I think every graphic and sound effect was stored like that.
I guess that they were generated not by playing back some samples but by using square wave generators or something like that. At that time there were probably some more or less universal tone generators like the TI SN 76477 (or something less capable). Some chips weren't programmable but had to be hardwired with resitors and capacitors, thus giving only one soundeffect. In consequence you would have to use several chips for more effects...
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Pretty straightforward approach and I'm surprised that even when microprocessors became ubiquitous, there wasn't the occasional use of dedicated circuits for certain things like that (though of course that's assuming they could be mixed). Though of course as far as I know, they did...
The chips and the knowledge were "there". I guess that some companies had quite some stock which they needed to use up.
Some CPUs were also incredibly pricey back then and newer architectures took some time to get used to - everything was done in assembly code back then, of course.
Later, most arcade machines used dedicated CPUs for sound generation. Chips like the Z80 were very popular for that, as lots of programmers were available. ASICs were apparently not that common but that soon changed, too.
I think every graphic and sound effect was stored like that.
I guess that they were generated not by playing back some samples but by using square wave generators or something like that. At that time there were probably some more or less universal tone generators like the TI SN 76477 (or something less capable). Some chips weren't programmable but had to be hardwired with resitors and capacitors, thus giving only one soundeffect. In consequence you would have to use several chips for more effects...
Pretty straightforward approach and I'm surprised that even when microprocessors became ubiquitous, there wasn't the occasional use of dedicated circuits for certain things like that (though of course that's assuming they could be mixed). Though of course as far as I know, they did...
The chips and the knowledge were "there". I guess that some companies had quite some stock which they needed to use up.
Some CPUs were also incredibly pricey back then and newer architectures took some time to get used to - everything was done in assembly code back then, of course.
Later, most arcade machines used dedicated CPUs for sound generation. Chips like the Z80 were very popular for that, as lots of programmers were available. ASICs were apparently not that common but that soon changed, too.
take care,
Calibrator
take care,
Calibrator