PSID16 v0.5

Description:

PSID16 v0.5 is a program that converts SID-tunes, Compute SID-player tunes (MUS) and Compute Stereo SID-player tunes (MUS+STR) to a C16/C232/Plus4 program which plays the tune on a real (or emulated) C16/C232/Plus4.

Windows download:

PSID16.zip

Source-code download:

PSID16.tgz

SID Tune technical specs:

Because the C16/Plus4 has no SID-chip a SID-card is needed, this SID-card is located at $FD40-$FD5C, the converter translates machine language instructions that put data in the range of $D400-$D41C to machine language instructions that will do the same thing at $FD40-$FD5C, this translation is not smart (yet) so at that point some tunes could get corrupted. The valid ranges for a tune to be played on a C16 are $1000-$3FFF. The valid ranges for a tune to be played on a C232 are $1000-$7FFF. The valid ranges for a tune to be played on a Plus4 are $1000-$FCFF. The player uses a rastertimer to play the tune.

SID Tune Limitations:

A tune will definatly not work if the tune does 1 of the following things:

- writing to address-range $FD00-$FF3F (the C16/PLUS4 TED resides here, changing some of these registers might kill the player)

- writing to address-range $0400-$0FFF (this area is used for other purposes in the C16/PLUS4)

- changing the interrupt vectors (this might cause unknown conditions, and probably wind up jamming the CPU)

- jumping to C64 specific rom/kernal routines (since the C16/PLUS4 doesn't have the same rom/kernal and because the rom/kernal are mapped out during the playing of the tune, jumping to such a routine would cause unknown conditions, and probably wind up jamming the CPU)

MUS technical specs:

.MUS files are Compute SID-player tunes, PSID16 now has support for these kind of tunes. The tune itself starts at $1200. A player at $E000-$ECFF for the PLUS4, at $7200-$7EFF for the C232/PLUS4 or at $3200-$3EFF for the C16/C232/PLUS4 is used to play the tune. Therefor the maximum convertable size of a MUS-file for a C16 and up is 3584 bytes, for a C232 and up is 19968 bytes, and for PLUS4 only is 48128 bytes.

MUS+STR technical specs:

.MUS+.STR files are Compute Stereo SID-player tunes, PSID16 now has support for these kind of tunes. The tune itself starts at $3200. A player at $1600-$31FF is used to play the tune. Therefor the maximum convertable size of a MUS+STR-file for a C16 is 3584 bytes, for a C232 is 19968 bytes, and for a PLUS4 is 51968 bytes.