ASAP is a player of 8-bit Atari music for modern computers. It emulates the POKEY sound chip and the 6502 processor. The project was initially based on the routines from the Atari800 emulator, but the current version has a completely new original emulation core.

ASAP includes the following programs:

  • asapconv - portable command-line converter

  • WASAP - tiny player for Windows

  • plugin for Apollo

  • plugin for foobar2000

  • plugin for GSPlayer

  • plugin for MOC

  • plugin for Winamp

  • plugin for Windows Media Player

  • plugin for XBMC

  • plugin for XMMS

  • plugin for XMPlay

  • POKEY sound emulation DLL for Raster Music Tracker

  • Java version of ASAP2WAV - command-line converter to WAV files

  • Java applet - for web pages (see online demo)

  • Java midlet - for mobile devices

  • C# version of ASAP2WAV

  • experimental JScript version of ASAP2WAV running in Windows Script Host

  • experimental JavaScript version of ASAP2WAV running in Firefox

  • Flash player - for web pages (see online demo)

The summary of the differences between the above versions is in this table.

There are other projects which use ASAP:

  • mmSAP 2 - standalone player for GNU/Linux with GTK+ user interface

  • Rockbox - open source firmware for MP3 players

Input file formats

ASAP supports the following file formats (determined by the filename extension):

SAP (Slight Atari Player)

The format designed for playing 8-bit Atari music on modern computers. All other formats can be converted to SAP. Atari SAP Music Archive (ASMA) is a single big collection of SAP files.

CMC (Chaos Music Composer)

Atari music editor from early 1990s.

CM3 (CMC "3/4")

CMC with modified pattern length.

CMR (CMC "Rzog")

CMC with modified bass sounds.

CMS (Stereo Double CMC)

Stereo CMC.

DMC (DoublePlay CMC)

CMC with 6502 routine executed at double rate of the original CMC.

DLT (Delta Music Composer)

Atari music editor from 1990s.

MPT (Music ProTracker)

Atari music editor from 1990s.

MPD (MPT DoublePlay)

MPT with 6502 routine executed at double rate of the original MPT.

RMT (Raster Music Tracker)

Modern Atari music editor running on Windows.

TMC, TM8 (Theta Music Composer 1.x)

Atari music editor from late 1990s. The two file extensions are treated identically and played in stereo. TM8 means it’s stereo (8-channel) music while TMC can be either mono or stereo.

TM2 (Theta Music Composer 2.x)

Modern Atari music editor.

History

ASAP 2.1.0 (2010-02-02)

ASAP2WAV has been replaced with asapconv which can additionally convert native modules to and from the SAP format, edit SAP tags and write MP3 files using LAME. A plugin for XMPlay has been created. The foobar2000 plugin has been updated to foobar2000 1.0. Time detection of RMT files has been fixed. PLAYER tag is now optional for TYPE D SAP files. "File Information" window now includes a better validation. Windows Media Player’s "Open" now includes ASAP file types. WASAP has a progress bar for writing WAV files. Flash player uses DEFSONG. Source code has been improved and moved from CVS to Git repository.

ASAP 2.0.0 (2009-12-10)

Windows setup has been created. ASAP has been ported to Flash Player and experimentally to JavaScript. New input formats: DLT, CMS and CM3 are supported. GTIA sound and COVOX are emulated. WASAP now includes "Save as WAV". JavaScript interface of the Java applet has been changed. There were huge changes in the build process: on Unix/Linux it no longer uses the "configure" script and on Windows it uses MinGW for almost all binaries (they are smaller than Visual C++ 2008’s, compatible with Windows 9x, wildcards work in ASAP2WAV).

ASAP 1.2.1 (2009-05-08)

XBMC plugin and POKEY emulation DLL for RMT have been created. The midlet has a progress bar, tags display, subsong selection and better performance. SKCTL emulation has been slightly improved. Documentation has been converted from plain text to HTML.

