Posted By
Chicken
on 2016-01-15
11:34:05
 |  Re: Modern sound chip for the Plus/4?
Not about this chip/board in particular but rather generally speaking …
I don't want to sound too negative or even discouraging but I don't really see the point in adding another sound chip – except for the (personal) fun of it.
Yes, "Because I can" is a valid reason to build hardware and to code software  If you do something on plus/4, you pretty much do it for yourself. But it's more fun, if people actually use it – and if ppl like to use it.
We have some "semi-established" sound add-ons, i. e. the SID-card in its various flavors and – far less common – the digi-blaster. How many programs support the digi-blaster?
The problem with any new sound add-on would be the software. The scene is small and even with "new" ppl catching interest in our platform, the plus/4 is still a somewhat "obscure machine". Add another rare hardware and you end up with an even more obscure thing.
Personally, I'd prefer if ppl would concentrate on supporting what's already there. That might sound pretty backward (but hey, that's coding on a "built in 1984" computer anyway  ). Having a common hardware standard is actually a strength of these old machines.
Another point: Why add a modern sound chip to an old platform? I think it's even a bit different from using modern hardware like SD drives in order to improve usability.
The SID-cards came kinda naturally … Converted SID musics have been used for a long time, so it wasn't such a big step away from the platform. Still, I do prefer if demos and programs run on out-of-the-box plus/4s or C16s. Though, it's nice if they support SID-cards (and various disk drives to start with) as well.
Anyway, I have the deepest respect for all the hardware developers and I'm not against using up-to-date-hardware to achieve cool things. (Though, I understand if some ppl prefer to use "available at that time" components – but that's a different topic.) If it's fun for you, go ahead
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