This weekend's project: Install a SID Master 99

[+jedimatt42]

I was greeted this Friday with a nice shiny SID Master 99 card from Marc Hull. So I jumped right in, and unstacked my PEBs so I could get that card in and give it a whirl. I'm disk challenged, so a little poking around the Destroyer's web site, and I had some sid files and the sidplayer on real iron, and ready to go. My wife happens to walk by right when I was listing the sid files in the player for the first time. So I called her over to share in the moment...

 

No sound.

 

Hmm...

 

Well, that's why it is a hobby.

 

I sent an email off to Marc and before too long I had an answer. Who would have thought that Texas Instruments would build an audio peripheral for the TI-99/4a that blocked the addition of other audio peripheral? They had the forethought to run the audio-in all the way out to the PEB bus.

 

It turns out the Speech Synthesizer has a downside, it doesn't bother to connect pin 44 from the expansion port on the right side, to the left side. It uses it for itself like a greedy little child, not willing to share. Luckily, Marc had some quick remedy for this.

 

Just run a jumper between the in and the out. So that is what I did. Now my TI audio, speech, and SID Master 99 all get to share.

 

Here is a photo:

 

 

Now, besides the wealth of SID files on his site: http://www.dsapsc.com/free-sid-music.html, I need to figure out how to migrate them in from other sources.

 

I tried converting to a TI file through Ti99Dir as a DIS/FIX 128 file, with no byte conversions (binary), but after the sid player loads it, it does not play.. it tries, but makes no sounds.

 

I've since learned that SID files can be PAL or NTSC. The file I'm trying to start with is a version of star wars of course: Star_Wars.sid

 

Any clues?

 

-M@

[+Schmitzi]

.

Great to know, thx. Soldering this "jumper" is a challenge that I can win. Maybe

 

Is it definetly needed, to do so ? I never read about. OK, I have 2 SID-Boards waiting here, but also have to read any instructions

 

I also have a Speech-inda-PEB-adapter, not used yet, so this should work without jumper, of course. Right ?

 

I´ll let you know.

 

xXx

[+jedimatt42]

The jumper is just needed only if you want to have sidecar speech synthesizer and SID Master 99 in the PEB hooked up at the same time.

 

The speech-inda-peb-adapter solves the problem as well, since both cards have access to the backplane.

 

Maybe if there wasn't so much alcohol on the shelf behind you, your hair would not be ablaze! Do you get so drunk, that your hair acts like an oil lamp? Maybe wear a hat when soldering, so the ashes from your singed hair and scalp don't get on your circuit boards. Or, at least if your hair does catch of fire, cook a hot dog.

 

 

-M@

[Tursi]

I tried converting to a TI file through Ti99Dir as a DIS/FIX 128 file, with no byte conversions (binary), but after the sid player loads it, it does not play.. it tries, but makes no sounds.

 

I've since learned that SID files can be PAL or NTSC. The file I'm trying to start with is a version of star wars of course: Star_Wars.sid

The software that comes with the SidBlaster can only play files in the Compute! Sidplayer "MUS" format - this is the format that Marc provides an archive for. Many SID files are actually emulation files that include code that needs to run on a 6510 CPU and associated Commodore64 hardware, there's not currently a way to run these on the TI as far as I know.

 

Your StarWars file is a 'PSID' file and is one of these that requires an emulation environment to run.

[+OLD CS1]

If I would bother to check Marc's website, he may have this link

 

http://www.c64music.co.uk/

 

Here you can find a collection of COMPUTE! MUS-format files. Just what the doctor ordered for the SID Master 99 or even a real C64.

 

(EDIT: I checked, he does: http://www.dsapsc.com/free-sid-music.html )

[+jedimatt42]

Ah, nice. Yes it plays any of the mus files just splendidly. I hadn't realized the distinction before.

 

-M@