NES demo based on the pirate multicart with a romantic storyline and the Unchained Melody in the menu. You have to use a NES emulator (e.g. Nestopia) to run this demo. Also this archive includes Unchained Melody in the NSF and NSFe formats. You can play it, for example, using the foobar2000 with the Game Emu Player plugin. NSFe format is preferable because it contains more meta information and track length, which is not possible in the obsolete format NSF. It means, that playing NSFe melody correctly ends in time, unlike NSF.
Download: unchained_nostalgia.zip (20KB).
Let's watch it!
What's done?
- Based on the 9999-in-1 multicart. Comparison →
- Added moving clouds and stars, now all slides are unique and there is no duplicates that differ only in palette.
- Added 2 new slides to match the music when automatic slide switching is turned on.
- Added fading effect (slow when starting, very fast when switching slides).
- Automatic adjustment of speed and pitch of sound on NTSC and PAL systems, it will always work like on the Dendy.
- Automatic switching of slides in time with the music (on each 4th drum stroke). Press any key do disable this mode. Press Start to enable it again.
- If you hold any arrow key, slides will be changed in time with the music (on every drum stroke) in chosen direction.
- The secret mode of the Universe control (but don't tell about it to your psychiatrist).
- The super secret mode of proud birdie with special effects from the legendary Michael Bay.
- And some other secret features =)
Unchained Nostalgia v1.3.1 is released. Fixed a v1.3.0 regression causing floating tempo of the music on accurate emulators and real hardware. Nothing else was changed.
Hi thanks for the Unchained Nostalgia!
I am from Bulgaria and also was born in 1987 :)
This was my multi menu integrated in my first famiclone :) So many memories I just love this menu graphics and the music so beautiful ! My was with all scenes, big 9999 from beginning animation and Unchained melody too , there is that menu with summer wine also :)
I already have your 2013 version and nw I discovered this new one from 2016 :)
Only why you changer the purple scene with pink colors ?
Thanks again for this beautiful demo!
Only one question, can it be implemented in those flash multi-carts like Poerpack and Everdrive? It will be the best thing ever :)
Dushan, yeah, it is a very nice menu. Actually, I hadn't a multicart with such menu in my childhood, but my cousin had. I'd seen this menu several times when I was at his place, and I had thought that the music is awesome :) Years after, I had realized that it was the Unchained Melody. Later, I had seen the Summer Wine version of the menu. It is earlier version of the menu, but I don't like this arrangement of the melody. Unchained Melody is still my favorite. That's good that developers of this menu decided to change the Summer Wine to the Unchained Melody.
BTW, have you seen a dump of your version of the multicart? I mean exact the same version, with equivalent list of games, etc. Do you mean that you saw a 9999-in-1 multicart with Summer Wine melody? As far as I know, Summer Wine was only on 83-in-1 and on 100-in-1 (a hack of the first one).
Oh, nice, so you have two versions of this demo :) I suppose that the first one is v1.1, because it was released just after the v1.0. I'm curious where did you found the first version of the demo, and how did you found this update also. Have you seen it on nesdev.com, or maybe it was posted on some other website?
It was the only slide where the sea and the sky had the same color. I changed it for consistency with other slides. As for me, I think that the new colors suit this slide much better :)
You can run this demo on real hardware. It was tested and it works flawlessly. Or... are you asking me about creation of a new menu with flying birds and Unchained Melody? It is possible, but someone have to program it. This demo can't work as a menu without modifications. But it can be used as a base.
wow thanks for the fast replays, and questions :) !
No, I did not search for my exact version but if I remember well it was REV 1.2 or something like that with unchain melody of course , I found it intentionally back in a day when bashing keys :P
I have the 150 in one with summer wine on PCB , I fount it inside a famiclone with a second slot :) in this version the scenes are messed up and are little different from our beloved 9999 unchaind melody one, but the summer wine is good tune too a think :)
You should make an archive with all your revisions :) I found the firs version from YouTube I think a cople years ago , and this new version found just now :) by curiosity, I typed unchaind melody to find some more details about it if there any new info who actually made it back in a day and I googled it , and bum jackpot :) thanks pal ;) BTW have you an idea who actually made this beauty back in 90s :) ?
