Overclocking the NES while maintaining audio quality...

[nos_slived]

But the video isn't going faster, just smoother. The game runs at the exact same speed, so you neither increase, nor decrease the speed of audio or video. If you could send only audio to a CPU which wasn't overclocked, the video data wouldn't lag the process, so the audio CPU would run smooth, as well as the overclocked video CPU.

[soundwave]

Aha. I was under the impression that the game speed increased.

[gannon]

the 2nd non-overclocked processor would still be doing the same amount of work as normal though, so in places where the game lags at the normal clock rate the audio will still lag.

[Gamelver]

so the audio and video would be out of sync.....

[SgtBowhack]

Guys, you all seem confused about this. The audio won't lag. But it also can't be received by 2 processors at the same time at different rates either. It's gonna be synched no matter what, because the NES cartridge can't suddenly be capable of supplying double the data because it's connected to two NES systems. So the two systems will be receiving the same data at the same time, and probably confuse the hell out of the cartridge by sending the same requests twice. In short, even if the game doesn't crash, you will see NO benefits. And I have great doubts about it working at all (or at least maybe not in a beneficial way) because it'll just keep receiving data twice from the cartridge because that's what's on the bus. If you're lucky and it only reads after a request and does nothing about data sitting there, then it'll work but it won't be any faster.
The more I think about it, the more I come up with reasons why it's just not reasonable. The only way to do this is to involve a third processor that controls the data transfers to/from the cartridge and sends sound code to one processor and other code to the other (overclocked) one. This processor would have to run much faster than the other two (probably at double the speed of the faster one or more) to be of much benefit though, and buffer operations and be able to send to both CPUs separately.
MM007: The circuit to change pitch has to be simpler than what you're proposing, but I can't seem to find one Sorry!

[Alchemist]

You're be implying that the 2 NES circuits have to interact with each other beyond the control input. They don't. Why use only one cartridge for two NES systems when you can use two? NES cartridges are cheap as hell, and anyway we're not talking a particularly practical project here. Even then the effect of the lag depends on how the game was coded, with a decent frameskip (so that it keeps metronome time but the framerate drops) or with full frame processing (so that it takes a varying amount of time to render the correct number of frames). If a working frameskip has been implemented then you will stay in sync. If not you're out of luck.

There isn't a simple cirduit to drop pitch, it requires digital processing to do it properly (ie you won't be making it in your garage). Probably your best bet will be to purchase a cheap guitar pitch shift unit with minimal effects.

[bicostp]

jeeze, if you want the music so badly, why not burn a CD of it and change tracks when you go through levels?

Sure, no SFX, but what do you expect?

[MM007]

I want the NES to run as well as possible while maintaining the sound.

Is there another way of boosting performance? IE: Can the 6502 address more RAM than is onboard in the NES (And will the cartridges let it use said RAM)?

[SgtBowhack]

Alchemist: There are some issues with thinking you can get the control working too. You'd need both NES systems to have their clocks synched, and with one of them overclocked... that's not gonna happen. In short, this just will not work. Remember that NES controllers use a clock signal to decide what button it's polling.

MM007: The best way to do that is to run an NES at stock speed. :/ Since the NES doesn't have an operating system to speak of, there is no RAM management. Look at the N64- games that don't use the expansion RAM don't see any benefits from it.

[cennar]

just over clock the CPU, the ppu and spu will manage

[goodie]

Look at the N64- games that don't use the expansion RAM don't see any benefits from it.

Actually, I remember at least one non-expansion pak game that benefited from the expansion pak: Top Gear Rally. I played it without the expansion pak, and the frame rate was usually good. Except in one stage, when you go over a bridge the frame rate stutters for a moment. When I played it with the expansion pak, the frame rate remained smooth the entire time. Just thought I'd point that out.

[gannon]

just over clock the CPU, the ppu and spu will manage

yeah, but the spu (I'll assume you mean the sound processor) is built into the cpu, so you can't have a different clock rate for it and the cpu.

[cennar]

really cool then why not do bouth cus the sound wont sink right up if its not k

[gannon]

Because the sound frequency goes up too.