pouët.net

HoustonTracker 2.00 by Irrlicht Project [web]
[nfo]
screenshot added by utz on 2015-10-06 15:41:44
platform :
type :
release date : october 2015
release party : Deadline (Berlin) 2015
compo : wild demo
ranked : 2nd
  • 61
  • 3
  • 0
popularity : 65%
 65%
  • 0.95
alltime top: #1634
added on the 2015-10-06 15:41:44 by utz utz

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HoustonTracker 2 is a music editor/sequencer for the Texas Instruments TI-82, TI-83/82STATS, and TI-83+/84+/SE. It allows you to compose and play multi-channel 1-bit music directly on your TI graphic calculator.


BB Image BB Image BB Image


Features

• 3 tone channels
• 1 non-interrupting drum channel
• up to 128 note patterns
• up to 64 drum/fx patterns
• sequence length up to 255 pattern rows
• 16-bit frequency precision
• 8-bit speed precision, can be configured per step
• various effects, including:
- L/C/R stereo hard-panning for tone and drum channels
- 8bit duty cycle control
- duty cycle sweep
• 2 user definable samples
• up to 8 savestates
• edit during playback

Bug reports? Suggestions? Feature requests? Best to post them in the dev thread over at the 1-Bit Forum.
added on the 2015-10-06 15:47:05 by utz utz
Madness!
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 15:49:33 by ham ham
goood
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 15:53:57 by g0blinish g0blinish
i'm the operator with my pocket calculator!
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 16:06:25 by psenough psenough
looks cool.
can we have a youtube video with live play on it? want to see this.
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 16:07:31 by sq sq
This was crazy, the tune on the video sounded great for such a platform.
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 16:26:56 by break break
should have won
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 16:28:18 by sensenstahl sensenstahl
what sense said!
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 16:33:17 by HellMood HellMood
rules!
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 16:53:32 by okkie okkie
how?

i mean, is there a soundchip in that calculator, or is it all
pure code or what the deuce??

and since when do calculator have headphone jacks? :)

ossom!
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 17:06:04 by tEiS tEiS
Geht ja garnich!
Geht ja wohl!
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 18:05:48 by mog mog
This would've ruined my high school had it existed a few years ago.
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 18:23:31 by noby noby
p01: owssom!
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 18:24:05 by 1in10 1in10
Far out (y)
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 18:34:52 by Baudsurfer Baudsurfer
teis: the calculators have a 1-bit-beeper, think pc-speaker.

and yes, this rulez.
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 19:12:41 by wysiwtf wysiwtf
teis & wysiwtf: the output is the calculator link port AFAIK, no internal beeper piezo speakers or headphone outs ;)

great stuff
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 20:14:49 by Weyland Yutani Weyland Yutani
one of those things that has such a huge "but why" factor that I have to thumb it up
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 20:20:59 by superplek superplek
It's "but why?!?" and "wow, awesome!" at the same time!
rulez added on the 2015-10-06 20:26:40 by Kylearan Kylearan
From the demo.
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 00:28:21 by CiH CiH
Crazy.
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 00:38:26 by Saga Musix Saga Musix
Whooooooooh ! I cannot imagine what a concert of TI-82 can do !
Great respect !
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 01:09:44 by Shazz^TRSi^MJJ Shazz^TRSi^MJJ
Powerful!
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 08:18:35 by Manwe Manwe
The output is from the "link" port, which is basically 2 I/O pins on a jack connector. With the proper headphone adapter you can thus get stereo output, with 1 bit for the left and 1 bit for the right channel.

I probably would have used this at school and written more music for the calculator at the time if it did exist. Entering notes manually in an assembler listing with macros is much less fun than this!
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 08:22:37 by PulkoMandy PulkoMandy
This is so stupid it's awesome :D
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 08:27:08 by britelite britelite
Nice :)
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 09:15:17 by SnC SnC
What everyone said. Ridiculous and fucking amazing at the same time.
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 09:54:35 by Preacher Preacher
Cool stuff, lovely sound!
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 10:28:30 by Sdw Sdw
Amazing!
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 14:17:01 by Blinden Blinden
I wish I could give another thumb to the song in the video. SO RAD!
added on the 2015-10-07 14:18:33 by okkie okkie
It will work with my TI 83+? Cool!
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 14:22:49 by Exin Exin
Very cool. Does it work with TI-89?
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 15:20:07 by Serpent Serpent
simply awesome! still waiting for my hp48 port ^^
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 19:58:34 by insane insane
CRAZY!!! :D
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 20:58:58 by -SP- -SP-
I wish people paid at least half this much attention to ZX Spectrum beeper demos, which are basically identical technology-wise.

It is not like this tracker is not deserving the attention it gets - 6MHz CPU enables great sound quality and also keep in mind that this is likely to be the first Z80 beeper engine with the stereo output. Kudos to utz for making a very strong statement about the possibilities of beeper sound.

Shame it requires a calculator to get people listening.
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 21:04:30 by introspec introspec
You have been Slashdotted.
Yes!!!
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 21:54:22 by Alpha C Alpha C
Ridicumazing, and gz on the /.ing :)
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 22:00:50 by Fell Fell
thumb for idea and execution, crazy mofos we love you!
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 22:04:44 by keito keito
Madness indeed!
rulez added on the 2015-10-07 23:41:09 by xTr1m xTr1m
Sounds better than my Atari 8-Bit. tf.
rulez added on the 2015-10-08 12:42:38 by Salinga Salinga
Quote:
I wish people paid at least half this much attention to ZX Spectrum beeper demos, which are basically identical technology-wise.

It is not like this tracker is not deserving the attention it gets - 6MHz CPU enables great sound quality and also keep in mind that this is likely to be the first Z80 beeper engine with the stereo output. Kudos to utz for making a very strong statement about the possibilities of beeper sound.

