Ripping MIDIs from GBA games

Silver

Silver

(not actually volcel)
kiwifarms.net
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Nov 6, 2013
I know we have a few technologically-minded Kiwis, and I was wondering if any of you could help me with something. I've been unsuccessful in finding full soundtracks of two GBA games (specifically Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Games and Hamtaro: Rainbow Rescue) so I'm thinking I'll upload them myself, but these two games in particular are not conducive to recording straight from emulator, and I have no idea to to deal with game coding. So I'm wondering: would anyone here be able to help me out by ripping the soundtracks from these two games and converting them into MIDI files?

There's only one thing I know about the tracks, that might help you out: they don't use the Sappy engine.
 
GBA -> headphone cable -> computer's mic jack -> recording program

Ask me if you need any more details.

You're welcome.

Edit: You can do it with a USB setup too.
 
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The problem here isn't the recording, it's that there isn't a playlist or a dedicated list of the songs in the game so I'm not sure how many there are. This is why I'm looking for someone to help me rip them so I can figure out what all the songs are.

I know I didn't make this clear in the OP but I was hoping I could just have someone offer to help me rip the tracks :/ maybe i should be less vague

Edit: Plus I don't even have one of the two games on cartridge lmao
 
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I remember this sort of thing being very popular in the emu world a while back (15ish years ago). You could download the extracted audio data and run it via a winamp plugin and stuff.

I don't know that what you're looking for is covered, but there might be info to get you on the right track at least if you hunt around.
 
The question is, where can I get the extracted audio data, and would anyone here be willing to help me get it? I know literally nothing about hacking or anything lol
 
I've seen Ham-Ham Heartbreak's rip before, yeah. But searching for Ham-Ham Games and Rainbow Rescue turns up next to nothing.
 
Sorry. My ham ham download skills have fallen short of your needs.

Googling "how to extract gba music" seems to give some results?
 
XYZpdq said:
Sorry. My ham ham download skills have fallen short of your needs.

Googling "how to extract gba music" seems to give some results?
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Unfortunately, results I don't understand. :( But thank you anyway.
 
I'm busy, but I'll look into it this Sunday and do it if it isn't too time consuming.
 
alex_theman said:
Try finding what sound engine it is.
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I've been working on this with someone else, actually. The games don't have like *any* research on them anywhere so all we can do is test for multiple sound engines. I know it's not Sappy for sure, and we're presently trying Krawall. I'll post about that once we determine whether it is or not.

@Splendid Meat Sticks: Hey, thanks! Any help from anyone is greatly appreciated :)
 
Maybe this is a deeper issue, like, the Heartbreak the hamhams feel is such an all-encompassing despair that concepts like joy and music can't even escape the constraints of the game rom.
 
Normally, how this is done is you dump the state of the sound driver as well as all FM patches (Sega Master System/Genesis), PSG (NES, Game Boy), or the MIDI wavetable (SNES, N64). For most consoles there's community-standard formats that hold the sound state; you can play these with Winamp for example and that will give you the "cleanest" sound.

I don't know how sound works on a GBA, but there are a handful of emulators that let you dump .nsf/.spc files for other consoles. Try some GBA emulators and see if they offer any option to export the sound state. Then, you'll get a file playable in special kinds of audio players.
 
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