Daimakaimura (Ghouls n Ghosts) MIDI error (and other games)

[bobrocks95]

I have an Etarikashikoshi 8MB Memory + MIDI board that I'm assuming is the problem here, but there's a decent chance I have something configured wrong as well. (https://t.co/03GyWvUvW9)

Here is the error that Daimakaimura shows after selecting external for the sound source option, both with a SCSI2SD and with original floppies:


My kanji remains terrible but "There was an error ($0018). Please reset" should be all the help that offers. ($0018) is very likely a memory address, but willing to bet it just maps to the address MIDI cards use.

Anyone able to test this out or knows they've gotten Daimakaimura running fine with their MIDI card? Another game that's had issues that I've tried was Etoille Princess, which let you select MIDI (Board) but then controller input stopped working.


Interestingly my results for both games also line up with some findings for the MiSTer FPGA emulation platform- https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?p=71298&sid=e116ed7fa5d686d028015f53c6616bdc#p71298

[rezb1t]

Both Daimakaimura and Etoile Princesse work perfectly with my aje_fr 8MB RAM + MIDI board. Sounds like a bug with the Etarikashikoshi.

[bobrocks95]

Both Daimakaimura and Etoile Princesse work perfectly with my aje_fr 8MB RAM + MIDI board. Sounds like a bug with the Etarikashikoshi.

Thanks! Pretty disappointed in this board so far, I'm at like 4/6 games tested so far working with MIDI output, and even if there is a fix I don't believe it's user-updatable...

Guess I will run through everything MIDI I can and do the guy's testing work for him, would think Daimakaimura would be a pretty popular title to test with....

[z964]

I had this same problem just today with a different midi board, and was able to solve it by toggling the IRQ selection switch on my board.  I don't suppose your board has one of those?

[rezb1t]

I had this same problem just today with a different midi board, and was able to solve it by toggling the IRQ selection switch on my board.  I don't suppose your board has one of those?

Good point! Looks like the Etarikashikoshi does have a way to set the IRQ via jumpers. It's definitely worth a shot.

I ordered an Etarikashikoshi from the latest batch so I'll report back when I receive it.

[BlackVega]

Does that mean these boards have wrong IRQ set by default in the factory? Strange

[bobrocks95]

I had this same problem just today with a different midi board, and was able to solve it by toggling the IRQ selection switch on my board.  I don't suppose your board has one of those?

Thanks, this did the trick! It was set to IRQ4 and now is on IRQ2 and seems much more compatible.  Daimakaimura gave no errors (and sounds wonderful with General MIDI strings), and Etoille Princesse no longer freezes (it tastefully adds select MIDI drums to the already great FM tracks).  Waiting for MT-32 cables to test further.

It also gave me an opportunity to take another look at the board and see some very cheap production on it, now that I've researched this on reproduction game carts:
- Appears to use a HASL PCB finish which is absolutely not fit for something with an edge connector.  If you were to unplug and replug ~100 times it would probably become unusable.  ENIG is the bare minimum for something like this, preferably hard gold.
- There is ZERO beveling on the edge connector.  No wonder it is so hard to plug in.  Repeated insertion cycles are likely to damage your X68000's I/O slot in the long-term.

Not the end of the world for the type of thing most people will only plug in once or twice and then leave it, but beveling is cheap, and an ENIG finish isn't that much either.  Ideally the guy who made it should have charged ~$20-30 more and gotten Hard Gold, and even at the current price point the connector should be beveled and ENIG.