BTW, for those "technically minded", here's a question: How much more
"code" was required for a game/program to support the Mockingboard?
Was it difficult to add support as well?
The code for the sound generation via custom chips is usually
fundamentally different than that for simple output systems like the
Apple speaker.
The latter has to be pulsed by software (requiring elaborate timed
loops) to generate sound, while sound chips are able generate the
sounds all by themselves - they only need the parameters for the pitch
etc.
On the other hand its not as simple as this sounds - for artificial
sound effects (that is: not sampled ones) you have to change these
parameters in real time.
About the difficulty to add support: Its definitely doable for a good
assembler programmer who has an interest in sound generation. Just look
at the sound capabilities of the C64 and how they were exploited.
But that isn't really the question - the question is: Does the software
company want to put more resources in the product than "necessary"?
The more likely it is that these upgrades generate more income ("With
stunning Mockingboard sound effects & music!") the more likely it is
that there will be support for it.
This same principle was applied to the PC 3D-accelerator market
(starting and ending with the 3dfx Voodoo boards) and will be applied
in the next time frame (maybe two years) for the
"PC-physics-accelerator market".
I was curious why there weren't more programs that supported the
Mockingboard especially since most of the listed games could function
just fine without the Mockingboard installed. If the card was there,
you got the enhanced sounds.
There are probably several reasons:
How large is the customer base? Is it reasonable (at least at the start
of market penetration of the sound hardware) to code for it? Especially
in assembler? And to prolong development time? Or to employ additional
(=more costs) programmers?
It's not like a game could have been easily created to use standard or
double hi-res graphics in the 8-bit Apple II's with the option to "support"
the Supersprite card.
The Mockingboard was a well known sound standard - but that doesn't
mean that each and every Apple II that was used as a game machine had
one.
With video hardware it was even less likely. If this special video
hardware would have been a hit in the market then games would have
supported it - despite some radical technological differences.
But its the usual hen&egg-problem: Without a market the companies don't
support the hardware and without the support people don't buy the
hardware.
One of the first "upgrade companies" to approach this matter
aggressively was Creative Labs with their PC Sound Blaster series.
After selling quite a few of these boards they went to the software
companies to get support for their next generation boards in the new
game titles.
They gave the game companies direct support and sometimes even
personnel on location working on the projects (well before the likes of
3dfx, Nvidia and ATI).
The iron grip that Creative Labs has on the sound card market is partly
because of this (costly) tactic. On the other hand the much larger
market makes this affordable - especially in the long run.
Compared to the Apple world ten years before - and the relatively small
hardware companies in it - this is another league, of course.
And look at it from the other side:
Because of the simple standard-Apple-II-hardware programmers had to
produce efficient if not brilliant 6502-code to overcome its
limitations.
A big part of home gaming was literally born on this machine,
especially role playing and strategy games, and action games were not
that bad, either...
bye
Marcus