VacSid by vacuum [web]
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▓ ▀█████ ███ ░ ███ ▀████████ ▓ Player Version 0.88 Release 1
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▒ -┼- ▄███████ ███ ███████▄ ▒ Selector Version 0.90 Release 1
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▒ . · ███ ███ ███ ░ ███ ▒ the ultimate SiD-Player
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■ MEKKA PRE-RELEASE ■
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■ DISCLAIMER
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VACUUM btw. the authors are not responsible for any
possible damage while using this software.
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■ CONTENTS
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This VacSiD archive comes with following files:
VACSID.EXE The ultimative Player
VACSETUP.EXE Configuration Utility
VACSID.DOC What you are reading just now
ROMUZAK.DOC Doc for _implemented_ MusicEditor
VACSID.RES/IDX Internal ressource files
RTM.EXE RunTime-Module (C) Borland Inc.
DPMI16BI.OVL DPMI-Overlay (C) Borland Inc.
FILE_ID.DIZ BBS-Description
VACUUM.NFO More 'bout VACUUM
TRIPLBUG.EXE Check out!
As far as this files are unchanged this archive could be
spread for _non-commercial_ purposes. For commercial use
please read "Contacting" below.
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■ FEATURES - HARDWARE C64
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VacSiD is able to emulate the C64-soundchip, processor and
related hardware for playing 64-tunes on standard PC with
a Soundblaster(tm) or Gravis Ultrasound(tm) soundcard.
SiD (MOS6581)
- 3 FM-Voices, _completly_ emulated
- Real white noise, no samples
- 1 Digi-Channel, controlled through PlaySid-Registers
_and_ unpatched NMI-Songs using CIA#2/Volume Registers
- Analoge filter emulation (not 100%)
- 2nd SiD switchable at D420 (aka "stereo-sid")
CPU (MOS6510)
- Full bankswitching emulated (64k RAM/20k ROM)
- All legal OP-Codes
- Partitially illegal OP-Codes
- Partitially decimal arithmetics
- NMI and IRQ available
CIA (MOS6526)
- CIA#1 and CIA#2 interrupt counters
- Interrupt lines connected to 6510-IRQ and 6510-NMI
VIC (MOS6567)
- D012/D011 available for "random" numbers
- Scanline-IRQ available
MEMORY
- 64k Host RAM Memory
- ROMs: BASIC, KERNAL, CHAR
- 2 single, independent RAM Banks at DE00 and DF00
- 1k*4 color-RAM at D800
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■ FEATURES - HARDWARE PC
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Following Soundcards are supported:
- SoundBlaster (tm) : Mono , up to 22kHz
- SoundBlaster Pro (tm) : Mono , up to 44kHz
- SoundBlaster 16 (tm) : Stereo, up to 44kHz
- Gravis Ultrasound (tm) : Stereo, up to 44kHz
Btw. GUS implementation is quite a bit buggy. Try to change
from low-dma to hi-dma (or vice versa) to improve sound
quality. Or better: use a SB16 :-)
MINIMUM Requirements:
- a VESA VGA Card with minimum 512kB memory
- 486/33 CPU (gives you mono-output at 22kHz)
- SB
BETTER:
- a VESA VLB/PCI VGA Card, 1MB
- 486 2/66 CPU or better
- SB16
(44khz Stereo SB-Output on a Pentium75 uses approx. 35% CPU-
Ressources. So check out!)
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■ FEATURES - SOFTWARE
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VacSiD features:
- switchable "pseudo-" Stereo-Output
- switchable Compressor/Limiter
- many Hang-Up's :(
- Playlists (*)
- TSR-Player (*)
- Online-Help(*)
- Comfortable File-Selector
- SongMessage detection
- C64- RoMuzak Music Composer Software V7.96
- therefore emulated 1541 File-System
- Highly configurable player
- AHSM (Automatic HalfSampleMode, switches down
to the half sampling rate if ressources are going
out)
(*) NOT in Mekka-Pre-Release!
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■ FILESELECTOR / MENU
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Pressing ALT in any screen gives you a pop-up-menu with several
selections. Try out what they are. Options, which are light gray
are not implemented or temporarily disabled. Use DOSSHELL at your
own risk!
If you are in any "watches"-window, ENTER brings you back to the
fileselector.
The selector primary displays the _song-names_ (if there are
specified) instead of the file-names. So don't get worry :) It's
not Win95!
Go through the songs with cursor-keys, up/down/home/end etc.
Pressing RETURN plays the currently highlighted tune, if there are
multiple tunes select with left/right first. "P"-Key is like RETURN,
but increments tune-number after playing. If there is no next tune,
the next song will be highlited. You can hear trough all songs by
just using "P"-key. Use "+" and "-" for volume control.
For improved speed the selector creates a file named ·VACSID·.DIR
in any directory which contains Sid-File-Informations. If there
are any troubles with your directory-display or reading sid-files,
just delete the according ·VACSID·DIR-File.
To exit from the included, free c64-sound-editor RoMuzak, choose
"RESET" and "OK" to go back to VacSid.
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■ COMPATIBILITY
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VacSiD recognizes following files as "SiD-Files":
- DAT with SID (SidPlay PC)
- DAT with INF (PlaySid AMIGA)
- DAT only (with PlaySid-Header)
- DAT only (without song-information) up to 90%
"Galway-Noises", which are special samples, are not supported.
(I don't have any informations about)
VacSiD actually does NOT work under WIN3.11 / Win95, the DPMI-
Extenders implemented do not support 4GB-Selectors.
WinNT 3.51 is ok - if you have a VDD for your soundcard.
OS/2 is not tested jet.
In this case, boot standard DOS or wait for the C++ - Portation
of VacSid.
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■ THANKS (273 times!)
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Thanks will go to our ßTesters. They'd done hard work :)
- Tammo Hinrichs
- Andreas Mautsch
- Ralf Kraus
- Gerhard Petruschat
- Daniel Schlenzig
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■ CONTACTING
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For commercial use ASK the authors for an o.k.!
The same if you want to use VacSiD on any CD-ROM (there could
be an actual version and you probably don't know...)
If you recover any Bugs (there are quite a lot...) or wanna
give up some (positive?) critics, just mail up to:
Player: Oliver Blasnik (aka R0M), 2:244/2241
Phone: 06722-971103 [24h Modem]
06722-6776 [Voice ]
Selector: Simon Kissel (aka SCAMP), 2:2455/61
Phone: 06721-14955 [23'-05' Modem]
Btw, look into VACUUM.NFO for more information!
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■ A VACUUM RELEASE IN 1996 ■
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