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Audio Compact Disc Controller version 2.00 A resident audio CD player for dos Copyright (c) 1993-94, Anders Roar Nielsen ---=== Shareware ===--- * Do you from time to time play audio CD's with your CD-ROM? * * * * Yes? But your CD can only play from the start to the end? * * * * Yes? And you would really like to be in full control? * * * * Yes? Like repeat, random play, or selected tracks only? * * * * Yes? And of course all of it while running another program? * * * * Yes? Then the Audio Compact Disc Controller is a must for you! * * * * * * ╔═════════════════════════ ACDC ═════════════════════════╗ * * ║ ║ * * ║ Featuring full background control, you can play your ║ * * ║ favorite tracks while using almost any other program ║ * * ║ ║ * * ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ * * * * * * Features include: * * * * Start, stop, pause, resume, skip, accelerating scan. * * Random play, repeat one or all tracks, A-B repeat, intro scan. * * Informative status display and six different time displays. * * Intelligent location scrollbar and program listing. * * Userfriendly database showing artist, titles etc. * * Time display on top of textmode applications. * * Even announces track titles while playing in the * * background of other color text mode applications. * * Stereo volume control with instant mute. * * Open/close and lock/unlock door. * * Supports multiple CD-ROM drives. * * Everything easily controlled by keyboard or mouse. * * * * Configuration program to set your favorite default settings. * * * * Pop-up utility, icon and pif for Microsoft Windows included. * * * * Registered version fully programmable. * Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 1 CONTENTS Contents.......................................1 Disclaimer.....................................2 Agreement......................................2 Shareware......................................3 Introduction...................................3 Warning........................................4 Hard- and software requirements................4 Files that you should have.....................5 Installation...................................5 Start up.......................................6 Activating and using the program...............6 Functions......................................7 Using the program with Microsoft Windows......12 Using the program with IBM OS/2...............13 Command line options..........................14 Troubleshooting...............................16 CONFIG.EXE, the configuration program.........17 Registration..................................18 Upgrading.....................................20 Getting the latest version of the program.....21 Contacting the author.........................21 Credits.......................................21 Future plans..................................22 Revision history..............................22 Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 2 DISCLAIMER Anders Roar Nielsen is the author of Audio Compact Disc Controller. Users of Audio Compact Disc Controller must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "Audio Compact Disc Controller is supplied as is. The author dis- claims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without li- mitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of or inability to use Audio Compact Disc Controller, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages." AGREEMENT Audio Compact Disc Controller is a shareware program and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. The program is a stand- alone program without any connection to specific CD-ROM drives or any other hard- or software. The unregistered shareware version of Audio Compact Disc Controller may be distributed freely by distributors of shareware / user sup- ported software, file distribution nets, bulletin boards etc., via modems, disks, CD-ROM disks etc., but only if all files are included completely and unmodified, preferably in one single archive file. ** No charge ** must however be made for this program on it's own, except for a very limited amount covering disk copying etc. Under no circumstance should this amount exceed the equivalent of 7 US$. The Audio Compact Disc Controller program MUST NOT be bundled with any piece of hardware without a written permission from the author. You are encouraged to pass a copy of the unregistered version of Audio Compact Disc Controller along to your friends and associates for evaluation, but please remember to include all files. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 3 SHAREWARE The essence of "try-before-you-buy" or "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for software developers to continue to develop new products. If you find the Audio Compact Disc Controller useful, and find that you are using the program and con- tinue to use it after a trial period of 28 days, you must make a registration payment to Anders Roar Nielsen, the author of the pro- gram. Hopefully, you haven't paid anything for this unregistered trial version. If you have paid more than 7 US$ as mentioned in the previous section, the dealer/distributor is trying to make money by selling you an unregistered program, and you should demand to get your money back right away. You only have to pay for this program if you want to register, and the only place to do that is directly by the author. You will then receive your copy of the full featured program, licensed for use on any one computer at any one time. As a bonus, you also receive a program to view, print and save a list of the CD's store in your database file. INTRODUCTION For quite a long time I was looking around for a good audio CD play- er program for dos. The program that came with my CD-ROM was very disappointing, and I soon wanted something better. Well, I found a lot of CD players for Microsoft Windows, many of them good, some of them not so good, but I couldn't find a good dos program. The reason for this could be that it is easier to write a Windows CD player program, since you don't have to produce code for the CD-ROM yourself. Nice, but not really what I wanted. I wanted a dos program. Finally, I decided to write the program myself. I wanted the program to have almost the same features found on many hi-fi CD players, and pretty soon I got the idea about having the program to play my favo- rite tracks while running other programs. This of course meant that I would have to make it as a resident pro- gram, capable of monitoring and controlling the CD-ROM while running another program. I have seen several other programs claiming "background music". In their term, this normally means "leave the CD playing when you exit the program". Well, ACDC not only gives you background music, but also background control, letting you choose what to play, and not just leaving the CD to play from the start to the end. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 4 WARNING As mentioned earlier, ACDC is a resident (TSR) program. This means, that ACDC will be located in your computers memory, waiting for you to press a dedicated hotkey by which time the pro- gram will try to pop-up on top of whatever program you are using. Even though every effort has been made to make this a safe program to use, you might find that you cannot activate the program on top of certain programs. This might most likely be the case if the other program changes some of the interrupt vectors, thereby not allowing ACDC to monitor the important interrupt calls. *** This can cause a system crash if you are unlucky! *** An example could be MS-DOS' Edit. This program is written is such a clumsy way, that your system is almost guaranteed to crash if you try to activate ACDC on top of Edit. I have however had no problems popping up on top of well written major applications like Word- Perfect 5.1, Borland Pascal, AutoCad R12's textmode screen, and many many more, even Microsoft Windows when used as described later. But you are advised never to have a large amount of unsaved work when you try to activate ACDC. HARD- AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS Hardware: A IBM personal computer, or true compatible. The pc should have an enhanced (101/102 keys) keyboard, and support the enhanced keyboard interrupt, int 16h, ah=10h and 11h. The BIOS must support the keyboard intercept interrupt, int 15h, ah=4Fh. This is used when checking for the programs hotkeys. The pc must be equipped with a color VGA and at least one CD-ROM capable of playing audio CD's. A mouse is a good idea, although not required. Software: Dos 3.10 or later. Whatever device driver that your CD-ROM drive needs to operate. Microsoft CD-ROM extension, MSCDEX.EXE version 2.21 or later. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 5 FILES THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE The complete package consists of 10 files: Filename: Size: Date: Time: Description: FILE_ID.DIZ 779 94-03-24 2.00 A short description file. ACDC.DOC 55793 94-03-24 2.00 This document. ACDC.COM 24949 94-03-24 2.00 The main program. POP_ACDC.EXE 4288 94-03-24 2.00 A pop-up utility meant to be used with Microsoft Windows 3.1. CONFIG.EXE 18784 94-03-24 2.00 Configuration program. ORDER.FRM 3254 94-03-24 2.00 Order form to print out if you want to register the program. UPGRADE.FRM 3068 94-03-24 2.00 Upgrade form to print out if you want to upgrade your previously registered copy of the program. ACDC.PIF 545 94-03-24 2.00 Program-Information-File for Microsoft Windows 3.1. ACDC.ICO 766 94-03-24 2.00 Icon for Microsoft Windows. ACDC_OS2.ICO 888 94-03-94 2.00 Icon for IBM OS/2. INSTALLATION To install the program on your harddisk, all you have to do is copy the files to the directory where you want the program located. CONFIG.EXE must be kept in the same directory as ACDC.COM. If not, you cannot use it to configure ACDC. