Converting .vgm to compressed binaries

[el-bee]

Hi!

I'd like to make a very small song binary (max. 32kb) for Megadrive. I'm using Deflemask to compose, but it's very easy to go over the size limit. Eg. adding pattern data to the song quickly bloats the binary.

So far, for making binaries I've found & tested:

1. Michael Stamper's VGM Player V3.20b, removes 8.5kb off a 43kb test file if using .vgz
2. badc0de's vgmplay7, actually adds 260b to the same 43kb test file.

Vgmplay7 also only supports vgm v1.5 (=no PCM).

So I'm wondering are there any other conversion tools that could do tighter compression? Or is Megadrive simply "no-go" for anything as small as 32kb?

Any other tool recommendations & tips are welcome too :)

[r57shell]

Vgmplay7 also only supports vgm v1.5 (=no PCM).

Why do you think that vgm v1.5 = no PCM?
VGM support PCM from very first version.

Take a look at VGMTool
NOTE: all you can optimize (for MD) in VGM is samples, and remove unnecessary calls.

If you want smaller, then you must use differeny driver.
For example: GEMS 7 tracks 87 kb sound data. Thread is here.

[twosixonetwo]

I'd guess that writing your own player routine and a custom compression for the data would result in a much smaller binary than using vgm and a vgm player. So if you really try to optimise it as much as possible you might want to look into that.

[el-bee]

R57shell: Because I read it somewhere, wasn't any kind of "official" spec at least :)

I don't know a thing about coding so writing something from scratch is not an option. VGMTool does make a very good optimized vgz (testfile goes down to 4kb), but when I convert it to binary using vgmplay7 it bloats back up.

So yeah, maybe I'll just waste my time on something else. Thanks for the suggestions anyway!