Questions tagged [sound]

Questions regarding the generation of sound in retrocomputers.

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47 votes
3 answers
7k views

How did C64 games handle music during gameplay?

On the C64 there was no threading, so how did games handle treating at the same time music and game code? Music requires exact timings, and the SID had to be instructed to change the note at the right ...
Stefano Borini's user avatar
47 votes
9 answers
14k views

Why did the IBM PC need a sound card?

The original IBM PC and later variants used an Intel 8253 or 8254 as a sound chip. Why did users add sound cards such as the Adlib or Sound Blaster. I remember voice output with programs like ...
jwzumwalt's user avatar
  • 4,469
25 votes
1 answer
5k views

Why do all the Speech Synthesizers have that same Voice?

The first time I ever played with software speech synthesis on a microcomputer (not hardware synthesis, like in TI's Speak & Spell) was around 1983, using S.A.M for the Commodore 64. A year later,...
Brian H's user avatar
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24 votes
3 answers
7k views

What causes the glitchy sound when a GBA cartridge is removed?

Example in mGBA (mirror) — SOUND WARNING. When you remove a game cartridge from a powered-on GBA, it makes this horrible, loud glitching sound. I can tell that a small portion of the looped sound is ...
leetbacoon's user avatar
9 votes
6 answers
3k views

Is there any music source code for sound chips? [closed]

I’ll clarify what I mean. The sound chip (c64's SID, spectrum's Yamaha, etc.) is connected either to the input / output port, which will be reserved for the sound chip, or directly to the CPU data bus....
Alex's user avatar
  • 471
42 votes
6 answers
8k views

How did old games from 8-bit era game consoles store music?

Some time ago I found that the audio of a game called Ninja Gaiden 1 (NES) is around 1 hour. This is excluding the sound effects like jump and hit e.t.c. Then I found that the entire game size is ...
quantum231's user avatar
24 votes
7 answers
5k views

Was it possible programmatically to manipulate the volume as well as the pitch on computers with no sound chip?

On early versions of many 8-bit computers like the Apple II, Spectrum, and even the IBM PC, there was no sound hardware other than the simple "beeper". Programmers made sound by hitting a hardware ...
hippietrail's user avatar
  • 6,333
9 votes
5 answers
708 views

Getting Music Functioning for Raptor: Call of the Shadows (1994)

I can't get the music audio working for the 1994 version of Raptor. Does anyone know how I can remedy this? I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this question, but here goes. I have an ...
Gorchestopher H's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
621 views

Could the Apple IIGS play any and all Amiga MOD files?

The Apple IIGS has a wavetable synthesis sound chip with dedicated 64 kilobytes of RAM. I assume the sound architecture dictates that samples have to be loaded into that dedicated RAM to be able to be ...
scrØllbær's user avatar
  • 1,109
6 votes
2 answers
764 views

When was beeping invented, in a user interface sense?

UPDATE: thanks all, lots of good discussion but I think this question is a bit too vague to be answerable. I'm casting my own close vote against it and will re-ask a more specific one. Specifically I ...
natevw's user avatar
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5 votes
0 answers
267 views

What was the first device to "beep" in lieu of tactile feedback to button presses?

I'm splitting this question off of When was beeping invented, in a user interface sense? because I think it's more answerable on its own and I suspect likely to still be computing-related. At some ...
natevw's user avatar
  • 2,917