SAP file divides into two parts. First part (in text format) describes player/music type. Second part (in binary format) contains player and music data formed into Atari Binary File Format. This format has two bytes header FF,FF. Next two bytes tell loader, where to load data, and next two bytes describes where the data end. Init data block ($02E2,$02E3) is not supported. A little example: FF FF 00 20 05 20 01 42 A3 04 D5 \___/ \_________/ \____________/ A B C A - Binary file header identification (always FF FF) B - Load addres (StartAddr, EndAddr in LO,HI order - $2000 to $2005) C - Data (that will be loaded from StartAddr) This example will load values 01,42,A3,04,D5 into memory from $2000 to $2005. Player Description format (first part of .sap file) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This description (in text format) is loaded line per line. Each line contains command with parameters. Other lines which are not recognized are treated as comment lines. Right now only these commands are supported: TYPE - player type PLAYER - address of player part which will be executed in 1/50 sec intervals MUSIC - address with data INIT - address of player part which will init player SONGS - number of songs DEFSONG - first song which will be played when .sap will be loaded FASTPLAY - number of lines between each call of playing routine (312 by default, which is one screen - 1/50 of sec.). For example for double-speed tune put here the value 156 (312/2). 99% of tunes are single-speed which means that you don't have to define the FASTPLAY variable for them. Works for player TYPE "B". commands PLAYER, MUSIC, INIT contain addresses in hexadecimal format: PLAYER A000 PLAYER 1234 MUSIC F400 commands SONGS, DEFSONG contain decimal numbers: SONGS 10 DEFSONG 9 command TYPE contains single character which describes player type. Right now only the following characters are supported: TYPE C TYPE B TYPE M TYPE S TYPE D TYPE R TYPE C - player from CMC (Chaos Music Composer). In this case, also these commands must appear: PLAYER, MUSIC, SONGS, and DEFSONG. Player will be initialized as follows: lda #$70 ldx #MUSIC jsr PLAYER+6 lda #$00 ldx #DEFSONG jsr PLAYER+6 in 1/50 intervals will be executed: jsr PLAYER+3 TYPE M - player from ???????? (this player was used by composers like Adam Gilmore, David Whittaker, etc). In this case, also these commands must appear: PLAYER, INIT, SONGS, and DEFSONG. Player will be initialized as follows: lda #DEFSONG jsr INIT in 1/50 intervals will be executed: jsr PLAYER TYPE B - any player. In this case, also these commands must appear: PLAYER, INIT, SONGS, and DEFSONG. Player will be initialized as follows: lda #DEFSONG jsr INIT in 1/50 intervals will be executed: jsr PLAYER TYPE B is right now exactly the same like TYPE M but this distinguish is for future SAP releases. TYPE S - SoftSynth. Like type "C", this type is temporary, and is used only for special type of songs, that where composed using program SoftSynth. TYPE D - Digital. In SAP file with this type, must be also defined commands "INIT" and "PLAYER". "PLAYER" (like in type "B") sets address of procedure that will be called in 1/50s intervals and (like in type "B") must end with RTS opcode. INIT this time is a bit different. It sets address of procedure that will be called (with number of song in register A) to initialize program, but it can't end with RTS. It should start playing digis in endless loop. In SAP player there are emulated two ANTIC registers $D40A and $D40B that can help playing samples. D40B register increases its contents each two screen lines. D40A holds CPU till the end of actually created line. SAP emulates Atari in PAL with disabled screen. It means that we have 312 PAL lines, while each lines has 105 CPU cycles and 9 cycles of memory refresh (114 cycles per line). Planned features: TYPE R - Registers. In this type, binary part is not an Atari binary file. This part contains values that will be directly written to Pokey registers ($D200-$D208) in 1/50s intervals. TIME xx:xx - song duration How to create .SAP file ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First of all we need to rip music from a game or a demo and save it in atari binary file. Next we can create text file with commands (described above), then we can make .sap file by linking thwse two files. We can do that using DOS command "copy", e.g.: copy /b music.txt+music.bin music.sap The file is done now! If you didn't find that song in ASMA, feel free to send it to pg@pinknet.cz with all needed information (see ASMA.TXT for details). The song should be included in the nearest ASMA update.