I accidentally discovered what Double Dribble was probably intended to sound like.

EnigmaWave · Post by **EnigmaWave** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:04 pm

When I was implementing my DPCM channel I accidentally shifted the bits out of the register in the wrong direction. This was the result.

double-dribble.mp3

Post by **Memblers** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:46 pm

Haha, wow. I had to check the calendar to make sure it's not April 1st. That's so much cleaner sounding.

I wonder if the Blades of Steel samples were encoded the same way. If so, it could be the end of decades-long debates about what the announcer is saying.

Post by **tepples** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 6:09 pm

So it isn't an off-brand version of Taito's arcade single-screen bubble-blowing game. It's not "Bubble Bibble".

psycopathicteen · Post by **psycopathicteen** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 6:32 pm

I remember reading about something similar happening in a Sega Genesis game (It was either Altered Beast, or Street Fighter II) where the samples themselves sounded good, but there was a glitch in the sound driver that distorted the samples. I think it was an issue with the Z80 getting stuck during DMA.

dink · Post by **dink** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:41 pm

I reproduced this effect on my side, very cool find

Though it makes absolutely no difference for blades of steel.

Dwedit · Post by **Dwedit** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:55 pm

Confirming that the Blades of Steel samples are not bit swapped, just low quality.

rainwarrior · Post by **rainwarrior** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 10:15 pm

Wow that's amazing!

Dwedit · Post by **Dwedit** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 10:36 pm

Edited TCRF: https://tcrf.net/Double_Dribble_(NES)

tokumaru · Post by **tokumaru** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 10:59 pm

This is hilarious!

aa-dav · Post by **aa-dav** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 11:36 pm

It's not as epic as Aliens: Colonial Marines bug (https://www.pcgamesn.com/aliens-colonia ... ai-bug-fix), but it's really cool.

And I wonder - many games with exclusive DCPM fragments have very dirty sounds. 'Kawabanga' in TMNT (2?) for example. These corrected sounds from Double Dribble feels much cleaner, I think. Hm...

Fisher · Post by **Fisher** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 5:29 am

Could this explains this bug on Gradius 2 when running on a "Dynavision Radical" famiclone?

Gradius 2 - Dynavision Radical.mp3

NewRisingSun · Post by **NewRisingSun** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 7:37 am

I made an IPS patch for "Double Dribble (U) (PRG1) [!].nes" that corrects the bit order of the DPCM sample bytes.

Fisher wrote:Could this explains this bug on Gradius 2 when running on a "Dynavision Radical" famiclone?

Indeed, it is the same issue. I reversed the bit order in NintendulatorNRS for testing purposes and got that exact output.

nocash · Post by **nocash** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 12:21 pm

That stuff happens all the time, even in professional music, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n55cl7MOmsg you'd never know if the last 20 seconds were actually intended to sound like that.

Bananmos · Post by **Bananmos** » Fri Jul 10, 2020 12:59 pm

nocash wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 12:21 pm That stuff happens all the time, even in professional music, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n55cl7MOmsg you'd never know if the last 20 seconds were actually intended to sound like that.

Hehe, I think in this case, the intent of reversing the sample is clear. The fact that they are a band playing occult music means playing a prayer backwards looks more like a nod towards conspiracy theories from the Bible Belt, whereas I doubt the same argument can be made for Double Dribble.

Now what would be hilarious would be a Wisdom Tree cartridge with a reversed sample containing disguised messages...

rainwarrior · Post by **rainwarrior** » Fri Jul 10, 2020 1:10 pm

Dwedit wrote: Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:55 pmConfirming that the Blades of Steel samples are not bit swapped, just low quality.

The weird thing about Blades of Steel is some of the samples are still stored in DPCM format but played back with a CPU simulation of the DPCM unit.

So... I guess they would have had to get it right by that point, but I have no explanation for why they bothered to duplicate the hardware in software.

I accidentally discovered what Double Dribble was probably intended to sound like.

I accidentally discovered what Double Dribble was probably intended to sound like.

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Re: I accidentally discovered what Double Dribble was probably intended to sound like.

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Re: I accidentally discovered what Double Dribble was probably intended to sound like.

Re: I accidentally discovered what Double Dribble was probably intended to sound like.