Actually there are 2 more slides with sky and sea that are are one color :)
http://veg.by/files/nes/images/unchained_14_v3.png
http://veg.by/files/nes/images/unchained_15_v3.png
BTW I like them because of this that , so the new pink one instead of old purple is not by my taste :) ,
if you will you can inserte the original purple one before the new one , like you did in other slides as well ;)
Yes I know that I can run it on the original hardware, I already did it on my power pack , I will with the new ver too :)
But my question was,actually is it really possible to put this beautiful menu instead of the black boring menu's in the Everdrive, and Power pack , and choose games from it :) ?
Thank again
Greetings from Bulgaria :)
Very interesting. It seems that this multicart is not dumped. Do you know someone who can dump this cartridge?
Actually, I have 168 revisions of the demo :) But only a few of them was released. The others was just intermediate points during development.
I spent much time on investigation who is the author and where are the roots of these menus. I had reverse engineered the machine code and tried to find similar code in other Chinese games. And I had found it. All Unchained Melody menus use the same sound and sprite engines as in most games from the NTDEC. Moreover, I had found the game with exact version of the sprite engine. It is the “Go! Benny!”. The “Elfland” is also very close. It seems that these programs were developed by the same team almost at the same time. I had tried to find any developers from NTDEC from that period of time, but without any luck. It would be interesting to find them and to ask how and why they did such an unusual menu :)
It is not possible to insert a new slide without removing of another slide now. Two new slides were required for synchronization with the music. If you will watch the full demo without touching any buttons, you will see that when the last slide switches to the first slide, music also starts from the beginning. Initially, I didn't like an idea of insertion of new slides at all. But the idea of making it synchronous with music was stronger, so I had tried. And it seems that these two new slides don't make it worse, but the synchronization with the music makes it much much better.
Technically, it is possible. But someone has to program it, as I have said before. I know a guy who was going to create a menu for modern multicarts, based on the source code of the demo. But I haven't heard any news about it from him for a long time.
NO, I have not friends with a knowledge or equipment to dump this :(
If I remember wee my 150 in 1 can change between 150 in 1 (yellow) and I do not remember the other number in (red)
by rapidly reset and power on and off the console :D
it looks just like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vndVoZnep9M
I think this is a rip off the unchaind one, becouse , the screens are messed up and the sea level is hiear , and there are added trees in the hi-ear part of the sea level but ugly-er ,like someone else draw them.
Me too, this is the best menu ever created !
I hope some day someone will ! :)
BTW
the shiting bird is hilarious , and exploding white birds too :D also when you take a shit in the fire :D haha this become like a little game inside , and even you can die :D
Dushan, can you record a video how your menu looks like? Please switch all available slides on your video.
Actually, more things were created for this demo during development, and some of them weren't included into the release version. For example, I had added some additional effects of slide switching. I had spend much time for developing of these effects. But I had removed them from the release because they didn't fit this demo, and the fast fading effect from the first version is the best one. Also there was an alternative set of night slides (with the Moon), but I had decided to use the “classic” one from the v1.0 because it uses much more familiar constellations (Ursa Minor and Ursa Major). The Moon can't be near these constellations, so I had tried to draw the Scorpio constellation and its surroundings, but it looked not so good. Rotation around the Pole Star from the v1.0 is much better. So, the final release includes just an improved (more detailed) version of the “classic” set of constellations from the v1.0.
Ok no problem, I will when find some free time :)
Привет, Друже :)
I have 3 multi-cards with the beach, so I desired to record all of them :)
6000000 in 1 NES Multicart (Unchained Melody) https://youtu.be/PazxYMAPxzY
190&500 in 1 NES Multicart (Unchained Melody) https://youtu.be/x-gEDBwjKqc
150 in 1 NES Multicart (Summer WIne) https://youtu.be/rL8GSo7p9Kc
I was talking about this 150 in 1 but confused with that 190 and 500 in 1 :)
Notice the messed scenes in Summer Wine one!
In 190_500 in 1 there are missing scenes
And in 6M in 1 every scene is current , but the sea level is low this time :D
Dushan, oh, cool. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
150-in-1 with Summer Wine and 6000000-in-1 with Unchained Melody are undumped. I have a dump of the menu of the 190&500 in 1. It would be very cool to make full dumps of these cartridges somehow. Just for better investigation how these cartridges were developed. It is possible to find some interesting clues inside the machine code. 150-in-1 is from the early period of time and it is the most interesting one.
