MSU‐1 for Dummies - pk-hack/CoilSnake GitHub Wiki

• msu1.ccs: The Earthbound CCS file needed to allow MSU playback.
• [romname].msu: Dummy file that lets the emulator/flashcart know this is an MSU-compatible game.
• [romname]-[musicID#].PCM: The file that lets the CCS file know which MSU file will play over the Earthbound correlated music ID (in Decimal)
• wav2msu.exe: The file that actually converts 44khz (or lower) wavs to PCM.

Nope, since EBMused is pretty much irreplacable. However, you can just make music in whatever dinky program you want, and then convert it to PCM and have it playback on real hardware!

Documentation is admittedly scarce, and has led to confusion on how to properly use MSU in Earthbound, which is the reason for the creation of this page.

• Rootbound: The one to use them exclusively over EBMused tracks.
• Ericbound: ..yeah. That one.
• That one Earthbound Hip-Hop hack: I can't find where that's at, but it's pretty nice from what I remember.

Attached below will the crucial wav2msu.exe program. It is safe, just be careful.

Click This for wav2msu.exe.

Click This for msu1.ccs

Starting with the setup, download msu1.ccs and wav2msu.exe for your project. msu1.ccs will need to be placed inside the CCScript folder, while wav2msu.exe can be placed in whatever folder you'd like.

You will need to create a dummy file, start by making a text file, and rename the .txt to .msu instead. The file name WILL need to match the name of the rom, so if your ROM is entitled "Test1.smc", this file will be called "Test1.msu". This same principle will apply to each and every PCM file you have. sprite_group_palettes.yml. This would mean you could have Test1-92.PCM as your PCM file (after conversion).

The valid canvas sizes for sprites are as follows: (16x16), (24x16), (32x16), (48x16), (16x24), (16x32), (24x24), (16x32), (32x32), (48x32), (24x40), (16x48), (32x48), (48x48), (64x48), (64x64), and (64x80).

To demonstrate, let’s make Ness’s sprite taller. To save time, we’ll use an existing sprite, such as the tree in a pot, and overwrite Ness’s sprite.

Here’s the tree sprite (266.png), which we’ll save as 001.png to replace Ness’s sprite:

Notice that the palette in this sprite is different—it uses one of the palettes defined in sprite_group_palettes.yml.

Now that we’ve edited the sprite, open the sprite_groups.yml file. Locate the data for the tree sprite (266.png) and copy relevant properties into the data for 001.png.

Here’s what the data for 001.png should look like:

1:
  East/West Collision Height: 8
  East/West Collision Width: 8
  Length: 16
  North/South Collision Height: 8
  North/South Collision Width: 8
  Size: 16x24
  Swim Flags: [false, false, false, false, false, false, false, false, false, false,
    false, false, false, false, false, false]

Modify the Size property to 16x48 without changing the other values.

After saving and compiling the changes, this is how it should appear in-game:

For battle sprites, you are free to use any 15 colors, plus one transparent color. For more detailed information, refer to the Battle Sprites tutorial.

Currently, CoilSnake does not support adding new sprites, so you must overwrite existing ones. Fortunately, there are several unused sprite groups in the game that can be safely overwritten without causing any side effects. Here’s a list of completely unused sprite groups, which you can overwrite: