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/* Warning! This documentation contains extended characters! */ Program: MUSIQUE.ZIP (freeware) Entered with PC-LITE 1.00 Compiled with TCC 2.0 (-ms -d -f- -A -K -G -O -w) Patched with DEBUG 3.3 Compressed with PKLITE 1.12 Author: François Jalbert (jalbert@IRO.UMontreal.CA) (jalbert@CS.UBC.CA) Date: July 1991 Version: 1.1 Files: MUSIQUE.EXE MUSIQUE.DOC MUSIQUE.MEN SOURCE.ZIP Got a problem? Look up the frequently asked Q/A section at the end! Syntax: MUSIQUE [/a | /b | /c] [/d | /e | /f] [/h] [/i<decimal>] [/k<type><decimal>...] [/m] [/n | /s | /v] [/o] [/p] [/t<letter>] [/0 | [/1|/2|/3]...] [/?] [menu_file[.men]] Description: MUSIQUE is an "intelligent" shell for playing modules with ModPlay. It lets you select modules, finds them, and calls ModPlay to play them. If necessary, it will move/decompress some modules, and later delete them. Modules are always assumed compressed with PKZIP, because it remains the fastest decompression utility, while achieving near LHARC compression levels. MUSIQUE should run fine in any video mode (standard & non-standard) as long as the video routines in the BIOS comply. Parameters: All parameters must be separated by at least one space. Given conflicting parameters, the last one always takes precedence. Any invalid parameter will abort the program. /a AT < 12 MHz /b AT = 12 MHz (default) /c AT > 12 MHz /d Run in german /e Run in english /f Run in french (default) /h High intensity display (normally disabled) /i<decimal> Force video mode to be used (132*60*16 is /i86 for me) /k<type><decimal> Set <type> to color <decimal> (see "Colors" below) /m Mouse input enabled for text modes only (normally disabled) /n Display only DOS file names in the menu /s Display only song names in the menu (default) /v Display almost all (verbose) the fields in the menu /o Output with the BIOS (normally directly to video RAM) /p Pause before/after main operations (good for debugging) /t<letter> Force temporary drive (typical /tE) /0 Force no parallel port /1 Force parallel port at 3BCH (see "Parallel Ports" below) /2 Force parallel port at 378H (see "Parallel Ports" below) /3 Force parallel port at 278H (see "Parallel Ports" below) /? Display syntax Menu Files: A menu file is necessary for MUSIQUE to know which modules to list and where these modules can be found. The optional default extension is .men The default menu file is: musique[.men] A menu file contains lines (at most 350 of them) of the form: floppy_disk_ID score DOS_path DOS_file_name song_name Maximum field lengths: floppy_disk_ID 2 letters score 2 letters DOS_path 127 letters DOS_file_name 8 letters song_name 19 letters These lengths have been chosen to maximize the use of the screen in /v mode. Note that no field may be empty. These fields are space-separated and the song_name may contain spaces. Use a ? (say) for empty fields but use a . to indicate the empty DOS_path. Any non-trivial DOS_path field must end with : or \ for concatenation. There is limited space (±25Kb) for all the DOS_path's, so be reasonable! The DOS_file_name must not include the .mod or .zip file name extensions. A menu line with a % character in the first column is ignored altogether. This is used to discard modules while keeping a record of having tried them. You will find in my MUSIQUE.MEN comments as to why some modules won't play. Colors: No color setup is guaranteed to be satisfactory on all color systems. Therefore, it is possible with a few /k<type><decimal> flags to reconfigure all the colors used by MUSIQUE to your liking. The standard 8 basic colors are: 0 = Black 1 = Blue 2 = Green 3 = Cyan 4 = Red 5 = Violet 6 = Yellow (brown) 7 = White By adding 8 to these values, you get high intensity colors. (same as /h flag) For example, a color of 8 is high intensity black; grey (or black). The observed colors can vary *greatly* depending on your hardware. This is particularly true for the border colors of CGA, EGA and VGA adapters. The types of display element and their default colors are: 1 = Screen outline 4 = Red (foreground) 2 = ModPlay title 3 = Cyan (foreground) 3 = Unpicked item 2 = Green (foreground) 4 = Picked item 1 = Blue (foreground) 5 = Keyboard cursor 3 = Cyan (background) 6 = Mouse cursor 4 = Red (background) 7 = Screen background 0 = Black (background) For example, to change the mouse cursor from red to violet, use the /k65 flag. The default