Writing tunes for the Intellivision

[+thegoldenband]

Thanks to Joe Z.'s excellent suite of tools, and Arnauld C.'s great tracker software, I was able to take some first steps into writing tunes for the Inty earlier this year:

 

kraidslair.rom.zip

 

Arnauld's tracker seems flexible and easy to use, and I recommend it to anyone else who's interested in making music on the Intellivision. Perhaps this thread will start the ball rolling in that direction? I'm looking forward to writing some original music of my own, as the Intellivision sound hardware is quite capable (especially considering when it came out).

Edited September 8, 2010 by thegoldenband

[+thegoldenband]

P.S. Here's the source. I haven't worked on this for months, but as far as I recall I didn't modify the other files that came with the tracker:

kraids lair source 2010-02-20.asm.zip

[jaybird3rd]

The AY-3-891x is a very interesting family of audio chips, far ahead of anything Atari had at the time. They seem to be capable of a lot more than they were ever pushed to do in the Intellivision, and I imagine that's mainly because the music composition tools (to the extent they even existed) weren't nearly as sophisticated at the time.

 

The tracker you linked to seems to be Intellivision source code, but has anyone tried to use a PC-side utility to create the music data? I've been looking at Vortex Tracker II as a potential composition tool for Intellivision and Aquarius music. It was apparently designed mainly for the 128K ZX Spectrum+ (which used an AY-3-8910), but since it's the same chip, perhaps it can be used for the Intellivision/Aquarius also.

[vprette]

Thanks to Joe Z.'s excellent suite of tools, and Arnauld C.'s great tracker software, I was able to take some first steps into writing tunes for the Inty earlier this year:

 

kraidslair.rom.zip

 

Arnauld's tracker seems flexible and easy to use, and I recommend it to anyone else who's interested in making music on the Intellivision. Perhaps this thread will start the ball rolling in that direction? I'm looking forward to writing some original music of my own, as the Intellivision sound hardware is quite capable (especially considering when it came out).

 

I cannot find your link working

the arnaud tracker you mention is the AY-tracker?

can you send it to me to do some experiment?

or would you be interested in help me converting an original arcde music to intellivision format?

Edited January 12, 2012 by vprette

[+DZ-Jay]

The AY-3-891x is a very interesting family of audio chips, far ahead of anything Atari had at the time. They seem to be capable of a lot more than they were ever pushed to do in the Intellivision, and I imagine that's mainly because the music composition tools (to the extent they even existed) weren't nearly as sophisticated at the time.

 

The tracker you linked to seems to be Intellivision source code, but has anyone tried to use a PC-side utility to create the music data? I've been looking at Vortex Tracker II as a potential composition tool for Intellivision and Aquarius music. It was apparently designed mainly for the 128K ZX Spectrum+ (which used an AY-3-8910), but since it's the same chip, perhaps it can be used for the Intellivision/Aquarius also.

 

I think Arnauld had a PC tracking software that he uses. His Intv tracker follows a format very close to the classic Amiga MODs. As I understand it, he uses a simple tool to convert the binary into Intv DECLE data for his tracker.

 

-dZ.

[vprette]

My question is:

how you go from a MIDI file to DECLE code for intv?

I have a MIDI tune and need to put it in intellivision!

[+DZ-Jay]

My question is:

how you go from a MIDI file to DECLE code for intv?

I have a MIDI tune and need to put it in intellivision!

 

That's a good question that I'm sure Arnauld will be able to answer. He originally converted a MIDI file I gave him with the theme song for Christmas Carol into his tracker data. He said that he used some tool he made for it.

 

Unfortunately, I don't know such tool. I've re-tracked the theme since then by hand. What I do is I open the MIDI file in Logic and it breaks it down as tracker data with the channels, rows, and note events. I then take these and make the DECLE data using some macros Arnauld prepared for his tracker.

 

-dZ.

[+DZ-Jay]

My question is:

how you go from a MIDI file to DECLE code for intv?

I have a MIDI tune and need to put it in intellivision!

