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- ******************************************************************************
- ** HippoPlayer **
- * The Moduleplayer for smaller Amigas *
- * *
- * Programmed by K-P Koljonen (Moonstone/HPD) *
- * - A Hippopotamus Design production 1994 - *
- * *
- * This program may be freely distributed *
- * as long as all files are included unaltered! *
- * Copyright © 1994 K-P Koljonen *
- ** FREEWARE **
- ******************************************************************************
-
- HippoPlayer (HiP) is a moduleplayer for the Amiga. It it works perfectly
- under Kickstart 1.2 and has about all the same features as the Multiplayer,
- which is Kick2.0+ only. One main reason why I bothered myself by making
- this program was that there were no good Kick1.3 compatible players around.
- The other reason was that my good friend Jarno Paananen (Guru/Sahara
- Surfers) made a replayroutine for Scream Tracker ]I[ modules.
-
- Hip is the best Kickstart 1.2/1.3 moduleplayer I've seen so far. It
- doesn't need over 100kb of disk space nor memory, and can't play dozens of
- weird music formats. It can cope with some different music formats,
- though. I have to mention, that the Protracker replayer in HiP is my own,
- and quite fast. Average rasterline usage (on A500) is 3 and maximum is
- 6-7. Beat that ;-)... HiP also supports multisong PT-modules (see below).
-
- HiP has a good support for Scream Tracker ]I[, FastTracker, TakeTracker,
- and MultiTracker modules, meaning that you can listen them with a 68000
- Amiga with listenable quality. All are played by the famous replayer by
- Guru.
-
-
- Some features:
- · Scream Tracker ]I[, FastTracker, TakeTracker, MultiTracker, 1 to 32ch.
- · The Player 6.0A. Samples may be packed, but not in a different file.
- · TFMX modules, normal and the seven channel-ones
- · Oktalyzer modules. Really good quality due to the turbocharged replayer.
- · A handful of other 4 channel sample & synth music formats.
- · Easy to use, nice 3D interface.
- · Moduleprogram. Can be loaded and saved.
- · Memory usage about 100kb.
- · Loads and decompresses XPK, FImp and PowerPacker files.
- · Internal multitasking.
- · Tested and works on A500 running Kickstarts 1.2, 1.3 and 3.0.
-
-
- ****************
- * Requirements *
- ****************
- Any Amiga with some memory and Kickstart 1.2 or higher.
- Reqtools.library of any version will be needed for requesters.
-
- In order to decompress XPK or PowerPacker files, you will need
- xpkmaster.library (with some sublibs) and powerpacker.library.
-
- For MED modules (4 channels), medplayer.library V2 or higher
- will be required.
-
- These mentioned libraries are included in the package. Among them are
- some XPK sublibs too. You should copy the desired libraries into your
- LIBS: drawer. Note that only the reqtools.library is absolutely necessary.
-
- The program will run fine on 512kb Amigas but decompressing bigger files
- may not work due to greater use of memory.
-
- HippoPlayer can be loaded from CLI or Workbench. An own process will
- be created so there's no need to run it. This also means that you
- mustn't merge hunks in the file.
-
- reqtools.library and powerpacker.library by Nico François.
- medplayer.library by Teijo Kinnunen.
-
- *****************
- * Music formats *
- *****************
- Here's a list of the music formats in HippoPlayer and what functions
- they support. Also the authors are listed.
-
- Stop/Continue = 1 - The music can be stopped and continued at will.
- Multiple songs = 2 - Modules can have more than one song.
- Volume = 3 - Volume can be controlled.
- End detect = 4 - The end of the song can be detected.
- Forward/backward = 5 - You can jump forwards and backwards in the song.
-
- Replayer 12345 Author
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
- BP SoundMon x---- Brian Postma
- Fred xx--- JC & Frederic Hahn
- Future Composer v1.0-v1.4 x-xx- SuperSero (of the Superions)
- JamCracker x---- M. Gemmel
- MED 4ch x---- Teijo Kinnunen
- Music Assembler x-x-- Oscar Giesen & Marco Swagerman
- Oktalyzer 8ch --x-- Armin Sander
- Protracker xxxxx K-P Koljonen
- S3M/FTM/MOD/MTM --x-- Jarno Paananen
- SIDMon v1.0 x---- Reiner van Vliet
- TFMX xxx-- Chris Hülsbeck
- TFMX 7ch xx--- Chris Hülsbeck
- The Player v6.0A x-xx- Jarno Paananen
-
- Note that not all of the functions work on all replayers. Eg you can't
- stop Oktalyzer when you've started it. Well you can, but only by ejecting,
- so you can't continue.
-
- Normally all modules will be loaded in CHIP. Oktalyzer- and
- S3M/FTM/MOD/MTM modules and TFMX songdata will be loaded in FAST RAM if
- possible.
