![]() Ok, just found this page that lists A LOT of music engines - many where contracted out to game developers like Code Masters… wow I didn’t realise programming was so “businessy” back then when making ZX Spectrum software. ![]() ![]() I keep seeing “Special FX (Fuzz Click)” appearing again and again - I think this is the program I need to find that produces the audio of the games above. Here’a a forum I just found for emulator programs (and their code! Woo! Getting closer!) I’m making progress - there’s a “1 Bit Beep audio” group online, and one of their number has made a ZX Spectrum audio emulator (not the spectrum itself, but a Windows program that lets you compose 3 channel sound) called Beepola, I’m hoping to find more about the algorithms on Forums that talk about this software: Sadly - I am unable to find the code for this awesome audio engine - if it could be found, the job would be converting the Z80 assembly to a flowchart - then from there to C. It’s worth noting that it could not be used in game on the ZX Spectrum, because of the massive demand on the 3.5MHz Z80 CPU. ![]() Remember - this is the simple ZX Spectrum having it’s “click” PORT(254) being manipulated to make these sounds. Here’s the main menu music demonstrating the effect in "Trantor The Last Stromtrooper." This was on a 3.5 MHz machine, so the overhead of managing those sounds through the simple PORT(254) click made the sound very scratchy - but it was music! The BASIC “BEEP” command could be given a pitch, and duration, and with a little bit of maths, and with the programmers of the ZX Spectrum knowing how fast the assembly loop was running on the 3.5 MHz machine, it was possible for them to make it play the note to the BASIC programmers specifications.įor years, this was all the Spectrum did in games, even ones written in assembly - until someone realised they could build a program that simulated 3 channel sound with actual instruments! One memory I have is back in the ZX Spectrum days - it had a single port 254, that when a bit was flipped there a “click” was emitted from the speaker. I was thinking of some of the awesome ways limitations were worked around in the past with limited hardware.
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