lp:ngdevkit

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-07-19 14:47:32 UTC

Build without sudo requirements with default prefix

Make the standard "./configure && make && make install" work
as intended, that is, only require sudo permissions for
"make install", when the permissions of prefix's path require it.

Fixes #155

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-07-18 12:19:03 UTC

nullbios: fix asm macro for backup ram access

Commit ca710f9 added memory fencing hints for the compiler,
but in doing so, this broke the original asm instruction due
to how we did not guard symbol % when referencing %d0

Ref #132

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-07-10 17:07:16 UTC

Fix macOS tap install

Taps now need to be trusted before installing packages from them.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-06-21 12:01:53 UTC

Update dependencies in README

Fix missing rsync dependency
Fix MSYS2 install notes, as reported in dciabrin/ngdevkit-examples#17

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-06-19 19:35:53 UTC

WIP

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-06-06 15:55:34 UTC

nullsound: mute/unmute volume API

Mute the volume output of music and SFX without stopping playback.
This can be useful when a game wants to mute all volume, e.g. during
the attract mode.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-06-03 10:16:36 UTC

Workflow dispatch for simpler manual tests

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-06-02 21:30:50 UTC

Fix package name for Pillow dependency

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-05-19 18:12:20 UTC

Bump ngdevkit version to 0.5

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-05-05 19:17:02 UTC

Preserve YM2610 context for port A and B

Address context must be preserved for both ports A and B, because
a write to data port X is only effective if the port previously
written to was the same port X.

This fixes a race condition that would cause invalid setup of ADPCM-A
sample, and trigger a wrong communication pattern to the YM2610.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-05-03 09:03:46 UTC

Expose function to stop an ongoing ADPCM-B playback

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-04-28 17:36:15 UTC

nullsound: reset exclusive SFX when calling stream_stop

Right now stream_stop internally calls ym2610_reset, which forcibly
stops all ADPCM channels, including SFX. So the exclusive status
must be reset, otherwise any ongoing SFX exclusive playbacks will
never report playback stop, and the channel will get blocked
until a new exclusive sample unblocks it.

This is an immediate fix until we set up a cleaner API.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-04-20 20:19:18 UTC

nullsound: rework exclusive ADPCM playback semantics

Update the ADPCM SFX playback functions:
  . snd_X_play now plays a ADPCM sample only if the current
    channel is not locked for uninterruptible playback.
  . snd_X_play_exclusive locks a channel to be uninterruptible,
    except if another snd_X_play_exclusive is run on the same
    channel.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-04-09 22:37:22 UTC

Initial support for extended FM2 channels

NSS can now encode and playback Furnace modules that make use of
YM2610's extended FM2, which allows four independent notes (one
note per operator) on channel FM2.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-04-07 05:12:03 UTC

Fix parsing of furnace modules for version > 240

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-04-05 07:39:43 UTC

BIOS API: Present the CARD function as a C interface

Provide additional helper functions for checking the state
of the memory card prior to calling the BIOS function.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-03-30 21:09:22 UTC

Cleanup LFO register during YM2610 reset

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-03-13 17:05:51 UTC

Fix makefile to honor custom exec-prefix

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-03-12 06:29:36 UTC

Cleanup configure script on MSYS2

Do not enforce gngeo dependencies if it's not being built

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-02-28 16:12:42 UTC

Transition to AES or MVS pitch tables for NSS

Added dedicated pitch tables to generate the exact frequency
specific in Furnace modules based on the YM2610 clock used by
the hardware (either AES or MVS).

Modify furtool to generate Delta-N values that are based on
the clock used by Furnace modules (AES or MVS).

By default, we now stick to the MVS tables, and we provide a new
nullsound-aes.lib if one wants to get precise frequency rendition
for Furnace modules which have been authored for the AES.

The generated tables are included in this commit, so are the
input scripts used to generate the tables.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-03-03 18:20:31 UTC

WIP cache

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-02-22 18:06:45 UTC

Fix VROM offset generation with multiple VROMs

Offsets of Z80 include files did not account for VROM
number where the sample was allocated, so playing back
SFX was causing wrong audio when SFX was allocated in
second VROM and beyond.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-02-06 17:24:49 UTC

Fix BIOS API calls linking in libngdevkit

In [1], BIOS API calls were exposed as regular C functions, but they
were not build and linked in libngdevkit.a, so they could not get used.

[1] cf8a70de62470b31c6878584a458163b571147b5

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2026-02-06 17:24:49 UTC

Fix BIOS API calls linking in libngdevkit

In [1], BIOS API calls were exposed as regular C functions, but they
were not build and linked in libngdevkit.a, so they could not get used.

