,ggmmmgy, tgggmmmgyo yggmmmmmmr ,ggmmmgy, gggpmmmgggmmmqgy, [&&& N##L [&&R B&&L [&&R [&&& M&&L &&&L N&& [W&& [&&R [&&BgggN& [&&&ggg [&&Bggg&M&L &&&L &&& [&&& [&M& yyy [B&R N&&L [&&& [WN& W&&L &&&L &&& [NBR #&&ggg&#" [B&& B#&L "#&&ggggggr [M&R W&&L W&&L &B& [&&& 1997 OO ooooo oo ooooo _______ oooo OO oooo o o OO OO OO OO STE/030 OO O OO O OO O O OOOO OO OO OO ------- OOOO OO OOOO OOO OO OO OO OO OO O OOOOO OO OOOOO v. 2.01 written by Abyss and Tao of Cream Dedication: When we watch history of computer-music and its rapid technical development in the passed few years, we can watch some interesting similarities to the development of music and coding in general. As the number of computer-owners rises, we find a growing mass of musicians providing games or demos with their compositions. And as it has always been, most of them try hard, but never manage to reach remarkable status. Only a few inventive characters will find themselves in the hall of fame someday. Times have changed. The big names are missing today. Of course there are still games containing great soundtracks. But the author of the music doesn't seem to be interesting nowadays, although he is mentioned in the game credits. Most of the musicians disappear after releasing only one soundtrack (for a game or even a demo). I remember times when we watched out for games or demos only to get the newest music of musician X. Some games are only remembered for their great musix. If you remember 'Warhawk' on Atari XL or ' Master of Magic' on C64 then you might agree with me. Rob Hubbard, David Whittaker, Ben Daglish, Chris Huelsbeck, Martin Galway and the Maniacs of Noise were living gods in the C64 music-scene. Jochen Hippel, Scavenger, Big Alec, Jester, TIP and Mantronix had a comparable status on ST and Amiga. (If you are musician, don't worry, if i forgot you). Why are these guys still mentioned, when we're talking about computer musix ? It can't be the soundprocessors they were programming. The YM-2149 was pure shit, Paula and SID, great chips at their time, can easily be emulated by the new generation of soundchips (even by STE). It was their fantasy in composing music and getting the best out of their possibilities. If you love computer music (and i don't mean that "i-have- every-piece-of-sid-music-in-my-collection" - love), you can identify each of these guys as author, just by listening to the first notes of a tune. It were their unique techniques to create music, what let them stand out of the mass: Check out for yourself and listen to the details in the musics. 'PlaySid STE' was not written to honour SID or the C64. SID was a capable, but ordinary processor. Nobody would talk about it today without the achievements of the few inventive pioneers of chip-music. Every soundchip needs a talented musician to show its full capability. I have listened to innumerable SID-musics and about three quarts of them were crap. The best equipment could not change them into good music. So this player is dedicated to the pioneers of chip-music, who inspired the musicians on all following generations of soundprocessors. - Tao - note: When I wrote these lines for version 1.0, it was just a reflection of how i feel about the actual situation in the computer scene. I know a lot of people who agree with me. And even the mails we got, showed me that i'm not alone with my opinion. But this was no call to resign or to put your head in the sand. As it seems, we'll all have to use Bill's machine someday. And i just hope that we'll transfer the special flair of creativity and respect of each other, that we had in the Atari scene, to the PC. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- About PlaySid STE/030: PlaySid STE/030 is a combinated SID (The C64 Soundprocessor) and 6502 CPU emulator. It replays 'PSID'-formatted music-files as known from the Amiga or the PC. Since v.1.10 it has been highly speed-optimised, so that now nearly all tunes can be replayed at (fake) 50 KHz on an ordinary 8-MHz-STE. Some bug-fixes in the player and the 6502-Emulator provide a cleaner replay of the tunes. The Falcon-version also offers a mono, stereo or surround output. The "Galway-Noise" has now been included as well as the correct handling of the replay-speed, which allows to replay tunes with a rate of up to 500Hz on Falcon (on 8-MHz-STE up to about 100-200 Hz). Version 2.01 should play most of the tunes correctly (the Rob Hubbard tunes i found, wourk as far as i remember them by nearly 100%. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to use PlaySid STE/030: There are now two ways of using the player. You can still install 'PSID_STE.PRG'/'PSID_030.PRG' as an application on your Desktop. Usually the extensions for PSID-files are '.DAT'. This way you can select the tunes via doubleclick in your actual window. Or just start 'PSID_STE.PRG'/'PSID_030.PRG' as a program. Version 2.00 now contains an own fileselector for faster access to the tunes. It supports both keyboard- and mouse-control. Mouse control: Needs no special explanation. To scroll the files just go to the top or the bottom of the list and press the right button. A single click on the left one loads a tune. Keyboard control: To select a file via keyboard, keep the mousepointer out of the window, so that you can select the files with the arrow-keys. 'Return' & 'Space' -> load the selected tune 'A' - 'P' -> select drive '1' - '4' -> select extension The button '.???' contains the extension of the tune you started PlaySid with, when installed as an application. - 'Escape' returns to the TOS Replay Mode: ----------- - The arrow keys "<-" and "->" allow the selection of a single tune out of the music file. - Keys 1-4 activate/deactivate the single channels (three SID-voices and one digi-voice) - The following keys on the numerical keyboard control the microwire interface: (STE) "(" / "7" -> inc/dec bass ")" / "8" -> inc/dec treble "/" / "9" -> inc/dec left level "*" / "-" -> inc/dec right level "+" / "Enter" -> inc/dec master volume - "+" and "-" on the numerical keyboard control the master volume. (FALCON) - UNDO toggles Mono/Stereo/Surround output (FALCON) - HELP toggles SID/YAMAHA Style output - A "hidden" key has a function which was only meant for testing. You shold avoid to press it, if you really love the musics. For those, who don't care: You wont't have to look too long for it..... - 'Escape' returns to the TOS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- History: v. 2.01 Released: 22.01.1998 ----------------------------- -> ADSR - Emulation and Ringmodulation fixed. v. 2.00 Released: 29.03.1997, at the "Siliconvention" in Bremen ----------------------------- -> Galway Noise included -> undocumented 6502-Commands included -> Some bugs in 6502-Emulation fixed -> mono/stereo/surround output included (Falcon) -> Sid/Yamaha Style output included -> fatal DMA-replay-bug fixed (STE) -> speed-handling corrected and displayed v. 1.10 Released: 14.12.1996 ----------------------------- -> fileselector included -> (fake) 50 KHz with multiplex-technique (STE) -> faster DMA-buffer-fillroutine (STE) -> mixing of waves fixed v. 1.01 Released: 19.09.1996 ----------------------------- -> (fatal) 6502 emulator bug fixed v. 1.00 Released: 17.08.1996 (Falcon) 14.09.1996 (STE) -------------------------------------- -> basic functions emulated -> realtime ringmodulation and sync-command -> basic digi-drum-effects -> PSID and Power-Packer 2.0 compatible -> Microwire (STE) and Volume (F030) control ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feedback: Of course we don't know all the tunes ever done on the C64, so if a tune sounds strange to you in some way, please tell us the name of it and a little description of what you think sounds wrong (note the playing-time). We'll analyse it and if necessary, correct the player. For this and any other reason like critics, hints or ordinary feedback you can contact us: email: CreamHQ@aol.com By the way, we're working on our homepage (in fact, we really don't, but we'll try to kick out a serious one soon), you can reach it under: http:\\members.aol.com\CreamHQ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings and shoutouts: I especially want to show my gratitude to Candyman, our 'sleeping' member, without whom this project would have never been started. (Tao) A special 'Hi' goes to Shiuming Lai for his special interest in PlaySid STE/030 and some useful hints which lead to a remarkable improvement of the player. (Sorry for teasing you with my fatal bug....) Another Special 'Hi' to the Maggie Team, for honouring PlaySID 030/STE with the "Maggie Award" for the best music-product in 1996. (I bet it was the only one last year =)....). That was motivation for us to improve our proggy once again. Thank You ! Hi to: -> MAD MAX, maybe back again soon.....!? -> tSCc (Hi MC Laser) -> INTER (Hi Questor) -> TNB (danke fr die shizophrene Ader =|...A.-t-) -> LAZER ( Ich hoffe wir sehen uns mal wieder?...A.-t-) -> EXA ( esp. FLAN ) -> EKO ( esp. DJAMM) -> STAX (und das Running TEAM) -> RISK ( esp. McFLY...wir sehen und ja jetzt oft =) -> Absence ( please release Joint Venture, soon ) -> Agression ( waiting for the new demo ?) -> TCE -> DBA -> ADM -> Theraphy ( nice Bumbmapping, more Guys) -> Hydroxid -> NoCREW -> AN COOL -> New Beat Dev. ( what happens with WILLY?) -> AURA (and all Guys on XMOON) -> ATARI Inside ( THX for support...A.-t-) -> ST-Computer -> Adrenaline -> Jacky of ACF -> Delta Force ( esp. BIG ALEC) -> Gruor -> JWS -> ECLIPSE -> DHS & IMPONANCE ( shorter D-mos please =) -> EX-TEX -> (ex?)RESPECTABLES -> NPG ( echt abgeschw„chelt mit Incuboomator =(...) -> Sanity -> MUGWUMS (new Demo?) -> Frontier Software -> DUNE (esp. JADE) -> Vectronix -> A.M. -> Elite -> Wildfire ( esp. Baggio ( what about Immortalize?) -> Abstract -> MJJ Proud -> V.G. TV ( try: www.vgtv.com ) -> AVENA ( esp. Arsch Arne, sucking Fried & JET der Spackn =), hi TAT...) -> Boamaschine -> Rob Hubbard -> ICE -> CREAM D-zing ( on Commodore 64) -> Toons -> Oxygene -> Hemoroids -> ATARI ( THX for support Falcon & Jaguar so great =( ...) -> LETI -> ParaNoise Terminal -> Pentagon -> The Bad MOOD Team -> Reservoir Gods ( more cool games, please) -> Martin STEEN (Falcon Hicolor Games) have fun and see ya Cream '97 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------