EA Hockey PAL ROM audio help

[Quaid87]

Hi there

A bit of a specific one this - I'm a sound engineer, and I'm currently working on a PAL preservation project to rip music from Mega Drive Model 1 PAL hardware using an external sound recorder connected to my Mega Drive 3.5mm audio jack. I plan to use industrial mastering tools to make the game audio sound much more listenable.

The results on games that have a sound test have been astonishing for me, but it's games like this, where there isn't a sound test, that are a little trickier. I've been able to record the main theme, and the theme from the playoff brackets with no problem whatsoever - both themes naturally play long enough to get to the end/loop points.

It's the music that plays at the end of a period/game that's frustrating me. No matter what I do, even if there are no "game highlights" from other matches to ruin the flow, the theme only plays for around a minute or so before the screen goes off on it's own.

Is there a way, perhaps through hacking, that can force the game to stay on that screen for longer so that the music can play to its loop point (which is around 2:10 from a very low quality version I've heard)? Or is there a way to change the main title screen theme to that one instead?

Thanks

Edited March 31 by Quaid87

[von Ozbourne]

Pardon my ignorance on this perhaps, but does the hardware version not follow the same course as the emulated version?

I ask only because it's been my experience [I haven't played the hardware version of EA Hockey owing to living in an NTSC country] that after you complete a game and it displays the end of game stats and after the game expires and returns to the main menu, that end-of-game song just continues on through to the main menu the same way the title screen music continues on when initially turning on the game.

My recommendation would be to play a game, hit start to end before any highlights come up and then just let the game sit on the main menu.
...maybe pressing the d-pad occasionally to prevent the game from starting another game before you get your sample.

[Quaid87]

10 hours ago, von Ozbourne said:

Pardon my ignorance on this perhaps, but does the hardware version not follow the same course as the emulated version?

I ask only because it's been my experience [I haven't played the hardware version of EA Hockey owing to living in an NTSC country] that after you complete a game and it displays the end of game stats and after the game expires and returns to the main menu, that end-of-game song just continues on through to the main menu the same way the title screen music continues on when initially turning on the game.

My recommendation would be to play a game, hit start to end before any highlights come up and then just let the game sit on the main menu.
...maybe pressing the d-pad occasionally to prevent the game from starting another game before you get your sample.

I’m going to feel REALLY stupid if it’s just as simple as that, though from memory I *think* the game reloads the main menu screen and plays the title theme again. 
 

I might be wrong though - I’ll give it a try when I get home.

[Quaid87]

My god you were right. I can't believe I missed that! Having said that I mostly play Playoffs, and from what I remembered as a kid I always assumed the menu looped back to the main theme.

I guess I remembered wrong!

Thanks!