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 6 START UP You start up by executing ACDC.COM from dos' command line. The program will carry out a few checks, and if everything is ok, the program will terminate with a "Resident part installed" message. If you enter ACDC /H or /? then program will list the possible com- mand line options instead of installing the resident part. The options are described in details later in this manual. If the program doesn't install or work properly, you are advised to read the "TROUBLESHOOTING" section later in this manual. ACTIVATING AND USING THE PROGRAM When you have installed the program, you must press its special hot- key to activate the program. The default hotkey is CTRL+ALT+A; Press CTRL and ALT and hold them down while you press A. The program will carry out a few checks to determine if it is safe to activate. You can only activate the program when your pc is in a VGA color text mode with a minimum screen size of 80x25 characters. If everything looks ok, the program pops up, ready for you to use. If the current mode is 80x25, ACDC will occupy the whole screen. If larger than 80x25, only the top left 80x25 will be covered by ACDC. If unable to pop up right away, the program will continue to try for 3 seconds. If the program is still unable to pop up, your pop up request is cancelled, and you must press the hotkey to try again. You can also use an "extended" hotkey Ctrl+Alt+Shift+A. This will tell the program not to display the mouse cursor when popped up, or to show the mouse cursor if you have already specified with /M or by using CONFIG.EXE that the mouse should not be displayed. The main part of ACDC looks like a typical hi-fi CD player, with buttons to press, and a time display to the right. Furthermore, you will see a status display, a location scrollbar, a program listing, a database, and a few extra buttons at the bottom of the display. All the button have their function written in green capital letters. The buttons can be pressed by using a mouse or by pressing a key on your keyboard. If you are using a mouse, you simply click a mouse button (left or right) when then mouse cursor is on the CD-button you want to press. If you are using your keyboard, the key to press is either shown in dark red below the CD-button, like F1 below the play/pause button, or it is shown in bright green as one of the letters in the function text, like R in RAND. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 7 FUNCTIONS POWER : ( Keyboard: Escape ) Quit the program and return you to whatever you were doing when you activated the program. PLAY/PAUSE/RESUME : ( Keyboard: F1 ) Starts playing. The function of the play button will toggle be- tween play, pause and resume, depending on the status of your CD-ROM. STOP : ( Keyboard : F2 ) Stop playing. Go back to the beginning of the first track. SKIP reverse : ( Keyboard: F3, "-" or down arrow ) Go to beginning of current track, or, if within first second of the current track, go back to previous track. SKIP forward : ( Keyboard: F4, "+" or up arrow ) Go to beginning of next track. SCAN reverse : ( Keyboard: Shift-F3 or left arrow ) Accelerating reverse scan. If you hold down the SCAN button, the scan will accelerate, this however works best when activated with mouse since the keyboard repeat will interrupt the scan. SCAN forward : ( Keyboard: Shift-F4 or right arrow ) Accelerating forward scan. Works like SCAN reverse. Reverse and forward scan can also be activated by clicking a mouse button when the mouse cursor is at one of the two cyan arrows to the left and right of the location scrollbar. Left volume down / up. ( Keyboard : F5 / F6 ) Right volume down / up. ( Keyboard : F7 / F8 ) Both volumes down / up. ( Keyboard : F9 / F10 ) Note: Not all CD-ROM drives support volume control, and many drives support it with fewer steps than ACDC use. The program passes one byte to the device driver for left and right volume, but how well the volume control is done depends on the CD-ROM and the device driver. The volume is changed in steps of 16, but can be stepping 1 if the program is installed with /V switch. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 8 Numeric keypad : ( Keyboard : 0 - 9 ) You can enter a track number using the numeric keypad to the left. When you do so, the number will flash for approximately 4 seconds in the time display. If you within that period press play or Enter, you will go directly to the track you entered. You can also press Enter. The current track number will start to flash, giving you the possibility to select a track with the Skip keys. A second press on Enter will jump to the track. SCAN : ( Keyboard : S ) Play an intro scan of the tracks on the disc. Normally this means play 10 seconds of each track when you press Play. However, if you have entered a number and the number is flashing in the time display as described above, the intro scan will play that number of seconds of each track. In this way it is possible to play an intro scan of 1 - 99 seconds of each track. A-B : ( Keyboard : B ) Repeat playing between two locations. First time you press A-B, the program will memorize the current location, and the A-B but- ton will start to flash. Second time you press A-B, the program will memorize the current location once again, and from there on the playing will be repeated between the two locations until you press A-B again. ONE : ( Keyboard : N ) Repeat current track when playing. ALL : ( Keyboard : A ) Repeat all tracks when playing. RAND : ( Keyboard : R ) Play tracks in random order. When the program is playing random track, you can force a new random selection be pressing "," or "." This retrigger function cannot be activated with the mouse. Note on Scan, A-B, One, All and Rand: The five functions act as "radio"-buttons: Only one at a time can be activated. You can freely switch from one repeat-state to another without interrupting the music. Your selection will remain in effect after you quit the program, thus enabling for example continuous background random playing. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 9 OPEN / CLOS : ( Keyboard : O ) Open (eject) or close the CD-ROM drives door. Toggles between open and close, depending on the actual state of your CD's door. Note that many CD-ROM drives don't support eject, and even more CD-ROM drives don't support the close command. Note also, that your CD-ROM probably won't open if it is playing. You must then press STOP (F2) first, before you can open the door. LOCK / UNLK : ( Keyboard : L ) Lock or unlock the CD-ROM. Toggles between lock and unlock, depending on the actual state of your CD-ROM. Note: Many CD-ROM drives don't support lock / unlock commands. MUTE : ( Keyboard : M ) Instantly muting the output. A second press, or a press on one of the volume buttons, will restore the volume settings. Note: Depends of the capability to handle volume control as described earlier. PROG : ( Keyboard : P ) Programming. This feature is only available in the registered version of the program. You can program a sequence of up to 99 tracks, and still use all the other goodies as skip, scan, re- peats, random play etc, and ACDC will of course play your track selection in the background of other programs. You can read more about how to register later in this manual. TIME : ( Keyboard : T ) Changes the time display. The are 6 different time display for- mats. Each time you press TIME you will go to the next in this sequence: 0: Current track + elapsed track time. 1: Current track + remaining track time. 2: Current track + elapsed total disc (or program) time. 3: Current track + remaining total disc (or program) time. 4: Current track + actual time in HH:MM. 5: Actual time in HH:MM:SS (taken from your pc's system clock). Location scroll bar and Program listing: If you are using a mouse, you can click directly on the location bar to go to a location within the current track, or you can click and hold down the mouse button and drag the location poin- ter. You can also jump to a track directly if you click when the mouse cursor is on a track number in the program listing. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 10 DATA : ( Keyboard : F12 ) This is the database of ACDC. You use it to enter information about artist, CD and track titles. The information will be stored in a database file, so the disc automatically will be recognized next time you insert that CD in your CD-ROM. You can only enter the database mode when status is Ready, Playing or Paused. Furthermore, there must be at least 8 kb free disk space, ACDC must be able to open the database file in read/ write mode, and, if the disc already exists in the database, there must be allocated enough memory for the database to hold the previously entered text. (Use /A command line option if you want to allocate more or less then the default 2 kb). The database uses a file called ACDCBASE.DAT. First time you enter the database function the file will be created in the same directory as you installed ACDC from. When you enter the database, the mouse pointer will be turned off and the normal cursor will be turned on at the "Disc:" line. While in database mode, the time display and program listing will show what track you are editing. If the music is playing when you enter the database, it will be left playing, but re- peats etc. are not possible while you are in the database. You now simply enter whatever you want as disc and track titles. While doing so, you can use the following keys: Enter (Return): Go to next line. Wraps from disc-name to first track, and from last track to disc name. Up / down arrow: Go to next / previous track. Backspace / Delete: Delete one character, left or right. Left / right arrow: Move cursor left / right in line. Home / End: Go to beginning / end of line. Insert: Toggles between insert and overwrite mode. F11: Delete current line. You can exit the database in 3 different ways: Escape: Asks you if you want to save changes if any made. F1: Save and start music playing from first track. F2 / F12: Save and return to Ready mode. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 11 You can enter up to 60 character on each line, limited only by the total amount of memory allocated to the database. If you on a line enters ": " (colon followed by space) the text color will change. In that way artist and title can be shown in different colors. If you don't like this feature, you can cancel it by selecting the same color twice in the configuration pro- gram CONFIG.EXE. The "Disc:"-line has a special use in ACDC: If it is empty, ACDC will not store your disc data, or if the disc already existed in the database, it will be deleted. (ACDC will ask for your con- firmation first). In this way it is very easy to delete a whole disc from the database file: Enter the base, press F11, and exit the database again, answering "Y" to the confirmation. You should not remove the CD from the CD-ROM while in the data- base. If you do so, everything you have just entered for that CD will be lost. You should not try to add to or delete from the database file yourself, for example by using a file-editor. It's very possible that you will corrupt the file, so ACDC cannot recognize your CDs anymore. Use only ACDC to make changes to the database file. At the bottom of the screen you will find four more buttons: RESET : ( Keyboard : Z ) Send a reset command to the CD-ROM drive. CD-ROM : ( Keyboard : C ) If you have more then one CD-ROM drive, pressing the CD-ROM button will take you to the next CD-ROM. The drive letter, for example "D:" will be shown to the right of the CD-ROM button together with the total playing time of the disc inserted in the CD-ROM drive. The CD-ROM change works by sending commands to the new device driver, not by subunits. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 12 TRACK : ( Keyboard: K ) If you have chosen to let ACDC display it's time display with the following "DISPLAY" function, ACDC can announce track titles whenever a new track starts to play. To enable this, the TRACK key must be highlighted (default). If the CD is stored in the ACDC database, the track title will then be scrolled through the time display. You can also force this by pressing ACDCs second hotkey (default: Ctrl-Alt-T). The speed of the scroll can be set by using the /S command line option, or using CONFIG.EXE. DISPLAY : ( Keyboard : D ) When the program is not popped up, you can have the time display shown in one corner of your screen while running another pro- gram. By pressing the Display button you select between No Dis- play, Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left and Bottom Right. When you exit ACDC the selected will take effect, and you can monitor the playing while using other programs. Note however, that the time display will only be shown when you are working in a VGA color text mode. USING THE PROGRAM WITH MICROSOFT WINDOWS The program can easily be used together with Microsoft Windows, even though the program is a dos TSR program. The best way to make use of ACDC is to have it installed resident in memory before you start up Windows. First time you want to use the program together with Windows, you should spend a minute setting it all up. Here are the few steps you should take: In the following, I assume that you have ACDC installed in a direc- tory C:\ACDC on your harddisk, and I assume that you want the ACDC icon to appear in the Accessories group in Windows. If this is not the case, you should of course use your own directory and group name. First, before you enter Windows, install ACDC by executing ACDC.COM, then start up Windows. When you are in Windows, open up the Accessories group. From the Program Managers file menu, you then choose the menu item New... and click "Ok" to confirm you want to add a program item. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 13 As Description you then insert "Acdc" and as Command line you insert C:\ACDC\ACDC.PIF You then click "Change Icon" and click "Ok" to the first message about no icons in the file. In the following File Name box you then enter C:\ACDC\ACDC.ICO Finally, you click ok's to take you back to where you started out from, and the ACDC icon should now appear in the Accessories group. What now happens when you double-click the ACDC icon is, that the pif-file ACDC.PIF executes the POP_ACDC.EXE program. This is a small dos application that sends a pop-up request to the resident part of ACDC.COM. If you did install ACDC before you started Windows, the program will pop-up, ready for you to use. When you exit ACDC you will automatically be returned to Windows. If you have chosen for example random play, this will continue to work behind Windows. USING THE PROGRAM WITH IBM OS/2 Well, to be honest I don't have a lot to say about this. I don't use OS/2 myself (not enough RAM :-( ), but I have been told by some of my friends that it works ok. I guess the program might not be that interesting to OS/2 users since OS/2 is a true multitasking operating system, and you there- fore probably can find a nice true OS/2-program similar to ACDC ?? Anyway, in case you want to use ACDC, I have included the original Windows ACDC icon converted to an OS/2 icon by a friend of mine, ACDC_OS2.ICO in case you haven't guessed it already. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 14 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS The following command line options can be used when executing ACDC: ( You can use "-" instead of "/", for example "ACDC -L" ) /L Install in low memory. Normally, the program will install the resident part in upper memory if upper memory is available. Specifying /L will force the program to install the resident part in low (conventional) memory. /K:x Use x (x = A-Z) as hotkey. The program will be activated when you press Ctrl+Alt+x. Default is Ctrl+Alt+A. /C:x Start up using CD-ROM drive x. x is a CD-ROM drive letter, for example /C:E if you want the program to start up using drive E: Default is first CD-ROM drive found. /A:x Allocate x kb for database. x must be in the range 0-6. 