Games With MIDI. The Atari ST Never Sounded So Good!

Atari, Atari ST, MIDI, Posts, Retrogaming, Retrocomputing, Videogames

We all love to hate the Atari ST’s integated Yamaha YM2149F sound chip. It’s 3 bloopy voices gave a decidedly 8-bit feel that suffered in comparison to the 16-bit competition

If only there were a way to upgrade the ST’s sound …

Well there is. Give this a listen:

Sounds great, no? By comparison the built-in ST sound chip sounds utterly terrible

But what magic is this!? Well it’s a little-known fact that some Atari ST games - like Space Quest III above - pump out MIDI messages through the ST’s built-in MIDI ports. Just hook up a MIDI synth for an audio treat

Space Quest III (and many other Sierra games) support both Casio CZ (good) and Roland MT-32 (great) synths. Use the built-in MUSIC.PRG utility to set your Music Device:

Find a full list of MT-32 compatible games here. Happy listening!

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