Shenmue Dojo

Giorgio wrote: Tutorial how to play any music track
in the title (more precisely, the menu) screen of Shenmue II.

How to play "0003_001.SND" (Kowloon intro)
STEPS:

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1) In Shenmue II's root folder, find and open the file "1ST_READ.BIN" with a hex editor (and leave it open).
2) Navigate to \SCENE\03\SOUND; find and copy (CTRL+C) the file "0003_001.SND".
3) Navigate (go up) to MISC and paste (CTRL+V) (the file "0003_001.SND").
4) In the MISC folder, find and open the file "TIT_SND.BIN" with a hex editor (and leave it open).
5) Navigate to \SCENE\03\0200; find and open the file "MAPINFO.BIN" with a hex editor.
5.1) Find (CTRL+F) the text-string reference of SMAP (in the file "MAPINFO.BIN").
5.2) Place the cursor before the character S of the text-string SMAP.
5.3) Press the combination of keys CTRL+E (to select a block of bytes).
5.4) Select the radio-button of the "Length:" legend.
5.5) In the text-area, replace the highlighted text with 194.
5.6) Make sure the radio-button of the "hex" legend is selected (below).
5.7) Click on the "OK" button.
5.8) Copy (CTRL+C) the selected/highlighted block of bytes (in your clipboard).
6) In the hex editor, select the TIT_SND.BIN tab.
6.1) Select all (CTRL+A) the bytes.
6.2) Paste (CTRL+V) the content of your clipboard.
6.3) Select/highlight the text-string 0200A000 and copy (CTRL+C) it.
7) In the hex editor, select the 1ST_READ.BIN tab.
7.1) Find (CTRL+F) the text-string reference of "tit_snd.bin".
7.2) Look (with your eyes) for the text-string "0002S000.sbt" before the "tit_snd.bin" one, select/highlight the "0002S000" bit of it and replace it with "0200A000".
7.3) Look (with your eyes) for the text-string "0002S000.smp" after the "tit_snd.bin" one, select/highlight the "0002S000" bit of it and replace it with "0200A000".

How to play "0002_023.SND" (Guilin intro)
STEPS:

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1) In Shenmue II's root folder, find and open the file "1ST_READ.BIN" with a hex editor (and leave it open).
2) Navigate to \SCENE\04\SOUND; find and copy (CTRL+C) the file "0002_023.SND".
3) Navigate (go up) to MISC and paste (CTRL+V) (the file "0002_023.SND").
4) In the MISC folder, find and open the file "TIT_SND.BIN" with a hex editor (and leave it open).
5) Navigate to \SCENE\04\KRF1; find and open the file "MAPINFO.BIN" with a hex editor.
5.1) Find (CTRL+F) the text-string reference of SMAP (in the file "MAPINFO.BIN").
5.2) Place the cursor before the character S of the text-string SMAP.
5.3) Press the combination of keys CTRL+E (to select a block of bytes).
5.4) Select the radio-button of the "Length:" legend.
5.5) In the text-area, replace the highlighted text with 194.
5.6) Make sure the radio-button of the "hex" legend is selected (below).
5.7) Click on the "OK" button.
5.8) Copy (CTRL+C) the selected/highlighted block of bytes (in your clipboard).
6) In the hex editor, select the TIT_SND.BIN tab.
6.1) Select all (CTRL+A) the bytes.
6.2) Paste (CTRL+V) the content of your clipboard.
6.3) Select/highlight the text-string 0500A000 and copy (CTRL+C) it.
7) In the hex editor, select the 1ST_READ.BIN tab.
7.1) Find (CTRL+F) the text-string reference of "tit_snd.bin".
7.2) Look (with your eyes) for the text-string "0002S000.sbt" before the "tit_snd.bin" one, select/highlight the "0002S000" bit of it and replace it with "0500A000".
7.3) Look (with your eyes) for the text-string "0002S000.smp" after the "tit_snd.bin" one, select/highlight the "0002S000" bit of it and replace it with "0500A000".

Note (valid for both STEPS sections above): the step 6.3 is potentially unusable, however, it was left just to emphasize where the text-string "0200A000"/"0500A000" comes from when it used later on (steps 7.2-7.3). Also, in this tutorial the hex editor named HxD was used.

How to play any other music track
STEPS:

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1) Navigate to \SCENE\0X\SOUND (where X is a number); find and copy (CTRL+C) the .SND file (of the music track you want to play).
2) Navigate (go up) to MISC and paste (CTRL+V) (the .SND file).
3) In the MISC folder, find and open the file "TIT_SND.BIN" with a hex editor.
3.1) Select/highlight the text-string 0017_012.
3.2) Replace the selected/highlighted text-string with the prefix of the .SND file.

This is my first mod/hack for Shenmue 2!

This is beautiful! Thanks Giorgio

Thanks to Giorgio for finding the solution and everyone else who contributed.

Here's a Dreamcast recording of the Guilin intro music.

Late reply here but I wanted to thank you Giorgio for finally cracking this case and while I'm at it ask if you have any idea how this could be transfered over to Shenmue.

There are two unused tracks that don't play on the menu screen and not on the passport music selection either.
They are BGM011 and 07BG12. The latter is stored in the passport portion of disc 4. Menu music is SPP004 in misc.