Description

Konami 051649 chip with its Digital/Analog converter

The chip referenced 051649 2212P003 is an SCC sound generator. SCC stands for Sound Creative Chip, the meaning of the abreviation is mentioned in the Konami Software Club newsletter 3 of November 1987. It is a sound chip developed since about Feb. 1986 by Konami, in collaboration with Toshiba, and it was provided in some of their Mega-ROM modules (see below). In addition the chip was also used in various Konami arcade systems.

An SCC chip provides 5 channels of wave table sound (not so soft and cute as the MSX-AUDIO and MSX-MUSIC, but nice if used properly). Actually, the samples are only 32 bytes long (defining a wave form) and are repeated to get `real sounds'.

On the package of each Mega ROM game produced by Konami with SCC chip, you can read: "...new 8 voice polyphonic LSI Custom Sound Chip Mounted." 8 channels? The chip has only 5 channels, and the 3 other channels are provided by the standard PSG chip built into every MSX.

Technical info can be found here: http://bifi.msxnet.org/msxnet/tech/scc.html. Konami has also produced an improved version, the SCC+ for the Sound Cartridge.

Specifications

• 5 channels
• Frequency (12-bit) and amplitude (4-bit) parameters are compatible with the PSG (AY-3-8910) from MSXs.
• 11-bit DAC (D/A) labeled as Konami 051650 (parallel resistors in series)
• The waveform of the chanels are independent except for the 4 and 5 that are common (this changes on SCC+).
• Compatibility mode with the SCC chip. (default)
• Waveform definable on 32 bytes for each channel
• No envelope (automatic attenuation of volume)
• The audio is output through the mixer on the main unit side via the audio input of the cartridge slot.
• 8K rom mapper

Konami Games with SCC

The first game developed with SCC support was F-1 Spirit ^[1], although the first game released with SCC in Europe was Nemesis 2, which was in fact developed after F-1 Spirit.

The following Konami MSX cartridge games contain the SCC chip:

Using an SCC cartridge for other software than the game it comes with

Playing other Konami games

Due to the massive cracking and copying of Mega ROMs it was possible to have only one cartridge with SCC sound chip and all the other games on disks. This required of course that you had enough RAM in your MSX2 machine to load those ROMs. To disable the game ROM in the cartridge, it was recommended to cut one of the game ROM's pins or make a kind of switch. Technical info is here: http://bifi.msxnet.org/msxnet/tech/switch.html

Later a separate SCC cartridge was made by the Japanese group ESE: the ESE SCC, based on a real Konami game, though. But of course also the separate sound cartridges that came with Snatcher and SD Snatcher can be used.

Recently, Manuel Pazos got hold of a large quantity of real Konami SCC chips and put them on a cartridge, together with some flash ROM. The result: MSX Cartridge Shop MegaFlashROM. An SCC cartridge in which you can load any ROM and then play it as an SCC game. This cartridge was later followed by a SCC+ version, the MegaFlashROM SCC+

Using the SCC with other programs

There are various (old) disk magazines/demo/music disks, games and even sound composer programs that can use the SCC chip.

Here are some of them:

Demos

• Fony Demodisk 1 - Fony

Games

• Dr. Pill - Infinite
• Lilo (Ninjinkun 1) by KAI
• Manbow 2 - Norakomi
• Montana John and the Templar's Treasure - Infinite
• The Best of Hamaraja Night (Cartridge version)
• The Monster Hunter (Arthur´s Quest) - Nerlaska Studio (Needs external SCC or SCC+ )
• The Goonies ´r´ Good Enough - Kralizec

Music Disks

• SCC Musix disk - Fuzzy Logic
• SCC Musix disk #1 - Impact
• All kinds of Konami-music (SCC) on Takamichi Suzukawa's pages

Utilities

• Konmouse, a Mouse controlled Konami SCC music player
• MuSICA - Japanese music editor (normal SCC)
• SCC-BASIC by Eric Bos
• SCC Blaffer (NT) - TeddyWareZ
• SCC-Musixx - Tyfoon Soft
• Super Music Editor 3.0 - XelaSoft
• TriloTracker[1] - Music tracker for PSG+SCC by Trilobyte

Pinout

Hardware that emulate the SCC

The following modern FPGA based MSX systems, can emulate the SCC

• Mini IQ-3000
• One Chip MSX
• Zemmix Neo

The following expansion cartridges can emulate the SCC and/or SCC+:

• 8bits4ever Carnivore 2
• GR8NET
• MSX Cartridge Shop MegaFlashROM SCC
• MSX Cartridge Shop MegaFlashROM SCC+
• MSX Cartridge Shop MegaFlashROM SCC+ SD
• Popolon Sound Cartridge

Links

• Info about ROM mapper and its sound registers
• Technical info
• Disabling Game in Konami SCC Cartridges
• SCC Schematics Rev.00
• Different PCBs of SCC cartridge (Japanese)

References

1. ↑ http://junkerhq.net/Snatcher/JointDisk/linernotes.html