ESP
| ESP | |||||
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| Developer: | Palladix, Norbert Schmidt | ||||
| Header: | Custom | ||||
| Content: | Instructional | ||||
| Instruments: | Intrinsic | ||||
Target Output
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| Released: | 1992 | ||||
| First Game: | Catch'em (DOS) | ||||
| Extensions |
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An ESP file holds several sound effects. SP is assumed to stand for sound pool (as per psmshell.exe from Magic of Endoria (DOS), even though it does not use the format).
The format specifies a virtual machine. An ESP driver acts as a CPU with custom instruction set, program counter, flags, and sixteen 16-bit registers. An ESP file acts as a ROM that includes program code, data, and a list of entry points, one per sound effect. Game programmers call a sound effect and optionally set up a register as a parameter. As long as it runs, the ESP code yields one byte of unsigned 8-bit PCM and a programmable interval timer, and the driver outputs them to its designated device. ESP has an instruction to load Palladix' device identifier into a register.
PSM 2.00 Soundsystem has drivers that output the resulting PCM to Sound Blaster, Speech Thing, PC Speaker, and Ad Lib Music Synthesizer Card. Starting with Spheroids (DOS), Palladix focused on their SMP (Palladix) format for Sound Blaster, but kept ESP for PC Speaker and Speech Thing. After Das Telekommando kehrt zurück (DOS), Palladix discontinued those devices, and therewith ESP, altogether.
Contents
Players
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PLX - XMPlay(planned)
Games
| Released | Title | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| 1992-??-?? | Catch'em (DOS) | |
| 1993-0?-?? | Cannonade (DOS) | |
| 1993-0?-?? | Freak Out (DOS) | |
| 1993-0?-?? | Knobelkiste (DOS) | |
| 1993-0?-?? | Spheroids (DOS) | |
| 1993-1?-?? | Das Telekommando kehrt zurück (DOS) |
How to Obtain
ESP files usually have to be manually extracted from game files, a process that is different for pretty much every game that uses them.
Technical
Each file must ebgin with ESP, 0, 0, and 1. Cannonade (DOS) confirms the extension to be ESP as well.
