What is the SPC file format?
.spc files are binary audio dumps capturing a complete memory snapshot of the SNES sound processor - the Sony SPC700 (S-SMP) - at the moment a piece of in-game music begins playing. Loading a .spc file into a compatible player reproduces the original game audio with exact fidelity, because the file contains all the samples, program data, and DSP register state the sound chip needs.
The format was developed by the SNES game-music preservation community around 1997. Each file is almost exactly 65,792 bytes: a 33-byte ASCII magic header (SNES-SPC700 Sound File Data v0.30), a 128-byte ID666 metadata tag holding the song title, game name, dumper credits, and playback timing, a 64 KB dump of the SPC700's full RAM address space, a 128-byte snapshot of the S-DSP register state, and an optional xid6 extended-tag block appended at the end.
The fixed sample rate of 32,000 Hz reflects the SNES DSP hardware output rate. Related archive collections use the .RSN format - a RAR archive containing multiple .spc files from a single game soundtrack. The largest public archive of SNES game music, snesmusic.org, distributes thousands of game soundtracks as .spc files.
Playback is supported by foobar2000 (with the foo_gep plugin), Winamp via the Chipamp bundle, and Audacious on Linux with extra plugins.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWSPC files are passive data (memory snapshots). They are played back through an emulator; no executable code runs on the host OS. Download from reputable archives only (snesmusic.org, Zophar's Domain).
Format details
in a nutshell- Software Publisher Certificate (PKCS#7) - Microsoft code-signing certificate file in PKCS#7 format, used with Signcode.exe / signtool.exe; created by OpenSSL. Completely unrelated to audio.
- Atari Compressed Spectrum Bitmap - Obsolete Atari 8-bit/ST graphics format; no surviving mainstream software; XnView may partially support it.
Programs that open SPC files
Windows4 apps
OpenSSL
Open-source openssl pkcs7 -in cert.spc -inform DER -print_certs - reads Software Publisher Certificate (.spc) files. Not related to SNES audio. 
XnView
Free XnView may partially open Atari Spectrum bitmap .spc files (the obscure Atari graphics variant), not SNES audio. Do not use for SNES SPC.
foobar2000 (with foo_gep plugin)
Free Install foobar2000, then install the Game Emu Player (foo_gep) component. Drag .spc files into foobar2000 playlist to play.
Chipamp (Winamp bundle)
Free Chipamp is a Winamp plug-in bundle that includes SNES SPC support. Install Chipamp, then open .spc files directly in Winamp. 
macOS1 app
foobar2000 for Mac (with foo_gep)
Free Install foobar2000 for Mac and the foo_gep component for SPC playback. 
Linux2 apps
OpenSSL
Open-source For PKCS#7 .spc certificate files only: 'openssl pkcs7 -in cert.spc -inform DER -print_certs'.
audacious (with audacious-plugins-extra)
Open-source Audacious with console music decoder plugins supports SPC playback. Install audacious + audacious-plugins (includes Game Music Emu).
SNESmusic.org player
Free Browse and stream SNES SPC music directly in browser; no download needed for listed titles. Technical details
deep spec| Encoding | Binary (little-endian for header fields; raw SNES memory dump in native hardware layout) |
| File magic string | "SNES-SPC700 Sound File Data v0.30" - 33-byte ASCII string at offset 0 |
| File size | Virtually always 65,792 bytes (64 KB RAM dump + 33-byte magic + header fields + 128-byte ID666 + 128-byte DSP registers) |
| Hardware captured | Sony SPC700 (S-SMP) CPU and S-DSP chip of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System |
| RAM dump | 65,536 bytes (64 KB) - complete SPC700 address space snapshot at offset 0x100 |
| DSP register dump | 128 bytes at offset 0x10100 - all S-DSP registers snapshotted at the moment of playback start |
| Metadata block | 128-byte ID666 tag at offset 0x2E: song title, game title, dumper name, comments, dump date, fade length, artist, channel mutes, emulator ID |
| Extended metadata | Optional xid6 RIFF chunk appended after the fixed-size body; holds extra tags not covered by the ID666 block |
| Fixed sample rate | 32,000 Hz - SNES DSP hardware output rate; cannot be changed |
| Compression | None - raw memory dump with no encoding overhead |
| MIME type | audio/x-spc (de facto community standard; not IANA-registered) |
| Related archive format | .rsn - a RAR archive renamed .rsn, containing multiple .spc files from one game's complete soundtrack |
| Associated OS | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android (via player apps) |
| Released | ~1997 (SPC file format v0.30 specification) |
| Latest version | SPC File Format v0.30 (last formal spec; the xid6 extended tag block added later) |
| Open standard | Yes · royalty-free |
| Specification | vspcplay.raphnet.net |
SPC conversions
Community Q&A
asked by usersNo questions yet - be the first to ask about SPC files.
