SNDH
| Sound Header | |||||
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| Developer: | BDC of Aura crew | ||||
| Header: | Custom | ||||
| Content: | Programmatic | ||||
| Instruments: | Combined | ||||
Target Output
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| Released: | 1997 | ||||
| First Game: | N/A | ||||
| Extensions |
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The SNDH format, like SID or NSF, contains the machine code instructions for creating the sound effects and music for an Atari ST program. The Atari ST used a YM2149 PSG chip for music and sound.
Contents
Players
- Audio Overload - Linux, Macintosh, Windows
- DeliPlayer - Windows
- JAM For Windows - Windows
- Micro ST - Windows
- SC68 Player - Dreamcast, foobar2000, Winamp, Windows
Converters
SNDH to ?
- Audio Overload - Linux, Macintosh, Windows - WAV
- JAM For Windows - Windows - WAV
- SC68 Player - Dreamcast, foobar2000, Winamp, Windows - WAV
? to SNDH
Games
All games released for the Atari ST can have their soundtrack ripped to SNDH format. ZX Spectrum 128, Amstrad CPC or MSX tracks can be dumped into it also, but this way is uneffective since there are already AY, KSS and YM formats, which you can play through real machine, while SNDH can't anywhere but Atari ST.
Missing
Most of the Atari ST games have SNDH or SC68 rip. Here is the list of known games without known music rip (even in SC68 format):
- Castle Master (AST)
- Deathbringer (AST)
- Impossible Mission II (AST)
- Mach 3 (AST)
- To be on Top (AST)
- Wings of Death (AST) (both SC68 and SNDH rips lack the theme track)
How to Obtain
Ripping SNDH files requires an intimate knowledge of the Atari ST hardware, but luckily, several popular Atari ST games already have their sound ripped to SNDH format and can be downloaded here:
- sndh.atari.org - SNDH Archive (note that game music is intermixed with stand-alone and demo songs).
Technical
Most SNDH files are compressed using Pack-Ice and accordingly start with "ICE!".
An uncompressed SNDH file begins with three 4-byte 68000 instructions (usually long branches) to respectively initialize the driver with a specific subtune, exit the driver and play the next tick, then the actual signature "SNDH", any number of tags terminated with the signature backwards ("HDNS"), and finally the actual driver code and data.
Links
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNDH - Wikipedia.
