Mr. Gimmick 2 (enhanced Audio)

Posted By GlitterBerri at 9:25 AM on Tuesday August 14, 2012

This June 29th, 2011 interview with Sunsoft composer Masashi Kageyama was conducted by Shun Arita of Cyzo. Kageyama composed the music for the little-known masterpiece Mr. Gimmick (also known as Gimmick!), a Famicom game that only saw release in Japan and Scandinavia. It was commissioned by sharc.

This tutorial tells you how to make a (Mr.) Gimmick!-Repro for the Nintendo Famicom. If you want to play it on a NES system please be aware you need to modify the NES and the 60/72-Pin-Adapter in order to hear the additional sound channels. Uses a special sound chip for it's awesome music. The chip is called 'SUNSOFT 5B', or 5B for short. DAUGHTER, its first game (Gremlins 2) was released almost two years after the first 5A game, but a year before Gimmick! 2018-04-09T04:30:52Z Comment by ImATrackMan. 2 MMC3 and 2 FME games right there. Users who like Episode 27: The Sunsoft 5B & Mr. Users who reposted Episode 27: The Sunsoft 5B & Mr.

You can listen to the Mr. Gimmick soundtrack here.

A Forward

Retro games: Simple, but full of limitless potential.

Young gamers used to slip under the watchful gaze of the mothers who restricted their playtime to 1 hour a day in order to further unfold grand adventures, the music in the game their constant companion.

This year marks the launch of a record label called Clarice Disc that aims to revive retro game music in the 21st century.

Rom Cassette In SUNSOFT, released by the label on June 29th, is a game music CD featuring a compilation of over 200 songs from unforgettable Sunsoft Famicom titles such as The Mystery of Atlantis, 53 Stations of the Tokaido, and Ripple Island.

To mark this event, I’d like to take a look back at the days when video games reigned supreme, interviewing people closely associated with Sunsoft.

“Thanks to game music, I now understand what sounds are truly necessary.”

Sunsoft put a lot of effort into the music of their games, enough that retro game fans now describe them as “Musical Sunsoft”. Out of all their titles, Sunsoft’s final Famicom game, Mr. Gimmick, receives the most praise.

It was the year 1992. The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis had already been released, and the game industry was moving towards the 16-bit era. It was against this background that Mr. Gimmick debuted on the market as an 8-bit Famicom title. Although its pop art graphics and challenging level of difficulty made it a hot topic amongst game fans, the obscure action-based masterpiece didn’t attain stardom.

The Mr. Gimmick Famicom cartridge came equipped with a proprietary sound chip developed by Sunsoft, a company that showed extraordinary dedication to sound quality. The ambitious release overcame hardware limitations to realize its musical potential.

The man behind the game’s music was Masashi Kageyama. Mixing jazz with a taste of fusion and other styles not often heard in Famicom titles, his work continues to receive the support of game music fans over 20 years later. This well-known composer, who worked on a considerable amount of game music spanning from the late 80s to the mid-90s, has released over 1000 songs.

“It just so happened that there was a programmer working at Sunsoft who was good with Macs. He taught me little by little as I started composing.”

An example of arpeggiated music.

Kageyama speaks nostalgically of the frequent visits he once made to the Naru Jazz House in Ochanomizu, Tokyo, where he went to see live shows. Originally playing the saxophone and performing with jazz bands, the composer entered the world of game music without being very familiar with gaming culture.

“Back then, game music was mostly done with arpeggios. I felt that the simplicity made it boring.”

Such were his feelings upon setting foot into the realm of video game music. As such, his first challenge, to put it simply, was figuring out how to make music that sounded as normal as possible using only a small number of audio channels. Not an easy task.

“In those days, you could only use 4 channels at a time, so it was a constant struggle. I couldn’t use a lot of different timbres, either, due to the limited memory capacity of the ROM. I was forced to think about music as though it were a puzzle. You can’t create an awesome-sounding chord without using all 4 channels. But, if you do, you won’t be able to have any other sounds playing at the same time. So, I tried creating chords using only 2 channels… In any case, I ended up learning a lot. Thanks to my experience doing game music, I now have a good sense of what sounds are truly neccessary.”

An unused track from Mr. Gimmick.

Composing in a restricted environment is definitely not a privilege. A regular person might complain, but Kageyama turned his situation around, creating a series of impressive melodies and songs of a complexity that wasn’t often heard in games at the time.

“I wanted to break the existing Famicom channels. My goal was to take what people generally considered to be the sound of the Famicom, and kick it up a notch. The game served as a testing ground, an environment in which I was able to pursue the question of whether or not I would be able to create awesome music using only a small number of channels. The biggest factor was that every person on the development staff loved music. We had some really interesting people, from a designer who was an expert on techno and minimalist music to a programmer who was well-versed in classical. They motivated and influenced me in other areas as well. If I hadn’t met them, I don’t think it would have been possible for me to pursue game music. Should the opportunity arise, I’d love to work with them again.”

It seems that, for musician Masashi Kageyama, nothing can replace his time immersed in music composition at Sunsoft in the 80s and 90s.

“To me, Mr. Gimmick is a compilation of game music.”

