17 Bit Software 2: Collection B

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P O W E R P L A Y E R .....User-Manual..... Copyright --------- PowerPlayer is FREEWARE, this means that it may be freely distributed as long as the package is distributed unaltered and complete with the files PowerPlayer, PowerPlayer.info, PowerPlayer.DOC, PowerPlayer.DOK , PowerPlayer Music Cruncher, ReqToolsLib, PowerPackerLib, LhLib and the installation-script! If you want to make any changes -» contact ME ! I cannot guarantee that all files included in this package are freely distributable and/or public domain. The songs 'Factory' & 'SL-Nights2' were written in 1991 by Stephan Fuhrmann with Teijo Kinnunen's wonderful MED ! However, these songs are FreeWare, too, they do not need to be distributed with the PowerPlayer. © 1991/92 STEPHAN FUHRMANN, WEST-GERMANY These freely distributable shared libraries are included in the PowerPlayer-Package: -ReqTools.Library © by Nico François -PowerPacker.Library © by Nico François -Lh.Library © by Holger P.Krekel and Olaf 'Olsen' Barthel Version 2.7 (13 JUN 1992) Greetings --------- Greetings go to -Mum -Delta/TCC for the great REAL DINKELATOR DOPPELBOCK INTRO ! -Flynn/TRSI for his great NoisePlayer -Romeo Knight/RSI for being the best musician on the world -Holger P.Krekel & Olaf 'Olsen' Barthel for their lh.library -Nico François for his _GREAT_ reqtools.library & powerpacker.library and his Tips concerning the reqtools.library History ------- V 1.0: Version with BUGS & no COOL features :-( V 1.1: Removed ALL bugs, added coool CLI-Interface & CLI-InfoPage, PMC V 1.2: Added the 4-Channel Oktalyzer-Replay V 1.3: Added DeltaMusic (finally got a song :-) ), corrected PowerPlayer to recognize SoundMon for ALL Versions, optimized ProTracker-Replay V 1.5: Added the possibility to start the File-Requester with a specific directory, the NoiseTracker 1.3D-Replay has been disabled for a strange reason -» FIXED V 1.6: In the meantime aged Req.Library has been displaced by the ReqTools.Library that generates i.e. nice 3D-Requesters. V 1.7: Instead of a VBlank-Interrupt, that replays songs with strange speeds when running on Amigas with NTSC or a 10 Hz monitor a CIA-Timerinterrupt is used. V 1.8: Added the "Restart"-function V 1.9: Improved the outputs for faults, the ECLOCK-Frequency will be fetched under OS 2.0 from the System, optimized Replays again found a bug that exists in ALL tracker-replays, that writes into unallocated memory. I don't know whether this bug exists in all other Module-Players, too. I recommend to use only PowerPlayer !!! V 2.0: Added a replay for TFMX-Modules WITH built-in replay-routine V 2.1: Added a replay for MED-Modules V 2.2: Now features a GUI (graphical user interface) with a CD-player-like button-system. Now uses a big Lh-Buffer for faster decrunching. V 2.3: Pressing the right mousebutton will iconify/deiconify the window now, the window will be centered beneath the mousepointer when launched, new shortcuts were added, code has been optimized V 2.4: New functions: First song, last song and random play ! V 2.5: PowerPlayer will now display a busy-mousepointer when loading & decrunching a file and disable the IDCMP of the window. V 2.6: PowerPlayer will now look fine on a 2 color-screen V 2.7: A little bit more WB 2.0-feeling by adding 3D-Borders This version of the PowerPlayer supports: FutureComposer 1.4 NoiseTracker (Protracker V1.1b Replay) JamCracker SoundMon Startrekker 4 Voice Fred SidMon NoiseTracker 1.3D packed modules NoiseTracker 1.3D packed modules with replay-routine Mark II Sound System NoisePacker 2.03 Oktalyzer 4 Voice DeltaMusic TFMX with replayroutine MED-Modules Installation ------------ The PowerPlayer NEEDS the PowerPacker.Library and the ReqTools.Library in your libs:-directory. The script included in this package will install them for you. Optionally the Lh.Library is used. If you feel fit enough you can crunch your modules with the powerful PMC which uses the LH.Library. Instructions ------------ Hello and welcome to the world of PowerPlayer! This fantastic tool was written in 1991/1992 by Stephan Fuhrmann, using the outstanding abilities of the -ReqTools.Library by Nico François for the File- and Text-Requestors -PowerPacker.Library by Nico François for uncrunching powerpacked files -Lh.Library by Holger P. Krekel and Olaf 'Olsen' Barthel for _BEST_ compression of modules, executable simple cruncher included. Introduction ------------ The PowerPlayer is a tool for playing music made with one of the supported music-programs or compatibles with the good old AMIGA stereo digital sound-facilities ! There have been many of these programs before, but PowerPlayer is something different: -cool fast tricky 100% assembly code, most parts PC-Relative -little pretty (?) play-window -maaaany replays -PowerPacker-Library for using always the latest and fastest