furnace/papers/doc/7-systems/vic20.md
nicco1690 1022d64bd0
Create VIC-20 documentation
funny low-pass sound chip waves go brr
2022-03-26 21:32:29 -04:00

1.1 KiB

Commodore VIC-20

The Commodore VIC-20 was Commodore's major attempt at making a personal home computer, and is the percursor to the Commodore 64. The VIC-20 was also known as the VC-20 in Germany, and the VIC-1001 in Japan.

It has 4 PSG voices that has a limited but wide tuning range, and like the SN76489, the last voice is dedicated to playing pseudo-white noise. Every voice on the VIC-20 has a high-pass and low-pass filter applied to it, which is likely how Rob Yannes got the inspiration to put custom filter modes on the C64's SID.

The 3 pulse wave channels also have different octaves that they can play notes on (not currently emulated in Furnace version dev71). The first channel is the bass channel, and it can play notes from octaves 2 to octaves 4. The next is the 'mid/chord' channel, and it plays notes from octaves 3 to 5. And rather obviously, the 3rd pulse channel is typically the lead channel, can play notes from octaves 4 to 6.

effect commands

  • 10xx Switch waveform (Only the values 00 though 0F are unique. Everything else is a copy. For example, 1006 is the same as 10f6.)