything work smoothly.

I remember how surprised I was when I found out that crashes on PC weren't predictable. On the Amiga I knew exactly what combination of steps I shouldn't do with certain applications, to avoid crashes.

All the different possible configurations on those old PCs are fascinating though.

[monoksidec]

Glad you enjoyed my story! I did notice that the SegaCD core had cd audio support, so there is at least some hope there.

I missed the Amiga completely, so it unfortunately doesn't have the nostalgia factor for me. But I can tell that it was an awesome system with tons of great games. Definitely looking forward to trying it out.

[Caldor]

Yeah, I have been hoping to see CD audio support for AO486 as well, and for the Amiga / Minimig core. The Amiga core only supports ISO images though while AO486 does already support cue-bin and I think several other cue based formats. So it can use the images that has CD audio even, just wont play the audio.

[softtest9]

I have some DOS and early Windows games that use CD Audio, so I agree that this would be a useful feature.

[AmintaMister]

Cd audio support added in the last core release!

[HarborSeal]

I used it last night. The CD audio plays great.

However there are couple of setbacks.

1) The audio only plays at the correct timing at the default 90mhz CPU speed. If you set the CPU to 30mhz or 56mhz, the audio will play slower. Some games like Secret of Monkey Island need to be set below 90mhz or else it will freeze during gameplay. Audio timing fixed on 08-18-23 build.

2) There doesn't seem to be any volume control. Only ON and OFF. In Warcraft II, the CD Audio volume slider doesn't work. The audio turns off if you slide it to 0, but otherwise, there's no change in volume level.

[Caldor]

I have been testing as well. Got several games to work.
Goblins 3, Secret of Monkey Island CD version, pretty sure Settlers 2 Gold should work as well.
Heroes of Might and Magic 2 ran pretty slow but CD audio worked. I tried Little Big Adventure, but I could it kept getting errors when I tried enabling music. Complained about a lack of Midi. I think it was because I needed to configure it correctly.

I do not think 7th Guest has CD audio? Not the version I have anyway.

[AmintaMister]

Still Rayman doesn't work (it doesn't boot)... Alone in the dark works fine.

[thera34]

Besides HOMM, Gob3 and Warcraft2, also tested and found working Fantasy General (nice opera tracks), FX Fighter, Hammer of the Gods (found that dialogs are as tracks), Stone Keep (though it only has two tracks), Shadow Warrior and SideLine

[FPGA64]

I used it last night. The CD audio plays great.

However there are couple of setbacks.

1) The audio only plays at the correct timing at the default 90mhz CPU speed. If you set the CPU to 30mhz or 56mhz, the audio will play slower. Some games like Secret of Monkey Island need to be set below 90mhz or else it will freeze during gameplay.

2) There doesn't seem to be any volume control. Only ON and OFF. In Warcraft II, the CD Audio volume slider doesn't work. The audio turns off if you slide it to 0, but otherwise, there's no change in volume level.

1 has just been corrected. Sorg put a fix in

[HarborSeal]

1 has just been corrected. Sorg put a fix in

The audio timing has been fixed for 30mhz. Unfortunately, now Secret of Monkey Island freezes at 30mhz too. This problem may require a game specific fix similar to what @user7182 implemented for Secret of Monkey Island Ultimate Talkie Edition. viewtopic.php?t=3889

[the_muteKi]

Really glad to see this feature, but a little disappointed to find that Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure has issues with it. While I can effortlessly get the intro cutscene to play cd audio properly, at the end of it something seems to have happened that not only crashed Windows 95 but also the entire core, so I couldn't open the menu to reset. Skipping the cutscene prevents the crash but locks up the cd audio playback somehow