Hiddenpalace.org and Frank Cifaldi were able to preserve never-before-seen technical documents for the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip. This chip was used in Sega’s Mega Drive/Genesis video game consoles, as well as Fujitsu’s FM Towns computer series and Sega System 32 arcade machines.
The documents found include two binders full of sound driver, YM2612, and PSG documentation including two 5.25 inch floppy disks containing source code, sample files, documentation, and tools for both Tokuhiko Uwabo’s Z80 sound driver and Hiroshi Kubota’s 68000+Z80 sound driver. Both the binders as well as the floppies seem to have been authored around January/February 1991, around the time Sonic the Hedgehog was in active development.
While there’s been some excellent progress in reverse-engineering the YM2612, it’s always great to be able to look at the same tools and documents the original dev’s were working off of. I’m not sure if these documents can be used to improve the already excellent YM2612 FPGA implementations, but either way it’s a very cool piece of history that’s not preserved.
Check out the full story here: https://hiddenpalace.org/News/Sega_of_Japan_Sound_Documents_and_Source_Code
Presenting, Mega Drive/YM2612 sound development documents & 68k/Z80 SMPS (known as "SOUND-SOURCE") sound driver source code used internally by Sega of Japan! Check it out: https://t.co/1NIsDqin0j. Many thanks to @GameHistoryOrg for helping us dump the almost 30 year old floppies! pic.twitter.com/Pvbfo1Hcph
— The Hidden Palace (@HiddenPalaceOrg) June 16, 2020