decrunch-routine -Lh-Library for deepest compression ever seen on modules (try it out !) -may be used in thousands of ways from WorkBench and from CLI! But let us start at the beginning: Calling PowerPlayer ------------------- WorkBench --------- DoubleClick ----------- DoubleClick the icon of the PowerPlayer, choose the file in the File-Requester, hit 'OK' and enjoy ! DefaultTool ----------- You have a module with an icon. Select this icon and activate the info-function of the Workbench. Now select the DefaultTool. Enter the path of PowerPlayer and press <RETURN> to terminate the input. Press the SAVE-Gadget. Now everytime you doubleclick the project-icon PowerPlayer will be loaded and will play your song ! MultiSelect ----------- Move the mousepointer over the PowerPlayer-Icon and press the left mousebutton ONCE. Now press SHIFT and leave it pressed. Select the songs you want to hear with the mouse. Now doubleclick the last song and release SHIFT. Your songs will be loaded ! CLI/Shell --------- Filerequester ------------- Everyone knows how to handle filerequesters, so I do not want to explain the very sophisticated one of the reqtools.library. Type the name of PowerPlayer in the CLI/Shell you have opened and add the parameter '-r' to the command. You will see a filerequester where you can select your songs. Example: PowerPlayer -r Filename -------- If you do not want to select the file by making use of the filerequester (i.e. in scripts), you may also add the modulename with its path to the commandline. Example: PowerPlayer df0:modules/MOD.PowerTheme Directory --------- All versions higher than 1.5 support the possibility to start the PowerPlayer with a FileRequester that shows a specific directory. Just add the directory to the commandline. Example: PowerPlayer ST-00:Modules Information ----------- If you want to see the cool information-page, enter: PowerPlayer ? Play-Requester -------------- The Play-Requester contains information about the module and some gadgets. All versions +2.1 have a new userinterface. There's a main window that stays at where it is as long as PowerPlayer is running: Questionmark....displays the usual information concerning copyright & features. Key: '1' Eject...........ejects the current list of songs & asks you with a filerequester for a new one. Key: '2' or 'e' FirstSong.......will load & play the first song from the list. PrevSong........will load & play the previous song from the list. Key: '3','[','(' or '{' ! Play............will play the song. Will automatically unpause, if you hammer the PLAY again the song will start from the beginning. Key: '4' or 'p' FastForward.....will play the song twice as fast as normal. This gives a nice FF-effect ! Rehammer will switch back to normal speed. Key: '5' or 'f' NextSong........will load & play the next song from the list. Key '6','<RETURN>', ']',')' or '}' ! LastSong........will load & play the last song from the list. Stop............will stop the song. Automatically unpauses, unFFs and unplays! Key: '7' or 's' Pause...........stops the song until you repress pause or push play. Key: '8' or '<SPACE>' Reset...........will start the song again. Key: '9' or 'r' RND.............will load & play a randomly chosen song. Key: '~' or '/' Almost every gadget has an equivalent on the keyboard (Keys 1-9), ESC and CTRL-C will exit the PowerPlayer. CTRL-F resizes the window to full size and places it in front of all other windows. Pressing the right mousebutton will change to the iconify-mode. The window will shrink to a minimum height of 10 pixels. The gadgets will disappear, but you can still control PowerPlayer with the keyboard-shortcuts. To unshrink the window to its normal size you just have to hit the right mousebutton again. The display of the window contains -the name of the module (top of window) -type of the module & length of the module in bytes (middle of window) -the gadgets and the position-indicator that displays your position in the file-list. My GUI works with a recolor-routine that can handle crazy palettes in a clever way. It searches for the brightest and darkest colors for the shadows and it searches for the color with the biggest contrast to the background for text-output. The PowerPlayer Music Cruncher ------------------------------ There are more powerful datacrunchers than the PowerPacker, but LhArc has got a complex file-format and the IMPLODER has no commentated function in its explode.library to decrunch FileImploder's datafiles, so I was very happy to receive the Lh.Library and include my own cruncher/decruncher- utility (PMC) to the PowerPlayer. The usage of the PMC is veeeerrry simple. You only have to open a CLI/SHELL and then type in PMC, the name of the file to crunch and finally the name of the destination-file. Example: PMC df0:modules/MOD.PowerTheme df0:modules/MOD.PowerTheme.LH PMC will then display something like Crunching