SIDPLAY version 1.44 Copyright (c) 1994-96 Michael Schwendt All rights reserved. Internet e-mail: 3schwend@informatik.uni-hamburg.de Normal mail: Michael Schwendt An der Wallpforte 1 D-23879 Moelln Germany ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT IS (DOES) SIDPLAY ? Basically, SIDPLAY is just an ordinary music player for PCs with a soundcard. It is not bound to a specific music data format. Instead, it emulates the sound interface device chip (MOS 6581, known as SID) and the micro processor unit (MOS 6510) of the Commodore 64 on your PC. Therefore it is able to load and execute C64 machine code programs which produce interrupt driven music or sound. In general these are independent fragments of code and data which are ripped from games and demonstration programs and are transfered directly from the C64. The idea for SIDPLAY is based on the Amiga program "The 100 most remembered C64 game-tunes" and its follower "PlaySID" by Per H?kan Sundell and Ron Birk. This program is not related to a music editing and playing program on C64 called "Sidplayer" by Craig Chamberlain or "Stereo Sidplayer" by Mark Dickenson. When beginning this project I was not aware of the existence of those C64 programs and didn't want to start any confusion by choosing a similar name. Later, support for one of Sidplayer's music data formats (MUS) has been added. C64 MUSICS / SIDTUNES / SIDS Around 3000 different soundtracks from Commodore 64 games and demos are available in several packages. These musics are still copyrighted by their original owners. That is the reason why this program is distributed without any tunes though many of them are almost 10 years old by now. Hence spreading them is more likely to act as advertising than causing any consequential damage. Approximately, the european part of the world refers to any piece of music from the Commodore 64 as "sidtune", while the american part of the world only calls musics, which were made with the original "Sidplayer" on C64, "sidtunes" or "sids". From what I have learned so far, the "Sidplayer" was very famous and there were more than 7000 sounds for it. THE JUKEBOX The SIDSHELL is the shell-version of SIDPLAY. It needs 224KB of EMS-memory (LIM/EMM >= 3.2) and a fast 486 CPU. One of its differences to SIDPLAY is the possibility to enter the DOS shell while playing a selection of musics in the background. To leave some CPU power for other applications you are advised to play around with the output-mixing frequency (command line option /f) and the mixing buffer size (option /b). Its internal selector is able to mark files and generate playlist jukebox files. The current version handles playlists of a maximum size of 65535 bytes, i.e. around 1600 files. This should be enough for the moment. The shorter the complete path to each sidtune file, the more files fit into a single listfile. The playlist files can be edited with any normal ASCII text editor. SIDPLAY TO .WAV FILE This one was done to use complete sidtunes or single effects/instruments in own programs and on different platforms. A second version is programmed completely in portable C. If you use data calculated by SID2WAV, please don't forget to give the credits. Using some simple run-length compression, more than a minute of waveform data at average 22.05 KHz will fit into a few hundred kilobytes only. THE CARDWARE CONCEPT SIDPLAY is cardware. If you like this program, all I would like to get from you is an illustrated postcard. Please avoid sending an ordinary email as a substitute for a real postcard. I want to see how much this is used around the world. The main purpose of cardware is to support the programmer, so that he keeps motivation in programming updates and related software. If you can't find a suitable postcard in time, I am pleased with any kind of donation or gift, like a copy of a home-made CD or some money. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PACKAGE LIST: The original archive named 'sidp144.zip' should only contain the following files: FILE_ID DIZ 400 24.03.96 1:44 SID2WAV EXE 46913 02.04.96 1:44 SIDPLAY EXE 66183 02.04.96 1:44 SIDPLAYH EXE 27284 02.04.96 1:44 SIDSETUP EXE 19778 02.04.96 1:44 SIDSHELL EXE 66062 02.04.96 1:44 6 Files 226620 Bytes .