Spectrum Computing

Pegaz wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:40 am Finally, after two months of searching I found it !!!
The file is called Normal Life, I don't know anything about it, but the music is absolutely beautiful.
Enjoy.

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 2652916518

Sounds like a .mod file using samples down-sampled from ST-01

Is that good or bad?
Either way, if there were more Spectrum tunes like this, I'd love to hear it.

Pegaz wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 7:35 pm Is that good or bad?
Either way, if there were more Spectrum tunes like this, I'd love to hear it.

There aren't many. It's likely using sampled instruments in a soundtracker-like system from the sounds of it. Seems to be an original composition at least, there's no Amiga mods that sound quite like it.

I think the Bicie demo has one in a similar vein, but it's not Mike Oldfield

There’s Instrument, a sampler (in TR-DOS format) which has similar sounds. It comes with quite a few demo songs (and clunky navigation, which requires that you swap disks to load the necessary instruments for each song). I don’t think it’s been used extensively outside of demos, though. It’s neat, though. Check it out.

It looks like Sample Tracker, or something using the same playback routine. This is one example of using different AY ports along with the out ($fd), a instruction, so that the BC register doesn't have to change between register selection and data writes.

There are a lot more tunes here, but not all are for the AY chip.

Before you found the program, I thought you were referring to music that had simply been digitised and not recreated using a tracker. MQM 6 includes a good example of digitised music.

After the Border Effects feature group, I was thinking that a "digital sound effects" feature group might also make sense, there are plenty of games and apps with 48k and 128k digital voices and sound effects.

ZXDunny wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 8:17 pm There aren't many. It's likely using sampled instruments in a soundtracker-like system from the sounds of it. Seems to be an original composition at least, there's no Amiga mods that sound quite like it.

I think the Bicie demo has one in a similar vein, but it's not Mike Oldfield

I tried that demo and I have to say that the Oldfield song is far better.
If we need to look for competition, we can find it easier in some of the great 1-bit beeper tunes, such as the last theme in MrBeep's great "1-bit attack" demo.
Btw, that "Bicie" demo has also one 1-bit beeper tune, but for some reason I can't get sound at all, just border effects.
I tried it on the latest SpecEmu in both 128/48k mode, so I have no doubt about the quality of the emulation.
Probably I overlooked something, does anyone know how to play this tune?

Pegaz wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:48 pm

ZXDunny wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 8:17 pm There aren't many. It's likely using sampled instruments in a soundtracker-like system from the sounds of it. Seems to be an original composition at least, there's no Amiga mods that sound quite like it.

I think the Bicie demo has one in a similar vein, but it's not Mike Oldfield

I tried that demo and I have to say that the Oldfield song is far better.
If we need to look for competition, we can find it easier in some of the great 1-bit beeper tunes, such as the last theme in MrBeep's great "1-bit attack" demo.
Btw, that "Bicie" demo has also one 1-bit beeper tune, but for some reason I can't get sound at all, just border effects.
I tried it on the latest SpecEmu in both 128/48k mode, so I have no doubt about the quality of the emulation.
Probably I overlooked something, does anyone know how to play this tune?

Last time I tried, it worked fine on my +2A from the covertape itself. No idea why it might fail under emulation.

ZXDunny wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:50 pm Last time I tried, it worked fine on my +2A from the covertape itself. No idea why it might fail under emulation.

So the +2A (and presumably the 128K too then) produce audible MIC output through the TV speaker with the Beeper bit off? The reason for the silence in SpecEmu is that it's stated in the FAQ (or at least somewhere :p) that the MIC output alone can't drive the speaker but can be used for a slight increase in volume when used with the Beeper bit.

Pegaz wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:48 pm I tried it on the latest SpecEmu in both 128/48k mode, so I have no doubt about the quality of the emulation.
Probably I overlooked something, does anyone know how to play this tune?

You could use the "Boost saving tone" option in the Tape options to boost the MIC output to an audible level. It might be a bit loud though!

Great, it's working now.
Thanks Woody.

Woodster wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 2:48 pm

ZXDunny wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:50 pm Last time I tried, it worked fine on my +2A from the covertape itself. No idea why it might fail under emulation.

So the +2A (and presumably the 128K too then) produce audible MIC output through the TV speaker with the Beeper bit off? The reason for the silence in SpecEmu is that it's stated in the FAQ (or at least somewhere :p) that the MIC output alone can't drive the speaker but can be used for a slight increase in volume when used with the Beeper bit.

Had the demo back in the early 90s (possibly 92 or 93) along with a +2a (black, not the one I have now) on a 14" colour portable. Bicie demo definitely produced beeper sound on the second option - I recall the AY sound being better than the beeper.

Pegaz wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:48 pm Btw, that "Bicie" demo has also one 1-bit beeper tune, but for some reason I can't get sound at all, just border effects.

On a real Spectrum (all models), toggling either the MIC or the EAR bit of Port #FE will energize/de-energize the beeper. On 16K/48K Spectrums, it is physically the same pin of the ULA; on 128K machines, there are two separate ULA pins that are either shorted together (128K/+2) or connected via resistors and decoupling capacitors (+2A/+3).

Not all emulators follow this behavior, preferring instead to generate sound only if Bit 4 (EAR) is toggled. I tried the demo on zxsp, RVM, and SpecIde, and they all generated sound on the beeper without problems. Fuse and SpectREM didn’t.

hikoki wrote: ↑Sun Nov 17, 2019 12:51 pm

Neil Parsons wrote: ↑Sun Nov 17, 2019 11:59 am I've developed more stuff and everybody can find them here.

I've noticed that your Aquanoid reduced version is not in the archive yet
http://www.elmundodelspectrum.com/aquan ... l-parsons/

Cheers

It's a simplified version of the original game with a different map I made earlier as a test, prior to next and definite development of Aquanoids.

Whenever I can, I'll provide the TZX file of this Aquanoids Redux.

Neil Parsons wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 6:13 pm

hikoki wrote: ↑Sun Nov 17, 2019 12:51 pm I've noticed that your Aquanoid reduced version is not in the archive yet
http://www.elmundodelspectrum.com/aquan ... l-parsons/

Cheers

It's a simplified version of the original game with a different map I made earlier as a test, prior to next and definite development of Aquanoids.

Whenever I can, I'll provide the TZX file of this Aquanoids Redux.

Thanks hik and Neil. I looked into this, but I couldn't work out exactly what the reduced version was, and if it should be added to the archive. I also didn't add the main version of Aquanoids, I think because it was a commercial release at the time. Should I add both to the archive?

@R-Tape: Yeah, of course! I still have to send sometime my redux version of the game and its source code.

Have you tried this? http://www.pouet.net/groups.php?which=12433