Atari SAP music format is a format that stores music data from Atari 8-bit computers

Atari 8-bit family

The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...

 that uses the famous Atari POKEY

Atari POKEY

The Pot Keyboard Integrated Circuit is a digital I/O chip found in the Atari 8-bit family of home computers and many arcade games in the 1980s. It was commonly used to sample potentiometers and scan matrices of switches...

 sound chip

Sound chip

A sound chip is an integrated circuit designed to produce sound . It might be doing this through digital, analog or mixed-mode electronics...

.
Most popular tunes for Atari 8 bits were written between 1981-1987.

This format is similar to the SID, SPC or NSF formats, in that it is a music data format which is supported by a player, which emulates the central processing unit

Central processing unit

The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...

and sound hardware of the Atari 8-bit computers (XL/XE), in order to play the music from the Atari games.

SAP format can be replayed by a SAP player currently available for many platforms.

External links

• SAP Format Specification
• ASMA — Atari SAP Music Archive A collection of POKEY chip-music (SAP) players and SAP music from various Atari 8-bit games.
• ASAP — Another Slight Atari Player SAP player (POKEY and 6502 emulation core + plugins for various music players)