[1] cf8a70de62470b31c6878584a458163b571147b5

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-12-11 21:32:21 UTC

WIP

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-11-18 21:37:59 UTC

Fix ym2610 reentrant write to port A (part 2)

Follow up fix to f5e226851364c37cd8d5ff79da117971b393b53c, in
the interrupt handler, the driver should not recapture the
register context when writing to the YM2610's port A.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-11-16 14:34:02 UTC

Update soundtool to generate new NSS dependency rules

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-11-13 07:14:46 UTC

NSS: fix legato FX trigger

Legato and Quick legato FX are distinguished by flags in the pipeline,
and this caused an issue when enabling the FX. Fixed.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-08-10 10:48:30 UTC

nullbios: implement fix_clear and lsp_1st BIOS calls

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-06-06 21:19:04 UTC

fixed missing NSS FX support in doc

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-05-23 12:18:38 UTC

nsstool: improved channel filtering

Ability to generate NSS for only a subset of available channels,
without disturbing the playback if filtered channels contained
FX that control the flow (e.g. 0Bxx, 0Dxx, FFxx...)

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-05-18 22:39:57 UTC

nullsound: fix enable mask during SSG reset

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-05-18 20:03:32 UTC

nullsound: update initialization to allow music during attract mode

By convention, the BIOS calls NMI with command 02 to play a jingle
music during while the system ROM runs its attract mode animation.

Add the ability to call a user function right after nullsound
initialization, so one can play a user-provided NSS stream during
the attract mode.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-04-27 15:01:15 UTC

nullsound: arpeggio FX

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-04-26 11:41:11 UTC

nullsound: reworked slide FX semantics

Refactored the three slide FX (note slide, pitch slide, portamento)
and the transition between slides and notes, to better match the
semantics from Furnace.

Captured various examples in a doc to detail the expected behaviour
of each slide FX.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-04-19 14:58:25 UTC

nullsound: precise ADPCM-B freqs for decimal semitones

Use a 16:8 fixed point delta-n list that is unique to every
ADPCM-B instrument, to map a precise C-4 delta according to
the instrument's sample frequency

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-04-13 13:25:32 UTC

nullsound: precise SSG and FM freqs for decimal semitones

Use a 12:12 fixed point math to assign a frequency for every
semitone and every pitch, in a way that perfectly matches Furnace.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-02-26 18:28:06 UTC

NSS: do not generate NSS for unused tracks

This got broken in 10a6c41e5664b06d393fdf1d13790686f4356f06 with the
introduction of a compact call table opcode.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-02-24 21:07:48 UTC

NSS: fix waveform configuration during macro evaluation

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2025-02-15 15:54:15 UTC

soundtool: improve generation of NSS makefile dependencies

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-12-28 21:04:17 UTC

tiletool: support for Neo Geo CD SPR file format

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-12-27 21:30:44 UTC

nullsound: improve linking of default empty sound driver

Do not use .db statement in nullsound, because there is no
BSS or DATA segment initialization anyway.

Use .blkb instead, to that serves the same purpose for sdld,
but does not generate statement in .ihx files, so the resulting
nullsound driver can be smaller.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-12-14 18:20:17 UTC

nullsound: vibrato FX for ADPCM-B channel

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-12-14 11:47:25 UTC

nullsound: pan FX for ADPCM channels

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-12-13 21:57:39 UTC

nullsound: groove FX

Updated parsing of Furnace module to read speed pattern (more than one
speed). Added groove FX support.
This commit doesn't implement groove pattern, the groove FX only works
for 2-speeds modules.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-12-11 18:33:32 UTC

nullsound: retrigger FX

Also add the missing nsstool features for the cut and delay refactoring
from the previous commit

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-12-10 20:51:22 UTC

nullsound: note cut FX

Plus note delay FX for ADPCM-B which was missing from previous commits

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-12-10 20:21:16 UTC

nullsound: big refactor and new pipeline processing (#2)

Another round of refactoring to add the FX pipeline processing
to ADPCM-A and ADPCM-B.
Added support for trigger and slide effects to the ADPCM-B channels,
as well as portamento and pitch/detune.
nsstool is updated to support all those new opcodes.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-11-29 18:18:54 UTC

nullsound: added FX pipeline to ADPCM-A channels

Added a 'note delay' FX for testing the pipeline.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-11-28 18:21:09 UTC

nullsound: generic trigger FX

The trigger FX currently implements Furnace's 'delay FX', i.e it allows
a note to be registered after a configured number of ticks.
The same FX will be used to implement the 'cut FX', i.e stop the
playback of a note after a configured number of ticks.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-11-21 21:13:51 UTC

nullsound: big refactor and new pipeline processing

This commit holds a massive refactoring of the FM and SSG
processing that is hapenning at every step.

Now every channel has a fixed sound pipeline where every NSS
opcode records actions to perform for a row, and the processing
of those actions and FX takes place at every step.

SSG channel has its macro processing reworked. Now every register
can be updated at every step of the macro definition, and loop
support has been added.

This is a breaking commit that requires recompiling the NSS
instruments and streams. The user API stays the same.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-10-03 19:13:28 UTC

Fix the ADPCM-B note playback

ADPCM-B can vary sample playback, and the frequency to be used for
sample playback depends on the sample's configured frequency.
Expose that frequency in intruments and use it to generate the proper
frequency for the requested note in the Furnace module.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-09-29 17:08:26 UTC

furtool: skip unsupported macro attributes

Instead of crashing, try to skip unsupported attribute in SSG macro
definition.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-09-28 20:35:18 UTC

Automatic convertion of wav to adpcm for samples

Update vromtool.py and soundtool.py to generate automatically
convert input .wav samples into ADPCM-A or ADPCM-B, based on
the playback speed

This removes to need to convert sound asserts with adpcmtool
prior to use them in vromtool or soundtool.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-08-23 21:38:34 UTC

nullsound: global music volume support

Add functions to control the global output volume for a playing
NSS stream.
Add volume fade out function for both music and SFX.