- All compressed files will normally be loaded in CHIP. However, it's
- possible to uncompress some kilobytes from the beginning of a XPKed file,
- and check if it is a S3M/FTM/MOD/MTM-, or PT module, which is to be passed
- to the mixing replayer, OR TFMX music data. This slowes the loading down a
- bit, but speed is gained because FAST is FASTer than CHIP. This feature
- can be controlled from the prefs window.
-
-
- Protracker
- ----------
- There are some modules around with several songs separated by the B
- command. HiP allows you to play these kind of modules correctly. Just use
- the 'PS' and 'NS' gadgets to select different songs.
-
- TFMX
- ----
- HiP can play both 4 and 7 channel TFMX modules, including the excellent
- Turrican 2 and 3 intro tunes.
- A TFMX module consists of two files. They must be named 'mdat.<name>' and
- 'smpl.<name>'. To play, select 'mdat.<name>'. HippoPlayer will then try
- to load the 'smpl.<name>' file.
-
- The mixing rate of TFMX 7 channel replayer can be changed. The bigger
- value, the better quality and bigger CPU load.
-
- S3M/FTM/MOD/MTM
- ---------------
- (ScreamTracker ]I[/FastTracker/TakeTracker/MultiTracker)
-
- Jarno Paananen (Guru/Sahara Surfers) has made replayers for these. The
- mixing routine is amazingly fast. Even on Amiga 500 8 channel modules are
- very listenable. The replayer gobbles quite a bit of memory for it's
- buffers, so don't be surprised.
-
- Mixing rates can be changed. Again, the bigger value, the better quality
- and bigger CPU load. Using the system friendly mode on A500 will probably
- more or less jam the machine, therefore you should use the killer mode for
- the best quality.
-
- ***********
- * Gadgets *
- ***********
-
- New Clear the modulelist, select new modules and play the first one.
-
- Play Load and/or play the selected module. If nothing selected, pop up
- the filerequester.
-
- Cont Continue playing after stop.
-
- Stop Stop playing.
-
- Eject Stop playing and free the current module.
-
- Prev Load and play previous module.
-
- Next Load and play next module.
-
- PS Play previous song.
-
- NS Play next song.
-
- Add Add modules to the end of the list, pop up the filerequester.
-
- Del Delete the selected module from the list.
-
- Clr Clear the list.
-
- < Backward, jump to previous pattern.
-
- > Forward, jump to next pattern.
-
- LoP Load moduleprogram.
-
- SaP Save moduleprogram.
-
- Prefs Pop up the prefs window. You can also close it with this button.
-
- Vol Volume controller (min=0, max=64).
-
- The leftmost propgadget
- Scroll modulelist.
-
- ? Enter the info menu.
- Samplenames Display samplenames of MODs, S3Ms, FTMs and
- MTMs.
- Help Description of gadgets.
- More More info..
- Exit ??
-
- Windowclose-button
- Close all windows except requesters and exit.
-
- *********
- * Prefs *
- *********
-
- Mode (what to do when a module finishes)
- ----
- Repeat Play the modulelist over and over.
- Through Play the list once stop.
- Repeat module Play one module over and over.
- Module Play one module once and stop.
- Random "Shuffleplay". Play modules in random order.
- When playing has started, same module will not be played twice
- unless all modules have been played.
-
- The 'mode' switch affects the replayers where the end of the song can be
- detected from.
-
- Show (titlebar information)
- ----
- Time Show playing time.
- Songposition/length Protracker only. You should know this.
- Songnumber Show current songnumber.
-
- PT tempo (Protracker tempo command)
- -----------------------------------
- Enable or disable Protracker tempo command. This affects Protracker and
- the Player replayers. Use on old modules that use speeds higher than $1F.
-
- Filter
- ------
- Filter contolled by module, filter forced off or on.
-
- Go - scopes
- -----------
- Select one of the four scopes by clicking the larger gadget. The 'Go'
- button will start it up. You can close a scope by closing it's window or
- clicking the 'Go' again. All the four scopes work only with Protracker
- modules.
-
- Quadrascope (& bars)
- - This is just like the one in Protracker, but has no bugs and is very
- fast. Draws 4*80 pixels.
- Hipposcope (& bars)
- - Couldn't invent a better name.. This is a nice one. Draws 4*104 pixels.
- Bars
- - These will try to visualize the volume and the period of each channel.
-
- The original quadrascope routine can draw 91000 pixels/second (91
- kilopixels?), and the original hipposcope routine can draw 56000
- pixels/second (on my MC68010 1mb chip 2mb fast A500). The routines in HiP
- are the same, I just reduced the amount of pixels. I also managed to do
- the whole thing with just one system call! The result: four fast
- scoperoutines.
