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Commodore has SID, Atari has SAP, what does Apple II have?

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TheAlmightyGuru

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Commodore 64 fans created the SID format to extract the music and sound effects from Commodore 64 programs (http://www.hvsc.c64.org), and Atari 8-bit fans created the SAP format (http://asma.atari.org) to do the same. There's also DRO for DOS, SNDH for the Atari ST, NSF for Nintendo, and many more, but I've never seen a format which houses ripped Atari II music.

Does such a format exist? And if it doesn't, where would be a good place to find people capable of creating one? There was some amazing music from various Apple II and Apple II GS programs, programs that were originally developed on Apple, and it would be great to see the Apple II music scene on par with its rivals.
 
TheAlmightyGuru said:
Commodore 64 fans created the SID format to extract the music and sound effects from Commodore 64 programs (http://www.hvsc.c64.org), and Atari 8-bit fans created the SAP format (http://asma.atari.org) to do the same. There's also DRO for DOS, SNDH for the Atari ST, NSF for Nintendo, and many more, but I've never seen a format which houses ripped Atari II music.

Does such a format exist? And if it doesn't, where would be a good place to find people capable of creating one? There was some amazing music from various Apple II and Apple II GS programs, programs that were originally developed on Apple, and it would be great to see the Apple II music scene on par with its rivals.
Click to expand...

I would guess that since decent sound was an Add-On to the original Apple ][ line, programmers only used Embedded Code for cards like The MockingBoard.

MarkO
 
TheAlmightyGuru said:
Commodore 64 fans created the SID format to extract the music and sound effects from Commodore 64 programs (http://www.hvsc.c64.org), and Atari 8-bit fans created the SAP format (http://asma.atari.org) to do the same. There's also DRO for DOS, SNDH for the Atari ST, NSF for Nintendo, and many more, but I've never seen a format which houses ripped Atari II music.

Does such a format exist? And if it doesn't, where would be a good place to find people capable of creating one? There was some amazing music from various Apple II and Apple II GS programs, programs that were originally developed on Apple, and it would be great to see the Apple II music scene on par with its rivals.
Click to expand...

Apple II didn't have any kind of sound chip like those other machines did, what sounds it's capable of making is all via software toggling the speaker bit on and off, so while they are capable of sound, they were never really lauded for their audio capabilities. Like MarkO said any decent sound was via add-in card, and thus most games and programs never made the assumption there would be a better sound card present, so there is not a very large list of applications for them (compared to the full Apple II catalog, that is).

The much later (16bit) Apple IIgs is another story altogether with its Ensoniq chip its capable of some fantastic synthesis, there might be some for that platform, but short of playing some IIgs games, I've never given my Ensoniq chip a workout, lol.
 
RWallmow said:
The much later (16bit) Apple IIgs is another story altogether with its Ensoniq chip its capable of some fantastic synthesis, there might be some for that platform, but short of playing some IIgs games, I've never given my Ensoniq chip a workout, lol.
Click to expand...
It's just a shame they didn't add some more full-fledged synthesizer features - the ESQ-1 and SQ-80 (based on the same chip, plus Curtis analog filters and a couple nifty features like ring mod and oscillator sync) are fantastic synths. I suppose it would've driven the price up, but even just having it as an option would've been great.
 
commodorejohn said:
It's just a shame they didn't add some more full-fledged synthesizer features - the ESQ-1 and SQ-80 (based on the same chip, plus Curtis analog filters and a couple nifty features like ring mod and oscillator sync) are fantastic synths. I suppose it would've driven the price up, but even just having it as an option would've been great.
Click to expand...

Apple couldn't even be bothered to give the DOC stereo output from the factory. There was nothing stopping 3rd parties from enhancing the DOC with a full set of filters giving ESQ-1 functionality. The DOC expansion header that stereo sound cards used can support up to 8 channels of audio output.
 
I guess it scared 3rd parties away. There was nothing stopping them from throwing a few CEM3379s onto an Apple II card and connecting it to the 5503DOC turning the IIgs into a nice (albeit noisy) ESQ-1 clone. It would be a cool retro project, but the cost of the parts is a bit much these days.
 
Apple II had to use 3rd party sound cards. Mockingboard was awesome, also supported a speech chip. There were also a few MIDI cards. There were roughly 40 games out of the entire Apple II catalog that supported the Mockingboard, and a few games that supported MIDI like King's Quest (I think... might be thinking of the DOS version.)

That games that did support it, such as Ultima, Zaxxon, Rescue Raiders, Pitfall, etc. were well worth it, and are some of my favorite games of all time. :)
 
olePigeon said:
Apple II had to use 3rd party sound cards. Mockingboard was awesome, also supported a speech chip. There were also a few MIDI cards. There were roughly 40 games out of the entire Apple II catalog that supported the Mockingboard, and a few games that supported MIDI like King's Quest (I think... might be thinking of the DOS version.)

That games that did support it, such as Ultima, Zaxxon, Rescue Raiders, Pitfall, etc. were well worth it, and are some of my favorite games of all time. :)
Click to expand...

I got an original Mocking-board just recently.. I need to locate some Games to try with it..

Maybe a Sound File Standard, like used with the SID chips could be developed for the Mocking-Board.

MarkO
 
commodorejohn said:
I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure Sierra only had MIDI support in their SCI games. Though I suppose the IIGS ports of those might've had MIDI support.
Click to expand...

The IIgs AGI ports had basic music and sound via the Ensoniq chip. The SCI engine was never developed for the IIgs even though it likely could have ran it.
 
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