StarPlayer 2.25 by Oxygen [web]
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version 2.25
released 14th feb 1996
1oo% assembly coding by jedi / oxygen
------------------------------- -------- ----- - -
welcome to starplayer
- - ----- ------- ----------------------------------
welcome to version 2.25 of starplayer. for those who dont know, starplayer is
a s3m/mod/mtm module player for the PC which supports the Gravis Ultrasound
and SoundBlaster series of sound cards. unlike most other players, starplayer
is a 32-bit protected mode multi-module player. this means it uses your 386
or higher processor to load many modules into extended memory and then play
any of these while taking only minimal conventional ram.
new to version 2.24 is cd-audio support. using your cdrom drive and MSCDEX
cdrom driver starplayer extends its background playing and track switching
abilities to cd audio. the 'C' key in the main screen or popup menu switches
between normal and cd audio modes. all the scroll-lock function key abilities
have been extended to this mode, including shift key detect for single track
play. a summary of hot-keys available in this mode:
F1-F8 : start playing tracks 1-8 on the cd. if shift key is also held
then only a single track is played, otherwise it defaults to
disc play.
F9 : stop/resume playing current track.
F10 : activates the popup menu with additional commands
F11 : rewind current track by 10 seconds
shift-F11 : rewind current track by 20 seconds
ctrl-F11 : play previous track on cd
alt-F11 : decrease cd volume, if supported by your cdrom drive
F12 : fastforward current track by 10 seconds
shift-F12 : fastforward current track by 20 seconds
ctrl-F12 : play next track on cd
alt-F12 : increase cd volume, if supported by your cdrom drive
in addition, these keys are available in the popup menu in this mode:
ESC : quit menu back to program
C : toggle between cd-audio and normal mode
E : eject/close cd tray
it is recommended that this function is always used when changing
compact discs so starplayer knows when to load the stats from a
new disc.
*** NEW! Oxygen Mailing Lists ***
we have now set up two mailing lists where you can get all the latest oxygen
news and starplayer releases sent straight to your mailbox:
oxygen-list announcements of the latest oxygen releases and
new starplayer releases in uuencoded format
oxygen-talk discussion of oxygen matters
to subscribe send mail to listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za
with a body of subscribe <listname> <your name>
i.e. subscribe oxygen-list bill gates
------------------------------ -------- ----- - -
instructions
- - ----- ------- ----------------------------------
starplayer should be loaded from dos. the command line format is:
starplay [-?] [-options] [filespec]
soundcard type, address, irq and dma settings are determined from either the
ULTRASND= or BLASTER= environment variables. starplayer will first check for
the presence of a gus and then, failing that, a soundblaster.
NOTE: starplayer does not detect soundcards via hardware, so ensure that
these settings are present and correct!
the format for the soundblaster environment variable is
SET BLASTER=A2x0 Ix Dx Tx
where:
A2x0 is the base address in hexadecimal
Ix is the irq number
Dx is the dma channel
Tx is the FM chip version (not used by starplayer)
a typical soundblaster environment statement would thus be
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T1
the option -d disables DMA sample dumping which may be necessary with certain
memory managers. if noise is heard while playing, use this option or try
removing the offending memory manager. (eg EMM386, QEMM, etc)
other options can be listed by using the -? or -h parameters.
------------------------------- -------- ----- - -
main screen:
when you enter the module player you will be presented with a status bar
at the top of the screen and a list of options at the bottom. the player
version number, and active device statistics are listed at the bottom. if a
filespec is presented on the command line, the player will attempt to load
these modules (wildcard filespecs are permitted) and play the first loaded
module. when playing, channel vu bars, sample, note, volume, panning and
effect statistics are also displayed.
most of the functuality of starplayer has been taken from this screen and
placed in the f10 popup menu. these commands are still available at this
screen however to maintain a level of similarity to previous versions of
starplayer which used a command line interface:
l <filespec> - load module(s) "filespec" into memory
the palette is faded while loading. starplayer will
attempt to load all modiles matching the filespec
into free slots. if no extension is given starplayer
will also search for '.s3m' and '.mod' files which
match the given filespec.
s - stop module. (or F9 with scroll-lock)
this will stop playing the current module.
d - shell to dos (use EXIT to return)
one of the most powerful features of starplayer is the
ability to shell to dos with 8 modules loaded into
extended ram and switch between them using hotkeys
with only minimal conventional ram overhead. the
hotkeys are only active when the scroll-lock key is on.
this enables the f-keys to still be used normally when
scroll-lock is off. the keys are listed below.
z - toggle video mode. this switches the screen between
80*25 and 80*50. this may be necessary to view all the
channel vu bars on large modules.
q / esc - quit starplayer.
in addition to these, the following keys are active in the player, and during
a dos shell, when the scroll lock key is activated.
f1-f8 - start playing song 1-8 continuously
palette is faded while loading samples onto device ram.
