Re: Mockingboard emulator (was: Late night musings...)

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <504ru0$orh@news.bconnex.net>,
Jeff Blakeney <jefbla@bconnex.net> wrote:
>geoff@seeker.the-hermes.net (Geoff Weiss) wrote:
>>Am I not making any sense?  Apple II Mockingboard software was written
>>to access a slot-based Mockingboard.  Any Mockingboard software
>>would have to be rewritten to use the Ensoniq chip.  Hacking the
>>MDIdeas Christmas Demo will result in the drivers to make the
>>GS Ensoniq communicate like a Mockingboard.  There still needs to be
>>a way for the Mockingboard software to see the drivers.  Mockingboard
>>software was not written to see software sound drivers.  Hence, to use
>>the Mockingboard->Ensoniq driver, you will need to rewrite any 
>>Mockingboard-compatible software to use a sofware sound driver.

>The original post of this thread was musings about making an 8 bit
>Apple II emulator for the IIgs.  That way, the IIgs could make 8 bit
>programs THINK there was a Mockingboard in a slot and route that
>information to the Ensoniq to produce the sounds.

   A program can NOT make fake hardware on the GS. No way in hell
you're going to make a mockingboard "appear" in a slot and have
accesses to that slot be magically routed to the ensoniq via software
on the GS. The way to do things is to MODIFY the program to hit a
different piece of hardware. In other words, take it apart, muck
around with it, and change it. That is a job for a programmer; alomst
no way you could safely do that "automatically." [You'd have to write
a program toscan a disk for what looked like Mockingboard code and
then try and squeeze in alternate code. Not easy, not safe, not
reliable.]

>Besides that, I believe there were patches put out for the Ultimas to
>allow the Mockingboard music in them to be played through the Ensoniq
>on the IIgs.  This technique could also be applied to other
>Mockingboard aware software.

   Clue: _PATCH_. In other words, a piece of software that modifies
the program directly to access the ensoniq _instead_ of the
Mockingboard. Once patched, it won't access a real mockingboard, even
if present. As Geoff correctly stated, you need to REWRITE the
program's sound routines to access the alternate hardware. Said
patches work _only_ for the software they're patching, nothing else.

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
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