RELEASE: Digi-Port (Audio-Byte) Sound Player v1.03 BETA by OPA & WHTech

[Gary from OPA]

Digi-Port - The Sound Solution

AUDIO-BYTE  v1.03.9109.14 (BETA VERSION)

(c)1991 By Oasis Pensive Abacutors and Western Horizon Technologies

 

Originally, sold by Western Horizon Technologies, was a small hardware device that plugged into your TI99 PIO port which allowed you to play the '90s PCM 8-bit sound file format found on the PC, Amiga, Atari ST, Mac.

 

Now, here is the TMS9900 Assembly Language Source Code release of the BETA VERSION which Oasis Pensive Abacutors wrote as test software for the device back in 1991, I don't recall there being another version released back in the day, there might have been, but anyway here is this version that makes use of the 32k (for short 10 second files), or expanded 128k VDP, or Rambo and Geneve memory for much longer.

 

You can also play the sounds via the TMS9919 chip, but not as well, the sound quality is less, but it is easy today to build your own Digi-Port hardware device, see these pages for more info:

 

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covox_Speech_Thing

* https://github.com/necroware/silly-sound-bastard

 

Quote

Digi-Port is a unique miniature device that plugs into your computers PIO (parallel printer) port and gives you the ability to play digitized sounds.
No more boring boot ups, play your favorite sound clip instead! Listen to those sound clips your friends can on their IBM's.
Comes complete with 99/4a and Myarc Geneve sound players. Plays any standard .wav file, many .voc and other files.
Supports 32K, RAMBO, and Extended VDP RAM for playback on the 99/4a and all memory expansion peripherals for the Myarc Geneve.
Package includes Digi-Port cable w/ RCA male output (requires amplified speakers or monitor with amplified input), programs and a few sample sounds on a single DSSD diskette (180K).
Millions of sounds are available on BBS's and the Internet. Start listening to your computer today!!

 

GITHUB Release Link: https://github.com/gary99opa/Digi-Port

 

DIGIPORT.dsk DIGIPORT-Sound-Samples.zip DIGIPORT-Source-Files-Only.zip DIGIPORT_1_03_GaryOPA_05_09_2024.zip

[+OLD CS1]

Nifty.  These exist in the Amiga world, as well, with some more recent ones supporting MP3, AAC, and Ogg.

[Gary from OPA]

4 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

Nifty.  These exist in the Amiga world, as well, with some more recent ones supporting MP3, AAC, and Ogg.

Yep, maybe now someone will make a small PIO board or adapter for the open-source Covox devices, and update the source code to support SAMS, or I will myself at some point, but now its all there to play with, hopefully someone finds it useful!

Edited May 9 by Gary from OPA

[+Vorticon]

I had a Digi-Port in the 90's but did not find much use for it back then. It got lost in a move and did not really miss it. Until now 😄

[Gary from OPA]

5 minutes ago, Vorticon said:

I had a Digi-Port in the 90's but did not find much use for it back then. It got lost in a move and did not really miss it. Until now 😄

Easy to build a new one. You can just wire up a bunch of 1% resistors in the right pattern to the PIO connector.

[ti99iuc]

interesting!
I have the original package and always been curious to know more about it

[+Vorticon]

Looks like it's nothing more than an ADC using a resistance ladder. That said, how does it separate complex waveforms and determine what goes to each channel on the sound chip? I've used resistance ladders for a DAC in an oscilloscope graphics project a while back...

 

[Gary from OPA]

1 hour ago, ti99iuc said:

interesting!
I have the original package and always been curious to know more about it

That's nice. Can you check your original floppy and upload a image of it to this thread. I am curious if it's v1.03 source I released or a later one that I didn't archive.

 

And PDF of the included paperwork would be cool to add to this thread as well.

Edited May 10 by Gary from OPA

[Gary from OPA]

23 minutes ago, Vorticon said:

Looks like it's nothing more than an ADC using a resistance ladder. That said, how does it separate complex waveforms and determine what goes to each channel on the sound chip? I've used resistance ladders for a DAC in an oscilloscope graphics project a while back...

 

It does separate anything and there no channels like a sound chip all it does is play the mono waveform in PCM format out, you can see more on how it works in the Covox wiki link I put in the first post.