'Moggy' seems to not approve.
27 2022-10-26 09:43:49
Re: Song : Trifique (2018) (3 replies, posted in Sinclair)
Thanks Shiru.
I found it here : https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/u/utz/trifique/ which only has the asm and a .tap file.
28 2022-10-26 05:29:26
Topic: Song : Trifique (2018) (3 replies, posted in Sinclair)
Randomly looking here and there yesterday, and found the .asm source for Trifique from DiHalt 2018 over on botb or may have been elsewhere. Having no info within it, I can not identify which engine/player it uses. Am really curious.
I started opening the first ~ten engines that I have in my collection to cross check to try to find out, but I gave up rather quickly.
Any clues Utz? (Hoping you'll know off the top of your head)
29 2022-10-21 05:56:41
Re: Microbee computer (11 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
Thanks heaps Utz. A great starting point for me (I had nothing other than simply just fiddling away randomly)
30 2022-10-20 04:03:47
Re: Microbee computer (11 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
Question out to anyone that may be half bored and can easily answer :
I'm trying to get "trantor" music player working on the Microbee. Trantor uses IM2 interrupt mode which the Microbee does not support.
I have spent ages (many afternoons) fiddling trying to remove the IM2 initialisation routine and the interrupt playing snippet of code within, and just essentially turning it into a standard player. I am happy to loudly proclaim that I don't have much knowledge here - and trying to remove IM2 code certainly is not my specialty.
Trantor source here : https://pastebin.com/XSAwL14g
I've also looked at this from the VZ's angle, pretending that this was using VZ interrupt locations and removing required VZ interrupt code - but this is still a no go. (everything so far has just crashed for me)
Anyone interested in having a quick go at it?
31 2022-10-07 06:07:27
Topic: Matel Aquarius computer (7 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
All,
The Aquarius computer has both an internal speaker as well as the fancy AY chip.
Internal speaker hangs off port $FC.
Very very small steps, but managed to get ZSPEAK and Beepola's "1943" song within the Huby engine playing through the internal speaker in two of the Aquarius's emulators.
Have spent a few hours trying to get Phaser 1 / Buzzkick / Squats / Quad / WTBeep / musicbox ...with no luck yet.
Biggest issue is/was finding the cryptic cartridge header at $c000 and the m/l BASIC loader (and/or) the header of the Aquarius's emulators tape format being .CAQ
However, have just found more details, so I might be getting somewhere now.
32 2022-09-28 01:28:31
Re: Microbee computer (11 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
Doing the simple changes within the Pytha engine (grabbed from Bintracker) to the Microbee, this happened.
I call it RAGE.
33 2022-09-24 03:48:53
Re: 1-bit on the Vtech Laser210/310 and VZ200/VZ300 Z80 computers. (40 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
>If you don't mind asking, whereabouts in AU are you based?
Not at all. About five hours drive north west of Sydney. Small country town, very fertile surrounding land, broadacre farming 100kms in all directions. Sheep & cattle country.
34 2022-09-24 03:39:55
Re: Microbee computer (11 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
https://github.com/bushy555/microbee_1-bit_music
Have about 40 songs there now in a few various engines.
I have assembled all of these as CP/M .COM files for the Microbee. Might not be the most correct file for everyone.
Not sure if it is the same as MAME as it is for MESS, however, find up an old copy of MESS. (Im using one from 2009)
Find and download/install the appropriate Microbee ROMs . Fire up MESS.
Then , essentially, it is like loading in a snapshot file.
Devices --> Quickload --> mount --> *.com (and the file autoloads, executes and tunes play)
35 2022-09-22 06:55:05
Re: Microbee computer (11 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
Five different emulators and I couldn't get anything to work. I thought I was doing something wrong or going bonkers.
A lot of mucking around and finally worked out how to load the assembled object code into MESS correctly.
The other emu's either don't emulate the speaker correctly (or at all).
Using an old version of MESS from 2009, and the 1-bit tunes sound great.
Three examples :
Lets Go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jil6W1oLxzo
Standing Wave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU2Qv_bwOPg
Catching Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF3dtUdJbnc
36 2022-09-19 11:27:14
Re: 1-bit on the Vtech Laser210/310 and VZ200/VZ300 Z80 computers. (40 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
Another shed video. Shiru's "Lets Go" - SquatM engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLj5PDpigEw
...I totally love this song and it's not hard to see why.