This commit introduces a change in how nsstool generates stream
data, and nullsound now expects this new format, so it is not
backward-compatible with previously generated NSS data.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-08-23 07:58:50 UTC

Improved generation of software DIPs data in ROM

Instead of emitting symbols for every software DIP defined, generate
a single structure that holds all time, count and enum DIPs.

This makes the compilation of DIP data more predictable and fixes issues
with compilation with optimization enabled.

Add new API functions to access the new DIP structure, and provide
compatibility macros to support the old/deprecated way of accessing
sotware DIPs.

Closes #113

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-08-19 21:15:02 UTC

NSS: do not generate compact stream data for empty channels

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-08-15 13:45:00 UTC

soundtool: update action for generated asset map

When the generate option is used and the output already exists on disk,
soundtool now performs an update action:
  . it only keeps data for sound files passed in input
  . it keeps any customization found in the existing desc for those sound files

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-08-15 11:48:27 UTC

NSS: fix slide semantics

Do not reset the slide effect once the slide reached its end, to
try and match Furnace's semantics

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-08-15 12:38:31 UTC

CI: fix brew link inssue on macOS x86

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-06-25 20:24:41 UTC

soundtool.py: sound asset management for nullsound

soundtool.py is a new tool that automates the generation of sound maps
and sound commands for m68k and z80.

soundtool.py supports both Furnace (music) and ADPCM (sfx) in sound maps,
and is able to generate sound command header for the m68k code, as well
as generate the boilerplate z80 code to trigger music or sound fx from
the z80.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2024-06-25 19:15:06 UTC

nss: opcodes for ADPCM-A/B volume

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2023-12-13 21:29:07 UTC

Detect errors when calling make recursively

When building tools, we loop and call make recursively and
fail to react to track errors returned from those calls.
To fix that, force the shell targets to exit as soon as
they detect a submake failure.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2023-06-30 15:55:03 UTC

Reimplementation of nullsound sound driver

Breaking change.

nullsound is now a z80 library that can be linked by users. The
sound commands are now implemented by the user, which just calls
a series of functions from the nullsound library.

nullsound internally is now much simpler. It provides simple actions
for trigerring immediate sounds; it manages a state tracker for every
part of the YM2610.

This rebuild prepares nullsound for managing interrupts and playback
of simple sound fx or music via VDM.

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2023-05-26 14:52:15 UTC

msys2: Update build and docs to target ucrt64

Nightly CI deprecated mingw64 packages in favour of ucrt64
package. Update the source build steps and documentation to
drop mingw support and only provide msys2/ucrt64 support.

Ref #94

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2023-05-17 08:03:23 UTC

msys2: move CI build to ucrt64 subsystem

Ref dciabrin/ngdevkit#92

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2023-02-18 11:02:31 UTC

Fix linking when backup RAM is used

Follow-up fix of linkscript after [1]. The linkscript
incorrectly relies on lazy evaluation to computes the
start of the .bss segment in RAM, leaving all linked
symbols incorrectly shifted in memory.

Re-work the backup RAM definition in the linkscript
with a proper MEMORY command, and expose macros in
the ngdevkit API to override the start and length of
the backup RAM at link-time.

Closes #86

[1] 4ccd470cd0039fbaf18e7f915f45d0d36d5e09d5

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2022-11-27 12:16:32 UTC

Initial support for P-ROM bank-switching

New API to map a specific chunk of the the second P-ROM into the
P-ROM2 memory address space at runtime (0x200000..0x2fffff).

To support bank-switching transparently, the order in which the
ELF sections are linked is modified: the devkit's code is always
linked in the first P-ROM, as well as all data. The user code
gets linked last, and all files whose path contain the substring
`__bank` get implicitly linked in the second P-ROM.

Closes #81

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2021-12-25 14:21:54 UTC

Ability to configure backup RAM segment in ROM

A new section in ngdevkit linkscript and an associated
C macro allows variables to be stored in a location that
gets automatically saved to backup RAM on MVS.

Closes #70

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2021-08-21 11:05:07 UTC

nullbios: fix credit management and AES

Fix the AES start_status check after the implementation of
credit management for 2 players.

Fix an invalid shift for credit checks in the MVS case.

Ref dciabrin/ngdevkit-examples#7

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2021-08-19 20:34:06 UTC

nullbios: credits management for 2 players

Ref dciabrin/ngdevkit-examples#7

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2021-08-16 17:46:23 UTC

Make memory-mapped registers volatile in C headers

As we don't want the compiler to optimize away reads or writes
to those addresses.

Closes #51

Author: Damien Ciabrini
Author Date: 2021-05-14 10:17:49 UTC

Update documentation to detail how to install packages on MSYS2.

Split the documentation in dedicated files for each platform.