shift-f? - play song 1-8 only (looped)
f9 - stop playing
f10 - activate popup menu
f11 - decrease pattern
f12 - increase pattern
alt-f11 - dec. volume
alt-f12 - inc. volume
ctrl-f11 - previous song
ctrl-f12 - next song
------------------------------- -------- ----- - -
song selection menu: (f10, with scroll lock active)
this popup menu provides the backbone to the new starplayer interface.
from here it is possible to select modules to play, view sample lists, load
and save modules and release them from device and system ram.
in the centre of the menu a list of loaded modules and their size, number of
channels, samples, patterns and order length are listed. white module names
are modules which are currently loaded into device ram, while grey indicates
that when played, samples will have to be dumped to device ram.
the red highlight bar indicates the module which is currently being played.
the blue highlight bar is used to select modules for various operations. this
highlight bar can be moved using the up/down cursor keys, and with the page
up, page down, home and end keys. the keys listed at the bottom of the screen
provide various functions:
space/p/enter - play the highlighted module. enter differs from space
and p in that once the module has been started, the
popup menu will close. by holding shift while pressing
these keys will loop the highlighted module.
(ie. disable continuous play). note that the screen
will be dimmed while samples are being dumped to
device ram. (if required)
l - activate the file selection menu. (see below)
tab - load modules by specifying a direct path and filespec.
this allows the quick loading of multiple files
through the use of wildcard characters.
s - stop playing current module. (same as f9)
v - view sample list of highlighted module. this lists all
the samples of the highlighted module, with their
titles, sizes and loop positions. up and down arrows
can be used to scroll this list.
f - free samples from device ram. this removes the samples
of the last loaded module from device ram. use this if
output on a gus becomes corrupt.
r - release the last loaded module from ram. this removes
the last loaded module from both system and device ram
and frees up the last slot for other modules.
w - write highlighted module to disk. this function
prompts for a filename and will save the highlighted
module as a s3m file, which is a much more efficient
file format than mod or mtm. thus, starplayer can
function also as a mod->s3m and a mtm->s3m convertor.
esc - quits the popup menu, returning control to the
foreground program.
------------------------------- -------- ----- - -
file selection menu: ('l' from within the popup song selection menu)
this menu provides a convenient means of locating and loading modules which
may be in any path or drive on your system. the current path is indicated at
the top of the screen, and available directories and drives are listed in
white. all the files in the directory are searched to identify possible
modules. those found are listed, along with their type (S3M, MOD or MTM),
title and size in bytes.
the arrow, page up/down, home and end keys can be used to move the blue
selection bar. pressing space will tag the highlighted module to be loaded,
while * will tag all the modules found in the current path. pressing enter
on a module will load that module, plus any others which are tagged within
that directory, and return to the song selection menu. pressing enter on a
directory or drive will load any tagged modules and change the current path.
pressing esc will quit the menu without loading any tagged modules.
------------------------------- -------- ----- - -
tips from the author:
starplayer uses a few tricks and techniques which both dos and Tran's pmode
were not really designed to do. although pmode was designed to support calls
from protected mode to real mode, it was never intended to fully support a
dos shell. similarly, dos was never designed to be re-entrant or to have time
critical routines interrupted for long periods of time. therefore it is
recommended that for safe operation, the popup menu only be used when the
disk is not being accessed. it is definately recommended that modules are not
loaded when the disk is being accessed by a foreground program.
if, for some reason, starplayer only partially freezes and the keyboard
routine is still responsive, pressing control-alt-delete will attempt to
close starplayer and return to dos without causing a system reset. this is
most useful if the system freezes while dumping samples to device ram.
note that when in a DOS shell, all extended memory remains allocated and is
hence unavailable for other programs. also to prevent a system crash do not
attempt to load multiple copies of starplayer or load any other protected
mode program whilst starplayer is in memory....
------------------------------- -------- ----- - -
disclaimer
- - ----- ------- ----------------------------------
this program and associated files are freeware. as such, no money may be
charged for it, nor may it be distributed in a commercial venture. there is
no warranty or claim of fitness or reliability. the programs are distributed
AS IS, and as such neither the authors, those who have associations with the
demo group known as "oxygen", nor any data retrieval network or system from
which this was collected shall be held liable for any loss of data, down
time, loss of revenue or profit or any other direct or indirect damage or
claims caused by this program.
this program is written entirely in pmode assembler without a debugger so
don't blame us for whatever happens! we know of quite a few bugs which can
make your computer lock up, reset, fall back to dos, or play modules
incorrectly. if you find any specific bugs, PLEASE TAKE YOUR TIME TO NOTIFY
THE AUTHOR! bugs cannot be eradicated if we dont know about them!