0 allocates 512 bytes, 1-5 exactly 1-5 kb, and 6 will allo- cate 6112 bytes (382 paragraphs). One CD with a disc name and 99 tracks, all given a 60 characters long name, will occupy (1+99)*(60+1) = 6100 bytes, but I guess it's unlikely that you will ever find a CD with 99 tracks, and where all names are 60 characters long. The memory allocated to the database will affect the size of the resident part of ACDC, so if you have problems fitting many TSRs and device drivers into your pc's memory, you might want to allocate less memory then the default 2 kb. /D:x Start up displaying the time display at position x. x can be 0 for no display (default), 1 for top left, 2 for top right, 3 for bottom left and 4 for bottom right corner. The time will only be displayed when you are in a VGA color text mode. /I:x Start up using time format x. x can be 0 for track + elapsed track time (default), 1 for track + remaining track time, 2 for track and elapsed disc time, 3 for track and remaining disc time, 4 for track + clock (HH:MM), 5 for complete clock. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 15 /S:x Scroll speed x. x must be in the range 0-4. If ACDC is announcing track titles in it's time display, you can set the scroll speed with this option. 0 is fastest, 2 is middle speed (default), and 4 is slowest. /T:x Use x (x = A-Z) as the hotkey to get ACDC to scroll the track title through the time display. Default is T (with Ctrl+Alt). /B Force RedBook addressing mode. When sending a play or seek command, it is possible to use either HSG or RedBook addres- sing. Default is HSG, but you can force RedBook mode with /B. /M If used, ACDC will not show the mouse cursor on any video mode, unless you use the "extended" hotkey, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+A. /N No checks before installing. Normally the program will check dos and mscdex version, and search for CD-ROM drives. If you specify /N the program will bypass those checks. /V Use volume control step 1. As default the volume controls will change the left and right volumes in steps of 16, giving 17 possible settings: 0,16,32,48,64,80,96,112,128,144,160, 176,192,208,224,240 and 255. If you specify /V then volume will be changed in steps of 1 instead, from 0 to 255. /P The program will try to pop-up as soon as it is installed. /? /H Display a short summary of the command line options. The re- sident part of the program will not be installed. /R /U Specifying /R or /U will remove (uninstall) the program. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 16 TROUBLESHOOTING If you cannot get the program to run satisfying, the following are some things you could try, depending on what problem you have. If ACDC fails to install on your system or cannot pop-up, even from your standard dos-prompt, you should first of course make sure that you have installed whatever device driver your CD-ROM use, and make sure you have mscdex version 2.21 or later installed. Also you should try to determine that whatever problem you have, has nothing to do with other programs you might have installed. Try and setup your pc as "clean" as possible, without other device drivers and TSRs installed, and see if you still have the same pro- blem when executing ACDC. You might find that you have to install your TSRs in a specific order to get them all to work correctly. Finally, try and play around with the possible command line options. You may find, that you must use /N or /B to get the program to work correctly. You could also try and contact your CD-ROM dealer, to see if there is an updated device driver available for your CD-ROM. If ACDC fails to display itself correctly, several things can have gone wrong, and I guess it's easiest simply to explain what ACDC does when it is about to pop up: First, the VGA adaptor is checked directly to see if it is in text mode. If ok, ACDC checks several variables stored in segment 40h. The word at 40h:63h must be 3D4h (color mode), the bytes at 40h:4Ah and 40h:84h must be the true screen resolution, and the actual dis- play must start in segment 0B800h at the offset stored in 40h:4Eh. Finally, ACDC expects a standard font and palette, but this is not checked or changed. If any of these things fails, the ACDC display might be corrupted. If you are using a "strange" video-mode, you must make sure that the above mentioned variables are updated to confirm with the actual video mode. If the mouse driver makes a mess when displayed in ACDC, you must disable the mouse driver in that video mode. If you are still unable to get the program to work satisfying, I am afraid you are out of luck, but then I would appreciate a message from you describing exactly what problem you have. Please include as much information as possible; pc-type, CD-ROM type/model, dos and mscdex-version, other programs installed etc. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 17 CONFIG.EXE, THE CONFIGURATION PROGRAM CONFIG.EXE is used to set command line switches and a few other things that you want as your own default setting. The program patches your settings directly into the ACDC.COM file. The time and date stamp of ACDC.COM will therefore have changed af- ter you have changed some settings. You select an option with the arrow keys, modify the setting with "+", "-", PgUp, PgDn or Space. If you press F1 the program will restore all settings to their default. You quit the program with Escape. If you have made any changes, you will be asked if you want to save your changes. Your changes will take effect next time you install ACDC. Most of the settings are simply the same as the possible command line options. 