N-SPC/HAL VCMD Update Notes

[KungFuFurby]

Complete Build List

• Jumbo Ozaki no Hole In One/Hal's Hole In One Golf
• Las Vegas Dream/Vegas Stakes
  • Super Famicom Box 4S Attraction
    Kirby no Kirakira Kids (Unused?)
• Itoi Shigesato no Bass Tsuri No. 1
• Super Stadium/Nolan Ryan's Baseball
  Shodan Morita Shougi
• Othello World
  • HyperZone
• Card Master/Arcana
  • Alcahest
    Kirby Bowl/Kirby's Dream Course
  • Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe/Kirby Super Star/Kirby Fun Pak
    Hoshi no Kirby 3/Kirby's Dream Land 3
  • Kirby no Kirakira Kids

These have been sorted by branch. The branches are SNES <-> SPC communication featureset-related.

First off, some quick notes (see #227 for some extra notes about the R&D1 variant, as this the the reference for $FC-$FE)...

• The standard $FA VCMD (percussion base change) is supported by every game in the N-SPC/HAL variant except for Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe/Kirby Super Star/Kirby Fun Pak, Hoshi no Kirby 3/Kirby's Dream Land 3 and the used build of Kirby no Kirakira Kids.
• $FC (disable note playback for channel) is only supported by Super Stadium/Nolan Ryan's Baseball, Shodan Morita Shougi and Las Vegas Dream/Vegas Stakes.
• $FD-$FE (fast forward on/off) are only supported by Jumbo Ozaki no Hole In One/Hal's Hole In One Golf, Super Stadium/Nolan Ryan's Baseball, Shodan Morita Shougi, Othello World and Las Vegas Dream/Vegas Stakes.

I identified a new VCMD that only appears in older HAL games: it doesn't appear in the newer ones that loveemu used as a base for the research.

$FB ?? %xxxxxxxx - Set Voice Bits for Dynamic Channel Allocation?

• %xxxxxxxx is a set of track/voice bits to set for dynamic channel allocation. When quantization is hit, VxADSR1 is zeroed out and VxGAIN is used (the voice is freed when VxENVX is zeroed out). It is then possible for a second note to be allocated to a different voice.

For those of you curious about the first parameter... I suspect it is a bitwise parameter. But it gets overwritten by the second parameter shortly after fetching.

The following builds support this VCMD:

• Jumbo Ozaki no Hole In One/Hal's Hole In One Golf
• Super Stadium/Nolan Ryan's Baseball
  • Shodan Morita Shougi
• Othello World
• HyperZone
• Card Master/Arcana

I only saw it used in two of them: Jumbo Ozaki no Hole In One/Hal's Hole In One Golf and Card Master/Arcana. These two songs, as cited through the SNESMusic.org SPC set, are example songs where this VCMD is used to full effect for dynamic channel allocation:
Jumbo Ozaki no Hole In One/Hal's Hole In One Golf ~ Oh My God!
Card Master/Arcana ~ Resting