I'm into keeping my old files the way they were - simple. Recently after posting about MIDI files I noticed I had another chunk of music untapped in such a long time, the video game music. Initially these were all formats usable with Winamp and I didn't think twice about them during my initial conversion to Linux.

It was difficult at first looking through dated documentation about programs that either dropped the plugins or dropped off the open source map. Luckily through the magic of open-source these formats were ported again and again until I reached my recommendations.

SPC and NSF

- Use the GStreamer Plugins
Play them in what is colloquially called "Movie Player" in Ubuntu. You will need to install the appropriate plugins which are: libopenspc and (nsf now supported by libopenspc). It can be troublesome if you have the old style multi-track NSF files but a solution is likely on the way.

PSF, MiniPSF, and USF

- Use the OpenPSF and LazyUSF plugin for Audacious, or UPSE123 for CLI
LazyUSF sometimes works, but Open PSF is a sure bet for PSF files. Must use a better computer though as both are processor and memory intensive. Developers for both formats are still working on it, so look forward to improvements. Also: Older versions of PulseAudio really gum up the works - if you can get ALSA or OSS to work try that - if the program closes you are doing it wrong.

GYM Files

- Audacious Plugins (FastPC) or Command line (SlowPC)
The GYM files get really choppy even on the computer you think is high end with Audacious, but it will play fine in the command line app. The rules about PulseAudio, ALSA, and OSS still apply and you can significantly improve performance. Sometimes GYM work in Totem, but I have not seen a plugin in some time.

I must remind everyone that I poke around with a lot of plugins and may have broken/unbroken some things accidentally. If these choices don't work for you then remember to file the proper bug reports and feature requests with your software of choice and that not all formats are needed, but these ones are wanted.

Regarding Audio Overload: This piece of software has for the most part been ineffective in Ubuntu. The lack of features and random closures is a little disturbing. It would be nice if the AO developers would join other media projects so that they could focus on formats rather than UI, it would also be nice if they could either support USF or find a new N64 format.