==============================
- INFOCOM SOUND FILE FORMATS -
==============================
Author: Stefan Jokisch (
[email protected])
Last updated: 6-FEB-96
1) Introduction
---------------
Infocom sold two games with sound support:
"The Lurking Horror" release 219/221 (Amiga)
"Sherlock" release 26 (Amiga and Macintosh)
Nowadays the sound files are also available from ftp.gmd.de:
if-archive/infocom/missing-files/lh_sound.zip
if-archive/infocom/missing-files/sh_sound.zip
This leads to three slightly different sound formats: Infocom's
Amiga format, Infocom's Macintosh format and finally the format
used by the **_sound.zip packages. We will describe each format
briefly. The last section gives a short overview about programs
which make use of these formats.
In all formats, 16bit values are stored in the order MSB (most
significant byte) first - LSB (least significant byte) last.
2) Today's sound format (used by the **_sound.zip packages)
-----------------------------------------------------------
This simple format is actually a somewhat restricted version of
Infocom's Macintosh format. The name of a sound file is derived
from the name of its story file: First the story file name is
truncated to six letters, then two decimal digits for the sound
effect number are added. Finally, the extension snd is appended
to this string. (For example, "sherlo03.snd" is sound effect #3
of the story file "sherlock.dat".)
A sound file consists of a small header followed by sample data:
+------+------+--------------------------+
| pos | size | contents |
+======+======+==========================+
| 0 | 2 | length of following data | prefix
+------+------+--------------------------+
| 2 | 1 | repeats to play | header
| 3 | 1 | base note |
| 4 | 2 | sample frequency |
| 6 | 2 | *** unused *** |
| 8 | 2 | sample data length |
+------+------+--------------------------+
| 10 | ? | 8-bit unsigned mono data | sample data
+------+------+--------------------------+
The "length of following data" is simply the file size - 2. The
"repeats to play" is either 0 for infinite repetition or 1. (In
Z-code 5, this value is ignored altogether.) "base note" is not
really important. For instance, if the sample data is the sound
of a instrument playing the note c then "base note" should hold
an appropriate MIDI value (Infocom usually chose $32 or $3c for
their own sound files). The "sample frequency" and "sample data
length" hold all vital information for playing the sound.
3) Infocom's Macintosh format
-----------------------------
This format is almost identical to the format described above.
The name of a sound file, however, does no longer depend on the
story file name: The sound effect number is just prefixed with
the letter "s"; eg "s3" is sound effect no #3 regardless of the
story file name. (It is expected that sound files for different
games are stored in different directories.) The contents of the
sound file use exactly the scheme which is described above.
In some cases, however, the same sound file is used for several
different sound effect numbers. This is achieved by using MID
files instead of sound files. The name of the MID file is built
by prefixing the sound effect number with the letter "m". The
contents of the MID file use the following scheme:
+------+------+--------------------------+
| pos | size | contents |
+======+======+==========================+
| 0 | 2 | length of sequence of c. | prefix
+------+------+--------------------------+
| 2 | ? | sequence of commands | body
+------+------+--------------------------+
| | ? | name of sound file | appendix
+------+------+--------------------------+
Not much is known about the "sequence of commands". Presumably,
this is a sequence of MIDI-style commands. Only the third byte
in the sequence is important since this is the note to play. It
affects the frequency at which the sound given by the "name of
sound file" must be played. The formula to calculate the proper
frequency is:
pow (2, ("note" - "base note") / 12) * "sample frequency" / 4
In practice, not many MID files were used: Sherlock uses a few
MID files to produce slow, normal and fast heart beats from the
same sound file.
4) Infocom's Amiga sound format
-------------------------------
This is the most complicated of the three sound file formats.
It introduces a new file type which we shall call NAM file. The
file name of the NAM file starts with the letter "s" followed
by the sound effect number. Finally, the extension nam is added
to the string. For instance, "s3.nam" is the NAM file for sound
effect #3. (Once again, sound files for different games should
be stored in different directories.) Its contents are as shown:
+------+------+--------------------------+
| pos | size | contents |
+======+======+==========================+
| 0 | 2 | (always $0100) | prefix (?)
+------+------+--------------------------+
| 2 | ? | name of sound file | body
| | 2 | (always $0000) |
| | ? | name of MID file |
| | 2 | (always $0000) |
+------+------+--------------------------+
The sound files use roughly the same scheme as Macintosh sound
files with one exception: The sample data is signed instead of
unsigned. Furthermore, Amiga MID files look like Macintosh MID
files except that the sound file name at the end of the file is
missing (since it is given by the NAM file).
5) Sound supporting programs
----------------------------
Sound conversion utilities:
"SoundConv" for Archimedes (Infocom module available at ftp.gmd.de)
"SOX" for Amiga, MS-DOS, Unix etc. (beta available at ftp.gmd.de)
Publically available Z-code interpreters:
"Frotz" for Amiga
"Frotz" for MS-DOS
"ITF" for Amiga
"Zip2000" for Archimedes
Original Infocom interpreters:
V3 interpreter C for Amiga
V4 interpreter B for Amiga
V5 interpreter B for Amiga
V5 interpreter C for Macintosh
