[Coco] Project Sneak Peek

[Nick Marentes]

On 20/07/2016 12:20 AM, Darren A wrote:

>> Like storing sound samples for automatic playback though the PWM sound?
>
>
>
> I meant that it would be available as an additional 32K RAM for use by CoCo
> software.
>
> Currently, I have the micro controller pulling 8 kHz sound samples from
> files on the SD card.  If you have samples small enough to fit in the 32K
> RAM, I could add the ability have them pulled from there as well.
>
>
> - Darren
>

Definitely being able to pull from the 32k RAM would be useful. I assume 
it's possible to load multiple samples of varying size from the Disk 
into this RAM Space?

Is playback then a case of pointing the microcontroller to the beginning 
of a sample and it plays it with no 6809 intervention?

My game Pop*Star Pilot does exactly this. I have several samples of 8K 
fidelity loaded into 1 x 8K bank and the interrupt routine plays up to 2 
samples (mixed) when the main code sets the trigger.

There are no beeps and buzzes in this game, just full gunshots and 
explosions that sound real with no jerking of the game animation.

Having a 32K sound buffer and a separate microcontroller doing the 
playback will make for more great sound in games for those few who still 
program for our machine.

Nick