MUS (Electronic Arts)

MUS (Electronic Arts)
Developer:	Electronic Arts, Inc.
Header:	Custom
Content:	Notational
Instruments:	Unknown
Target Output
Released:	1989-??-??
First Game:	Cartooners (DOS)
Extensions	*.mus

This music format was used by Electronic Arts form 1989 to 1992. Below is technical specs on the format so that programmers may write a player for the format.

This music format uses the extension *.mus in "Cartooners" and the "Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes", but "Ski or Die" and "The Immortal" use a generic *.bin extension.

The MT-32 driver of "Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes" actually mentions "Ski or Die", by name, inside of it, probably from reused code.

Players

Currently, there are no players that support this format.

Converters

MUS to ?

• MIDIPLEX - Windows 32? - MIDI

Games

(Category)

Released	Title	Sample
1989-??-??	Cartooners (DOS)
1990-??-??	Ski or Die (DOS)
1991-??-??	The Immortal (DOS)
1992-??-??	The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel (DOS)

Technical

• Most MUS files begin with '7F 00 00 01' except Cartooners which begins with '7D 00 00 01'. Then, there are several bytes of 01s or 00s. These are probably flags of some sort.
• Each header contains a string similar to 'rsxx}u'.
• MUS files stores the data in MIDI format, so it's easy to convert it to standard MIDI file, though it may require to set correct pitch bend sensitivity using RPM events.
• All of the files end with 'FC 80' or 'FC 81'.

Game Differences

The MUS files from The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes being with 12 spaces (0x20) before the '7F 00 00 01' string.

"The Immortal" has a completely different header and data style. Perhaps it's compressed?

At 0x13 a different type of header data begins.

In the Cartooners the string 'rsxx}u' starts at 0x6D. In Ski or Die and Sherlock it begins at 0x6F.

"The Immortal" begins this string at 0x49, but the 'rsx' and 'x}u' are separated with 0xE7.

There are then 10 null bytes, and then the data begins.

Once again, "The Immortal" has a different style to it. Also, "Ski or Die" is formatted a little differently.