2 of the settings can however only be specified from CONFIG.EXE; special video modes and disc / track title colors. The 4 possible special video modes are used to tell ACDC to act in a certain way if you try to pop-up when your pc is in that mode. You must specify the screen resolution (columns and rows) and what action ACDC should take; not showing the mouse pointer or not pop-up at all. To give you an example, here is what I do when using the program with my own Tseng ET4000W32 graphics card. The graphics card can work in many different modes, but 3 of them cause problems: In 80x60 and 132x60 my Microsoft Mouse driver v8.20 makes a complete mess of the screen, so I specify "Don't show mouse" for those modes. For some unknown reason the graphics card doesn't display ACDC (and other programs) correctly when in 100x40, so I specify " Don't pop-up" for that mode. Disc / track title colors are the two colors that ACDC use to dis- play what you have entered in the database. Normally, if the program finds a colon followed by a space, it will switch from the first color to the second, so you can have the artists name in one color, and the name of the disc in another color. If you don't want this, you can simply specify the same color twice. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 18 REGISTRATION The Audio Compact Disc Controller is a shareware program. This means, that if you find that you can use the program, and find that you continue to use the program after a 28 days trial period, you must pay a registration fee to Anders Roar Nielsen, the author of Audio Compact Disc Controller. When you register the program, you will receive a 3,5" 720 kb disk with you personal copy of the full-featured registered program. The registered version includes complete programming facility, and doesn't show the registration reminder when you exit the program. You can program a sequence of up to 99 tracks, and let ACDC play your track selection in the background of most other applications. When you have programmed ACDC, you still have full access to all the other functions like skip, scan, random play etc. Together with the registered version you will also receive a utility to view, print and save a list of the CD's in your database file. A registration also entitles you to update to future versions at large discounts. A normal registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. Discounts are available for quantity and corporate purchases and site licenses: Quantity Site Purchases: License: 1 - 10 copies: No discount No discount 11 - 20 copies: 10% discount 15% discount 21 - 30 copies: 15% discount 20% discount 31 - 50 copies: 20% discount 25% discount 51 -100 copies: 25% discount 30% discount 100 copies plus: 30% discount 35% discount Multiple copy purchases are simply bulk purchases and include that many copies of Audio Compact Disc Controller on disks. When site licensing, the site performs the diskette duplication from a single master disk. Note: Discounts apply only to separate orders, they are not cumula- tive. Discounts apply only to the normal registration fee. There are no discounts for foreign cheque fee and p&p. To register, you should print out the file ORDER.FRM, fill it out, and send the form together with your payment to the address given on the order form. Please follow the guidelines on the order form carefully. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 19 The registration fees depend on where you live: If you live outside Denmark: You must include the registration fee on a cheque. The cheque MUST be a cheque issued by your bank. I DO NOT accept a personal cheque drawn on your own account. Only a cheque drawn directly on your bank. Due to the danish bank laws, I an unable to accept credit cards. It's illegal for me to charge your credit card, even when you have signed an order form, because that is too easy to counter- feit. However, you are free to choose between a number of currencies: The following is an alphabetic list of the currencies that I accept. Pick one, and include your cheque with the order form. A = Registration fee. (Discounts available, see above) B = Foreign cheque fee. (Pr. cheque, no discounts) C = Postage & Packing (Pr. disk, no discounts) D = Total fee for one copy. A: B: C: D: Australia, Dollars AUD : 35 + 14 + 9 = 58 AUD Austria, Schillings ATS : 285 + 115 + 75 = 475 ATS Belgium, Francs BEF : 860 + 345 + 225 = 1430 BEF Canada, Dollars CAD : 33 + 13 + 9 = 55 CAD Denmark, Kroner DKK : 150 + 60 + 39 = 249 DKK England, Pound St. GBP : 16 + 6.50 + 4.50 = 27 GBP Finland, Markka FIM : 140 + 55 + 35 = 230 FIM France, Francs FRF : 140 + 56 + 36 = 232 FRF Germany, Marks DEM : 41 + 16 + 10 = 67 DEM Greece, Drachma GRD : 6745 + 2700 + 1755 = 11200 GRD Holland, Guilder NLG : 46 + 18 + 12 = 76 NLG Iceland, Krona ISK : 2050 + 820 + 530 = 3400 ISK Ireland, Punts IEP : 17 + 7 + 5 = 29 IEP Italy, Lire ITL : 43000 + 17200 + 11200 = 71400 ITL Japan, Yen JPY : 2600 + 1050 + 700 = 4350 JPY New Zealand, Dollars NZD : 44 + 18 + 11 = 73 NZD Norway, Kroner NOK : 180 + 73 + 47 = 300 NOK Portugal, Escudos PTE : 4425 + 1775 + 1150 = 7350 PTE Spain, Pesetas ESP : 3430 + 1370 + 900 = 5700 ESP Sweden, Kronor SEK : 193 + 77 + 50 = 320 SEK Switzerland, Francs CHF : 35 + 14 + 9 = 58 CHF USA, Dollars USD : 23 + 10 + 6 = 39 USD Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 20 If you live in Denmark: You can pay with a normal cheque, as long as it is drawn on a danish bank. Registration