Vectrex AY music to Intellivision?

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I've been pondering this for several months now.. I'm not a programmer but I am a musician.

I love the Vectrex and Inty, plus the way the AY PSG sounds, it's my favorite. Anyways, there is a ton of very well done homebrew music on the Vectrex, so the million dollar question is:

 

Would it be possible to 'convert' over Vectrex tunes to play on the Inty since they have very similar chips.

The Inty with the AY-3-8914 and the Vectex with the AY-3-8912, this has to be possible I would assume.. then again you know what happens when you assume. Thats why I'm asking this question here, I hope someone can enlighten me.

I'd like to throw some tunes on a Inty Flashcart when the time comes, thats my main goal out of this.

Edited February 5, 2016 by SiLic0ne t0aD85

[carlsson]

Does the Vectrex music use a generic format? I've understood there are YM tunes and such, for which there needs to be a player (or driver if you like) that playbacks the music data according to a given format. While I'm not terribly experienced in the AY/YM world and the implementations on different Z80, 6809, CP1610, 6502 etc systems, I believe the data format is closer to realtime register dumps than higher level notation that needs to be translated upon playback, which would make it easier to port playback routines.

 

E.g. in the C64 SID world, nearly every music program has its own music data format, which is why SID files actually are C64 executables with extra header information, and the player emulates both the sound chip, CPU, CIAs, RAM and even ROM for those BASIC programs. If we entertain the thought that a SID chip would be interfaced to the Intellivision, it would give us three opportunities:

1. Run the desired music files through a SID player that would create register dumps to playback

2. Write a partial C64 emulator in CP1610 assembly language (CPU, CIA, ROM, RAM at least)

3. Rewrite they playback part of desired music files, which to a big part means every file needs to be treated separately. Sometimes you might find multiple songs made with the same routine so you could reuse the work.

 

If your Vectrex music also is written using a higher level player that deals with block structures, note lengths, indexed note frequencies, various effects for vibrato, arpeggio etc, you likely would need to go through the same three options: either dump registers, make a 6809 emulator or rewrite the playback routine.

Edited February 5, 2016 by carlsson

[GroovyBee]

DZ-Jay put together a tutorial on the Inty tracker developed by Arnauld Chevallier here :-

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/218984-how-to-intellivision-music-tracker/

The tracker is written in assembly language and builds to a player+song ROM. You just make adjustments to the song data part manually. If thats not your thing have a look at IntyBASIC. There are plenty of tunes developed in that here :-

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/248209-the-intybasic-compiler-official-thread/

[+DZ-Jay]

DZ-Jay put together a tutorial on the Inty tracker developed by Arnauld Chevallier here :-

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/218984-how-to-intellivision-music-tracker/

 

The tracker is written in assembly language and builds to a player+song ROM. You just make adjustments to the song data part manually. If thats not your thing have a look at IntyBASIC. There are plenty of tunes developed in that here :-

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/248209-the-intybasic-compiler-official-thread/

 

By the way, if you have a strong will, you can use the Intellivision Music Tracker in your IntyBASIC games.

[GroovyBee]

 

By the way, if you have a strong will, you can use the Intellivision Music Tracker in your IntyBASIC games.

 

True! But you'd also have to modify the tracker code to free up a channel for sound effects in your game.

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Thanks for the replies so far guys. I hope to get into a little programming this year, at least music would be interesting.. I've got a lot of learning to do! :-)

[First Spear]

I have spent the past few (several?) months looking into past and present platforms that use the AY-3-89xx, looking to harvest noise and music generation techniques from other systems, including the Vectrex. The ubiquity of the chip is really a good thing, and there are only a finite number of ways to make the AY buzz/beep/etc. However, in 2015 documentation for those other systems doesn't exist or is poor or broken links that even archive.org doesn't have. I have sunk a bit of time into reversing-out sound instructions in the YM, AY, PT, VTX, and several other formats, some of it is so compact that nibbles (4 bits) in a byte are used. I know the Vectrex in particular has the sound instructions interwoven into the code (they are not say at the tail of a ROM file or something), so you would really have to know how to disassemble it to get the PSG code out.

 

Soo....

 

I would say that the easiest thing to do for now is to write something out on your own and try to mimic the sound on the Inty that you hear on other platforms.

 

One thing I have done is run a full MSX emulator under Windows, run a demo or a game, captured the PSG output, and then copied those instructions to an IntyBASIC file and the sound played. I tried that a couple of time to see if it would work, but man it is a lot of work.

 

HTH

 

 

I've been pondering this for several months now.. I'm not a programmer but I am a musician.

I love the Vectrex and Inty, plus the way the AY PSG sounds, it's my favorite. Anyways, there is a ton of very well done homebrew music on the Vectrex, so the million dollar question is:

 

Would it be possible to 'convert' over Vectrex tunes to play on the Inty since they have very similar chips.

The Inty with the AY-3-8914 and the Vectex with the AY-3-8912, this has to be possible I would assume.. then again you know what happens when you assume. Thats why I'm asking this question here, I hope someone can enlighten me.

I'd like to throw some tunes on a Inty Flashcart when the time comes, thats my main goal out of this.