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This section by Andreas Koch. POPS info updated 8/15/06 by mdc.
a) enhancements for 2- or 3-channel sound:
- POPS, polyphonic-pokey-sound by Lee Brilliant (3-channel support with one
Pokey!); refer to Analog Computing, issue 66, november 1988, pages
54-60; only 1-2 programs exist for this mod., see: 8.14 stereo-software
for the Atari;
Lee Brilliant writes: (2006.08.09)
In reality, the POPS device was only a set of connections to the Atari.
The internal circuitry (Simple to build) was used ONLY to control the
volume of the sound and to add amplification to power speakers. One
could do without the amplifiers if they have their own. But the POPs
did not give just two channel sound, it gave _three_. My design
allowed for left, center, and right amplifiers and speakers. It always
caused a stir at Atari conventions and user groups. The software I used
with it was POKEY Player which was commonly available then. One had to
get that separately and then modify it slightly to drive the three
channels separately. At the time there was a lot of support for that
program and lots of music for it.
- stereo with two Ataris (and thus 2 Pokey chips); use computer/pokey 1
for the left channel and computer/pokey 2 for the right; no special
hardware required for this trick (but specially programmed software!);
see also: 8.14 stereo-software for the Atari;
- stereo with 2 Pokey chips (in one Atari!); refer to an article written
by Chuck Steinman (which probably appeared in Atari classic?) on how
to upgrade your Atari internally with a second Pokey chip; or ask
Freddy Offenga for a deluxe-stereo-version, that uses a PCB instead of
the piggy-back method. For a list of software that supports this mod.
see also: 8.14 stereo-software for the Atari;
- Stereo-Blaster and Stereo-Phaser by Portronic/AMC-Verlag, these were
hardware add-ons that connected via the monitor port to the Atari and
gave you "another" monitor port and 2 cinch connectors to connect to
the monitor and/or the hifi-system; various small paddles (4-10,
depending on the model you have) make it possible to change amplitudes,
frequencies, etc. and thus generate a "pseudo-stereo" sound. These
add-ons also amplified the sound and thus made quality recordings of
Atari sounds much easier. Alas, these hardware add-ons were quite
expensive and thus not many (less than 100) were sold. Therefore no
special software is required, every A8 sound can be changed or
enhanced to "simulated-stereo"...
- Stereo-Blaster-Pro, a hardware add-on by Portronic/AMC-Verlag similar
to Stereo-Blaster and Stereo-Phaser, but programmable! This add-on had
only 1 small paddle, to amplify the sound-volume; the stereo-sound
could be generated via two simple Poke-Statements, a demo-disk therefore
was included. Alas, not many items were sold and afaik no-one else
programmed stereo-software for it. See also: 8.14 stereo-software for
the Atari...
b) other sound enhancements:
- Covox-Sound-Enhancement, originally developed in Poland; with some
electronic parts and pieces you can upgrade your Pokey’s abilities, to
playback any digitised/sampled sound with 8-Bit resolution, instead of
its usual 4-Bit digi/sample playback resolution (see also 8.14).
- SID-upgrade, the SID is the standard sound-chip in the C64 computers.
Some polish freaks/nerds have found a way to include it into an A8,
but allthough I have seen quite a lot of pictures (for example at
atariarea.nostalgia.pl) with this mod. and already found 1 or 2
programs that detect it (for example System Info 2.x by Draco), I
have not yet found any schematics for this upgrade. Anyway, it exists,
and with some programming skills it would surely be possible to write
programs then, that playback SID sounds on those Ataris which have this
upgrade installed...
- Amie/Amy sound-chip, the Amie sound-chip was originally produced by
Atari and installed into the 65XEM computer. Alas, it was never
available to the public and only very few prototypes of this 65XEM
(maybe less than 10?) do exist. Besides of that RUMOURS say, that
Atari had quite some problems with this soundchip and never finished
it completely/successfully. If the rumours are true, then this
soundchip provided many more sound channels, more octaves and even
more and better sound power than two Pokeys together (for more infos
take a look at this URL: )
- guess there are dozens of other sound enhancements, for example sound
cards (like Adlib, etc.), sound-chips, midi-interfaces, etc. that could
be attached or converted to the A8; I won’t name them all here...(A.M.)
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