Advanced Sound List Player....

[Tursi]

Well, everyone knows that you aren't allowed to talk to me without kissing my ass first! Guess that's the whole problem! (Apparently if I disagree with you that's requiring you to kiss my ass. Gotcha.)

 

I did say "we added support to Classic99 so we could test the software". The part that you aren't sharing as you note this is that I added the support long before the player software was done, in fact before the software was /started/, and thus the support has no bearing on whether you actually did use it. I did it in the expectation that even if I didn't get to the code myself, it would be helpful to you or others helping out. No good deed goes unpunished. In truth I didn't even know whether you used it because I didn't see the software till it was pretty much finished. Since you were involved during every step of that development, including testing it before I published it, it was reasonable to think you were okay with it existing.

 

At the faire last year, I offered you the card back, in person, and apologized for not getting the player done. You didn't want it, so I can't see that's any problem there. As for whether it has taken off -- dude, you have to release the cards first! People are looking forward to playing with them. Before this whole mess I was very much looking forward to it myself, to see what people would do.

 

Anyway, I hope the above clarifies the one statement that you were not sure if you misunderstood, and that's the last I'll say on the entire subject (except perhaps for jokes about kissing ass, on special occasions. )

[marc.hull]

Well, everyone knows that you aren't allowed to talk to me without kissing my ass first! Guess that's the whole problem! (Apparently if I disagree with you that's requiring you to kiss my ass. Gotcha.)

 

I did say "we added support to Classic99 so we could test the software". The part that you aren't sharing as you note this is that I added the support long before the player software was done, in fact before the software was /started/, and thus the support has no bearing on whether you actually did use it. I did it in the expectation that even if I didn't get to the code myself, it would be helpful to you or others helping out. No good deed goes unpunished. In truth I didn't even know whether you used it because I didn't see the software till it was pretty much finished. Since you were involved during every step of that development, including testing it before I published it, it was reasonable to think you were okay with it existing.

 

At the faire last year, I offered you the card back, in person, and apologized for not getting the player done. You didn't want it, so I can't see that's any problem there. As for whether it has taken off -- dude, you have to release the cards first! People are looking forward to playing with them. Before this whole mess I was very much looking forward to it myself, to see what people would do.

 

Anyway, I hope the above clarifies the one statement that you were not sure if you misunderstood, and that's the last I'll say on the entire subject (except perhaps for jokes about kissing ass, on special occasions. )

 

This argument has lost all sense of reality for me so I'll agree to kiss your ass on Christmas and one one other day of your choice .

 

The project was release on April 1st to a chorus of crickets. I've tried to move them on Ebay as well as my web sight to little interest. Either no one is interested or the price is too high or who knows what. I'd love some feedback on this issue from anyone.

[+retroclouds]

... I've tried to move them on Ebay as well as my web sight to little interest. Either no one is interested or the price is too high or who knows what. I'd love some feedback on this issue from anyone.

 

ok, first of all let me say that as a project you have done a great job.

 

As far as the card itself is concerned. I have to say that for me personally the price tag is too high.

I've seen a sidblaster card on ebay a few days ago without a SID chip. I've just checked and it seems the chip SID alone already costs between 25-30 EUROS.

The thing is that except for the player there is no software (games that is) supporting the SID.

 

I've also been slow in buying TI stuff lately.

 

For myself I've decided to concentrate on the bare TI-99/4A console.

As a matter of fact I still have 50 cartridge PCB's (64K) laying around.

So I really have to finish some games to get myself some refund first

[marc.hull]

 

ok, first of all let me say that as a project you have done a great job.

 

As far as the card itself is concerned. I have to say that for me personally the price tag is too high.

I've seen a sidblaster card on ebay a few days ago without a SID chip. I've just checked and it seems the chip SID alone already costs between 25-30 EUROS.

The thing is that except for the player there is no software (games that is) supporting the SID.

 

I've also been slow in buying TI stuff lately.

 

For myself I've decided to concentrate on the bare TI-99/4A console.

As a matter of fact I still have 50 cartridge PCB's (64K) laying around.

So I really have to finish some games to get myself some refund first

 

 

All pretty much what I figured and valid points. I had hoped to recoup my costs and put a little in the bank for the next one but that doesn't look like it is going to happen which is fine. I told myself going into this that it may fall on it's face for many reasons.

 

About the only thing I have control over at this point is the price. I can cut it down so I'm not in the hole but I can't go lower than that obviously.

 

Anyway thanks for the insight. Perhaps I'll auction one off on Ebay and see exactly what the price point is and go from there.

[marc.hull]

Somewhat finial EA5 and source below. The specs have evolved a bit so I'll re post them later. Give a listen and let me know what you think.