Benkei Gaiden, another game Kageyama composed for.

Even today, the quality of Mr. Gimmick’s soundtrack has yet to fade, despite the 20 years since the game’s release. When asked the reason, Kageyama relates an episode concerning a particular fan.

“I once received a letter from a schoolteacher requesting sheet music for the theme song from Benkei Gaiden (an RPG released for the TurboGrafx-16 in 1989) because he wanted to perform it with his school’s wind ensemble. That definitely caused me to rethink things. ‘Yikes, now I really have to work hard,’ I said to myself. ‘I want to give the next generation of children good music to listen to.’ For kids playing the Famicom, game tunes might end up being their first brush with music, you see. What I wanted them to take away from my games was an interest in music itself. With Mr. Gimmick, I had that in mind from the start. That’s why I think of it as a compilation of game music.”

As though substantiating his words, the tracks featured in Mr. Gimmick range across several styles. Fashionable fusion, peppy pop, acid songs featuring heavy bass, fantasia pieces that make you feel like you’re floating, dramatic hard rock music… Not to mention the ending music, whose bright, beautiful melody resembles something you’d expect to hear in a movie. Out of the variety of songs collected for the soundtrack, all are high quality, including tunes featuring ad-libbed sections that bring to mind an image of Kageyama having fun while playing his sax.

Mr Gimmick Nes

“The music of Mr. Gimmick features ad-libbed portions, a product of jazz and fusion. Those aren’t styles people normally hear. They don’t really have an opportunity to listen to them. That’s why I took it upon myself to incorporate them into the soundtrack. I can listen to hit music and songs that have sold well wherever I go, but I don’t often get the chance to hear jazz and fusion. I think that’s the reason I opted to put their essence into my own songs.”

These days, Kageyama works as a photographer. From April to October of 2011, the top image was used on a sideboard at the Ring Cube photo gallery located in the Ricoh San-Ai building that stands at the 4-chome intersection in Ginza, Tokyo. Below, jazz pianist Don Friedman. For several years, Kageyama’s photography has been focused on jazz musicians both inside and outside Japan.

Several of Kageyama’s songs, derived from his pride and sense of purpose as a musician, found a place in the hearts of young game fans of the time. They continue to be held in high esteem by game music fans even today.

Kageyama retired from the music composition scene in the latter half of the 90s and has turned over a new leaf, working as a photographer. This spirited purveyor of pictures has been involved with a large collection of live photography featuring jazz musicians from all over the world. His work was exhibited at the Ring Cube photo gallery located in the Ricoh San-Ai building that stands at the 4-chome intersection in Ginza, Tokyo, in 2010.

Gimmick Rom

Another example of Mr. Gimmick’s music.

So, why did he put down his saxophone and pick up a camera? In answer to this question, Kageyama mentions a certain name:

“Tomomi Sakai, the person behind Mr. Gimmick’s graphics and programming, is a man who is capable of anything. I saw him winning prizes shortly after he picked up photography, and I figured that if he could do it, well… That was when I began to see him as a rival. [Laughs bitterly] I might never have thought about taking it up if I hadn’t seen his monochrome photography. I didn’t have any interest in it before then. [Laughs]”

Sakai, the close friend and rival that Kageyama holds in such high esteem, is a programmer whose repute stems from his time working at Sunsoft during the golden age of 8-bit consoles.

Mr Gimmick Rom

“Sakai was a huge influence for me.”

So, what’s the scoop on Tomomi Sakai, so highly praised by Kageyama? And what was life like for a game developer working at Sunsoft in the 80s and 90s? Tune in next time when we put these questions to Sakai, one of the people behind the creation of Mr. Gimmick.

Return to A Link to the Past Index

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Mr Gimmick Ost

Comments

Mr Gimmick Deviantart

I have read somewhere that the ROM was modified for the repro release so it wouldn't work in emulators, so I think that's why it's not working in Nestopia.
But all that could just be heresay, not sure on the credibility of the source.
Now that the game is easily downloadable and is being sold by multiple repro makers, is there any particular reason the clean ROM has to be hidden away anymore? I'd really like to be able to cross this one off my mental checklist and know it's safe!
The repro/ROM that RetroZone had was from the official NTSC proto that came from DreamTR.
Originally posted by: TheRedEye
So, for the sake of people who actually care about properly PRESERVING this stuff, does anyone have the actual clean ROM that came straight from the prototype? Do we know for a fact that it wasn't modified for the repro release? I understand that this IPS patch will turn the PAL version into a 100% identical copy of the ROM that you managed to procure, but do you know the history of that file at all?