colors have been picked out of personal taste. The 16 text colors just described are available on any color video adapter. In graphics modes, the number of available colors varies from 2 to 256 depending on the color adapter and the mode selected. No error checking is performed on the colors supplied so fancy video modes can perhaps be fully exploited by the knowledgeable user. On the most recent color video adapters, each of the 16 text colors can also be reprogrammed from a wide range of available colors. I do not plan on supporting such specialized palette reconfigurations. If you must, you can always change palettes prior to using MUSIQUE. There are stand-alone programs for this, but debug can also be used. Some types of display elements are background elements by default. You can only change the color and intensity of such display elements. Display elements in the foreground can be changed to background elements. This is done by multiplying the color desired by 16. For example, to get a reverse-video red picked item, use the /k464 flag. You can combine foreground and background colors as well if desired. For example, /k281 gives a violet background blue foreground title element. Remember, such a flexibility is possible for foreground elements only. People with black and white displays will appreciate the ability to reconfigure colors to better exploit reverse video and intensity control. This works particularly well for CGA, EGA, MCGA and VGA B/W screens. For example, use the /k57 /k67 flags for reverse white video cursors and the /k315 /k4112 flags for the unpick/pick status. Several similar B/W color configurations are possible. The MDA has a far less flexible design, see the Q/A section. Parallel Ports: MUSIQUE supports only the three standard IBM parallel ports. It does not sup- port homemade parallel ports and the soundblaster, but by using a batch file MODPLAY.BAT, you can replace MUSIQUE's parallel port parameter with the one of your choice, prior to starting the real ModPlay program. For example, your file MODPLAY.BAT could contain the statement: C:\MP116E /s1 %2 %3 Standard IBM parallel ports are found at I/O addresses 3BCH, 378H, and 278H. This is the order in which they are looked for by the BIOS when the computer is powered-up. Here are all the possible combinations of parallel ports and their DOS assignments: LPT1: LPT2: LPT3: 3BCH 378H (common AT setup) 278H 3BCH 378H (my setup) 3BCH 278H 378H 278H (common AT setup) 3BCH 378H 278H One can see that a parallel port at 3BCH can only show up as LPT1: A parallel port at 378H can be LPT1: or LPT2: depending on what other parallel ports you have. Finally, a parallel port at 278H can be any of LPT1: or LPT2: or LPT3: which can be quite surprising at first. MUSIQUE needs to know which I/O address to use. It does not care much for DOS' way of numbering things, especially since LPT1: can be any of three I/O addresses, and so forth! One solution might be for you the user to say: "I want to use LPT2:" and have MUSIQUE look into the BIOS parallel port table to see what I/O address corresponds to LPT2: at the time. Unfortunately, not all parallel ports can be detected by the BIOS and therefore, a way of specifying parallel ports that does not rely on the BIOS' ability to properly detect them is called for. This explains the scheme used by MUSIQUE. I hope that you are still with me so far! You specify parallel ports by the standard order in which they are looked for by the BIOS at power-up. That is /1 is 3BCH, /2 is 378H, and /3 is 278H. The flag /0 stands for no parallel port. Here is an equivalence table between ModPlay and MUSIQUE: Address(es) ModPlay MUSIQUE None /0 /0 3BCH (LPT1:) /5 /1 378H (LPT1:) /1 /2 (common AT setup) 278H (LPT1:) /2 /3 3BCH (LPT1:) 378H (LPT2:) /xs /1 /2 (my setup) 3BCH (LPT1:) 278H (LPT2:) /xs /1 /3 378H (LPT1:) 278H (LPT2:) /3 /2 /3 (common AT setup) I find MUSIQUE's handling of parallel ports more consistent than ModPlay's, but this is really just a question of personal taste. Don't forget the space between any of the MUSIQUE flags! Note that MUSIQUE can try to find your parallel port setup-up automatically. I would suggest that you get into specifying parallel ports on the command line only if MUSIQUE's choice is not the desired one. To find the parallel ports I/O addresses on your computer, look into your BIOS' parallel port table. That is done under debug by simply typing "d 40:8 f" and then "q". Numbers are somewhat swapped, but you should make sense of them in a few seconds. If your parallel ports can't be detected by your BIOS, you'll have to read the documentation that came with them (Oh, shall I never!), or go by trial and error. You can't do any damage with an incorrect port setting. Functional Description: Since Mark put out his superb ModPlay program, I have collected about 15Mb of pkzipped modules. I expect more soon. I have only limited hard-disk space so most of them are kept on numbered floppies. To demo ModPlay to friends, I typically have to figure out what is already on my hard-disk, what is on floppy and on which floppy exactly, copy things back onto hard-disk, occa- sionally decompress, delete afterward, etc. This is a waste of time and also quite error prone. So I decided to write a small menu program that would do all of these tasks for me. MUSIQUE displays a menu of all the modules you have, for you to multiple-pick and play. I found that identical modules are sometimes stored under different DOS_file_name's, which caused me to waste time downloading modules by MODEM just to find out that I already had them in stock. So the DOS_file_name does not seem a-priori like a reliable way of keeping track of modules. The DOS_file_name also carries only 8 letters, while the built-in song_name in the modules has up to 19 letters (20 with EOS). So I decided that the menu should display the modules by song_name's, and not by the DOS_file_name. This is a more reliable and a more descriptive way of keeping track of modules. Therefore, when MUSIQUE starts, it needs to know the song_name's of all the modules you intend to use. One way would have been to scan all the modules that can be found using some user-specified path, and then look for their song_name's. This would have also required some pkunzipping and later dele- ting of modules, and in my case, also a lot of floppy swapping. This is clearly unacceptable since nobody wants to spend 10 minutes fiddling prior to starting to use a program which is supposed to simplify your life in the first place. I decided that MUSIQUE would require a menu file. The menu file specifies all the modules you want to use by DOS_file_name and by song_name. You pick up song_name's, and MUSIQUE will handle the DOS_file_name's for you. The menu file also says which floppy holds which module. So it may prompt you to in- sert the right floppy in case a module is not found first on your hard-disk. The menu file can be used to associate a score to each module, so you know easily which modules suit you best when giving a quick demo to a friend. Fi- nally, the menu file also specify under which directory on your hard-disk any given module might be found. Given the small price of having to prepare a menu file, the flexibility seems very good. If you run ModPlay with the /o flag, it will output the DOS_file_name's and the song_name's of all the modules in the current directory. Using piping, you end up with most of the work done for you! All that's needed to get started immediately (without using the fancier capabilities of MUSIQUE) is a little bit of polishing to add some dummy parameters. You will quickly have a menu file ready to use. Later, as you move modules onto floppy for permanent storage, you can modify the menu file slightly to reflect that move. It's really quite simple. If you are really in a hurry, piping a simple DOS direc- tory listing into a file is also a good way of getting started. ModPlay has a few peculiarities which influenced the making of MUSIQUE. These assumption may not hold anymore for the current version of ModPlay, but they did at one point and that's why MUSIQUE operates the way it does. For exam- ple, the modules to be played must be in the current directory of the current drive. This resulted in the notion of a temporary_drive which MUSIQUE uses extensively. ModPlay does not zero out parallel ports after usage, so MUSIQUE will do that for you. ModPlay runs only in CO80 video mode, so MUSIQUE will handle video mode switching so you can use any extended text modes (and even any graphics mode if you don't use a mouse!) at your leisure. You start MUSIQUE from the current_drive. MUSIQUE will look immediately for a temporary_drive. This temporary_drive is where ModPlay and the modules will sit for playing. So the modules will be in the same directory and drive as ModPlay