ASLP.zip

[marc.hull]

updated spec/minimal instruction sheet

newplayer.rtf

[marc.hull]

Updated sound player and spec sheet with some sound effects for my new game. Phrasing has been eliminated but the repeat function will be expanded. It's pretty small and really fast so should be really useful once an editor is created. These effects were created using simple music concepts and hopefully are pretty impressive for their size. The player sits around 1.5K while the sound effects occupy less than 180 bytes. Please let me know what you think.

 

Marc...

ASLP.zip

[Willsy]

I bought a SID card from Marc a couple of weeks ago. A really lovely design and works perfectly. Yes they are a little pricey but that's the nature of small hobby hardware runs. It was a ballsy project - hats off to Marc and all concerned that contributed to make it happen.

 

I'll finish the TF support for it when I get a chance... personal stuff is conspiring against me at the moment and for now finishing the TF book is priority #1

 

For anyone that wants a SID card, just check out Marc's site... they're for sale right there!

 

Mark

Edited June 20, 2011 by Willsy

[Astharot]

Hello Marc,

I first buy your sid card liked know how it work... It possible using classic99 (that have built in sid emulation) and have one demo program where one take one sid song, (like at example ghostbuster sound from c64 game) and listen it in background while the program ext-basic work (like caterpillar demo that is write on ti basic manual)?

Sorry for my request but i lost the blog domand/reply sense because no understand well english.

P.s. know the hard work that you had do for built/create the card, because i how work often i must repair electronic circuit of telephone central :-)

Thanks Ermanno

[marc.hull]

It's been a while but I ironed all the creases out of the ASLP. Attached is the final doc and a TI99-PC disk image with the source and an EA5 executable demoing the sound effects from my new game. If time permits and I have the gusto then I will work on an editor. Will probably be in XB so not real responsive but I can't start another assembly project until I clear my plate....

 

The binary is around 1.75K, so pretty large for a player routine. Very little is executed per frame though so it is very rapid. The plus size is that the sound data is very compact in it's byte code form and it follows the rules of sheet music (to an extent anyway.) Size wise It is more or less a wash compared to creating the same sounds with the TI player and much smaller that your average tracker with data would be.

 

The sound effects on the demo utilize either voice 1 or the noise channel and total less than 340 bytes of data combined.

 

I doubt that I will add anything more to this player as I consider it a sound effects generator (although it could be used for chip tunes as well.) But it is expandable to allow for different commands that create different effects.)

 

Feel free to DL it and give me some feedback.

 

Thanks....

 

 

Marc

ASLP.zip.zip

Edited August 14, 2011 by marc.hull

[Opry99er]

Just downloaded this sound list player from your site and read through the documents. MAN AM I BEHIND THE TIMES!!!!!! Looks fantastic, Marc. If this thing does what I THINK it does, it's gonna be a freakin' monster.

 

Superb work, as always man. I cannot wait to start playing with this thing. =)

[Opry99er]

Got SOME of my gear set up yesterday... I don't have a desk, so it's all set up on plastic totes. =) Pretty hilarious, actually. I will have some free time the next couple of days and I'm eagerly looking forward to getting back to some music work. ASLP is going to be one of two areas of focus for my music development projects... I'm actually hoping to get all my XB music converted over to soundlists (using a new auto-convert program by senior_falcon) and writing new music using the ASLP. Fun fun fun fun fun stuff. =)

 

Since I'm not playing out much anymore, I am very much looking forward to writing a bunch of TI music... I've been needing that outlet and haven't had it.

 

Got some wonky tunes running around in my head... been playing my Nintendo a TON the last few weeks, as my 4 year old has now decided he likes NES better than Wii... Proud day for me... gotta tell ya. =)

 

Faxanadu is our favorite game... It's been mine for years and years. He played this game for 3 hours yesterday. Getting pretty good at it too. =)

 

[Opry99er]

I gotta be totally honest here... I tooled around with this thing for a couple hours and couldn't get it to do anything... You have any docs for dummies?

 

I may know music, but this program is kicking my a$$....

[marc.hull]

I gotta be totally honest here... I tooled around with this thing for a couple hours and couldn't get it to do anything... You have any docs for dummies?

 

I may know music, but this program is kicking my a$$....

 

Dox are on my website. They are for dummies as they were written by one..... ...

 

If it isn't doing anything then there are two usual suspects.

 

1) You are not defining a volume for each voice in the list. 0=full on and 15=full off. You will see the list processing in the command bar but it won't make any sounds.

 

2) You are not defining a Tempo as the very first command in the very first list. The player immediately returns to edit mode after you select play.

 

Load some of the songs up on the disk and look at the start of list #1.

 

The player is a real time sequential byte interpreter so....

 

When it starts it assumes the volume is off. You have to tell it how loud it needs to be before it will play anything you can hear.

 

Before being defined the tempo is basically zero so the player is simply parsing through all the lists without doing anything. The tempo needs to be defined before any notes are played....

 

 

These two features seem to be very non intuitive to people so perhaps they need to be changed.......