Multiplayer 1.30
AMIGAphile Volume 1 Number 1 (JUNE 1992)
Multiplayer 1.30 (release date May 25, 1992)
by Bryan Ford (bryan.ford@m.cc.utah.edu)
(taken from Usenet c.s.a.announce)
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
It's Christmas again for music lovers: MultiPlayer has "gone GNU." Starting from version 1.30, MultiPlayer is now distributed under the GNU General Public License, with full source code available, to be copied and modified freely by anyone.
The main reason for this is that I no longer have a large amount of time to devote to the development of MultiPlayer. While at first this change in distribution may seem unfair to my registered users who paid for the registered version of MultiPlayer, I believe it would be much less fair to keep development of MultiPlayer all to myself, limiting the functionality of the program to whatever I have time to implement.
Moreover, my registration policy is still fully in effect, under slightly different conditions. Now, when you register, instead of paying for the un-crippled version of the program, you are paying for almost completely free upgrades, announcements of major new versions as they appear (such as this announcement), and the right to suggest improvements you'd like me to make to MultiPlayer if you can't or don't want to do them yourself. (I will generally ignore such requests from unregistered users, since I am receiving no compensation or support from them.) Of course, if you don't want any of these benefits, you are not obliged to register. The registration fee is still the same low $15 that it always was.
MultiPlayer version 1.30, both binaries and source code, is available by FTP or E-mail on the Internet (see below) or from me directly (see Player.doc). The source code is currently in a very bad state as far as readability goes, and it contains quite a few ugly hacks that need to be worked out of the system. Most internal functions are not documented at all, and those that are have pretty sketchy comments. Therefore, while you are free to try and figure out (and modify if you dare) the source code as it is, you may want to wait until I get the internals organized in a more presentable manner. I will probably be working on this for the next few months.
Note that version 1.30 of the program itself is not a really significant change from 1.20; the real "change" with this version is the change in distribution policy. There are some improvements, however - see below for a list.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
- General-purpose multitasking player for music modules.
- Supports over 20 Popular module formats such as Protracker and MED.
- Provides volume, balance, and speed controls (with NTSC/PAL speed presets), both master and per-module.
- Allows you to build module "programs" which are played in random order, in sequence, or only when you select them. Allows you to load and save these programs and use them like normal modules.
- Allows module selection through two Workbench 2.0 AppWindows and AppIcons.
- Supports 2.0 commodities exchange so it can stay resident without any windows, and you can pop it up with a hot key.
- Provides four optional, individiually selectable "flashy" windows: a standard note/volume spectrogram, a stereo waveform scope, a four-channel scope, and a miniature scrolling note display (looks like a tracker program, but you can't read the notes).
- Auto-detaches from the CLI and uses a custom overlay system for minimal memory usage.
- Includes an ARexx port similar to that of RxTracker.
- Compatible with any Amiga model, any processor, multitasks well, no special memory requirements.
NEW FEATURES (since 1.20)
- 1.30(R3, 25-May-92) GNU-ized and released with full source code.
- 1.21(R2, unreleased) Icon 8-colorized. (Thanks Barry McConnell!). The "Protracker tempo commands" option is now on by default. Protracker player now uses the audio.device NotePlayer, so all Protracker, playing is now completely system-friendly. Some windows rearranged significantly. Other minor bug fixes and enhancements.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Kickstart 2.0 or later.
DISTRIBUTABILITY: General Public License.
