RealSound is a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclo ...

ed (US US5054086 A) technology for the PC created by Steve Witzel of

Access Software Access Software, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in November 1982 by Bruce Carver and Chris Jones (Access Software), Chris Jones, the company created the ''Beach Head (video game), Beach Head'', ...

during the late 1980s. RealSound enables 6-bit digitized

pulse-code modulation Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the a ...

(PCM)-audio playback on the

PC speaker A PC speaker is a loudspeaker built into some IBM PC compatible computers. The first IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, employed a standard 2.25 inch magnetic driven (dynamic) speaker. More recent computers use a tiny moving-iron or pie ...

by means of

pulse-width modulation Pulse-width modulation (PWM), or pulse-duration modulation (PDM), is a method of reducing the average power delivered by an electrical signal, by effectively chopping it up into discrete parts. The average value of voltage (and current) fed ...

(PWM) drive, allowing software control of the loud speaker's amplitude of displacement. The first

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

s to use it were ''

World Class Leader Board ''World Class Leader Board'' is a 1987 video game published by Access Software. It is part of the ''Leader Board'' series. Gameplay ''World Class Leader Board'' is a game in which the courses include St. Andrews, Doral and Cypress Creek, and a f ...

'' and ''

Echelon ECHELON, originally a secret government code name, is a surveillance program ( signals intelligence/SIGINT collection and analysis network) operated by the five signatory states to the UKUSA Security Agreement:Given the 5 dialects that ...

'', both released in 1988. At the time of release,

sound card A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term ''sound card'' is also applied to external au ...

s were very expensive and RealSound allowed players to hear lifelike sounds and speech with no additional sound hardware, just the standard PC speaker. RealSound was an impressive enough technology that a few other PC

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a larg ...

s, like

Legend Entertainment Legend Entertainment Company was an American developer and publisher of computer games, best known for creating adventure titles throughout the 1990s. The company was founded by Bob Bates and Mike Verdu, both veterans of the interactive fic ...

, licensed it for use in their own games. However, as the early 1990s progressed, sound card prices dropped to the point that they eventually became a baseline requirement for gaming PC-audio, leaving RealSound obsolete as it no longer filled a niche in the market.

Examples of games using RealSound

* Access Software: ** ''

'' (1988)PC Mag – Google Livros
/ref> ** ''

'' (1988) ** ''

Mean Streets ''Mean Streets'' is a 1973 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. The film stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. It was released by Warner Bros. on October 2, 1973. De Niro won the Nation ...

'' (1989) ** ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' (1990) ** '' Crime Wave'' (1990) ** '' Links'' (1990) ** ''

Martian Memorandum ''Martian Memorandum'' is a dystopian cyberpunk/ noir graphic adventure game that was originally released in 1991 for MS-DOS. It was developed and published by Access Software. The game is the second in the series of ''Tex Murphy'' mysteries; ...

'' (1991) ** '' Amazon: Guardians of Eden'' (1992) * Legend Entertainment: **'' Spellcasting 101'' (1990) ** '' Spellcasting 201'' (1991) **''

Timequest ''Timequest'' is an interactive fiction game released by Legend Entertainment, and written by Bob Bates. The game can be played online at the Internet Archive. Plot In the year 2090 AD, the use of time machines (called interkrons) is regulated b ...

'' (1991) **'' Spellcasting 301'' (1992) **''

Companions of Xanth ''Companions of Xanth'' is an adventure game published in 1993 by Legend Entertainment. Gameplay The game is based on Piers Anthony's ''Xanth'' novels and loosely follows the plot of his 1993 novel '' Demons Don't Dream'', in which a young man u ...

'' (1993)

References

{{Legend Entertainment Sound production technology Obsolete technologies

Examples of games using RealSound

See also

References