Difference between revisions of "SPC"

Revision as of 14:38, 31 August 2016

SPC
Developer:	?
Header:	Unknown
Content:	Log
Instruments:	Internal
Target Output
Released:	?
First Game:	N/A
Extensions	*.spc *.rsn

The SPC format holds SNES game music. It is named after Sony's SPC700 contribution to the SNES's S-SMP audio chip. The SNES was a major jump in audio technology from the NES allowing for stereo sound, more channels, and fully sampled instruments.

Unlike other console music formats, SPC doesn't store the actual sound code, but instead stores the memory of the extrapolated music files sent to S-SMP chip. This makes it much easier to rip music for SNES games, but it also has several disadvantages. For one, because an SPC file is a dump of the entire 64 KB block of memory, and not the used portion of memory, every song, even short ones, are 64 KB in size, each containing a lot of wasted space. See the Unsupported Games section for further details.

SPC collections are sometimes distributed as a single RSN file which is an SPC collection compressed into a RAR archive, renamed with an RSN file extension.

Players

• Audio Overload - Linux, Macintosh, Windows
• DeliPlayer - Windows
• Game Emu Player - foobar2000
• SNESamp - Winamp

Converters

SPC to ?

• Audio Overload - Linux, Macintosh, Windows - WAV

? to SPC

Games

The majority of games released for the Super Famicom, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Satellaview, and Super Game Boy can have their music logged to SPC format. A handful of games cannot and are listed below.

How to Obtain

Logging SPC files involves using an SNES emulator to dump the audio memory when the each song is loaded from the game. It's a pretty time-consuming process, but luckily, most SNES games already have their sound logged to SPC format and can be downloaded from the following sites:

• snesmusic.org/v2 - Most complete SPC arcive (archived in RSN by game).
• spc.joshw.info - Josh W (individually 7Z archived).
• zophar.net/music/spc.html - Zophar's SPC archive (out of date).

Unsupported Games

Because the S-SMP chip had a limit of 64 KB of memory, several games dynamically altered the memory during the course of a song and the static dumps of the S-SMP's memory don't contain these changes. Therefore, games that use this technology will not play properly. Second, SPC dumps cannot be made at all for games that use the S-SMP chip in non-standard ways. In situations like these, SNSF files are ripped. Check the SNSF page for games with SNSF rips. The following games can not be supported by the current SPC format standards.

• BlackHawk (SNES)
• Blackthorne (SNES)
• California Games 2 (SNES)
• Chessmaster 3D (SNES)
• Clay Fighter (SNES)
• Claymates (SNES)
• FEDA: Emblem of Justice (SNES)
• FIFA International Soccer (SNES)
• Fushigi no Dungeon 2 - Furai no Shiren (SNES)
• Great Waldo Search (SNES)
• Houkago in Beppin Jogakuin (SNES)
• Incredible Crash Dummies (SNES)
• James Bond Jr. (SNES)
• Lord of the Rings (SNES)
• Madden NFL '93 (SNES)
• Mario's Early Years: Fun With Letters (SNES)
• Mario's Early Years: Fun With Numbers (SNES)
• Mario's Early Years: Preschool Fun (SNES)
• Monster Maker Kids - Ousama ni Naritai (SNES)
• Mr. Bloopy - Saves the World (SNES)
• NBA Live 95 (SNES)
• NBA Live 96 (SNES)
• NBA Showdown (SNES)
• NHL '94 (SNES)
• Out of This World (SNES)
• Paperboy 2 (SNES)
• Pit Fighter (SNES)
• Relief Pitcher (SNES)
• Sidmania (SNES)
• SimCity 2000 (SNES)
• Steel Talon (SNES)
• Super Noah's Ark 3D (SNES)
• Test Drive 2: The Duel (SNES)
• The Lost Vikings (SNES)
• The Lost Vikings 2 (SNES)
• The Ren and Stimpy Show: Veediots! (SNES)
• The Terminator (SNES)
• Wario's Woods (SNES)
• Wayne's World (SNES)
• Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego (SNES)
• Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego (SNES)
• Wolfenstein 3D (SNES)

Links

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPC700_sound_format - Wikipedia: SPC Music Format.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_S-SMP - Wikipedia, the S-SMP Chip.
• snesmusic.org/v2] - SPC information, players, and files.