I'm sure that some of the GCE games would have used at least some of the hardcoded tunes - and yeah you're right, it's probably also for saving space, good call. I guess there is only so much you can fit into a 4KB ROM...
945 Mar 9, 2010 11:31 am
Re: Music as a part of BIOS? (19 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
946 Mar 9, 2010 11:11 am
Re: Music as a part of BIOS? (19 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
arfink wrote:
I have never heard of anything like that, except perhaps the Nintendo "po-ling" or other sorts of startup sounds. As for music you could just use in your own games... that is certainly not something I have ever heard of.
Yeah, it's an interesting thing, eh.
an-cat-max wrote:
famicom disk system BIOS
Care to elaborate?
PS > Thanks for your helpful input, Saskrotch, you know how much I appreciate it 
947 Mar 9, 2010 3:51 am
Re: Sega Megadrive/Genesis EP on a Cartridge (49 replies, posted in Sega)
Amazzing.
948 Mar 9, 2010 2:34 am
Topic: Music as a part of BIOS? (19 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
The Vectrex is interesting because it contains BIOS routines for music playback. OK, so that's nothing special, but what is perhaps more interesting is that a set of 13 tunes are hardcoded as part of (what I assume is) the BIOS RAM. One of them is the startup sound, of course, but the other 12 were used by programmers who didn't want to program their own music into games. So they just used one of these 12 tunes for their game. I find this idea fascinating - to pre-write music and hardcode it into a system.
Are there any other examples of this sort of thing that people know of? Or is this a common occurrence?
949 Mar 8, 2010 9:42 pm
Re: R.I.P. Mark Linkous (13 replies, posted in General Discussion)
Yeah I agree. It's "A Wonderful Life" is an amazing release, and it had a big effect on me. It was the second gift my wife ever gave to me, and so it also has a lot sentimental value for me personally.
I can strongly recommend listening to all of Sparklehorse's material. Definitely worth checking out.
950 Mar 8, 2010 8:47 pm
Re: 48 Hour Challenge [nickmaynard accepted] (223 replies, posted in Collaborations)
Not sure if anyone has answered any of your questions, but:
Samples: http://little-scale.blogspot.com/2008/1 … ample.html
The SN76489 has three pulse channels and one noise channel. The link above will give you an idea of the frequency ranges and timbres etc that are possible.
951 Mar 8, 2010 12:39 pm
Re: R.I.P. Mark Linkous (13 replies, posted in General Discussion)
An amazing musician, I loved his work and have been listening to sparklehorse consistently since 2001. May Mark rest in peace. He was a hero of mine.
952 Mar 6, 2010 11:29 pm
Re: 48 Hour Challenge [nickmaynard accepted] (223 replies, posted in Collaborations)
YEESS! Awesome challenge
954 Mar 4, 2010 5:49 pm
Re: Street Fighter IV Tournament & Chip Concert! Los Angeles 4/24/10 (13 replies, posted in Past Events)
This sounds great!
956 Mar 3, 2010 4:29 am
Re: "MKE OR BRK" BY TEN THOUSAND FREE MEN & THEIR FAMILIES (104 replies, posted in Releases)
really?
957 Mar 1, 2010 11:35 am
Re: "MKE OR BRK" BY TEN THOUSAND FREE MEN & THEIR FAMILIES (104 replies, posted in Releases)
thats a full 25% of one year
958 Mar 1, 2010 11:05 am
Re: "MKE OR BRK" BY TEN THOUSAND FREE MEN & THEIR FAMILIES (104 replies, posted in Releases)
Amazing. So catchy, yet so raw.
Release of the year.
959 Feb 28, 2010 1:44 am
Re: New Project (20 replies, posted in Circuit Bending)
The SEGA Master System is also compatible with the YM2413 - Tim Worthington aka Viletim makes repro boards that support the YM2413 for the SMS.
960 Feb 26, 2010 10:52 pm
Re: [AUS] 11 March: Bent But Not Broken Workshop @ Format Festival (4 replies, posted in Past Events)
It will be great to see you there, Nathan!
I'm going to try and organise some form of streaming, although I'm not sure how well that would go with a workshop format.