37 2022-09-16 12:53:17
Re: Microbee computer (11 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
Days later: Haven't gotten very far with anything at all unfortunately.
Contacted the fellow that wrote nanowasp emulator. His reply :
>In terms of tape formats and sound - I don’t think I ever got around to supporting sound output in
>any of the emulators I wrote. A long time ago someone did fork one though and created uBee512,
>which is much fuller-featured than mine. Perhaps this is the one you’ve found?
>
>I’d guess that it probably just requires a file with the raw bytes that would appear on the tape.
>If you take a look at the code here you’ll see the what the format looks like:
>https://github.com/dgchurchill/nanowaspjs/blob/master/src/virtualtape.ts#L140-L196
>
>Roughly it’s a header, followed by a simple checksum, followed by 256-byte blocks which each have
>a checksum. (see
>https://github.com/dgchurchill/nanowaspjs/blob/90ecdb01f897bac4830ad5902105956a8e5e3e05/src/utils.ts#L276
>for how the checksum is calculated)
>
>I believe you should still be able to find Stewart Kay (author of uBee512 emulator) at
>https://microbee-mspp.org.au/forum under the username uBee. There’s lots of good info there too
>about his emulator, and there may be tools for creating the tape header.
...I'm on to it.
38 2022-09-12 11:37:06
Topic: Microbee computer (11 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
Hi all,
The Microbee computer is another 1980's z80 computer (Australian designed & built). Probably unheard of outside of Australia - they were built in their thousands and I would go so far as suggesting that nearly every Primary & High School throughout the country had one or a dozen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroBee
Being bored and doing a little dabbling, the speaker hangs off bit 6 on Port 2 of it PIO chip via a single transistor.
I've made the very simple changes to a number of various engines, and have managed to get a few beep bop dreadful sounds coming out an emulator. I think that the emu that I'm using just isn't emulating sound correctly. Acknowledging that the earlier Microbee's were only 2 Mhz, the later 32mb keyboards were running at 3 point something Mhz.
I have found four Microbee emulators:
- MESS/MAME : can't for the life of me work out how to load in object code & execute. Needs more experimenting.
- Nanowasp (local install as well as an online version; neither supports sound at all)
- Ubee512 : can not get it to load the ROMs correctly.
- PiccoMozzy Mbee32k. This works great, but I feel as though it does not emulate sound output correctly.
I have two Microbee computers sitting on the ground underneath my parents house. Will have to dig them out, see if either works, and then attempt a WAV file load-in of the players. I feel as though if I were to give someone with a working Microbee system these assembled players, they'd just work and sound like they had intended to.
Anyway, I'll post up a reply If I ever get anywhere with this little side project.
39 2022-08-29 10:54:34
Re: 1tracker v0.47 (164 replies, posted in Sinclair)
Heh, ignore the updates, keep the brilliant music releases coming. 'Lets Go' is the best!
40 2022-08-19 05:59:19
Re: SillyVenture 1-bit Compo (43 replies, posted in Atari)
> Like this? https://github.com/luamfb/tempest-lcd
Weird coincidence that this was on Hack a Day only yesterday?
Or did someone send it into them..
41 2022-08-16 10:12:47
Topic: Chronos... (8 replies, posted in Sinclair)
Performing random googling within github. Found this work-in-progress disassembly of Tim's engine for Chonos.
Thought others may perhaps be interested in it.
https://github.com/ZoomTen/chronos-zxbeeper
Downloaded it, managed to get it working on the humble VZ/Laser computer, and it also sounds great. (Without the AY)
42 2022-08-10 08:44:42
Re: 1tracker v0.47 (164 replies, posted in Sinclair)
WOOHOO! v4.0 and v4.1 works on XP again.
Whatever libraries that you are now using Shiru, its awesomely good!
(Heh! ...I wonder how many people are scroffing at me still using XP)
43 2022-08-02 06:50:45
Re: I, Beeper (8 replies, posted in Sinclair)
AtariTufty wrote:
If you PM me I'll send you the source. Would be interesting to hear the songs on the VZ/Laser
I am slow! But a PM-email thing has been sent.
thanks & cheers & beers.
44 2022-07-22 03:47:07
Re: I, Beeper (8 replies, posted in Sinclair)
...rather rude of me asking, but : if these were done in 1tracker, Beepola or Bintracker , any possible chance of the original saved source? Am always after more sources so that they can be assembled for the VZ/Laser computers.
