AYM File

What are AYM files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an AYM file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your AYM files.

What is an AYM file?

An .AYM file is a Z80 Music Code With AY Music file.

Z80 Music Code With AY Music files store music designed for Z80-based home computers using the General Instruments AY-3-8910 (or YM2149) sound chip. Designed by Roman Dolejsi, they embed Z80 machine code plus data blocks originally extracted from games or demos. These files contain both metadata (like name, author) and executable routines (initialization, playback) so an emulator or player capable of running Z80 code can reproduce the soundtrack exactly as in the original software. They are especially useful for preserving hardware-accurate sound in emulation or archival contexts.

Files are produced by extracting relevant Z80 code and data from game or demo memory, then packaging that with headers that describe how to initialize and run the code. The file includes pointers for "init" (setup) and "play" (interrupt driven loop), plus information about which tunes are present (min, max, start positions) and which Z80 register holds the tune number. On loading, the player must map the binary data blocks into specific 64K memory addresses, set CPU registers as specified in the header, run the init routine, and on each interrupt call the play routine to update AY‐3-8910 registers based on the code.

Files always begin with the ASCII signature "AYM0" at the very start (offset 0), which identifies this format.

How to open AYM files

Important: Different programs may use files with the AYM file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your AYM file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

Last updated: August 22, 2026

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