Legacynth: Sound Driver emulation for PPC Macs

[jjuran]

I've made a reimplementation of the Sound Driver API via the Sound Manager, called Legacynth.

A number of old games that use the Sound Driver are still able to run in Mac OS 9, but with no sound — there's a .Sound driver on PPC and AV Macs, but it doesn't produce audio. Legacynth intercepts the I/O calls to the driver and translates them into Sound Manager calls. It supports all three synthesizer modes (free-form, square-wave, and four-tone) and comes with a test program for each one so you can easily verify that it works.

You can download it here: https://www.macrelics.com/legacynth/

There's also AGPL-licensed source code in https://github.com/jjuran/metamage_1 under apps/mac/Legacynth/.

I'm interested in any and all feedback. Beyond making it work, I put some real effort into making it usable, and I hope it shows.

 

[Byrd]

Hey jjuran,

Saw this on Vogons, nice work! Am keen to try some working but botched sound games on a beige G3 soon. Are there any other games that would go on the list?

JB

 

[adespoton]

Check out https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wg45xflCn8MAPvE0H4un7OmbavRNW5qlSHbeZg39Q9A/ -- I've outlined games that have audio issues when running in OS 9; those would be good likely targets to test (and please update the spreadsheet if you find that Legacynth fixes the issues!)

 

[jjuran]

Saw this on Vogons, nice work! Am keen to try some working but botched sound games on a beige G3 soon. Are there any other games that would go on the list?

Thanks! I've added a Legacynth Compatibility Guide here:

metamage_1/apps/mac/Legacynth/COMPATIBILITY.md at master · jjuran/metamage_1

Metamage open source, general repository, iteration 1 - jjuran/metamage_1

github.com

I've added Shufflepuck Café (which feels somewhat clunky to me, but it does work) and StuntCopter 1.5 (and up), which adds the necessary speed control. I also had to remove GunShy, which worked for me in Mac OS 8.1 in SheepShaver, but crashed in 9.2.1 on a G3.