Cave Story music pack for A Link to the Past
Cave Story MSU-1 pack
Music by Daisuke Amaya (Pixel) Compiled and edited by arborelia
Version 1.2
Released: March 18, 2021
Also try my other MSU-1 packs!
Setting up this pack for the first time
On Windows, you can run Cave Story Pack Builder.bat to create the PCM files you'll need.
Or you can run msupcm.exe msu_cave_story.json at the command line, or drag and drop
msu_cave_story.json onto msupcm.exe. All of these do the same thing.
msupcm.exe is a copy of msupcm++, by qwertymodo. The source code (which also runs on Linux) is available at https://github.com/qwertymodo/msupcmplusplus.
What is MSU-1?
MSU-1 is a custom co-processor for the SNES that allows it to play CD-quality audio. It was designed long after the SNES era, so it never existed in an official game cartridge, but it's implemented in modern SNES interfaces such as sd2snes, and emulators such as Snes9x.
Playing ALttP with this pack
Put your ROM from the ALttP Randomizer in this folder. Name it "msu_cave_story.sfc". Run it with Snes9x 1.60 or later. (The music will be choppy on 1.55.)
You can also use a vanilla ROM of ALttP if you apply its MSU patch. However, the vanilla game doesn't support unique music per dungeon.
If you see directions telling you to disable music in the randomizer settings, those directions are old and won't work. Music should be enabled.
A note about track timings
The fanfares for defeating a boss and pulling the pedestal are shorter than they would be in ALttP. If you play ALttPR with a race ROM, it will automatically pad it with silence to the appropriate length.
Changes
Version 1.2
- Moved "Running Hell" from Trinexx to Ganon's Tower upstairs. Trinexx uses "Eyes of Flame"
- Fixed bad loop on "Snoopy Cake"
- Reduced the volume of many tracks, especially the title screen
Version 1.1: I changed some tracks to be more thematic, I think:
- "Meltdown 2" is now additionally used in Desert Palace (because it's the track that plays most of the time in the Sand Zone)
- "Labyrinth Fight" is a good track that should be heard for longer, so I put it in Thieves' Town. Arrghus gets "Gravity" instead
- Used "Balcony" for the dark world with 7 crystals
- Changed the credits to fade from The Way Back Home to Mischievous Robot, as the credits in Cave Story do
Track list
These tracks come from Pixel's freeware Cave Story soundtrack, hosted at [https://www.cavestory.org/download/music.php].
Some of the tracks are unused tracks (but are still excellent). "Wind Fortress" was introduced in Cave Story+.
# Usage in ALttP Cave Story track
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01 Opening theme Cave Story
02 Light World On to Grasstown
03 Rain state White
04 Bunny Snoopy Cake (unused)
05 Lost Woods Plant
06 Prologue Cave Story (continued from opening)
07 Kakariko Village Mimiga Town
09 Dark World Gestation
10 Pull pedestal Got Item!
11 File select Toroko's Theme
12 Guards! Charge
13 Dark Death Mountain Moonsong
14 Minigame Access
15 Skull Woods overworld Jenka 1
16 Hyrule Castle Meltdown (unused variant of Meltdown 2)
17 (vanilla) LW dungeon Mischievous Robot
18 Cave 1 Cemetery
19 Boss victory Get Heart Tank!
20 Sanctuary Safety
21 (vanilla) Boss Eyes of Flame
22 (vanilla) DW dungeon Jenka 2
23 Shop Pulse
24 Cave 2 Quiet
25 (vanilla) Zelda Rescue Safety
26 Crystal collected Victory!
27 Fairy fountain Toroko's Theme
28 Agahnim zaps Zelda Seal Chamber
29 Ganon reveals himself Gameover
30 Drop in to Ganon Break Down
31 Boss: Ganon Last Battle
32 Triforce room Plant
33 Triumphant Return The Way Back Home + Mischievous Robot
34 Credits Moonsong
35 Eastern Palace Mischievous Robot
36 Desert Palace Meltdown 2
37 Agahnim's Tower Meltdown 2
38 Swamp Palace Living Waterway
39 Palace of Darkness Pier Walk (unused)
40 Misery Mire Geothermal
41 Skull Woods (interior) Jenka 2
42 Ice Palace Hero's End
43 Tower of Hera Wind Fortress (unused in original game)
44 Thieves' Town Labyrinth Fight
45 Turtle Rock Scorching Back
46 Ganon's Tower Last Cave
47 Boss: Armos Knights Gravity
48 Boss: Lanmolas Oppression
49 Boss: Agahnim 1 Balrog's Theme
50 Boss: Arrghus Gravity
51 Boss: Helmasaur King Eyes of Flame
52 Boss: Vitreous Eyes of Flame
53 Boss: Mothula Run!
54 Boss: Kholdstare Run!
55 Boss: Moldorm Oppression
56 Boss: Blind Zombie
57 Boss: Trinexx Eyes of Flame
58 Boss: Agahnim 2 Balrog's Theme
59 Ganon's Tower upstairs Running Hell
60 LW after pedestal White
61 DW after 7 crystals Balcony
This version doesn't use the Cave Story unused tracks "People of the Root" and "Halloween 2", but you can mod them in by changing the .json if you want to use them.
About me
My Twitch channel is https://twitch.tv/arborelia . I play a lot of modes of ALttPR and many other randomizers.
You can follow me on Twitter as @arborelia, where I may post future MSU-1 packs, or updates to this pack, but honestly I'll mostly post gay girly shit.