Caesar's sound files: .VOC, .XMI and SAMPLE.AD

What there is

The US build has 23 .VOC effects, 14 .XMI tunes with 14 matching .XM2 files, and one timbre library, SAMPLE.AD. Four loadable drivers (SBFM.ADV, ADLIB.ADV, SBDIG.ADV, PCSPKR.ADV) sit between them and the hardware.

The files

.VOC, 23 files

Creative Voice Files, a published format. Every one is 8-bit unsigned mono PCM in sound blocks, at 8 kHz or 4 kHz. On a Sound Blaster the game halves every sample's distance from 128 before it plays one.

.XMI, 14 files

Miles Extended MIDI (an IFF FORM XDIR / CAT XMID container; delays are summed delay bytes, there is no running status, and note-ons carry their durations). They convert to Standard MIDI at 120 ticks a second, and all 14 do. These are what the AdLib and Sound Blaster FM chip play.

.XM2, 14 files

The same tunes arranged for the PC speaker: the executable gives every tune the extension .xm2 when the speaker is the sound device.

SAMPLE.AD

The Global Timbre Library for the Yamaha YM3812 (OPL2): a directory of 6-byte entries (patch, bank, 32-bit offset) ending at bank 0xFF, each timbre a 16-bit length and, for the YM3812, 12 bytes: transpose, then the modulator's AVEKM, KSLTL, AD, SR and waveform select, a feedback and connection byte, and the carrier's five. 162 timbres, all 14 bytes; bank 127 is the rhythm channel's, one timbre per key, with the note it plays in the transpose byte. Every timbre any tune asks for is in it.

SBFM.ADV, ADLIB.ADV, SBDIG.ADV

Byte-identical to the Audio Interface Library 2.14 drivers of 14 November 1992. SBFM.ADV is its XMIDI driver for one YM3812. PCSPKR.ADV differs from the release (8,434 bytes against 8,377), an earlier or later version.

Which tune plays when

Nothing loops: every tune plays once. CZAR102.XMI is named nowhere in the US executable (inference: unused), and there is no CZARJIN3.

CZARTIT

The title screen.

STARTER

Entering the city after the start screen.

CZARJIN8

Drawing the Forum picture.

CZARJIN5, A, B, 6, 4, 9, 7

Each advisor's screen as it opens. CZARJIN5 is also the Options screen's.

CZARJIN1

Promotion.

EMPTUNE

The last promotion, to Caesar.

CZARJIN2

The arrest, when the governor has been dismissed too often.

The effects

Only one sound plays at a time: an effect stops the tune, and a tune stops the effect. ATTACK, CHARGE, FLANK and TORTOISE are named nowhere in the US executable (inference: unused, perhaps for Cohort 2).

RESPONSE

A construction command chosen.

DEMOL, FIRE, PUTOUT

A building demolished, set alight, or a fire put out.

WATER

A fountain running dry.

WAR_CRY, SWORD, BARBHORN

An invader or a rioter appears; the battle message; a Cohort reaching an army.

FANFARE, WINCHEER, WALLCOLL

A message; victory or defeat; the warning that the provinces need more workers.

MKT_THEA, COLISEUM, HORSES, HUBBUB, WORKSHOP, FOUNTAIN, MARCHROM, MARCHBAR

City sounds: a theatre, a coliseum, a hippodrome, a forum or a market, a workshop, a working fountain, Roman walkers and barbarians in view. They take turns on a 512-step cycle, and one plays only if its source is on screen.