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rayman-tpls-tsr

This is a TSR, or "Terminate and Stay Resident Program" for DOS, to implement "TPLS" (Per-Level Soundtrack) functionality for the PC version of Rayman 1. This functionality has previously been implemented here and in Rayman Plus, and also as a patch applied to Dosbox. The Per-Level Soundtrack makes the soundtrack of the PC version use multiple tracks per world, like on PS1 or Saturn, instead of repetitive medleys.

The unique feature of this latest implementation is that it runs natively inside DOS, alongside the Rayman game itself. This means that it can be used with any custom build of Dosbox, or indeed without Dosbox on an actual old gaming PC!

However, it also means that unlike the other implementations, a custom CD image is needed, or indeed a custom CD if running natively on an old PC.

Advantages and limitations of different TPLS implementations

Implementation Memory-modifying TPLS (e.g. Rayman Plus) TPLS built into Dosbox TPLS as a TSR (i.e. this work)
Requires dat file Music.dat Music.dat AMBIENTS.DAT (only for MIDI tracks)
Requires custom CD-ROM / Image No No Yes
Extra MIDI tracks from PS1 Play at set times Play at set times Play in the exact locations they should (and can be turned off)
Can be used with custom Dosbox builds No (unless you search for pointers and compile TPLS yourself) No (unless you apply the patch and compile Dosbox yourself) Yes, no recompilation needed!
Can be used on Windows 3.x / 9x No No Yes
Can be used on pure DOS No No Yes
Rayman versions supported All versions mentioned here All versions mentioned here, plus v1.12 US UNPROTECTED See below (basically every version we know about!)

Supported Rayman versions

These are all existing Rayman versions of which I am aware, and the TSR has been tested with each one to a certain extent. It "works" with all of them, but for some of them there may be some glitches that occur deeper in the game which I'm not aware of.

  • "RAYMAN (US) v1.21"
  • "RAYMAN (FR) v1.21"
  • "RAYMAN (CH) v1.21"
  • "RAYMAN (JP) v1.20"
  • "RAYMAN (UK) v1.20"
  • "RAYMAN (GERMAN) v1.20"
  • "RAYMAN (IT-SP-DU) v1.20"
  • "RAYMAN (US) v1.12" (both "UNPROTECTED" and normal version)
  • "RAYMAN (EU) v1.12"
  • "RAYMAN (EU) v1.10"
  • "RAYMAN v1.00"

Installation and usage

If using Dosbox with a configuration file

  • Make sure your Rayman version is supported (see above table) – if not, please let me know and I'll see what I can do!
  • Download and extract a release from the releases page.
  • Change the IMGMOUNT command in the autoexec section of your config file to mount the TPLSTSR4.cue file, rather than the game's original CD image.
  • Before the invocation of RAYMAN.EXE in the autoexec section, add D:\TPLSTSR4.EXE (where D is your CD drive letter).
    • You can add command-line switches as described below, if desired.
  • Run Dosbox with your new config file and enjoy TPLS!

If on native DOS or Windows 3.x / 9x (having used Ubi Soft's installer to install Rayman)

  • Make sure your Rayman version is supported (see above table) – if not, please let me know and I'll see what I can do!
  • Download and extract a release from the releases page.
  • Use the tplstsr4.cue (or tplstsr4.toc) and tplstsr4.bin files to burn a CD-R – it should be possible to do this with cdrdao on Linux (using the --swap option!), or perhaps ImgBurn on Windows.
  • Insert the new CD into your PC running DOS or Windows.
  • Before running Rayman, run D:\TPLSTSR4.EXE (where D is your CD drive letter).
    • You can add command-line switches as described below, if desired.
  • Run C:\RAYMAN.BAT and enjoy TPLS!

Command-line switches

TPLSTSR4.EXE supports the following command line switches on invocation:

Switch Meaning Effect
/E EMS The TSR stores the payload in Expanded Memory rather than Conventional Memory, while waiting for you to run Rayman. This seemed like a good idea when I first wrote this version, but when I actually tried it out it was a bit flaky… Maybe someday I'll go back to figure out what I did wrong, and fix it. (PRs also welcome!)
/N NO "Yeah!" or "Oh No!" music Turns off the option to use CD audio when Rayman reaches the exit sign or dies.
/C CD Audio only Turns off Ambient ("MIDI") tracks.
/M Music only Turns off the visual bug fixes, i.e. Bad Rayman's fist and the Curse Stars in Candy Château.
/F Fist kills Turns on an optional feature whereby Bad Rayman's fist kills Rayman when it hits him (rather than just passing through). This was intended behaviour at some point during the game's development, and it's not clear to me whether it was deliberately disabled or just not correctly implemented. It doesn't really make it that much harder! ;)

All switches except /E can be toggled by re-invoking the TSR. So, for example, if you run TPLSTSR4 /C, then the TSR will be resident with Ambient tracks turned off, then if you run TPLSTSR4 /C again, it will toggle Ambient tracks back on. Each time you do this, it will print out a report of which options are currently enabled. :)

Compilation

TPLSTSR4 (unlike the old TPLSTSR3 from 2021) is a plain old MZ executable. However, because of the peculiar way I've used groups in the code, a lot of assemblers seem to miscalculate certain offsets. JWasm v2.14 or greater will assemble the TSR correctly, and it can run on Windows, DOS or Linux.

jwasm -mz TPLSTSR4.ASM

It will warn about no stack being defined, but it should still produce a working TPLSTSR4.EXE in DOS MZ format.

Ambient ("MIDI") tracks from PS1 version

In order for the game to play the ambient tracks, the file AMBIENTS.DAT needs to be present in the same folder that the TSR runs from (i.e. TPLSTSR4.EXE and AMBIENTS.DAT need to be in the same folder). This file is generated by mkambdat.py, which is a Python script that requires the python-ffmpeg module.

Currently it works by taking some of the 44.1-kHz 32-bit stereo FLAC files available in an archive on RayTunes, down-sampling them to 10-kHz 16-bit mono, and saving them as raw PCM data suitable for loading by the game itself. Given that the originals are MIDI, I suppose this doesn't really degrade the quality too badly…

If you burn a CD to play on a retro PC, it is probably wise to copy the TSR and AMBIENTS.DAT to your hard drive before playing, as otherwise it will have to read the entire file from the CD into memory while the game is booting up, which can take a while…

How does it work?

Unlike v1.x (using the DOS32 extender), since v2.0 this is a normal Real Mode TSR. However, it still manages to inject 32-bit Protected Mode code into Rayman. It does this by attaching a payload to whichever HMIDRV.386 sound driver Rayman is using (this is why it won't work if Rayman's sound isn't configured), and saving it into a temporary file. Rayman is then directed to open this temporary file instead of the original file when looking for its sound driver.

When Rayman loads the sound driver, it initially transfers control to the payload, which is able to communicate with the TSR's Real Mode stub. The payload first sets up code and data segments for the actual sound driver, and then it sets up the hooks and overrides needed for TPLS itself. It then transfers control to the actual sound driver, which is able to operate normally.

Wishlist (possible future additions)

  • Add support for Rayman Designer and the educational games. Although these don't need a Per-Level Soundtrack, most of the additional features are applicable to them and would be worthwhile enhancements. I don't want to bloat it too much though…
  • Complement / replace the command-line switches an in-game menu? (This would be very tricky though!)
  • Option to replace the "popping" sound used for Tings with the "ting" sound from PS1

I'm not promising at this point that any of these features will appear in a future version, but it's a possibility! :)