ASAP 1.2.0 (2008-03-29)

Plugins for Windows Media Player and Apollo have been created. RMT duration detection has been improved. A bug in TMC to SAP conversion has been fixed. ASAP can be compiled as C#.

ASAP 1.1.0 (2008-02-17)

All formats supported by ASAP can be converted to and from the SAP format, using the file information window of WASAP or the Winamp plugin. Unlike SAP Maker, ASAP supports subsongs and TIME tags. POKEY emulation has improved a little. Bugs in the XMMS plugin, the foobar2000 plugin and the applet have been fixed.

ASAP 1.0.2 (2007-11-02)

TIME tags can be edited in the file information window of WASAP and the Winamp plugin. A few emulation bugs have been fixed. Some user interface issues in WASAP have been fixed.

ASAP 1.0.1 (2007-06-10)

Plugin for MOC (Music On Console) has been created. WASAP, Winamp plugin and foobar2000 plugin can edit AUTHOR, NAME and DATE tags in SAP files. Winamp and XMMS plugins format titles as specified by the player. TMC files are now played in stereo. A few minor bugs have been fixed.

ASAP 1.0.0 (2007-05-28)

This release introduces completely new 6502 and POKEY emulation. SAP files with samples are supported. ASAP can be compiled as Java - an applet and an experimental midlet have been created. Winamp, foobar2000 and GSPlayer plugins support silence detection and muting selected POKEY channels. Winamp plugin supports subsongs and Winamp’s equalizer.

ASAP 0.3.0 (2007-05-06)

This release adds support for AUTHOR, NAME, DATE and TIME tags in SAP files. Winamp, foobar2000 and the new GSPlayer plugin have configurable playback time for songs with no TIME tag and songs marked with LOOP. foobar2000 plugin has been updated for version 0.9 of foobar2000. XMMS plugin supports the TM8 extension.

ASAP 0.2.1 (2006-01-28)

This release supports TM2 (Theta Music Composer 2.x) file format. Compilation and installation on Unix-like systems have been improved. foobar2000 plugin supports subsongs.

ASAP 0.2.0 (2006-01-15)

This release supports stereo and 16-bit audio output (enabled by default). Compressed SAP files (for example Fractals.sap) are played correctly. Subsongs are supported in RMT files. There are new plugins: for XMMS and for foobar2000 version 0.8. WASAP supports Windows Explorer’s "Open with".

ASAP 0.1.0 (2005-12-31)

This is the initial release of ASAP (Another Slight Atari Player) - a player/converter of 8-bit Atari music for modern computers. ASAP provides high-quality, identical to the popular Atari800 emulator, emulation of the POKEY sound chip and the 6502 processor.

This release includes: ASAP2WAV - portable command-line utility for converting 8-bit Atari music to WAV files, WASAP - a tiny player for Windows and in_asap - a Winamp plugin. Currently supported input formats are: SAP (except for samples and stereo), CMC, CMR, DMC, MPT (without samples), MPD, RMT (mono) and TMC (mono).

Authors

Piotr Fusik

Creator and main developer.

Atari800 Emulator Developers

6502 and POKEY emulation used in 0.x.y versions of ASAP.

Zdenek Eisenhammer

Testing.

Henryk Karpowicz

CMC routine modified for the CM3 format.

Maciek Konecki

Porting to C#.

Marek Konopka

6502 routine for playing DLT.

Marcin Lewandowski

6502 routines for playing CMC, MPT, TMC and TM2.

Adrian Matoga

COVOX information and test files. Testing.

Perry McFarlane

POKEY reverse-engineering.

Kostas Nakos

Windows CE testing.

Mariusz Rozwadowski

Suggested CMS, CM3 and DLT format support.

Slawomir Sledz

Testing.

David Spilka

6502 routine for playing CMS.

Radek Sterba

6502 routine for playing RMT. Testing.

Lukasz Sychowicz

Windows icons. Testing.

Pawel Szewczyk

Windows setup graphics.

Michal Szpilowski

Testing.

Grzegorz Zyla

XBMC plugin testing.

Feedback

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