New Apple II Sound Cards available from Korea

May 9, 2015

Posted by Bill Martens

Ian Kim, a member of the Korean Apple II community has developed a new Mockingboard compatible sound card for the Apple II series computers. According to the introduction document sent to A.P.P.L.E,

Apple II Fans and Afficiandos,

I’m am a member of the Korean APPLE II group in community. Having grown up with the APPLE II and having spent tons of time with it, I have a particular fondness for the machine, It was my first computer and if its difficult for me to forget those times of playing with the Apple II.

That being said, one of the weaknesses of the APPLE II was it’s lack of a quality sound system. The other 8-bit systems of the time had far superior sound systems built in, thus I felt a motivation towards fulfilling this lacking on my Apple II

I have completed my build of the sound card for APPLE II. It works as a mockingboard compatibile card thus there is no need for any further new programming in order to utilize this soundcard.

This sound card has mockingboard sound channels mapped to the Music instruments of the YM2413 chip.

Thus, each channel can play as though it were playing FM Music instruments.

In order to make the card work as a mockingboard compatible sound card, I used an AVR controller. It translates Mockingboard command and changes it into the necessary command needed to control the YM2413.

The card supports the 6 channels of the Mockingboard II,A and C revisions and also works as the 3-channel Mockingboard I. Each channel is mapped to the YM2413 Music instruments and the performance results have been quite excellent with Apple II games.

You can utilize the provided instrument change DOS utility for setting your card to produce better music with you Apple II games.

Depending on the feedback received from the global Apple II fans, it is my intention to try to make next version even better. Some of the ideas I have for improvements are better channels, better sounds, and other fine tuning..

To date, more than 20 units of the card have been sold locally in Korea with excellent feedback thus far.

The is a full manual for the card as well as other related items on my website which can be found on http://apple2.net

Currently, the card is listed for a Buy-It-Now auction for $79.95 with an $18.00 shipping charge on Ebay and can be found at:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281681766860

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Updated: May 9, 2015 at 06:16

Tags: Apple II, Apple II Sound Cards, Ian Kim

About the Author

Bill Martens

A.P.P.L.E. Chairman of the Board and Club president -- Bill worked for the founder, Val J. Golding and A.P.P.L.E. from 1981 to 1982. In 1999, he began archiving the materials which were distributed and sold by A.P.P.L.E.. That project led to the group that remained of A.P.P.L.E. Bill was involved in the financial industry in Tokyo and has over 20 major office infrastructure projects to his name. In March 2001, he retired to write books and to spend more time pursuing personal interests. As the president of the users group, Bill is in charge of distribution of Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine as well as the organization of this web site. Bill currently resides in Tokyo, Japan and Shelton, Wa splitting time between the places.