If not, or if not ever going to release the tracking source, then I also fully understand and appreciate that.
Cheers
45 2022-04-15 22:44:47
Re: 1-bit on the Vtech Laser210/310 and VZ200/VZ300 Z80 computers. (40 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
Easter Friday. I did a thing in the shed. Please excuse the mess and the visual aspect - it is supposed to be all about the tunes!
I changed about 20 of the music players that work extremely well on the VZ to play out through its cassette port rather than the piezo speaker (cassette port is bits 2&3 , instead of bits 0&5). Phasers, Buzzkick, Betaphase, Squats, WTBEEP
This is a (rough) 9 minute video showing about ten songs of Utz's and Shiru's that work and sound terrific through the cassette port of a VZ300 computer. They sound so much better than the "tinny" sound of a piezo speaker that sits under the main board inside the keyboard.
Anyway, this is the VZ300 computer. Excuse the missing keys and whatnot - I only picked this particular keyboard up two weeks ago and haven't cleaned it up yet.
Much thanks to Shiru and Utz for their programming skills, their trackers & players, their tunes, their knowledge and for getting me into this 1-bit stuff.
Six years ago not a single VZ/Laser computer enthusiast would have ever thought that this was conceivably possible, yet, here we are. I'm really hoping to get a few more Laser/VZ fans enthused into 1-bit music over on our FB page, since they can now simply load in the music players via standard WAV file cassette loading, and then quickly swap over and plug in amplified speakers to listen to the resulting tunes.
46 2022-01-20 11:22:57
Re: Understanding Computer Sound. ZX Spectrum (youtube) (3 replies, posted in Sinclair)
This article has just hit hack-a-day --- might go a bit viral for a day or two.
47 2022-01-13 00:08:01
Re: 1tracker v0.47 (164 replies, posted in Sinclair)
1tracker v0.32 : Love your two new songs included being Freezing Point and Geostorm.
Have got them working reasonably nicely on the VZ200.
48 2021-09-15 05:38:32
Re: In-game (during gameplay) music (20 replies, posted in Sinclair)
9 months later, and a little bit off-topic from the ZX:
I've done a lot of fiddling & tinkering on the VZ200 with trying an anything and everything approach with the various players that I've got working on the VZ. Randomly select a player and try to get something (ala animated graphics) working , just as a trial and error to see & take note of the differences between the engines to work out what is capable of driving a few moving graphics and what is not.
The VZ is somewhat nearly on par with the ZX specs. Many of the players that I've managed to port and get running on the VZ, of course, consume or seem to consume near 100% utilisation.
I've had success with quattropic with bouncing fake equaliser bars in both text mode as well as the VZ's "high" resolution which is 128x64. Of course this has slowed the music down a fraction - enough to notice, but still listenable.
Also I grabbed the ZX10 player and am using it in the background for an unfinished car moving game ; admittedly the sprite-type graphics are very few so far, but what I do have working reads the keyboard fine, moves the graphics incredibly fast and smooth with no noticeable loss in the quality or the speed of the music.
Both of these I have added code to where the players original check-for-keyboard-to-quit routine is. So far seems to work ok.
On the other hand, the likes of Phaser3 is so cycle intensive & specific (and sounding awesome!) that changing or adding anything at all causes sound issues straight away. Took me ages and many attempts to even get it working on the VZ - with my limited knowledge.
49 2021-08-31 22:32:27
Re: Squat for Atari (13 replies, posted in Atari)
Offtopic somewhat, but got 'High Orbit' sounding beautifully on the VZ200 (Z80).
I passed your link to a TRS80 Coco fan (he is a 6809 guru), and he is going to attempt to port it over.
Thanks Shiru.
50 2021-08-03 03:22:00
Re: 1-bit on the Vtech Laser210/310 and VZ200/VZ300 Z80 computers. (40 replies, posted in Other Platforms)
I've finally thrown up most of my working ports for the VZ from both Utz's, Shiru's and Oleg's incredibly-skilled programming engines, of which, I am always in awe of. There really is only a few lines of code to change to make these work for the VZ computer. Of course, timings are out when you change from "OUT (C), A" to "LD ($6800), A", and I am always selecting one at random to try to improve the sound quality by tying to count cycles and improving the timings. But, at least they do work.
https://github.com/bushy555/VZ200_VZ300___1-bit_tunes
".VZ" is the VZ/Laser emulator snapshot file. These can also be converted into a WAV file, and loaded directly into a real computer.