Re: Commodore 64 kills APPLE II

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

"Michael J. Mahon" writes ...
> 
> Rubywand wrote:
> 
 ....
> >
> >     Via the major for-PC emulators, you get a good sampling of 8-bit A2
> >displays but, at best, a 'just fair' sampling of 8-bit A2 sound.
> 
> Agreed--but AppleWin and Apple Oasis (which I use regularly) work
> reasonably well.
>

     AppleWin using the "PC Speaker (translated)" sound setting seems to be the
best for-PC choice for sound. (Don't know about for-Mac emus.)

     Even so, neither AppleWin nor Apple Oasis is very good with sound in most
of the old software. Both emus frequently distort tones or miss them
completely. Neither emu does any good when it comes to two-voice music.

     Failures on single-voice tones can be largely eliminated by doing a PEEK
at $C030 followed by a delay before calling the tone routine. (Don't know why;
just something noticed during a recent realA2-->emuA2 program conversion.)

 
> >Even so, sure, C-64 has much better sound than the built-in 'old Apple II'
> >sound of 8-bit Apple II's. (C-64 had better sound than the IBM PC, too.)
> 
> Both the Apple II and the PC had a "1-bit" speaker port.  The PC could at
> least generate a square wave tone without using the processor.

     Which is, really, a good example of PC designers outsmarting themselves.
Years later, Disney had to include an amplifier add-on for the Printer port in
order to get good digitized sound to go with their software. (Worked great,
too.)

     Evidently, for-PC A2 emus have to sample $C030 access and convert the
information to tones for a sound card or to square wave duration settings for
the speaker. That seems like a lot of hassle. Maybe we'd be better off toggling
a bit on the Printer Port going to a cheapo amplifier add-on.


> 
> The 8-bit Apple II's can only flip a toggle wired to their speaker, so
> generating good sound is quite a trick--but it can be done, at the cost
> of monopolizing the processor during the process.  With sufficient
> finesse, sampled sounds can be played with good quality.  See my .sig.
>
 ....

     Agree. If an early '80's design wasn't going to use a decent programmable
sound generator IC for sound, the best alternative is the route Apple chose.



Rubywand