in plain english, if it crashes your system, or causes you physical,
psychological or emotional torment, or causes your cat to go off its food,
tough! :-)
------------------------------ -------- ----- - -
oxygen's members
- - ----- ------- ----------------------------------
handle main tasks machine
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
jedi coder,musician 486dx4100 vlb, 8mb ram, 1mb GUS, SB 1.5
kitsune musician,graphician a500, 1mb ram, wb2
statix coder,miscellaneous 386dx40, 4mb ram, 1mb GUS, SB 2.2
mantissa coder 486dx266 pci, 16mb ram, 1mb GUS
jase musician 486dx33, 8mb ram, 1mb GUS, tb multisnd
------------------------------ -------- ----- - -
major releases
- - ----- ------- ----------------------------------
dos (electronic programmers tar):
product talent description
------------------------------------------------------------------------->
cyanide.zip rb/kt/stx/xc Cyanide Demo for the PC - won the 1994 C-Party
cyndptch.zip stx Cyanide Patch for Lame Sound Cards (SB et al)
starp100.zip jd/stx Starplayer - Best S3M player for the GUS yet.
startro.zip jd/kt/stx BBS Loader for Star BBS
tedium.zip jd/kt/stx An intro about its title - tedium.
starp200.zip jd Starplayer - MOD file support, 100% click free
starp201.zip jd Starplayer - DMA to dump samples, pan bug fix
starp202.zip jd Starplayer - quick version 2.01 crash bug fix
starp203.zip jd Starplayer - continuous play feature plus more
starp210.zip jd Starplayer - new soundblaster support!
starp211.zip jd Starplayer - improved soundblaster mixing
starp212.zip jd Starplayer - MTM support and VU-bars
starp220.zip jd Starplayer - 64 modules, load from shell, menus!
starp221.zip jd Starplayer - alphabetical filename sorting
starp222.zip jd Starplayer - support for playlist files
dusken.zip jd/kt 'Dusken' - Musicdisk by Raphael BlackWolf
starp223.zip jd Starplayer - bugfix for ICS mixer, 16-bit samples
tdm-code.zip jd ASM source code for the tedium intro
starp224.zip jd Starplayer - cd-audio support
other interesting releases:
product talent description
------------------------------------------------------------------------->
r-delivr.zip jd Deliverance. 2nd Placed Rookie Entry in Music
Contest ][.
My Child jd Module part of 'expOZe', australian music disk.
After Sunset jase Module part of 'expOZe', australian music disk.
Kingdom Skys jase 1st Placed Vetran entry in Music Contest 3.
StepBack kt 7th Placed entry in OZ96 music competition.
** kitsune also releases lots of music, way too many to list here.
------------------------------ -------- ----- - -
distro/support bbs
- - ----- ------- ----------------------------------
australia
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
oxygen whq oxygen.it.com.au whq statix
support only.
oxygen www http://www.it.com.au/oxygen/
australian www site.
mindflux +61-2-416-2513 ehq force format
trilogy nswhq, reality whq, heretics sozhq, dissonance distro..
usa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
oxygen ftp ftp://peace.wit.com/kosmic/oxygen/
official ftp site.
oxygen www http://peace.wit.com/~kosmic/oxygen/
international www site.
realm of insanity +1-2o3-568-15o2 nushq god speed
relic, iridium, dark us, klf, union member, nation member..
borderline reality +1-414-656-o2o5 usdist berky
bc/itc/gcn/grind/rgs nets, tons of affils.
netherlands
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
sl1210 bbs +31-43-638243 ch:ilm/db-duo
image! whq, db-duo whq, ldi, tom, dmk, fiction dist
finland
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
overflow bbs +1-418-659-1872 populus
purple, force ten, defiance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
speak to statix if you'd like to join in.
------------------------------ -------- ----- - -
how to speak to oxygen
- - ----- ------- ----------------------------------
the oxygen web page which can be found at:
http://peace.wit.com/~kosmic/oxygen/
and the official oxygen ftp site is:
ftp://peace.wit.com/kosmic/oxygen/
you can mail all our members directly at these addresses:
jedi jedi@tartarus.uwa.edu.au
statix kimba@it.com.au
mantissa sjm@it.com.au
kitsune kitsune@tartarus.uwa.edu.au
jase jlchong@tartarus.uwa.edu.au
sometimes if you are lucky you might find one of us in IRC channels #coders
or #trax, or on Perthnet...
if you have a pen, you can stick your ideas on a page destined for
jedi/oxygen statix/oxygen
scott mcnab kim davies
5 honeydew close 19 kincraig way
maida vale wa 6057 duncraig wa 6023
australia australia
send your postcards, cash, cheques, gold bars, diamonds, family heirlooms etc
to these addresses :)
see you in the next oxygen release!
---------------------------------------------------------- -------- ----- - -
o x y g e n
- - ----- ------- -----------------------------------------------------------
"STARPLAYER: because we believe that if you've got a dick worth mentioning
you wont need pictures of them in your modplayer"
[ back to the prod ]