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Comment by vor_

1 day ago

That was standard practice in the 90s. Track 1 on the CD is the data track, and subsequent tracks are standard CD audio tracks that happen to be played in the game.

If the game didn't require accessing data on the CD after installation, you could even swap the CD with a different album and listen to what you want.

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vor_

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hansor  19 hours ago

Back then most common CPUs were 386 and 486DX - in real life they can't decode 44khz stereo mp3 file in realtime[1].

Only later Pentium 233mmx could handle mp3 decode in background + game (UT or Q3 Arena lets say).

[1]. Yes it is possible to play mp3 at 386SX 33mhz using magic with mplayer or mpg123(?) or (forgot the name) but it needs to be downgraded to 11khz, mono and other tricks.

  • RetroTechie  11 hours ago

    CD audio track != mp3.

    Either CD player would play audio itself (passed over analog audio connector), with the game occasionally changing track #. Zero CPU time.

    Or a DMA controller would read digital audio from the CD, and CPU pass that on as-is to audio hardware. Lots of audio data streaming, but easy on the CPU.