df0:modules/MOD.PowerTheme, Please stand by ! And after an unimportant little time (99 secs) it will display the result: Result ------ Uncrunched: 214418 Crunched: 158052 Percentage: 73 PowerPacker crunched the same file in 109 secs, but only crunched it to 168760 bytes (78 %). The only advantage of PowerPacker is that it decrunches in 10 secs (Lh: 14 secs). I do not want to harm poor ole Nico :-) but I think that YOU should crunch with PMC if you don't already have the PowerPacker. Or just don't crunch the stuff if you have a harddisk big & quick enough with hundreds of free megabytes. ( I don't have the latter :-( ). It may happen that the percentage is wrong. This happens if the crunched file is too big. The reason for this is the 16 Bit Source of the CPU-Divu Operation. Of course, the file is not affected. PMC creates files of the SFHD-Format (Stephan Fuhrmann's High Density :-) ). Typical for these files is the 4 bytes ID 'SFHD' at the beginning. The 2nd long is the uncrunched length,the 3rd long is the crunched length. I have seen some guys loading up modules on BBSs in the PMC-format. PLEASE use '.PMC' as suffix and note that they need PowerPlayer to replay. AND check the BBS wether there's PowerPlayer existing or not, they won't be very happy if they download the stuff and don't find the PowerPlayer ! An example BBS-entry could look like this: SONG.PMC Very good module, use PowerPlayer to replay I recommend uploading the modules in the PMC-format without unimportant 'trash' because you don't have to decrunch manually, the file needs less diskspace (it's still crunched) and there's last but not least the PMC-format that has been developed ONLY for the PowerPlayer, so you _NEED_ the PowerPlayer to decrunch ß-} ! By doing this you can show your consent to the PowerPlayer! Technical Information --------------------- A strange feature of the SHELL is that the ALIAS-command appends a space at the end of the commandline-parameters. PowerPlayer deletes all spaces before the commandline's end . PowerPlayer won't create his own process. It seems to be a modern feature to launch everything in the background, but I wanted to give the user the possibility to stop the computer i.e. in the startup-sequence as long as the song plays. I think this is the best way to realize this, if you want to create a background process for PowerPlayer you will have to "RunBack" it yourself ! PowerPlayer uses the AUDIO.DEVICE to allocate audio-channels. I think PowerPlayer is the only ModulePlayer that does this. The great advantage of this method is that PowerPlayer refuses to run when another program uses the audio-channels. If you have ever heard the chaos two ModulePlayers playing simultaneous evoke you will like this feature. ATTENTION! Do use the NoisePacker-Routine V2.03 with care ! My Amiga crashes after a while when I play a noisepacked Module. The programmers of this replay-routine have done something weird with the CIA that should not be made in Multitasking. If you have a CIA-free replayer, give it to me. Do NOT process important data while and after playing such a module ! Since there are sooo many music-proggies for the AMIGA, it is impossible to include all the existing replays. To give you and me the possibility to expand PowerPlayer to the best moduleplayer ever written, I will built in any replay-routine sent to me, if the following work is done: - Sourcecode of the Music-Routine in ASSEMBLY, PC-Relative if possible. At this time I can only include replayers at the base of the verticalblank-interrupt. The sourcecode has to be on a 3.5"-disk - Add a description how to recognize that certain kind of module or other- wise simply enclose 3 or more of those modules and I'll find out myself - In any case,though, I would like you to add 3 or more Songs that can be played with your replay, if possible. I have to test the routines, and a music-proggy with less than 3 adequate songs is surely not very useful. - Include an envelope addressed to you, with 5 DM or more (I accept only DEUTSCH-MARK, no cheques or other trash like that) - If the disk has only ONE error, I'll take for granted that you do not want it back and shred it. So do use high-quality-disks formatted carefully before using (verify) ! If you want some cool features added to the PowerPlayer, do this: - Write a detailed letter with all new features you think of - If you'd like to have the update with all/some features wanted, include a disk and an envelope addressed to you - Include 5 DM (DEUTSCH MARK) for my working on it ! If you want an update, do this: - Include a disk and an envelope addressed to you - Include 5 DEUTSCHE MARK for all the work ! - I will send you the actual version of PowerPlayer DON'T PANIC when I do not reply your letter at once ! I have not enough time to spend half the day with my computer. My Address: Stephan Fuhrmann Erikstr. 30 W-2380 Schleswig Germany