Earthworm Jim sound bug fix & bonus sound test ---------------------------------------------- This patch applies to the USA version of the ROM. This patch is mainly targeted at flash cart/Everdrive users who are playing on older Sega hardware and requires some explanation. Sound lag bug fix ----------------- An obscure bug in the sound driver causes the music and sound to malfunction slightly on Gen/MD hardware that has a discrete YM2612. This is most evident during the intro of the "New Junk City" music where there is an audible stutter toward the beginning of the song, but it will also come up and cause the music and sound to glitch any time there is an FM pitch bend and a digital sound playing simultaneously. This happens fairly often in EWJ because most of the game's sound effects are digital sounds. This notably doesn't happen on any emulator or any console (that I own) with integral YM3438 (most model 2 Genesis/MD). Integrated sound test --------------------- Pausing the game and entering the code A,B,B,A,C,A,B,B will take you to a new, custom sound test screen to listen to the game's tunes. Note that this will take you out of your current game and exit to the Sega logo when you press start. I spent way too long on this. Region lock removed ------------------- US ROM now works in all regions. This took about 2 seconds. Technical information --------------------- The sound bug was eventually fixed in GEMS 2.8, but comparatively few games use this version of the driver. The fix was applied by porting the original sound data to GEMS 2.8 and patching in that version of the driver. Relevant excerpt from GEMS 2.8 documentation: "2) The now famous "GEMS slows down and stutters when the Genesis is cold and I mix samples with pitchbend" problem appears to be fixed. If you see this problem again, please inform Sega at the number above." In my testing this is only partially correct and doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Genesis being warmed up, but it only reliably occurs on YM2612 equipped consoles. For me, this happens on both a non-TMSS model 1 and a VA3 model 2 console, and the problem is much worse on the model 1. The bug does appear in other games, but is usually less noticeable as it doesn't happen quite as often, or the games themselves are more obscure. For some reason quite a few sports games that use GEMS suffer from this (NBA Jam, NFL '95 for example). Dustin https://www.youtube.com/user/DUSTINODELLOFFICIAL http://www.romhacking.net/community/4927/