-
- The scopes will need 5kb of chip and 32kb of any memory for buffers, and
- are run with priority of -5 so that they won't interfere with anything
- important.
-
- PT replayer normal/mixing
- -------------------------
- Normal: Use normal Protracker replayer to play modules.
- Mixing: Use Guru's replayer to play modules (PT mod = 4ch FTM).
- This way you can use those neat modes, eg listen Protracker modules
- with real surround.
-
- (Mixing) rates
- --------------
- With these you can control the mixing rates. S3M/FTM/MOD/MTM settings are
- the same. The unit is kHz and the TFMX unit is unknown, probably kHz, too.
-
- See 'Music formats'.
-
- Guru's modes (mixing, S3M/FTM/MOD/MTM)
- --------------------------------------
- 1st box
- ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
- System Allow multitasking when playing.
- Killer Disable system and swallow all CPU to get better quality.
- Stop playing with the left mousebutton.
- The blue flickering represents the free CPU time.
-
- 2nd box (Surround, Stereo, Mono, Real surround, 14-bit stereo)
- ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
- Some different ways of playing. Neat.
-
- 3rd box (Value 0-8)
- ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
- This is the volumeboost. It makes the sound clearer and louder with 8 or
- more channels.
-
- Module dir - Select
- -------------------
- Here you can enter your module directory or select it with requester.
-
- XPK id on/off
- -------------
- When on, all XPKed files will be checked if they should be loaded in FAST.
-
- Save, Use, Cancel
- -----------------
- I guess you can guess these. If you close the prefs window, it's same as
- 'Cancel'ling. The prefs-file will be saved in S: directory.
-
-
- *******************
- * Module selector *
- *******************
- Here you can see the modulelist. You can select a module by pressing the
- left mousebutton on it.
-
- *********************
- * Right mousebutton *
- *********************
- Pressing the right mousebutton will shrink the window so that only the
- titlebar will be shown. Press again on the activated window to expand.
-
- If you somehow loose the window, just load the program again. If there
- already was one HippoPlayer running, it's window will be popped to front
- and expanded.
-
- ***********************
- * Commandline options *
- ***********************
- You can add modules or load a moduleprogram with commandline options.
-
- Add modules to the list:
- HiP <file2> <file2> ... <file16>
-
- All the files will be added to the list and the first one will be played.
-
- Load a moduleprogram:
- HiP PRG <moduleprogram>
-
- The program will be loaded and the first module will be played. If the
- playmode is set as 'Random', then a random module will be picked and
- played. This is a nice feature if you happen to have many modules on your
- hard your disk.
-
-
- ***********
- * History *
- ***********
-
- v1.00 Works...
- I couldn't check the bug I suspected because a friend of
- mine wanted to upload the program everywhere. This bug causes
- memory to get fragmented when loading XPK files.
-
- v1.01 No major bugs left..
-
- v1.10 · Removed some small bugs here and there.
- · A description of the gadgets in the program.
- · Support for multisong Protracker modules.
- · Replayer which plays S3M/FTM/MOD/MTM modules, by Guru (jee).
- · Load/save moduleprogram.
- · Commandline options.
- · Four scopes.
- · Communication between most of HiP's processes. All windows except
- reqtools requesters will be closed when the mainwindow is closed.
- · Window positions will be saved in the prefs-file. Also the state
- of the scope (on/off) will be saved.
- · Doesn't interfere with serial transfers on slower Amigas anymore.
- Exceptions are MED, TFMX, The Player 6.0A.
- They use their own way of timing (level 6 here I come).
- · Works correctly on both PAL and NTSC.
- · Behaves more intelligently with bigger fonts, eh...
- · If playingmode is 'Random', Next/Prev will randomize a new
- module instead of what they would normally do.
- · Removed a bug in ProTracker's arpeggio.
- · Newlook propgadgets on Kickstarts 2.0+.
-
- v1.11 · Now should work on 36/50/60/72Hz screens correctly.
- · New icon.
- · Filter control in Prefs.
- · Doesn't try to open windows over screen borders.
- · Info menu, in which option to show samplenames.
- · TFMX channel autodetect.
- · New PS3M -> Mixingrate: 5-56 kHz, volumeboost: 0-8
- · Lotsa fixes'n stuff.
-
- ********
- * .... *
- ********
- The program was made by using the Asm-One v1.06. Pure assembler 100%+++...
- My best regards go to Jarno Paananen!
-
- If anyone possesses any kind of music by Chris Hülsbeck, especially the
- album "Shades", or wants to swap modules (I've over 100Mb) or real music
- (hardrock, heavy, trash, death), contact me! Also normal stuff like bug
- reports, comments & suggestions could be sent to:
-
- Kari-Pekka Koljonen
- Torikatu 31
- 40900 Säynätsalo
- Finland
- Phone: 941-3742699 / +358-41-3742699.
-