User talk:Muzer

Its our policy to only accept official things, and sure, I'll gladly send you a copy of your work. Yoshario'''
 * This is the work: The vast majority of Mario games, and indeed all games, have their soundtrack stored in a format that has been reverse engineered, and so can, with the help of a few pieces of software, be simply and easily be played back 100% faithfully without any compression artifacts or noise whatsoever. This article will provide brief information on how best and most legally Mario soundtracks can be ripped.

Currently, this article only covers the main series games - hopefully more games can be covered in the future.

NES - Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3
NES music is often stored in the ROM as different formats. As such, a new format was created by hobbyists, called NSF (NES Sound Format). It is basically a NES ROM, with all of the game data, sprites, and code removed, leaving just the music. Ripping a NES ROM from a cartridge is not an easy task, althought it has been made easier with dedicated hardware, however, this is only the beginning, as ripping an NSF from the NES ROM is extremely difficult. Therefore, it is much better to use rips others have made. To my knowledge, the best NSFs of the first three Mario games can be found on Zophar's Domain. The Mushroom Kingdom also hosts NSFs, but these appear to be of worse quality, and the Super Mario Bros. 3 one has the PCM (mainly used for the drums) track replaced with noise.

Once you have your desired NSF, it is simply a case of finding a player for it. The Wikipedia page has a good list at the bottom, although one of the best ones is Audio Overload; not only is it multi-platform (will run on Windows, Mac and Linux), but it also will play a massive array of formats, not just NSFs.

SNES - Super Mario World
The SNES had its own dedicated sound chip, complete with its own CPU, and crucially, its own RAM. Therefore, ripping SNES music is a simple task of setting the music playing, then taking a copy of the sound chip's RAM. These are then stored in SPC700 sound files (extension SPC) - named after the sound chip in the SNES. Of course, "simple" in this case is relative - it's much easier than, say, NES or N64 ripping, but still too hard for the average user. Therefore, again, downloading a pre-made SPC is much easier than ripping it yourself, but again, the option is there if you really want to and have the time, money and knowledge. As before, Zophar's Domain probably has the best collection of SPCs.

Again, the Wikipedia page lists a few good SPC players, although again, Audio Overload is probably one of the best. Note that that article is quite poorly written, so you may want take the information with a pinch of salt.

N64 - Super Mario 64
Up until relatively recently (around 4 or 5 years ago), ripping N64 music was an impossible task, due to the vast array of sound formats used by game developers over the N64's life, and the subtle variations in these. There were probably about 5 or 10 good rips on the internet, and the rest were just rubbish. However, this has all changed, thanks to the advent of the USF (Ultra Sound Format) - an attempt to bring the PSF (Playstation Sound Format) to the N64, and unite all the completely different formats used by the game developers into one big common format that would support them all. This has been a great success; although ripping the tracks in the first place is even more complicated than ever, there are many clever minds who worked on this, and there is now a sizeable database of completed USFs, including - thankfully, Super Mario 64, although according to the readme, it has a few slight tempo problems with a few tracks (which are barely noticeable). The best (and pretty much only) place to download USFs is the homepage of the format itself, USF central.

There are only three known USF players, and all of them are in the form of plugins for other media players. There is 64th note, available from USF central (link above), which is a plugin for Winamp. There is foo_input_usf, which is a plugin for foobar2000. And, for Linux users, there is xmms usf player, which is a plugin for (surprise) xmms (it's currently in preliminary stages and it is closed source).

Gamecube - Super Mario Sunshine
The gamecube, like the N64, used many music formats. However, instead of creating a common format, people have instead been trying to create a player that can play as many as possible out of the box. Unfortunately, Super Mario Sunshine sequences are one of the very few formats that are currently unsupported by this effort. There is one streamed piece of music in the game, however, this isn't actually used ingame, and instead was apparently used in an E3 demo. Here is one set of instructions to rip that track - there are other ways, feel free to add them if you feel like it. This method is totally legal.

Requirements: An original copy of Super Mario Sunshine, a Wii connected to the internet, a computer connected to the internet (running either Windows, or a fuse-supported OS like Mac or Linux), an SD card.


 * Install homebrew on your Wii (see [http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Setting_up_your_Wii_for_Homebrew the Wiibrew page for some excellent tutorials - it's reversable and won't damage your Wii)
 * Download and install FTPii onto your SD card (may be installed from the homebrew browser if you're lazy)
 * Start up your favourite FTP client. If you're at a loss of what to use, Windows explorer can be used as a good FTP client (believe it or not). On the Linux side of things, both Nautilus and Dolphin can be used. No idea about Macs, sorry.
 * Insert Super Mario Sunshine and launch FTPii on your Wii. It will tell you your Wii's IP address once it manages to connect. Remember this or write it down.
 * On your computer, connect to your Wii. If you're using your own FTP client, you're on your own, just type your Wii's IP and connect. Username and password can be anything, although they might have the be filled in. In explorer, dolphin or nautilus, type ftp:/// and press enter. If it asks you for a username and password, just enter something random in each. Then, browse to the wod folder. Find the image file (there should only be one in that folder) and copy it to your PC. Wait for the transfer to complete (it's quite big - it may take some time).
 * Download GC-Tool (Windows) or Wiifuse and fuse itself (which on Linux you may already have - no idea about macs). Use either program to browse your gamecube disc - use readmes. I can't remember the exact structure, but the file you want is in something like a streams folder in something like a music folder - or something along those lines. There is only one file, and it is called title (I can't remember the extension, but it might be ast - or it might not). Extract it from the ISO (Windows) or copy it onto another place in your FS (Mac/Linux - or you could just leave it in there, it counts as part of your filesystem anyway).
 * Download vgmstream (compile it if there isn't a binary for your operating system). Linux users get a test app that converts the streams to wav files, and Windows users get both that and a winamp plugin that can play them directly. So, convert it with the test app, or play it with the winamp plugin!

Phew! A lot of work for just one file! However, a lot of this also applies to the Galaxy music mentioned below...

Wii - Super Mario Galaxy
Almost all of the music in Galaxy is streamed, and therefore can be ripped in a way similar to the above process, but with a few simplifications, and one very slight complication. Here is one set of instructions to rip that track - there are other ways, feel free to add them if you feel like it. This method is totally legal.

Requirements: An original copy of Super Mario Galaxy, a Wii connected to the internet, a computer connected to the internet (running either Windows, or a fuse-supported OS like Mac or Linux), an SD card.


 * Install homebrew on your Wii (see [http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Setting_up_your_Wii_for_Homebrew the Wiibrew page for some excellent tutorials - it's reversable and won't damage your Wii)
 * Download and install FTPii onto your SD card (may be installed from the homebrew browser if you're lazy)
 * Start up your favourite FTP client. If you're at a loss of what to use, Windows explorer can be used as a good FTP client (believe it or not). On the Linux side of things, both Nautilus and Dolphin can be used. No idea about Macs, sorry.
 * Insert Super Mario Galaxy and launch FTPii on your Wii. It will tell you your Wii's IP address once it manages to connect. Remember this or write it down.
 * On your computer, connect to your Wii. If you're using your own FTP client, you're on your own, just type your Wii's IP and connect. Username and password can be anything, although they might have the be filled in. In explorer, dolphin or nautilus, type ftp:/// and press enter. If it asks you for a username and password, just enter something random in each. Then, browse to the fst folder.
 * Again, I can't remember the exact structure, but the files you want is in something like a streams folder in something like a music folder - or something along those lines. Most of the files end with _strm or _multi, with extension .ast. Copy them to a place on your hard disk.
 * The streams with _multi in the name are actually more than one stream in one file, which have slight variations (added or removed audio tracks, adjusted tempos, etc.) that just save space as they don't have to copy virtually the same file over again. There is a program that must be used to extract these multiple tracks - download multi_ast from here. I seem to remember it includes and Windows build, and it compiles fine on Linux (and therefore probably mac). You'll have to use the command line, or possibly drag and drop. Delete the original files once they are split - you won't need them and they will just be duplicates.
 * Download vgmstream (compile it if there isn't a binary for your operating system). Linux users get a test app that converts the streams to wav files, and Windows users get both that and a winamp plugin that can play them directly. So, convert all of the music with the test app (takes time, believe me), or play it all with the winamp plugin!

I hope you've enjoyed this and it's been a fun and possibly nostalgic experience. I didn't make any of the programs, but all of the text here I made up late at night - so any errors, please feel free to correct! I tried to make it as wiki-like as possible, but that style just wasn't working for the last two tutorials, so I switched to an impersonal style. If anyone can make these a bit more Wiki-like without getting rid of any of the content I would be greatful! Happy ripping! link title Yoshario'''