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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/multimedia.cx\/eggs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/knosefart.png\" "\\"Knosefart")
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I tried to recall how this screenshot came to exist. Had I actually created a functional KDE frontend to Nosefart yet neglected to release it? I think it’s more likely that I used some designer tool (possibly KDevelop<\/a>) to prototype a frontend. This would have been sometime in 2000.<\/p>\n However, this screenshot prompted me to revisit Nosefart.<\/p>\n Nosefart Background<\/strong> Nosefart was written by Matt Conte<\/a> and eventually imported into a Sourceforge project<\/a>, though it has not seen any development since then. The distribution contains standalone command line players for Linux and DOS, a GTK frontend for the Linux command line version, and plugins for Winamp, XMMS, and CL-Amp.<\/p>\n The Sourceforge project page notes that Nosefart is also part of XBMC. Let the record show that Nosefart is also incorporated into xine<\/a> (I did that in 2002, I think).<\/p>\n Upgrading the API<\/strong> In fairly short order, I was able to upgrade the CL program to use PulseAudio. The program is not especially sophisticated. It’s a single-threaded affair which checks for a keypress, processes an audio frame, and sends the frame out to the OSS file interface. All that was needed was to rewrite open_hardware() and close_hardware() for PA and then replace the write statement in play(). The only quirk that stood out is that including <pulse\/pulseaudio.h> is insufficient for programming PA’s simple API. <pulse\/simple.h> must be included separately.<\/p>\n For extra credit, I adapted the program to ALSA. The program uses the most simplistic audio output API possible — just keep filling a buffer and sending it out to the DAC.<\/p>\n
\nNosefart is a program<\/a> that can play Nintendo Sound Format (NSF) files<\/a>. NSF files are files containing components that were surgically separated from Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) ROM dumps. These components contain the music playback engines for various games. An NSF player is a stripped down emulation system that can simulate the NES6502 CPU along with the custom hardware (2 square waves, 1 triangle wave, 1 noise generator, and 1 limited digital channel).<\/p>\n
\nWhen I tried running the command line version of Nosefart under Linux, I hit hard against the legacy audio API: OSS. Remember that?<\/p>\n