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Atari Mega Archive 1
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Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso
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fort11a.lzh
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README
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1994-04-27
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FORTUNE V1.1
by Harald Schönfeld and Bernd Spellenberg
4/17/94
Fortune is a program to play and create sound cites on your ATARI FALCON.
Like on big UNIX computers, your computer will welcome you at boot time by
telling you a cite of a VIP. While the cites are only written on other
computers, the FALCON's sound system makes it possible for you to hear the
original cite.
This program is Public Domain in this version. It may be copied and spread
by private persons for non-commercial purpose under the condition that all
program- and text- files of this archive are included. Distribution by PD
Disk series, publication in magazines and any commercial use is allowed only
with permission of the authors.
Cites consist of sound data, cite text and eventually more additional
information about the cite. In boot mode the cites are simply played with or
without texts. If the program is launched later by double-clicking on it, it
allows you to create and change cites from samples.
A nice feature of Fortune is its ability to import and convert many
different sample file formats.
New in version 1.1:
- Timer function (esp. in MultiTOS)
- different boot modes
- command line parsing
- drag & drop (only in MultiTOS)
- Support of 3D effects in TOS 4.02 or higher or MultiTOS
- Short cuts to select options via keyboard
- Some bugfixes
1. System requirements
Fortune runs on all FALCON computers, no matter if MultiTOS is installed or
not. As the cites include sampled sounds they need a lot of space on the
mass storage unit. So a harddisk is required. Fortune needs about 500 KB
free RAM. To hear the cites you should either use the internal speaker, the
speaker of the monitor or connect the FALCON to a stereo amplifier. You can
use a headphone, too.
2. Installation
Copy the program (FORTUNEG.PRG=german, FORTUNEE.PRG=english) onto your
harddisk. Copy the cite files (*.CIT) onto your harddisk into a separate
folder.
Install FORTUNEx.PRG as an application. To do so, select FORTUNEx.PRG with
the mouse and choose "Install Application" in the Desktop Menu. Type in
MANAGE as parameter. If you want that FORTUNE plays a cite during boot
time, select the "Auto" boot status. Save the desktop configuration.
Start FORTUNEx.PRG now and select the menu item "Config/File format...". You
can choose the folder that contains the cites: Click onto the popup "Cite
folder" and select the right path in the file select box. If you already
have a special folder for samples you can select it in the same way.
Save the configuration with "Config/Save".
Now select "File/cite". Fortune will now play a randomly chosen cite. If you
don't hear anything, check the installation again.
3. Usage
a) Boot mode
In boot mode fortune will only play one cite (and will eventually show some
text) and terminates right after that. If you press a SHIFT-Key during the
program start, fortune will start in Manage mode.
Boot mode is aktivated by:
- no program parameter: A random cite is played.
- "BOOT " as parameter: The same.
- "BOOT NAME.CIT" as parameters: The cite with the name "NAME.CIT" is
played.
The parameters may be entered in a command line. It is also possible to
install the program as an application in the desktop. If a cite file icon is
dragged onto the FORTUNE icon in the desktop, the file name will be given to
FORTUNE as second parameter in TOS 4.x. Attention: Under MultiTOS the
parameter entered at "Install Application" will be lost in that case.
b) Manage mode
After a normal program start the Fortune menu appears.
The manage mode is activated by:
- "MANAGE " as parameter: The main menu appears.
- Pressing the Shift key during program start: The same.
- Activating the alarm function: The same.
- "FILE.CIT" as parameter: The cite will be played, then the main menu
appears.
- "MANAGE FILE.CIT": The same.
There are the following menu items:
Desk/about FORTUNE...
Informs about the current version number.
File/cite
Randomly plays a cite. According to "Config/Play mode...", the text will or
will not be shown. The sound data will be loaded in real time therefore only
very little memory will be needed. You can also play very long cites (or
music). If other programs are running in parallel it is possible that the
data could not be loaded fast enough.
File/Manager...
Here you can select samples for import, edit sound data, export samples and
load/save cites. You can further edit the text information of the cites.
At the beginning you have to select a sample or an existing cite:
klick onto the popup Import/Sample or Import/Cite. The file will be loaded
and scanned, the filename appears in the popup. You can select EITHER a
sample OR a cite for input.
If you are using MultiTOS 1.08 you may also drag a cite file icon from a
desktop window into the manage window.
If Fortune is unable to recognize any header, a dialog appears, where you
can select the format of the sample to load:
- The frequency
- The pack/data format
- The number format: Signed or unsigned
many old ST samples are 8 Bit Mono unsigned.
The text information of the cite can be edited by "Cite", "Source" and
"Remark". When selecting one of these buttons, a box appears in which you
can write the text. Use our cites as guidelines. You can also select the
language of the cite.
If you import a sample file and there exists already text data of a former
cite, you can choose to keep them.
In "Edit" you can pinpoint the beginning and the end of the cite within
your sound data up to 1/100 second. The left four buttons are used for the
beginning, the right ones for the end. "Play" plays the current cut.
It is important to choose the cut properly to avoid any disturbing noise
and - even more important - every useless 1/100 second costs up to 2000
Bytes of harddisk space.
"Info" shows informations about the current input file. Please pay
attention to the fact that length is the length of the raw sound data
without any headers.
"cite" plays the current cite sound
Saving the samples and cites:
In the box "Save" you find two buttons and to popups for saving.
Normally you will first klick on the popup to type the filename in the
following file select box. The data will be saved and the name appears in
the popup.
If there already is a name in the popup, you can just klick on the according
button to save the data under this name.
If import and export cite (or sample) have the same name, a temporary file
will be created on the harddisk. Therefore it is possible that the data
could not be saved even if there should be enough space on the disk.
File/Quit
Terminates the program.
Config/File format...
First, you can type the default paths for your sample and cite files. Klick
on the according popup and select the folder.
Select sample format
Fortune can read and write samples in 5 different formats:
- DVSM: For Fortune and WinRec
- AVR: Many ATARI St/Falcon Programs
- SND: Sun, NeXT, Mac
- WAV: PC
- Raw data: Raw data for many programs
Select pack format
Moreover, you can choose in which pack format the cite sounds should be
saved and the samples sould be exported. Basically the following formats are
possible (not all are implemented in every case):
- Keep: the sound data will not be changed.
- 16 Bit Stereo: save in 2 channels with 16 Bit each.
- 16 Bit deltapack: save as logarithmic compressed data, that needs 50%
less memory but sounds nearly like 16 Bit.
- 16 Bit µ-LAW: Only needs 8 Bit, sounds better than 8 Bit, but worse than
deltapack. Used on Sun and NeXT.
- 8 Bit Stereo
- 16 Bit Mono: if stereo data should be saved as mono, both channels are
added together.
- 16 Bit Mono deltapack
- 16 Bit Mono µ-LAW
- 8 Bit Mono: Better use deltapack!
Notice that it is almost useless to convert a worse format to a better one.
It only requires more memory but sounds the same. But it is possible that
other programms support only some formats.
Converting µ-LAW to deltapack can result in slightly wor