Subj : xtrn/zmachine/test/zsound.js xtrn/zmachine/zsound.jsxtrn/zmachine/SYSO
To   : Git commit to main/sbbs/master
From : Rob Swindell (on Debian Linux)
Date : Wed Jul 08 2026 01:33:29

https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/commit/55220bced90a648962a3d9cd
Added Files:
	xtrn/zmachine/test/zsound.js xtrn/zmachine/zsound.js
Modified Files:
	xtrn/zmachine/SYSOP.md games.ini getgames.js jszm.js zmachine.js
Log Message:
zmachine: play Z-machine sound effects (@sound_effect)

The sound_effect opcode (a no-op until now) is decoded and forwarded to
a new engine hook, sound(number, effect, volume, repeats), and the door
wires that hook to a new tiered player (zsound.js):

- digital (SyncTERM w/ audio APCs + libsndfile): the sampled sounds of
  The Lurking Horror and Sherlock play from the game's Blorb -- each Snd
  resource is a complete AIFF file, uploaded once per session to the
  client's persistent cache ("zmachine/<story>/s<num>") and re-decoded
  client-side per play.  Samples own one channel, flushed before each
  queue (the Z-machine plays one sound at a time) and on the stop/finish
  effects; volume 1..8 maps linearly; repeats 255 loops, finite repeats
  queue consecutively.  The "prepare" effect prefetches the upload.
- tone (audio APCs, no libsndfile): the standard high/low bleeps (all
  the Infocom v6 games, Beyond Zork) play as Synth tones.
- BEL (every other terminal): bleeps map to ASCII BEL.

The capability probe only ever queries cterm/SyncTERM clients, so other
terminals see no APC traffic and no startup stall.  Flags2 bit 7 (sound
available, v5+) now reflects hook presence.  The zero-operand form of
sound_effect bleeps, per the Z-Machine Standard's remarks (Beyond Zork
issues it).  The completion-routine operand is not forwarded -- the door
can't know when the terminal finishes playback -- so Sherlock's chained
follow-on sounds don't auto-fire (documented in SYSOP.md; SyncTERM's
A;Update idle notification is a future path to supporting it).

games.ini names the IF Archive sound Blorbs for lurkinghorror/sherlock
and getgames.js now fetches a game's Blorb even without a bake step
(sounds are read from <story>.blb at play time; no pre-bake needed).

test/zsound.js covers the wire protocol per tier via a console stub
(including replay, prepare, loop, stop and volume mapping against the
real cterm_lib.js) plus the opcode decode itself, driving hand-assembled
v3/v5 micro-stories through run().  SYSOP.md documents the tiers and
retires the stale "No sound" / "No v6 graphics" limitations.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

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