Author: 8GB

  • Goto80 one-ups the rest

    In a previous news post, Peter linked to a write-up (yes, another one) that tries to sum up the history of “chiptunes” (god I hate saying that, it’s chipmusic, ok??). It seemed pretty well balanced but I didn’t like it from the start (because of the previously mentioned terminology pet peeve).

    Here comes Goto80, which posseses, as I said many time before, what can be considered as the most serious work in progress of “academization” of chipmusic, and analyzes, dissects and corrects the article.

    Rip it a new one, Anders!

  • DotBASIC Plus for Commodore 64

    dbmenubigThis kind of follows up on our previous story about affordable 8-bit dev platforms.

    You want an easy to get, widely available and documented platform? The C64 is one of your best bets, but you cannot be arsed to learn a low level language like Assembler, right? At the same time, you do not want the limitations of the poor in-built BASIC included with Commodore machines, I presume.

    Enter DotBASIC Plus. Its purpose is to bring you “the power to create sophisticated, modern-looking programs” without you having to burst your brain with low level coding.

    According to the author, Dave Moorman, ” The Commodore 64 is the epitome of the 8-bit computer. It has everything you need for any hobbyist programmer […] except an excellent BASIC interpreter”. So he made his own.

    The thing comes with a hefty 80 page manual but, unlike most C64 tradition, this is not a free release! However, at 10 dollars for the Downloadable Version, you certainly get a lot of bang for your buck. From what I’ve seen of it, it simplifies the process of BASIC coding adding keywords to the system, but also outputs more optimized code only loading the modules you need (which are all coded in machine language) and stripping the rest. Convenient.

    Not enough? A second disk includes most convenient tools, like a bitmap editor, a sprite editor, a cruncher and more.

    More info and purchase information at the official website.

  • Tugboat’s hip hop medley

    punch_outHey, Peter, how did this one slip past us? We’re getting rusty…  Here it goes!

    An amazing mixtape by Mr. Tugboat, featuring 8-bit versions of a bunch of hip hop hits.

    Tracklist:
    Jay-Z — Dirt Off Your Shoulders
    T.I — What You Know
    Chamillionaire — Ridin’
    Ludacris — What’s Ya Fantasy
    Bonecrusher — Neva Scared
    Kanye — Overnight Celebrity
    Ludacris — Move Bitch
    Lil’ Jon — Get Low
    Kanye — Gold Digger

    Gran it here:
    remix-medley-1

    Via shotthen.com

  • Forever 10 party results

    03-spectrumSource: c64.sk

    The weekend has passed and with it, the Forever 10 oldschool platform party!

    Lots of new releases for 3 platforms have been created and released at it, so here follows the full list of entries, with compo positions, for Commodore 64, Atari 8-Bit and ZX Spectrum.

    Expect a “Best of” column from me in the following days, all releases have not been made available for download yet. In the meantime, check out the full results list below.

    Brace for impact:

    (more…)

  • Protrekkr – an interesting tracker

    protrekkrspot/UP reports: “Salass00 has ported an advanced tracker called Protrekkr to the AmigaOS4 platform.

    It has a built in softsynth and a 303 emulator. You can also use ordinary samples.”

    The blurb:

    ProTrekkr (formerly known as NoiseTrekker) is a tracker program combining a software synthesizer together with a traditional samples tracker which can be used to create electronic music for small sized intros, demos or games.

    The tracker is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

    Main features:
    – Open source.
    – 16 multi-notes tracks (with 256 virtual channels).
    – Samples editor (can load up to 64 bits stereo samples).
    – Patterns based tracker style sequencer.
    – Synthesizer with custom waveforms support.
    – Cubic spline interpolation.
    – 2 303s units.
    – Wav files import/export.
    – 16 or 32 bits wav rendering.
    – Multi effects engine with reverb, distortion, filters, delay, EQs, flanger, etc…
    – Midi in/out support.
    – Protracker .mod files import.
    – Samples compressor handling Gsm/Mp3/TrueSpeech (not on Linux/Mac OS X yet).
    – Replay routine source code to be included & used inside your own programs (Also featuring a replay routine for the PlayStation Portable).
    – Winamp/XMPlay plugin available.
    – And maybe more…

    This is a FREEWARE tool, this means that you can use it for whatever you want and for free.

    Download it here (AmigaOS4 version)
    Or here (Other platforms) 

    via Amiga.org – News.

     

    I wonder how optimized this is, since it advertises it as for use in demo productions and games. I tried the MacOSX build but it said it needed a mising library (tsk tsk), so I can’t test it. Reports?