itself. If you have 8 drives and the 6th happens to be a RAM-disk (blazing fast access), you can tell MUSIQUE to use it as its temporary_drive with a command line flag [/tF]. Without any command line information about drives, MUSIQUE will make a guess. If MUSIQUE was started from a floppy drive (A: B:), it will use the last drive as its temporary_drive. Hopefully, this will be a RAM-disk or a hard-disk. If MUSIQUE was started from a non-floppy drive (C: and up), it will stick to that drive as its temporary_drive. These tests are more reliable when you use the standard LASTDRIVE statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. MUSIQUE will then hunt for the PKUNZIP program used to pkunzip modules. It will look first on the temporary_drive, then along the DOS path, and finally on the current_drive. If the PKUNZIP program can't be found, you will be allowed to play only non-pkzipped modules. If the PKUNZIP program is found on the current_drive, and this drive is different from the temporary_drive, then MUSIQUE will copy temporarily the PKUNZIP program onto the temporary_drive. This move is done since in many cases, the temporary_drive will be a RAM-disk which is much faster than the current_drive, may it be floppy or hard-disk. When terminating, MUSIQUE will clean up the temporary_drive. MUSIQUE also hunts for the MODPLAY program. It uses exactly the same scheme as for the PKUNZIP program. However, if the MODPLAY program is not found, MUSIQUE will abort. MUSIQUE will look for MODPLAY.COM, then for MODPLAY.EXE, and then for MODPLAY.BAT before giving up on finding the MODPLAY program. So MUSIQUE is ready for any future change in the MODPLAY program format, and even for new ModPlay flags through the batch file approach. You can select which parallel ports you wish MUSIQUE to use. Without any com- mand line information about ports, MUSIQUE will make a guess. It will try to write, wait some, and read back a few patterns at the standard parallel port I/O addresses. Any parallel port found will be assumed available for output. This test can only work with parallel ports that support both output and in- put. Indeed, the BIOS detects the parallel ports in any given machine using a very similar test. Shortly after reading the menu file and finishing its initialization, MUSIQUE will log permanently onto the temporary_drive and display a screen full of song_name's. You can move around with the usual 4 cursor keys. <Home> brings you to the first screen and <End> to the last. <PgUp> and <PgDn> have the usual effect as well. All nine keypad keys can also be used while holding the <Shift> keys. Their action is then restricted to within the current window, instead of within the whole menu file. <Ctrl> keys are not used since they are not fully supported by the BIOS, and I'd rather stick to the BIOS as my input interface. The current song_name can be picked/unpicked for playing with the <Space> key. You can pick as many song_name's as you wish. You can even pick all and unpick all with the @ key. This is also useful for clearing out the pick sta- tus of all song_name's. You start up the current batch of song_name's with the <Enter> key. MUSIQUE will treat each module in turn, before eventually returning to the menu display. A mouse can also be used to move in the usual four directions. You can pick/unpick modules with the left button, and the current batch of song_name's is started with the right button. Scrolling speed with the mouse is limited artificially to a reasonable 20msec/scroll. The search for a module to play starts on the temporary_drive. MUSIQUE always looks for a .MOD file first, before trying out a .ZIP file. The .ZIP exten- sion is tried if and only if the PKUNZIP program could be located a while earlier. The search then covers the DOS_path of the current song_name in the menu file. Any module found there is moved/pkunzipped to the temporary_drive. Finally, MUSIQUE will give the current_drive a try as well. Again, any module found will be moved/pkunzipped to the temporary_drive. If the current_drive is a floppy, MUSIQUE may ask you to insert a floppy using the floppy_disk_ID of the current song_name in the menu file. If the current_drive is non-flop- py, MUSIQUE may give up on the current song_name. All modules that had to be moved/pkunzipped will be deleted afterward by MUSIQUE, so the temporary_drive does not fill up with modules. Hopefully, the proper