X68000

The YM3812 was made by Yamaha in 1986 and is used with several popular Sound Cards like the AdLib, the original Sound Blaster and also several Arcade Games. It’s also known as the OPL2 (FM Operator Type-L 2). It is backwards compatible to the YM3526 (OPL), to which it adds 3 more waveforms. It was superseded by the YMF262 (OPL3).

Technical Specifications

• Channels: 9
• Channel 1-9: FM Sound Synthesis with 2 Operators per Voice, or 6 Channels of FM + 5 Rhythm Sounds
• Waveforms: Sinewave + 3 alternate Versions of it. For example, with the negative part being inverted.
• Stereo: No (except Creative Sound Blaster Pro)
• DAC: External YM3014 DAC by Yamaha
• 64 Volume levels for each channel
• Datasheet for the YM3812 is available here (PDF).

Lemmings supported the AdLib Card

Used in

• AdLib | IBM-PC Sound Card, more than 1000 Games listed at Mobygames
• Aztech Sound Galaxy BXII | IBM-PC Sound Card
• Creative Sound Blaster 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 | IBM-PC Sound Card, nearly 2000 Games listed at Mobygames
• Creative Sound Blaster Pro | IBM-PC Sound Card, more than 800 Games listed at Mobygames
• SNE Sound Orchestra | NEC PC-98 Sound Card
• Arcade Games | for example: Flying Shark, Truxton / Tatsujin, Kyukyoku Tiger or Thundercade.

Special Applications

• Creative Sound Blaster Pro | uses 2x OPL2 to make stereo possible.
• Arcade | Thundercade and others use an YM3812 together with an YM2203 (OPN).
• Arcade | Konami used the YM3812 together with the K051649 (SCC) in 3 Games: Akumajou Dracula, Hexion & Nyan Nyan Panic.

Variants

• YM3812-F

Emulation

• Arcade | Since the YM3812 is used in many Arcade Systems, its working fine in M1. M1 is a music player which is based on MAME and thus supports a lot of Arcade Games. More about M1 can be found here.
• AdLib / Sound Blaster Cards | Music written for the Sound Cards mentioned above can be in many different formats. AdPlug is a Plug-In for Winamp, DOS, UNIX and XMMS that plays a lot of these formats. It can be obtained here.
• SNE Sound Orchestra | This Sound Card is emulated through Hoot.

The YM3812 running in Hoot

Music Creation

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