 

That's a good question that I'm sure Arnauld will be able to answer. He originally converted a MIDI file I gave him with the theme song for Christmas Carol into his tracker data. He said that he used some tool he made for it.

 

Unfortunately, I don't know such tool. I've re-tracked the theme since then by hand. What I do is I open the MIDI file in Logic and it breaks it down as tracker data with the channels, rows, and note events. I then take these and make the DECLE data using some macros Arnauld prepared for his tracker.

 

-dZ.

 

OK, I looked through my e-mail archives and I found that Arnauld told me he converted the MIDI file into a MOD file using OpenMPT. He also mentioned that the tracker format follows the XM format introduced by Fast Tracker II, but without sample files.

 

I don't know if he lurks in this forum, so perhaps you want to ask him directly?

 

-dZ.

[vprette]

My question is:

how you go from a MIDI file to DECLE code for intv?

I have a MIDI tune and need to put it in intellivision!

 

That's a good question that I'm sure Arnauld will be able to answer. He originally converted a MIDI file I gave him with the theme song for Christmas Carol into his tracker data. He said that he used some tool he made for it.

 

Unfortunately, I don't know such tool. I've re-tracked the theme since then by hand. What I do is I open the MIDI file in Logic and it breaks it down as tracker data with the channels, rows, and note events. I then take these and make the DECLE data using some macros Arnauld prepared for his tracker.

 

-dZ.

 

OK, I looked through my e-mail archives and I found that Arnauld told me he converted the MIDI file into a MOD file using OpenMPT. He also mentioned that the tracker format follows the XM format introduced by Fast Tracker II, but without sample files.

 

I don't know if he lurks in this forum, so perhaps you want to ask him directly?

 

-dZ.

 

thanks for info

[+thegoldenband]

Just saw this thread revival!

 

I cannot find your link working

 

Did you mean the .rom, the source code, or the link to the wiki? I can upload the other files that go with Arnauld's tracker if they'd be useful -- in fact, here they are (attached). I think these are the original, unedited bits.

Arnauld_Chevalier_tracker_for_INTV.zip

[+thegoldenband]

And, BTW, if there's an automated MIDI conversion tool and it works well, that's great news.

[Der Luchs]

Is there a Tracker or something that can also compile it to a ROM?

[+DZ-Jay]

Is there a Tracker or something that can also compile it to a ROM?

Arnauld mentioned before that he was working on web applications for a music tracker and background graphics scene for the Intellivision. However, this was a couple of years ago, and since then he has maintained a low profile in the community. He is probably very busy with other affairs.

 

As far as I know, there is no such tool as what you ask.

 

dZ.

[GroovyBee]

I did investigate the PC based trackers available on the Amstrad CPC a while back (it has a AY-3-8912 sound chip just like the later ZX Spectrum models). My Z80 assembly language is very, very, very rusty so I haven't looked at making an equivalent tracker playback routine on the Intellivision. Don't despair because its a project I'll come back to later next year.

[+Gemintronic]

Would Vortex Tracker help?

http://bulba.untergrund.net/vortex_e.htm

[+thegoldenband]

NB: Anyone who uses the files I supplied here in post #10 needs to make the following correction to two lines in trkdemo.asm:

 

Before:

TRKSCRACTH ORG $01DC
TRKSYSTEM ORG $035B

After:

TRKSCRACTH ORG $01DC, $01DC, "-RWBN"

TRKSYSTEM ORG $035B, $035B, "-RWBN"

 

Credit to Joe Z./intvnut for this fix. Without it, .rom files compiled with the tracker will be incorrectly configured and are almost certain to crash, though some emulators will tolerate them for some reason.

[First Spear]

Maybe this is right on time for me... I am investigating coding for the Intv and definitely need to understand how music is done. I grabbed the files, now to find a tutorial...

[+DZ-Jay]

Maybe this is right on time for me... I am investigating coding for the Intv and definitely need to understand how music is done. I grabbed the files, now to find a tutorial...

 

There isn't one, sorry. You can ask whatever you one on this forum and we may try to help. You can also subscribe to the INTVProg Yahoo! Group mailing list, where even the programmer of the Tracker most of us use hangs out.

 

-dZ.