module will eventually end up in the temporary_drive. MUSIQUE will then fire up ModPlay with the appropriate parameters. After ModPlay is done, MUSIQUE will gradually zero out any parallel port used. This will prevent voltage fluctuations from ending up in your stereo system while the hard-disk is being used. On some computer systems, it's like listening to the drive with a stethoscope! The zeroing is gradual to avoid creating any scratching noise in your speakers. Some parallel ports are more sensitive than others to this problem. I did what I could! You can go through several sessions of picking/playing using MUSIQUE. Press- ing the <Escape> key quickly after a module finished playing aborts the cur- rent batch of modules. Pressing <Escape> under the menu terminates MUSIQUE. All remaining temporary files on the temporary_drive will be erased, and MUSIQUE will log back onto the current_drive. Pressing both mouse buttons from the menu also exits MUSIQUE. You cannot however, use the mouse to abort a batch of modules. MUSIQUE always plays the modules in the order in which you picked them. If you select all the modules with the @ key, it will play them in the menu file order. You can also use the * key to randomly select the order in which the currently selected modules will be played. So I hope that this little tour helps you understand what MUSIQUE does and does not do. It is intended to be an "intelligent" module player. It is not a module manager that could maintain menu files automatically in the background while you pkzip, pkunzip, copy, and delete module on hard-disk and on flop- pies. It is also not intended to be a module validity tester or a module edi- tor. Within its intended purpose, I hope that you will find MUSIQUE as help- ful as I did. Internal Operation: To initialize itself, MUSIQUE will: Switch video mode, iff user-supplied and suspected necessary. Determine the current_drive: Determine the temporary_drive, iff not already user-supplied: Look for ModPlay on the temporary_drive, DOS PATH, and current_drive: One of MODPLAY.COM, MODPLAY.EXE, or MODPLAY.BAT must be found. Look for PKUNZIP.EXE on the temporary_drive, DOS PATH, and current_drive: If PKUNZIP.EXE is not found, only *.MOD's can be played. These two programs will be copied (iff necessary) to the temporary_drive. Determine the parallel ports to be used, iff not already user-supplied. Turn off gradually any parallel port to be used. Determine the video mode, iff not already user-supplied. Determine the size of the screen. Look at byte 484H (lines) for evidence of an extended text mode. Initialize the mouse, iff user-requested. Clear the screen, set border color, and enable high intensity backgrounds. Log onto the temporary_drive. Then you enter the menu itself: Browse with the usual eight keys (keypad) through the menu file. (mouse) Browse with the usual nine <Shift> keys (keypad) through the window. Pick/unpick a module with <Space>. (left button) Pick/unpick all modules with @. Randomize the priority of picked modules with *. Play the current batch of modules with <Enter>. (right button) Abort prematurely the current batch of modules playing with <Escape>. Exit to DOS from the menu with <Escape>. (both buttons) When a module is to be played, MUSIQUE will: Check if the user is aborting the current batch with the <Escape> key. Look for the .MOD file, then for the .ZIP file (iff PKUNZIP.EXE found): Copy the module to the temporary_drive iff necessary. Call PKUNZIP to decompress the module on the temporary_drive iff necessary. Wait for any active floppy to turn itself off. Call MODPLAY to play the module on the temporary_drive. Turn off gradually any parallel port used. Delete the module on the temporary_drive iff it was copied/decompressed. Reset start-up video mode iff necessary. Clear the screen, set border color, and enable high intensity backgrounds. Display the menu once again. Patch for all video modes (offsets may vary): Any program compiled with Turbo-C may insist on resetting the video adapter to one standard text mode at start-up. This is always the case if that pro- gram (like MUSIQUE) has been instructed to potentially use only the BIOS to perform its output. If you want to use MUSIQUE in some extended mode, you would have to always specify the extended video mode with the /i<decimal> flag. I thought this was too annoying since I prefer to use my mode switching program first, and then start MUSIQUE to run in the default mode, may it be standard or non-standard. The following two patches prevent MUSIQUE from resetting the video mode upon start-up. They have already been performed on your copy of MUSIQUE. 