Shame it requires a calculator to get people listening.


I guess the issue is trying to get a demo to run when most of your CPU time is being used to render a beeper soundtrack? 48k spectrum has a third of the CPU power and a lot more screen memory to manage.

Back on topic.. awesome!
rulez added on the 2015-10-08 13:21:59 by djh0ffman djh0ffman
Thanks everybody! Very pleased with the response this is getting.

@Serpent: Sorry to disappoint you - TI-89 is a very different machine, 68k CPU and memory mapped display vs. Z80 and port-controlled display in the other 8x models. I do have some stuff in the works for 68k TI though.

@insane: Just read up a little on the HP48. I'd love to try something on this machine and it's crazy CPU. But I'd need someone to donate me one first ;)

@introspec: I think it's hard to compare the two. With ZX demos (or any demos, especially on oldskool platforms), it's tricky to convey the value of it to someone outside of the scene. Whereas HT2 is explainable in simple terms of: "d000d! it's moozik on teh calculator!". Well, I guess in a few days the buzz is over and we can go back to coding awesome stuff that nobody gives a sh*t about...
added on the 2015-10-08 16:32:54 by utz utz
OMFG ( ° - ° )
rulez added on the 2015-10-08 18:18:45 by rez rez
Sick stuff!
rulez added on the 2015-10-09 09:37:42 by spiikki spiikki
I really liked the linked song, a very good demo of the tracker and its capabilities. The DSS-engine produces nice sounds, I'll have to have a look at the source.
rulez added on the 2015-10-10 09:15:34 by nollkolltroll nollkolltroll
Remembering my college years, back then having fun with the 82 after putting ash shell on it and being then able to play fun games (lamer style). ;)

Here i got a reason to switch it on again.
Congrats on the idea and the prod!
rulez added on the 2015-10-10 18:40:59 by Dma-Sc Dma-Sc
I really liked this!
I'm working on some sound routines myself, for PC speaker, and I may be able to use/adapt some of the ideas from this tracker :)
rulez added on the 2015-10-12 10:08:41 by Scali Scali
Madness! I need to find my transfer cable :)
rulez added on the 2015-10-13 21:08:25 by cce cce
awesome
rulez added on the 2015-10-15 18:51:34 by joga joga
I think I still have my ancient TI-85 somewhere... I'm guessing it might be compatible, it's got a Z80 after all?
added on the 2015-10-15 18:58:33 by reed reed
@introspec: this is not the first time someone does "stereo beeper" on TI calcs. I know of at least "CalcMod" dated from 2001. I arranged some tunes for it and it involved entering the notes in an ASM listing using macros and compiling that, there was no tracker to go with it, but the engine did exist. It was much simpler than this, however, with no drums or even adjusting the PWM.

But, as on ZX or Thomson computers, it is hard to mix this with demo effects (or a game with smooth graphics) on the screen. And it seems there are enough limitations on such 8-bit platforms already, to not add this extra constraints. But to each their own pleasure, of course!
@reed: Unfortunately not, because the TI-85 uses a different method for controlling the LCD. Same for TI-86. However, not all hope is lost - hopefully I'll get around to updating my ti1bit driver package (ported ZX beeper routines) one of these days, and add 85/86 support while I'm at it.
added on the 2015-10-16 00:05:39 by utz utz
Ah, that's too bad. I'm definitely interested to try it out if you get around to doing the update. Here's a thumb anyway :)
rulez added on the 2015-10-16 07:07:02 by reed reed
crazyness madness skills awesome music beeping from calculator! :D
rulez added on the 2015-10-16 14:37:39 by rage rage
btw, for curious people, you can test it and make awesome tracks using Wabbitemu TI Calculator Emulator (win, mac, android) and looks to emulate sound quite well (as far as I can tell)
codeplex page
you'll need a ti rom (82 for example not to hard to find, a shell) and to follow utz's guide (amazing work) :
http://irrlichtproject.de/houston/manual/manual.html#install
U R MAD! O_o
rulez added on the 2015-10-23 22:16:37 by baah baah
Nice.
rulez added on the 2015-10-24 10:46:58 by violator violator
Awesome stuff!
rulez added on the 2015-10-24 23:18:53 by booger booger
=O...
8|...
=)...
The demoscene surprises me as much today as it was since my first years on it.

Great idea, good music. Congratulations UTZ!
rulez added on the 2015-10-25 21:36:36 by sim sim
Because it's there
rulez added on the 2015-11-05 06:45:09 by andr00 andr00
Darn it, this is way sexy! Now I HAVE to find me a data cable for the 82-stats after all. Well played!
rulez added on the 2015-11-17 10:32:59 by SunSpire SunSpire
Version 2.10 is out now, featuring a more powerful soundroutine, new fx commands, smoother keyhandling, and several bugfixes.

download
changelog
vid about latest changes
added on the 2016-02-24 17:32:49 by utz utz
No, tracking on a calculator is not for me :) But cool project & nice to see it gets some more love! :)
rulez added on the 2016-03-27 03:55:51 by Photon Photon
funky! phat sound coming out of that calculator!
rulez added on the 2016-04-24 00:45:53 by v3nom v3nom
Obligatory thumb (even though I was on the other side of the Casio vs. TI wars ;) )
rulez added on the 2016-10-31 17:16:57 by cxw cxw
added on the 2018-07-11 19:28:13 by lvd lvd
Better a late thumb than no one for that tool
rulez added on the 2018-07-11 21:00:00 by Triace Triace
For teh demosong.
And for tracker ofc.
rulez added on the 2018-12-29 22:16:48 by 100bit 100bit
yes
jup
rulez added on the 2020-07-06 17:44:33 by adkd adkd

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