Category: software

  • FamiTracker 0.3 Appeared

    famipngAfter many beta releases, finally a new version of Famitracker. Details:

    Version 0.3.0 is ready! News in this version

    – MMC5 expansion sound support

    – Improved pattern editor (possible to select multiple channels, drag’n’drop, control+drag = copy, shift+drag = mix)

    – Ctrl+wheel = Transpose selected notes

    – Shift+wheel = Increase/decrease instrument, volume and effect values

    – Scroll lock = Toggle follow mode

    – Control+D = Duplicate frame

    – It’s possible to edit directly in the frame editor by double clicking

    – Customizable keys for note cut, repeat and clear field

    – Added second highlight

    – Added a repeat action key

    – Added a second highlight option

    – Fixed a bug with the tremolo effect

    via FamiTracker.

  • Acid64 Player Pro for Hardsid devices appeared

    acid64_v300_vista_browse_thumbThere is an all new release of this great standalone player for Hardsid devices.

    Changes in this release:

    New

    • – Fast incremental SID file search on title, author, year and publisher fields
    • – Seek through SID tunes via slider bar
    • – Digital clock
    • – Scroll wheel support when hovering over grids and list boxes
    • – Anonymous usage statistics

    Improvements

    • – Tree view of folders
    • – SidID search in properties menu is done in background now to access dialog faster
    • – Emulation improvements
    • – Keyboard navigation improvements
    • – Many small improvements/fixes

    Check out:

  • Neil Baldwin #NESdev Q&A Session

    Neil Baldwin, chip music composer and director at Eurocom, dropped in for a Q&A session in #NESdev@EFnet last night for a few hours; hosted by yours truly Sean W. (a.k.a. B00daW.)  A lot of people, including Neil and I, were getting a bit “loose” to unwind during the event.  So to protect the innocent, the transcriptions below are selectively abridged.

    The evening started out with everyone discussing the differences between today’s assemblers and those of yesterday.  Assemblers are the programs that translate the assembly code to hexadecimal; the output being called “binary form” or “a binary.”  Paraphrasing what Neil had said regarding this:

    “We actually wrote our own assembler eventually.  We used it on NES and then later we added SNES support.  [The company at that point consisting of 5 people in the early 1990’s.]  We had no interactive debuggers, etc.; but it was a rudimentary IDE in as much as it was an editor with a built in assembler/disassembler.  I actually got [the old environment] compiling; but had to use DOSBox as it wouldn’t work in anything else.”

    I had asked the question if the environment would ever be available to the public to which he responded that it would have to be brought up with the other directors at Eurocom.  Perhaps we’ll get to see some of the old techniques used.  Time will tell.

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  • Oliver Wittchow Interview pt2

    nanoloop This is the second part of our interview with Nanoloop creator Oliver Wittchow. We posted the first part earlier this week, you can find it here.

    LB – You started selling the cartridge in 1999, how did you go about producing the hardware?
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  • Atari (2600) TIA Gets a Makeover

    [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/0ARWzYiPnDw" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

    Seb Tomczak, a.k.a. little-scale, has been and is currently working on an equal-tempered, MIDI-controlled TIA.

    This is accomplished effectively by turning the TIA into a beeper; like the old ZX Spectrum.  A “beeper” is just a chip with audio out pins that can be software modulated.  It does not use or have any hardware logic for music.  In this case the TIA does, but the available logic is used to modulate a single beep into other waveforms by ascending or descending each sample manually; and then repeating that waveform at a specific rate to generate pitch.  The volume in this case instead of modulating the height of the waveform is actually controlled by the TIA hardware.

    Where some TIA enthusiasts love the character and its unloved design, those who hadn’t liked the TIA before now have less of a reason.