SAP is a file format that stores music data from
Atari 8-bit computers
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...
that uses the
POKEY sound chip. Most popular tunes were written between 1981-1987.
The format is similar to the
SID,
SPC or
NSF formats, in that it is a music data format which is supported by a player, which emulates the
central processing unit
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, an ...
and sound hardware of the original hardware in order to play music.
SAP files can be played by a SAP player or plugin, currently available for a wide variety of platforms.
For instance, on the Macintosh platform, VLC version 2 and above, both on
PowerPC
PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple– IBM ...
and
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...
architectures, can play SAP files.
In addition, tools exist to convert SAP files to other formats.
[{{cite web, title=Atari SAP Music Archive, url=http://asma.atari.org/, publisher=Atari SAP Music Archive, access-date=30 March 2020]
References
External links
SAP Format SpecificationASMA — Atari SAP Music Archive
A collection of players and music
ASAP — Another Slight Atari Player
SAP player (POKEY and 6502 emulation core + plugins for various music players)
Atari 8-bit family
Audio storage
Video game music file formats