If you are looking for how to program a player to make old soundfonts work, the most cited "paper" is actually a technical specification document:
Here’s a complete blog-style post titled — perfect for a music production, chiptune, or retro computing audience. old+soundfonts+work
There is a specific sound to old SoundFonts: low bit-depth sampling, short loops, and "grit." The strings don't sound real; they sound like memory . This is the sound of Final Fantasy VII, Deus Ex, and Unreal Tournament. Modern "lo-fi" producers are discovering that applying a bit-crusher to a clean synth is not the same as using an actual old SoundFont. The artifacts are baked in, organic, and impossible to replicate perfectly with new tools. If you are looking for how to program