55 PUSH BP 8BEC MOV BP,SP 8A4604 MOV AL,[BP+04] 3C03 CMP AL,03 <=== 03 becomes FF 7606 JBE 60FA 3C07 CMP AL,07 7402 JZ 60FA Shortly thereafter, 803E123A03 CMP BYTE PTR [2AE0],03 <=== 03 becomes FF 760C JBE 612F 803E123A07 CMP BYTE PTR [2AE0],07 7405 JZ 612F The offsets may vary slightly due to last minute changes in MUSIQUE. Requirements: Fast enough AT (±12 MHz for ModPlay) Color-capable display adapter (for ModPlay) Hard-disk (or RAM-disk) strongly recommended DOS 3.0 or better is recommended for its LASTDRIVE statement MODPLAY.COM program (version 1.16c, 1.16e, or better) PKUNZIP.EXE program (only if some of your modules are pkzipped) Plenty of *.MOD (and/or *.ZIP) modules Generic mouse (optional) Possible Enhancements: A configuration file MUSIQUE.CFG Texture User-selected displayed fields in the window User-selected key assignments User-selected mouse X/Y motion/pixel ratios Mouse button swapping for left-handed Quick mouse moves à la NeXT through X/Y derivatives monitoring Several decompression utilities supported and auto-detected DOS_name's in menu files with optional .MOD or .ZIP extensions A way of picking modules by searches on the menu fields Mouse icons for totally keyboard-less operations. Acknowledgements possible with the mouse while using the /p flag. Current drive flag. Make selected modules play several times in a row. Make a batch of modules play forever, randomly too if requested. Mouse support in graphics mode. Frequently Asked Questions: Q. ModPlay runs fine, but I hear nothing. A. Always run MUSIQUE without any parallel port flags at first. It could just make a better parallel port choice than you quickly can. MUSIQUE and ModPlay use a different way of specifying parallel ports. For more info, read the "Parallel Ports" section of this brief guide. You could also use the /p flag to see what parameters ModPlay receives. Q. MUSIQUE insists on using the E: drive as its temporary drive. There is no E: drive on my system! A. DOS assumes internally that 5 drives are present, unless you say otherwise. Please use the standard LASTDRIVE statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. Or simply supply explicitly the temporary drive with the /t<letter> flag. Q. MUSIQUE uses my network drive G: which won't work properly. A. Specify the desired temporary drive with the /t<letter> flag. Q. I couldn't care less for all the fancy (useless!) MUSIQUE options. How can I quickly play a few modules just sitting on my hard-disk now? A. Create first a list of your modules with "DIR *.MOD >MYLIST.MEN". Edit that list so you get something like: ? ? . MODULE1 ? ? ? . MODULE2 ? ? ? . MODULE3 ? etc Then simply run "musique mylist /n" from your hard-drive. But you'll never know what you're missing... Q. After playing some modules, my extended screen is not restored properly. A. MUSIQUE uses the standard INT 10H (AH=0 AL=mode) call to set video modes. It also uses the standard INT 10H (AH=F) to read your extended mode. Does your fancy EGA/VGA card have a complete BIOS in ROM? Have you run at least once your generic mode switching program? These programs often leave permanently some part of themselves in memory. Run "musique /p" and compare the video mode used with the correct one. Use the /i<decimal> flag to specify explicitly your video mode. Are you using a *decimal* number with the /i flag? Also note that MUSIQUE always uses the first text page of your adapter. Q. My screen is a mess. A. MUSIQUE uses by default video RAM assumed continuous. Some fancy console drivers (ANSI) may also cause compatibility problems. Try the /o flag to see if your BIOS does a better job. Q. Where can I get modules from. A. I got most of my modules by FTP from 128.155.23.64 under amiga/... If you want more FTP sites, ask for help under rn. If you can't FTP, also ask for help with rn. Lots of folks out there... Some local site might just have an e-mail server with modules on-line. Q. After a while, I sometimes get (null) strings printed on the screen. A. ModPlay occasionally corrupts randomly the computer memory with 0's. Mark is working actively on that bugette, it's a tough one. I suggest that you immediately reboot the computer and avoid