悪魔城伝説 (Akumajou Densetsu / Castlevania 3 J) Famicom HVC-CPU-07 Original Hardware Full Soundtrack

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Nerdly Pleasures (Great Hierophant)

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Published on December 6, 2019 6:39:35 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk-US3QJNck

Game:

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (1989)

Duration: 17:35

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I wanted to post a recording of the soundtrack from the Japanese original which was released in the west as Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, 悪魔城伝説, Akumajou Densetsu, (Legend of the Demon Castle). So rather than just make an audio recording and using a still frame to satisfy Youtube's requirement for an image to accompany audio, I decided to take a slightly different approach.

悪魔城伝説 has a built-in Sound Mode, accessed by holding Select, B and A on Controller I and pressing Start on the Title Screen. The video accompanying the audio is of me going through the soundtrack as the music plays. I cycle through the music with Up and Down on the D-Pad and use B to start the music and A to stop the music if it repeats. Some shorter tunes I let go on for a second measure or until I get to a distinct point when I can tell the track is repeating.

I am using 100% original hardware. The Famicom uses an HVC-CPU-07 with a 2A03E CPU/APU and 2C02E PPU. The cartridge is an authentic 悪魔城伝説 cartridge with its VRC6 expansion audio. The Famicom has not been modified in any way, the audio is modulated with the video in the RF modulator inside the Famicom. I have used a VCR which can tune to U.S. Channels 95 and 96 (Japanese Channels 1 & 2) to demodulate the RF signal into separate video and audio. Then I captured both using my GV-USB2 capture device, mainly because the audio recording does not invert the waveform like most onboard sound cards do. In post-processing I upscaled the video to 1440x1080 to keep 60fps, although it hardly seems necessary.

All official Famicoms, from the square-button early Famicom units to the last AV Famicoms send internal audio generated by the APU within the 2A03 to the cartridge port on pin 45. Most games do not have any audio hardware in them, so they just connect pin 45 to 46 on the cartridge connector and that sends the internal audio directly back into the Famicom. From pin 46 the audio is sent to the RF modulator or the audio connector. Games with expansion audio will take the internal audio from pin 45, mix it with the expansion audio generated by the cartridge hardware, and then send the combined audio to pin 46. Some cartridges like Lagrange Point and the Famicom Disk System RAM Adapter also apply additional filtering to the combined mix.

Between Early Famicoms, those with the HVC-CPU-## boards (which went up to 08) and the Later Famicoms, those with the HVC-GPM-## (which went up to 02m), Early Famicoms have louder internal audio sent to pin 45 than Later Famicoms. Twin Famicoms behave like Early Famicoms, AV Famicoms (and probably redesigned Turbo Controller Twin Famicoms) behave like Later Famicoms.

悪魔城伝説 was released by Konami on December 22, 1989 in Japan. During its development that year, the only hardware likely to have been available to the Japanese developers would have been Early Famicoms. When you hear the soundtrack, especially with sound effects generated by the internal APU, the result is balanced. When you hear the same music and sound effects with a Later Famicom, the expansion audio overwhelms the internal audio. Therefore, I have made these recordings as a type of reference for how 悪魔城伝説 should sound.

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