\DOC\ GUS DOC 424 24.03.96 1:44 LIESMICH DOC 2392 18.10.95 1:37 README DOC 1908 18.10.95 1:37 REVISION DOC 10541 31.03.96 1:44 SIDPLAY DOC 30733 02.04.96 1:44 WINDOWS DOC 164 02.04.96 1:44 6 Files 46142 Bytes .\TOOLS\ DEPP EXE 29696 01.06.95 0:03 EPEX BTM 3590 24.03.95 1:25 EPEX DOC 6404 24.03.95 1:25 GO32 EXE 78826 18.12.94 21:39 INFO2SID EXE 1505 24.03.95 1:25 PP EXE 29696 29.06.95 0:05 PSID2DAT EXE 6948 24.03.95 1:25 PSID2SID EXE 1661 24.03.95 1:25 README 1ST 149 24.03.96 1:44 SID2PSID EXE 1749 24.03.95 1:25 SID2WAVP EXE 152064 02.04.96 1:03 13 Files 312288 Bytes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME WORDS ABOUT SIDSETUP.EXE: Selecting `AutoDetect' tries to find installed sound cards by searching for environment strings or drivers, first. If it finds a combination of cards, it will present each configuration in the following order: - Sound Blaster series - Pro AudioSpectrum series - Gravis Ultrasound - Gravis Ultrasound with Codec Just reject a presented sound card to get to the next one. Upon unsuccessful termination of `AutoDetect', you have to set up your sound card manually. For the more complex settings, e.g. GUS with 16-bit daughterboard, it is a good idea to run through the windows by just pressing return, to see which values are needed, then enter the actual configuration of your card. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEY FUNCTIONS (SELECTOR): CURSOR KEYS, POS1, END, PAGE KEYS - move the coloured bar on a drive/directory/file RETURN - select a drive/directory/file ESCAPE - quits back to DOS (confirm with Y or N) ALT-X - quits back to DOS immediately D - start DOS shell (only in the SHELL-version) BACKSPACE - delete current file and belonging hidden files on confirmation KEY FUNCTIONS (SOUND CONTROL): CURSOR LEFT - replay previous tune if possible CURSOR RIGHT - replay next tune if possible CURSOR UP - enter four times faster replay, back to normal speed by pressing any other key, CURSOR DOWN - enable two times faster replay, back to normal speed by pressing any other key ENTER - returns back to the selector ESCAPE - quits back to DOS with Q - pause/resume replay (quiet) 1, 2, 3, 4 - toggle mute for channels 1-4 (not with option /m !) P - opens/closes the stereo panning setup window (use option /s or /st to enable this function) L, M, R - set stereo channel output to LEFT/MIDDLE/RIGHT S - toggle stereo surround effect for selected channel (use option /st to enable this function) KEY FUNCTIONS (SIDSHELL.EXE): D - start DOS shell INSERT - mark file DELETE - unmark file SPACE - toggle file mark M - start playing marked files N - stop current song and play next one from list ALT + S - save tagged files as a playlist ASCII-file CTRL + - Hotkey, stop current song and play next one from list LEFT_SHIFT + (only in DOS-Shell !) F10 Note1: The fast forward replay takes more CPU power than normal speed. Please be careful, because this might lock your machine ! Note2: The output modifying actions might start/stop after a short delay. This happens if the mixing buffer is large. The length of delay depends on the CPU speed of your machine. You can set the mixing buffer size with the /b option to achieve smarter key handling and faster reactions on your input. MOUSE SUPPORT: Exit - move pointer to top-left corner of screen and press left button Page up - left click above selector window Page down - left click under selector window ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS: SIDPLAY provides an ASCII-editable configuration file and optional command line parameters. The command line parameters always override the settings in the global configuration file SIDPLAY.CFG. /f<Hz> sets the sample mixing frequency (i.e. sound quality) where <Hz> is a frequency between 8000 and 45891 Hz /b<length> sets the amount of bytes to be processed till next interrupt occurs (a value from 1024 to 65530 is possible); a small buffer results in faster key-interrupt handling; very useful for s...
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