playing the module that caused the problem. Do not assume the last module played is the culprit, experiment some more first. Q. My computer freezes as soon as ModPlay starts. A. Is your computer fast enough? How about using the /a flag? Some computers using DOS=HIGH under DOS 5 are known to have speed problems. Are you using an Amiga computer!!! Q. I can see ModPlay starting, but it just displays some text and quits. A. It's probably receiving parameters that it doesn't recognize. Are you using ModPlay 1.16c, 1.16e, or better? You could try "musique /p" to see what parameters it is receiving. You could also use some batch file MODPLAY.BAT to adjust the parameters. Q. None of my modules are ever found. A. Remember that MUSIQUE looks into the temporary_drive, the DOS_path you supplied into the menu file for the current module, and the current_drive. It does not look for modules under the standard DOS PATH or DATA path. Does : or \ terminate all non-trivial DOS_path strings in the menu file? If you are using .ZIP modules, run "musique /p" to see if the PKUNZIP.EXE program has been located on your system during the initialization. Q. To center myself in a window, I must use <Shift> 5 (keypad). Why can't I use simply 5 (keypad)? A. That key is not supported by the BIOS. Q. My mouse doesn't work properly, or at all. A. Have you loaded your mouse driver? Is it a standard INT 33H driven mouse driver? Are you using the "/m" flag with MUSIQUE? How about trying out the BIOS approach with a /o flag? Note that the mouse won't work properly in graphics mode. Q. I can't get the bloody syntax in english! A. Try "musique /e /?" Q. Your german stinks! A. Please don't rub it in, and tell me where I made mistakes instead. Q. MUSIQUE won't run properly on my mono system. A. MUSIQUE should run fine with any video adapter, including mono. However, MDA color attributes are not as flexible as color ones. You could try something like "musique /k3112 /k4114 /k515" Note that right now, ModPlay does not run on a MDA as far as I know. Hopefully, Mark will work on that one eventually. I am too lazy just now to support dual-screen MDA/CGA systems. Use the MODE program to perform the switch prior to starting MUSIQUE. Or perform a back and forth switch in your MODPLAY.BAT file. Q. I find garbage on my hard-disk after a session. A. MUSIQUE should clean up its temporary files before any normal exit. Have you aborted MUSIQUE with <Escape> at any time? Q. I have a parallel port at a non-standard address, so what? A. Create a MODPLAY.BAT file that disregards the first parameter received from MUSIQUE and replaces it with the correct one for you, say "/xm303". Then run "musique /0" as if you wanted to use the internal speaker. For more info, read the "Parallel Ports" section in this brief guide. Q. I have only two floppies, what do I do? A. Use the floppy with the biggest capacity (say B:) as the source of modules. The small floppy (say A:) will be your temporary_drive. (even 360K is enough) Copy MUSIQUE.EXE MUSIQUE.MEN (PKUNZIP.EXE) and MODPLAY.COM onto A: Log onto B: and type something like "a:musique a:musique.men /tA". You can then feed in modules from B: and have the temporary files on A: It's slow, but I guess it's still better than nothing. Note that there are a number of alternate ways of handling this situation. Q. I can barely see the menu on my screen. A. Use the "/h" flag to force a uniform high intensity signal. Reconfigure colors with a few /k<type><decimal> flags using high colors. Q. When I start MUSIQUE, I hear some noise on my speakers. A. That's MUSIQUE figuring out which parallel ports you have. If you really can't stand it, specify with the proper flags your ports. I really did my best to be quiet! Q. The mouse cursor doesn't show up on my screen. The picked items disappear on my screen. Etc... A. Adjust the appropriate colors with some /k<type><decimal> flags. For more info, read the "Colors" section in this brief guide. Acknowledgments: I warmly thank Mr. M. Romanycia for trying out for me versions α ß Γ δ ε ∞. Marc's numerous comments helped make this program a much better one. They also made for numerous sleepless nights... Of course, Mr. M. Cox also deserves high praise for his ModPlay program. Keep up the good work, Mark! Public Request: If you have any modules I don't have, please let me know where you got them. MUSIQUE.MEN lists all the modules that I have. Thanks! Franzl