Unconventional use of hardware to produce sounds

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Some peripherals can be mis-used to produce sound effects...

Cassette Motor Relay

Switching the casette Motor On relay on or off can produce a 'click' sound (done via PPI Port C, Bit 4).

  • Works only on 664 and 6128 (which contain a relay for use with external cassette drives).
  • Does not work on 464 and 464+ (which have internal transistor-driven tape drives without relays).
  • Does not work on 6128+ (which has no tape drive connector, and thus no relay).

Disc Drive Motors

The two disc motors can produce some sound: The spinning motor isn't very loud, but the track stepping motor can produce some knock-knock-knock sounds; the stepping rate and number of steps can be controlled by software.

Printer Beeper

Several printers do have an beep function (for example, the Amstrad/Schneider DMP2000 Printer), producing a beep sound on receiving chr(7).

  • Works only if the printer is connected and switched on, only if the printer supports beeps, and only if the beep feature isn't disabled (via DIP-switch).
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