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Cream of the Crop 1
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1991-09-21
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[---------- Pocket Rocket V1.1 - By Ford Prefect (SSR) -------------]
Another fine HackerWare Production
[---------------------------------------------------------------------------]
wow mom
| |
| The SoundBlaster Drum Kit |
| |
mom wow
[---------------------------------------------------------------------------]
(don't ask)
D O C U M E N T A T I O N
- What the heck is Pocket Rocket?
Pocket Rocket is a scroovy program that will turn your IBM compatible
computer (equipped with a SoundBlaster of course) into a drum kit that Neil
Peart would envy <well...>. It allows you to add 8 of your own custom drum
sounds to the 15 already available! We're talking major sibling annoyance
here!
- Unpacking list
The original Pocket Rocket was packaged with ZIP. If you grab a copy of it
and it is using something other than ZIP, there is a chance it is a bad copy.
Chances are, if it's a bad copy this won't be here unless the person is very
very stupid, so saying anything won't matter. QED.
When you unZIP, you should find all of these files, and a couple more if
you're lucky. Just make a new directory called POCKET or something silly
like that and you'll be golden.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILENAME EXT SIZE DATE TIME DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SVGA256 BGI 5410 09-21-91 4:18p Graphics Driver
EXTINS DAT 22 09-21-91 4:18p Extra Instrument Data File
BASS DM 576 09-21-91 4:18p Digitized File: Bass Drum
BONGO1 DM 607 09-21-91 4:18p " " Low Bongo
BONGO2 DM 1036 09-21-91 4:18p " " High Bongo
CLOSEDHI DM 459 09-21-91 4:18p " " Closed HiHat
COWBELL1 DM 1295 09-21-91 4:18p " " High Cowbell
COWBELL2 DM 635 09-21-91 4:18p " " Low Cowbell
CYMBAL DM 33030 09-21-91 4:18p " " Crash Cymbal
OPENHI DM 1670 09-21-91 4:18p " " Open HiHat
RIDE DM 6292 09-21-91 4:18p " " Ride Cymbal
SNARE DM 1271 09-21-91 4:18p " " Snare Drum
SYNTOM1 DM 1454 09-21-91 4:18p " " High Synth Tom
SYNTOM2 DM 2079 09-21-91 4:18p " " Low Synth Tom
TOM1 DM 2212 09-21-91 4:18p " " High Tom
TOM2 DM 2840 09-21-91 4:18p " " Mid Tom
TOM3 DM 2951 09-21-91 4:18p " " Low Tom
CT-VOICE DRV 2493 09-21-91 4:18p SoundBlaster Driver
PR EXE 49328 09-21-91 4:18p Pocket Rocket executable file
HWLABS FXG 9759 09-21-91 4:18p Graphics: Picture
MAIN FXG 20241 09-21-91 4:18p " "
TITLE FXG 7703 09-21-91 4:18p " "
INTRO1 HWV 30116 09-21-91 4:18p Digitized: Intro Song
THUD HWV 4386 09-21-91 4:18p " Intro Sound FX
HWLABS PIK 4015 09-21-91 4:18p Text Mode Graphics: Picture
MAIN PIK 4015 09-21-91 4:18p " " " "
TITLE PIK 4015 09-21-91 4:18p " " " "
HITOM VOC 1674 09-21-91 4:18p Digitized: High Tom #2
LOTOM VOC 1673 09-21-91 4:18p " Low Tom #2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Setting it up
Once you've gotten it shoved into a directory and unZIPped, the next step
would be to run PR.EXE. Simply type PR at the DOS prompt. The first time
you run it, and any time the file PR.CFG is missing, Pocket Rocket will bring
you through the configuration process step-by-step. The process is self-
explanatory, thus the subject does not require any explanation.
- What's next buddy?
Well, it would be a bright idea to turn your stereo or speakers or whatever
you use for output ON at this point. Be sure not to confuse the ON and the
OFF positions of your equipment, they DO both begin with O. After you go
thru the configuration process, a couple title screens should go by, and you
should end up at a screen that says POCKET ROCKET V1.1 and all sorts of other
stuff. At the bottom of the screen messages should be displayed. If at this
point you do not hear any music, either you confused ON and OFF, or you
didn't set up the SoundBlaster correctly. If it was the latter, you simply
have to figure out what the configuration of your 'Blaster is and re-run PR
with the /C switch. (ie. PR /C).
- OK, So I'm at this screen with the messages and the music. What next?
Well, congratulations for making it this far! Here you can watch all of
the messages (there are lots of them), and then hit any key whenever you are
ready to continue.
- Wow, man.. I hit a key!
After some drive grinding you should be at a new screen that shows keyboard
commands with drum labels next to them. Now comes the easy part: Hit some
keys! Go ahead.. You can't break it! <well, just don't go hitting
ctrl-alt-del) After some practice, you should be able to play some simple
drum beats without too much of a problem. Oh yeah, you can hit ESC to exit.
- OK, like tell me about some command line options, eh?
OK. Here goes!
PR /C - Configure Pocket Rocket
PR /S - Skip the opening screens and go right to PR. <GOOD IDEA after a bit>
Pretty tough, huh?
- ADVANCED FEATURES & STUFF
A pretty funky thing to do is to edit the EXTINS.DAT file. This is the
file that contains the extended instrument filenames. These files must be
standard .VOC format files, and you may have up to eight of them. Another
unfortunate limitation is that the files have to be less than 64K in length,
and, as common sense would dictate, can't be larger than your total system
memory. If you have problems when you add a file to the list (ie. the
program dies horribly), you probably have an extra carriage return in the
file, causing it to try to read an extra file. Simply delete the offendor
and be on your way.
An example file might look like:
E:\SOUND\SAMPLES\YO.VOC
E:\SOUND\DP25\CHILL.VOC
E:\SOUND\SAMPLES\ORCH_HIT.VOC
E:\SOUND\SAMPLES\WOODSTOK.VOC
TOM1.VOC
TOM2.VOC
D:\DOWNLOAD\BURP.VOC
- Extended keyboard layout:
Of course I couldn't fit ALL of the keystrokes on the screen at the same
time, so here are the numeric keypad commands (without num-lock):
/ = High Cowbell
* = Low Cowbell
- = Low Tom
+ = Stop Current Voice
7 = High Tom
8 = Mid Tom
9 = Low Tom
4 = Snare Drum
6 = Snare Drum
1 = Closed HiHat
2 = Open HiHat
3 = Crash Cymbal
0 = Bass Drum (non-repeating)
With Num-Lock on, the keypad will act as normal number keys, and will
correspond with the keystrokes shown. Also, on the standard keyboard, the
spacebar will stop the current voice if one is playing.
- Conclusions
Well, hey, the program works.
- What's in the future?
I'm thinking about writing a program similar to PcBeat in that you can edit
drum patterns on the screen, and arrange patterns into groupings to make
songs. This is a bit off into the future seeing as time is short these days.
Drop me a line and tell me what you think about it!
- So what the (@* is HackerWare?
HackerWare is an attempt to unclog the arteries of the FREE FLOW OF
INFORMATION. It was co-founded by myself (Ford Prefect) and Rock (o). We
publish programs for free, often including source code. We're not in it for
the money, we're in it for the fun. So, support HackerWare and, more
importantly SUPPORT THE FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION.