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▲Martin Galway's music source files from 1980's Commodore 64 games (self.__VINEXT_RSC_CHUNKS__=self.__VINEXT_RSC_CHUNKS__||[];self.__VINEXT_RSC_CHUNKS__.push("2:I[\"aadde9aaef29\",[],\"default\",1]\n3:I[\"6e873226e03b\",[],\"Children\",1]\n5:I[\"bc2946a341c8\",[],\"LayoutSegmentProvider\",1]\n6:I[\"6e873226e03b\",[],\"Slot\",1]\n7:I[\"3506b3d116f7\",[],\"ErrorBoundary\",1]\n8:I[\"a9bbde40cf2d\",[],\"default\",1]\n9:I[\"3506b3d116f7\",[],\"NotFoundBoundary\",1]\na:\"$Sreact.suspense\"\n:HL[\"/assets/index-BLEkI_5r.css\",\"style\"]\n")get="_blank">github.com)
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https://deepsid.chordian.net/?file=/MUSICIANS/G/Galway_Marti...
(use the little up/down arrows to switch between subtunes)
Also in the linked player under Short_circuit.sid , btw. Thanks!
> DSP
> not entirely sure what this one is... another variation of "Define Space" ? check back for the correct definition of this
It's probably 'displacement'. This worked together with ORG ('origin'). ORG specifies where in memory the code will run. DSP then moves the code the specified amount further along in memory, with the understanding that it will be moved back to the ORG address when it needs to run.
> DFC
> not entirely sure what this one is... define characters?
Same as DFM, but generates PETSCII instead of ASCII.
The game Commando was still loading and I'd let it run for hours on the intro screen (music by Rob Hubbard) while I'd do other things.
> I remember trying to write my own player in assembly (yet another unfinished project).
Never wrote a SID tune nor a mod-player but my neighbors did: they wrote an Amiga mod player for... The Atari ST. It could play the four channels. Of course the quality wasn't the same and you were forced to waste CPU-cycles but it was working.
Fun memories.
Now as TFA: recently I took old DOS .ASM files of mine and basically told Sonnet 4.6: "Make them compile again" and discovered the world of UASM etc. and eventually we made it to compile.
Seeing those C64 assembly files: I haven't tried it yet but I take I could do the same? Just ask whatever LLM to find me a way to compile and tell me how to play these in an emulator?
Anyone knows where to start / what's the TDLR to compile these C64 files?
For example for old DOS .ASM files the TDLR; is "Compile them using the free UASM assembly, run the result in DOSBox".
https://slayradio.org
Edit: AI says doing the translation would be hard, though doable. https://claude.ai/share/65c16d60-5d27-496b-96a7-40959e95ac62
Edit 2: here is an AI translation of some of the notes, what Claude claims as the main melody:
https://strudel.cc/#Ci8vIFdpemJhbGwgIklucHV0IE5hbWUiIC0gbWFp... .. uh ...
Edit 3: the original theme is amazing and worth listening to https://youtu.be/sFYzjU-C3mA
Claude, the ole cheater, recognized what the file was, downloaded the psid from the web, found a wasm sid player and built a website around it:
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/df6cdcae-08dc-452b-ba19-f...
https://claude.ai/share/4dd36c16-bc62-445a-b423-ad4637f06432
GPT-5.5 built a lot of python scripts to extract the music data. Strudel implementation failed, but I then asked it to build a website:
https://ubiquitous-vacherin-8e7993.netlify.app/
This is a translation of the music into javascript based on the assembler source.
Really impressive on both accounts. Some iterations were requied for both.
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF09vGckSAc&list=PLKkxnBwFOJ...
For those interested in how the Wizball soundtrack should sound, the best place to go is DeepSID: https://deepsid.chordian.net/?file=/MUSICIANS/G/Galway_Marti...
Then again, I don't know how much authors earn on books after 10, 20, 30 years. It probably varies, the JRR Tolkien estate and K.K Rowling probably see still very significant income streams. It could still be a good strategy for lesser known authors.
Plenty of music was developed in the form of source files.
The Tatung Einstein was released in 1984 in the UK, was kind of MSX-like architecturally, and used the same 3" (not 3.5") floppies as the Amstrad CPC.
I'm curious what US-based C64 devs would have used. Probably not this machine?
That's fascinating. I came in during the Amiga era, and everything was SoundTracker etc. files. I had no idea that music was hand-coded like this.
There was definitely a tendency to do "compose on the piano, then arrange" with a lot of the early chiptune workflows though. With Galway's stuff there is more reliance on proceduralism to get those long evolving sequences, something which is actually easier to access when it's built from source files and you can define rhythms, chords, dynamics, modulation as forms of indirection.