Do you have any ideas how we can dump these cartridges? :) It is not urgent, of course. but it would be nice to do one day.
HI, it is very strange that the early ones are with messed scenes , unusual ...
I do not have a hardware to dump, but years ago I found this , but do not know is it worth of trieing to dump in this way
http://www.chrismcovell.com/TapeDump_Controls.html
Why do you think that they are messed? Actually, narrow version of backgrounds have some leftovers from the early backgrounds. Just notice the black palm trees. The developers forgot to remove small pieces of them in the newer backgrounds. So it is clear that they were based on the backgrounds with high sea.
Most of these carts were just a pirate hacks of original multicarts. Yeah, pirate hacks of pirate multicarts :) I have evidences that 90% of late Unchained Melody multicarts (like 300-in-1, 1997-in-1, 9999-in-1, 9999999-in-1, etc) are based on the 200-in-1. All new backgrounds with narrow sea were introduced in the 200-in-1. And it seems that Unchained Melody was introduced in one of variants of the 150-in-1 before the 200-in-1. So, all Summer Wine / Unchained Melody multicarts before the 200-in-1 use backrounds with high sea. And the most interesting part here that it is possible to retrace how new backgrounds were added before the 200-in-1. The first known multicart from this series is 83-in-1, and it has the smallest amount of backgrounds.
I'm planning to write an article about it. I have a huge amount of evidences which show us all relations between these multicarts. Often it is even possible to say that someone else had stolen the menu, or this particular version of the menu was created by the original authors. So, it would be nice to have dumps of your cartridges for a much better understanding of how it was developed in the early days, I suppose in the 1992.
What do you think about sending these cartridges using a postal service to someone who has such hardware and experience? For example, to CaH4e3. I can ask him if he will agree to send these cartridges back to you after dumping.
Unfortunately, this dumper doesn't support a mapper which is used by these multicarts (it is a non-standard mapper).
just look Summer Wine one, the night scenes are with wrong colors and there are aditional palm tees in the upper sea , boats all across the sea . The REV 1.2 (6M in 1) are with original scenes they make sense at all, the how story is showed :) only the sea level is lower than usual :) By me (this from my childhood) with intro animation is the original conception from the creatures , and all other scenes configurations with little differences are nock offs :)
Dushan, actually, all multicarts which show REV 1.X after pressing Left+Start+B are not originals. They all are derivatives from the 200-in-1.
The current scheme how the original 200-in-1 was developed looks like this:
83-in-1 → 100-in-1 (a hack) → 150-in-1 / 150-in-1 FIGHT → 200-in-1And after the 200-in-1:
200-in-1 → 300-in-1 1993 → 1997-in-1 → 500-in-1+190-in-1 → 2000-in-1 → 500-in-1 with static intro → 9999999-in-1 without revision → 9999999-in-1 with Simba → 9999-in-1 without revision → 300-in-1 1994, 9999-in-1, 9999999-in-1 and others with revision by Left+Start+BAs you can see, the first multicart with REV 1.X was 300-in-1 1994. And it was based on the 9999-in-1 without revision, which was based on the 300-in-1 1993, which was just a hack of the 200-in-1. All these versions have leftovers from the first 200-in-1. For example, you can find tail of the "200-in-1" image data inside the 300-in-1 1993 ROM, just because "300-in-1" was written on the image in one line and it takes much space less, so there is a tail of the "200-in-1" image data just after the "300-in-1" image data.