Unfortunately I don't, I'm merely a second-hand source. For the information on that you'd have to go ask Bunnyboy, if he knows anything about your reputation he'll be sure to help you out. As for the information about the clean rom being modified, I'm pretty sure that's conjecture, but there's no way to be certain. If I had any more information I'd love to help you out, but there's not much more I can say.
OK, I've got it. Phins email me so you can compare files, fcifaldi@gmail.com
Just patched it and it plays perfectly. Thanks for the patch!!!
Scott
why not just post the rom why the patch it is a prototype after all
Originally posted by: Jordiway73
why not just post the rom why the patch it is a prototype after all

I tried and mods removed it anyway. You got a problem with it, take it up with them.
To clarify, the version I posted initially had about four hex strings difference from this original version.
Thank bunnyboy, all I did was ask him for the file. Phins' patched version was like 99.9% correct, but for the sake of preservation I wanted to make sure the ROM floating around is the actual clean one straight from the prototype, which this is.
Well thanks Brian (bunnyboy)!
I am also an owner of the Retrozone repro, but wanted this for my powerpak prototype folder.
Originally posted by: Phins
No problem. Somebody let me know if this works on hardware because it's been a bitch trying to find an ROTJ board and I don't own a PowerPak.

Just patched it last night and it plays just fine on my powerpak.
Scott
Originally posted by: Phins
To clarify, the version I posted initially had about four hex strings difference from this original version.

Im curious as to how general these four hex strings are, would they be similar or maybe the same for other PAL titles that have no NTSC counterpart? Would this be a good example or starting point for people to hex edit other PAL games?
Originally posted by: marvelus10

Originally posted by: Phins
To clarify, the version I posted initially had about four hex strings difference from this original version.

Im curious as to how general these four hex strings are, would they be similar or maybe the same for other PAL titles that have no NTSC counterpart? Would this be a good example or starting point for people to hex edit other PAL games?

You're misunderstanding, apparently the prototype I originally posted had four strings modified from this new, original prototype I posted. In other words, there's apparently two NTSC-U Gimmick proto roms posting around, this original prototype I posted, and one that appears to have been altered for some reason or another.
While I'm not sure about what dumps are floating around, when I got a dump of the Retrozone prototype reproduction it had certain mapper writes altered and it would not work on the normal FME7 mapper. I imagine these changes to writes were to prevent people from making their own US/NTSC Gimmick cartridges. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Hopefully if people want this game they will buy the retrozone version or get a new pcb rather than butchering Batman RotJ.
There may be more than one 'fixed' version. The only bad thing is this means the unmodified prototype rom is not preserved.
Originally posted by: MottZilla
While I'm not sure about what dumps are floating around, when I got a dump of the Retrozone prototype reproduction it had certain mapper writes altered and it would not work on the normal FME7 mapper. I imagine these changes to writes were to prevent people from making their own US/NTSC Gimmick cartridges. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Hopefully if people want this game they will buy the retrozone version or get a new pcb rather than butchering Batman RotJ.
There may be more than one 'fixed' version. The only bad thing is this means the unmodified prototype rom is not preserved.

The gimmick was discontinued. So the joker carts will be more scare now.
That's no excuse. There are new boards that support the same mapper.
Originally posted by: MottZilla
While I'm not sure about what dumps are floating around, when I got a dump of the Retrozone prototype reproduction it had certain mapper writes altered and it would not work on the normal FME7 mapper. I imagine these changes to writes were to prevent people from making their own US/NTSC Gimmick cartridges. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Hopefully if people want this game they will buy the retrozone version or get a new pcb rather than butchering Batman RotJ.
There may be more than one 'fixed' version. The only bad thing is this means the unmodified prototype rom is not preserved.

If you read the original post, you would see plainly that because of Frank Cifaldi, I obtained and posted the unmodified prototype rom.
The plot thickens. The version I had posted before turned out not to work on NESTopia because Bunnyboy modified something to do with mapper writes and things like that for the repro release. This original version I got up the other day works perfectly on NESTopia due to being clean and unmodified.
This is interesting, usually emulators are the ones that work when hardware doesn't, but in this case the ROM worked on real hardware when it didn't on NEStopia.
Perhaps Bunnyboy's on-board FME7 simulator CPLD was close to the real deal, and close enough to work on Nintendulator under the FME7 mapper but not Nestopia.
I have always wanted to play this! I had a glitched up rom in the past. When I found out the repros from retrousb were discontinued I almost cried. It's time to get down to business with my PSP now...
if you were to put this on a cart, does the board need to have only the FME-7 mapper 69 support or does it need to have the full sunsoft-5B audio addon to get the full sound.
if ive read right, im under the impression that the us-prototype (which this patch turns the PAL version into) was rewritten to have full audio without the addon so you also do not need the frontload audio mod?
Originally posted by: MottZilla
That's no excuse. There are new boards that support the same mapper.

Mott has brought this up on other threads, but still won't point anyone as to where to get these boards with the odd mapper
Originally posted by: JxMx
if you were to put this on a cart, does the board need to have only the FME-7 mapper 69 support or does it need to have the full sunsoft-5B audio addon to get the full sound.
if ive read right, im under the impression that the us-prototype (which this patch turns the PAL version into) was rewritten to have full audio without the addon so you also do not need the frontload audio mod?

Correct, the usa proto version only requires an FME7 chip.
Originally posted by: Phins

Originally posted by: Jordiway73
why not just post the rom why the patch it is a prototype after all

I tried and mods removed it anyway. You got a problem with it, take it up with them.

I took the file you put up, patch it, and it doesn't work on any emulator, are you sure this file is legit?.