fee..: DKK 150 (discounts available, see above) Postage & packing.: DKK 29 (per disk, no discounts) Total fee for one copy is DKK 179 when you live in Denmark. UPGRADING If you are among the many happy, and registered, users of ACDC, you can upgrade your registered version very easily and cheap. When you upgrade, you will receive a new disk with your registered copy of the latest version of ACDC. To upgrade, use UPGRADE.FRM. Discount rates etc. are the same for upgrading as for registration. If you live outside Denmark: A = Upgrade fee. (Discounts available, see above) B = Foreign cheque fee. (Pr. cheque, no discounts) C = Postage & Packing (Pr. disk, no discounts) D = Total fee for one upgrade. A: B: C: D: Australia, Dollars AUD : 5 + 14 + 9 = 28 AUD Austria, Schillings ATS : 38 + 115 + 75 = 228 ATS Belgium, Francs BEF : 115 + 345 + 225 = 685 BEF Canada, Dollars CAD : 4.50 + 13 + 9 = 26.50 CAD Denmark, Kroner DKK : 20 + 60 + 39 = 119 DKK England, Pound St. GBP : 2 + 6.50 + 4.50 = 13 GBP Finland, Markka FIM : 19 + 55 + 35 = 109 FIM France, Francs FRF : 19 + 56 + 36 = 111 FRF Germany, Marks DEM : 41 + 16 + 10 = 67 DEM Greece, Drachma GRD : 900 + 2700 + 1755 = 5355 GRD Holland, Guilder NLG : 6 + 18 + 12 = 36 NLG Iceland, Krona ISK : 275 + 820 + 530 = 1625 ISK Ireland, Punts IEP : 2.50 + 7 + 5 = 14.50 IEP Italy, Lire ITL : 5750 + 17200 + 11200 = 34150 ITL Japan, Yen JPY : 350 + 1050 + 700 = 2100 JPY New Zealand, Dollars NZD : 6 + 18 + 11 = 35 NZD Norway, Kroner NOK : 24 + 73 + 47 = 144 NOK Portugal, Escudos PTE : 595 + 1775 + 1150 = 3520 PTE Spain, Pesetas ESP : 460 + 1370 + 900 = 2730 ESP Sweden, Kronor SEK : 26 + 77 + 50 = 153 SEK Switzerland, Francs CHF : 5 + 14 + 9 = 28 CHF USA, Dollars USD : 3 + 10 + 6 = 19 USD Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 21 If you live in Denmark: You can pay with a normal cheque, as long as it is drawn on a danish bank. Upgrade fee.......: DKK 20 (discounts available, see above) Postage & packing.: DKK 29 (per disk, no discounts) Total fee for one upgrade is DKK 49 when you live in Denmark. GETTING THE LATEST VERSION OF THE PROGRAM The latest shareware version of the Audio Compact Disc Controller is always available for download or file request (magic file request name ACDC) from FidoNet 2:234/87 and 2:234/166. 2:234/87 is NightCall BBS line 1, Svendborg, Denmark. Phone (+45)-62202074, 0700-0230, GMT. USRobotics HST / V32b / V42b, 300-14400 bps. 2:234/166 is NightCall BBS line 2. Phone (+45)-62201450, 0700-0200, GMT. ZyXEL V32b / V42b, 300-19200 bps. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR Your comments, suggestions, etc. are always welcome. If possible, please use FidoNet netmail to 2:234/87.8, thank you. You can crash netmail to me at my sysop's BBS, see above. CREDITS Credits to: Ralf Brown. The Audio Compact Disc Controller uses his Alternate Multiplex Interrupt Specification, (AMIS). And I apologize for writing "Braun" in the documentation to version 1.00 and 1.10. Don't really know where I got that silly idea from. "Brown" it is, sorry Ralf. John Mellencamp. For the best CD's for testing and listening. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 22 FUTURE PLANS Last time (v1.20) I talked about a database function. Well, here it is, together with a couple of other major improvements, so I must admit that I am running a bit short of ideas what new to implement in future releases, so if you have any good ideas, do let me know. Last time I also wrote something about releasing some source code for playing audio CD's in your own program. I haven't found time for that yet, because I chose to make ACDC 2.00 instead. I am still considering it however, but I will not promise anything about a release date, programming language, etc. I am determined to keep ACDC as one of if not the best CD player for dos, but to do so I need your feedback. Thanks, and stay tuned! REVISION HISTORY 2.00 Released 24. march 1994: Now pop-up on any VGA color text mode from 80x25 and up. Database added, together with the feature of displaying track titles while playing in the background of other programs. Added second hotkey for showing track titles. New configuration program CONFIG.EXE added to the package. Added Ctrl-Alt-Shift option to toggle mouse pointer. Changed a few and added a few more command line options. New database utility, (registered users only). Better random track selection. OS/2 icon included. Few other fixes and changes in color usage. Audio Compact Disc Controller v2.00 Page 23 1.20 Released 8. january 1994: Default addressing mode changed, eliminating /S option. /P direct pop-up option added. Volume control changed to step 16, and /V option added. "-" can now be used as command line switch instead of "/". Option for retriggering random track selection added. Faster pop-up on many systems. The fix from version 1.10 has been improved. Screen layout and color usage changed a bit. Several other small internal fixes. 1.10 Released 2. november 1993: Contains a fix to improve performance on a certain Sony CD-ROM that start music playing at the end of one track when actually told to start playing from beginning of the following track. Furthermore, the program now is less cpu demanding when not popped up and music isn't playing. 1.00 Released 15. october 1993: First official release.