Just notice that leftovers of these black palm trees are in the all versions of these multicarts. They weren't removed completely. I had removed these leftovers in my demo, but all the original backgrounds with low sea have leftovers of these black palm trees from the early versions with high sea. Just try to look a little bit closer and you will find them. You can even compare screenshots of my demo with screenshots of the original menu (open them in different tabs and switch between them quickly), maybe it will be easier to notice for you. These black pixels definitely were bottom part of these black palm trees. These black pixels 100% coincide with bottom parts of the black palm trees from the early versions of the menu.
wow interesting, so they improved the visuals and cleared the story :) unusual for the pirates
usualy they made something decent then make a worst copy of it like with Terminator 2 "Ending MAN" famiclone in the first revisions the console is made of good plastic and it is 1:1 hardware clone and joy-pads have earphone jack. the later revisions don have even LED and the cartridge mechanism is fake, the plastic is awful and inside is NOAC without even RF modulator
Dushan, it's just because there are hundreds of companies, and these companies steal ideas and things not only from companies outside of China, but also from the other Chinese companies. So, Chinese companies often forge products produced by other Chinese companies, and often these derivatives have much worse quality. I'm pretty sure, that these Unchained Melody multicart menus were stolen by several different Chinese companies, and as the result we have several branches of different variations of these menus :)
Now I'm trying to find evidences if 200-in-1 with new backgrounds with low sea was created by the original authors of the 83-in-1, or it was created by someone else. At this moment I think that it was created by the same guys. And in these early days some other company hacked 83-in-1 and produced 100-in-1; also it seems that the same company hacked 200-in-1 and produced 300-in-1 1993 and 1997-in-1. And then some other companies joined this party and started to create hacks based on the 1997-in-1, not on the original 200-in-1.
The most funny part is that 9999999-in-1 with Simba from the Lion King actually is a hack of an Unchained Melody multicart. It even has image data of most Unchained Melody backgrounds inside its ROM. And it is very interesting if there were other multicarts based on this Unchained Melody series, but without the Unchained Melody and the images with beach and birds.
here you are something :) it is glitched, but you will see this is the fake version ot the beach menu without music and only first scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tb17QDJwis&t
I used to have slimier multi-card, but do not know where is is now , may be I changed for other one .
I have a dump of this multicart. It is actually not an Unchained Melody cart, it doesn't use original code at all. Some guys just stolen a background image from the Unchained Melody multicarts. That's it. There is no music, only one background, no birds, no code from the Unchained Melody multicarts. So, the "9999999-in-1 Simba/Lion King" is more "Unchained Melody" than this one =)
According to your multicarts I can say that 6000000-in-1 is a hack from the subseries "300-in-1 1994", "9999-in-1", "9999999-in-1" with revision number by Left+Start+B. And it would be nice to get it to understand how this branch was developed. And 150-in-1 is a very interesting one because it is possible that it is an original multicart from initial developers of the menu, and it was created just after the 83-in-1 and before the 150-in-1 with the Unchained Melody.
here are the PCBs :)
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g113/IBMDOS/MODS/NES/all_zpsezikgnuf.jpg
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g113/IBMDOS/MODS/NES/PCB%20fron_zpsuaod4cln.jpg
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g113/IBMDOS/MODS/NES/PCB%20back%20001_zpszddtdetw.jpg
The project was in active development in 2018. Since it is suspended since then, I release current state as a new version in retrospect.
v1.4.0 [2018/11/15]
Sound engine is rewritten. It consumes less RAM and CPU cycles.
Gapless repeat of the melody (there was a frame of silence before).
More robust handling of the Konami Code input.
Missile reloading takes some time.
Up to 6 missiles on screen simultaneously!
Respawn other birds and return to the normal mode when you have died.
No visible changes in graphics.
NSF v1.2.0 [2018/11/15]
Based on the Unchained Nostalgia v1.4.0.
File size: 1720 bytes.
A bit more compact representation of music data.
NSFe track count is fixed (some NSFe players were erroneously trying to play more than one track).
Download: unchained_nostalgia.zip (20KB).
Sorry, but the source code page is unavaliable :/ Is there any chance of it's reincarnation?
nib, BitBucket stopped to support Mercurial repositories some time ago, so this repo was removed. I'll export the source code into a Git repo, and publish it on the GitHub later. I already did it for most of my repos, this one is in the queue.
That's good to hear! Thanks in advance!
In 2023, I was preparing an anniversary update for Unchained Nostalgia: 10 years since the first version of the demo, 30 years since the first multicarts with Unchained Melody and the Dendy itself, and 40 years of the original Famicom. But I got distracted by something at the end of the year, so it remained unreleased. I'm releasing it now retroactively in the state the project was in November 2023.
Unchained Nostalgia v1.5 [2023/11/05]