Osaka-II Music Routine for Sharp PC-1350 and PC-1403(H)

by utz 07/2014 updated by Robert van Engelen 5/2021

For this project you will need a C compiler and the AS61860 assembler and ASLINK linker. Download the AS61860 assembler with ASLINK linker from https://shop-pdp.net/ashtml/asmlnk.htm.

For best sound quality, use the cassette interface of the SHARP Pocket Computer to attach a speaker to the MIC port of the cassette interface connected to the 11 pin port of the Pocket Computer. A pair of inexpensive desktop PC speakers should work. Because the audio jack should be mono, in rare cases some stereo jacks and speakers may not pick up the sound signal.

FOR THE PC-1403

Run make pc1403 to create play.bin. Convert play.bin to play.wav with bin2wav --type=bin --addr=33000 --pc=1403 play.bin using the bin2wav utility of the Pocket Tools, then CLOAD M 33000 on your PC-1403 and play the play.wav file to load the program on the PC-1403 e.g. via the CE-126P printer and cassette interface. CALL 33000 after loading was successful.

FOR THE PC-1350

Run make pc1350 to create play.bin. Convert play.bin to play.wav with bin2wav --type=bin --addr=24808 --pc=1350 play.bin using the bin2wav utility of the Pocket Tools, then CLOAD M 24808 on your PC-1350 and play the play.wav file to load the program on the PC-1350 e.g. via the CE-126P printer and cassette interface. CALL 24808 after loading was successful.

Alternatively, on a 16K expanded PC-1350 with a CE-202M RAM card, you can load the play.bas bootloader via SIO and RUN it to save the code. CALL 24808 after RUN.

PORTING TO OTHER SHARP PC

If you want to rebuild the play.bin binary or the play.bas bootloader for another SHARP Pocket Computer, then edit the makefile and add a recipe for the Pocket Computer:

pcXXYY:
	@echo '** target: PC-XXYY **'
	@echo '.globl BASE' > $(TRG)
	@echo 'BASE = 0xHHe8 ; for PC-XXYY' >> $(TRG)
	@make

where HH in BASE = 0xHHe8 is the highbyte base address of a RAM area with 2772 bytes available to store the program, i.e. sits between the BASIC program memory and the variables. For the PC-1403(H) BASE=0x80e8 (33000) and for the PC-1350 BASE=0x608e (24808).

Run make pcXXYY to rebuild play.bin and play.bas. The play.bas program is a bootloader BASIC program that requires >10K of BASIC RAM memory. The target BASE address should be above the bootloarder BASIC to prevent the bootloader from destroying itself. So this only works on Pocket Computers with sufficient RAM.

CONVERTING XM TO ASM

Invoking the xm2osk utility will convert your music.xm to an .asm file containing the music data. By adding the -v command line parameter, you can get xm2osk to print some debug info.

COMPOSING MUSIC

Use the music.xm template to compose music in any standard XM editor, eg. Milkytracker. The sound of the template is only a very rough approximation of how things will sound on the Sharp PC.

The following restrictions apply:

1. TONES Tones must be in track 1 and 2. Valid note range is from A-1 to G#5. Detuning may occur in higher octaves (from D#4 onwards), the sound of the xm template does not reflect this.

2. DRUMS Drums can be placed in track 3 or 4 (but never more than 1 drum per row). Pitch is ignored.

3. EFFECTS

You can use the Fxx command anywhere to set the tempo. Valid values are $06..$1F. Global tempo setting is also used, but BPM is ignored (so best don't change it).

You can use special command E5x to detune notes (E58 = no detune).

All other effects and settings are ignored.