ROL

Roll
Developer:	Ad Lib, Inc.
Header:	Custom
Content:	Notational
Instruments:	External
Target Output
Released:	1987
First Game:	?
Extensions	*.rol

Roll (ROL) is an audio format that houses musical instructions. It is similar to sheet music in that it only houses the instructions for playing music, but not the actual sound itself. ROL files must be loaded in conjunction with instrument (INS) files or with an instrument bank file (BNK) which defines the sound of the instruments that will play the ROL instructions. In particular, ROL was used by Ad Lib and their AdLib Visual Composer program.

The AdLib Visual Composer program stores the title "ROLL" in the format's metadata, implying that the name is short for "piano roll", which is fitting for what it is. Because the format has become archaic, the origins of ROL are difficult to find. Some sites have claimed that it predates Ad Lib and is an abbreviation for the company Roland, however, this seems unlikely since the format only stores OPL2 data, not MIDI or LA32 data.

Players

(Category)

• AdLib Jukebox - DOS
• AdPlug - foobar2000, Winamp
• Audio Overload - Linux, Macintosh, Windows
• InTune - DOS
• MuchMusic - DOS
• PlayROL - DOS

Editors

(Category)

• AdLib Visual Composer - DOS
• MIDIPLEX - Windows

Converters

(Category)

ROL to ?

• AdLib Convert - DOS - MUS (AdLib)
• Audio Overload - Linux, Macintosh, Windows - WAV
• MIDIPLEX - Windows - MIDI
• ROL to CMF - DOS - CMF
• ROL to MIDI - DOS - MDI
• ROL to SND - DOS - SND (Sierra)

? to ROL

• MIDIPLEX - Windows - MUS (AdLib)

Games

(Category)

Released	Title	Sample
1987-??-??	AdLib Visual Composer (DOS)
1989-??-??	The Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in Dr. Doom's Revenge (DOS)
1989-??-??	X-Men: Madness in Murderworld (DOS)
1990-??-??	The Punisher (DOS)
1990-??-??	Space 1889 (DOS)
1990-??-??	X-Men II: Fall of the Mutants (DOS)
1992-??-??	BugBomber (DOS)
1992-??-??	Fatal Challenge (DOS)
1992-??-??	Locomotion (DOS)
1992-??-??	Penthouse Hot Numbers (DOS)
1994-04-??	Pee & Gity (DOS)

How to Obtain

ROL files usually have to be manually extracted from game files, a process that is different for pretty much every game that uses them.

Technical

Technical specs on the ROL format can be found here.

Links

• shikadi.net/moddingwiki/ROL_Format - Modding Wiki.