Re: [stella] Synthcart

Subject: Re: [stella] Synthcart
From: Manuel Polik <cybergoth@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2002 23:48:19 +0100
Hi Paul!

>>Does the driver need screentime?

>As is, I use one scanline to update the sound 
registers, but it can be 
>removed or moved out of the screen draw without much 
consequence.  The 
>reason I put it there was to ensure smoothness of the 
tempo (since the 
>measure/beat counter is updated twice per screen draw), 
but I've found that 
>your ear really can't tell the difference.

Well, if the driver would be used when displaying an 
intro screen, one line certainly wouldn't hurt. It could 
(in theory only...) have been done without problems in 
the Star Fire demo, between the 'Star' and the 'Fire' 
graphics, for example, or? :-)

>>Could one do a complete song with it?

>This is my next project.  It should be easy to turn it 
into a sequencer 
>that can play patterns in a programmed order.

Sounds very promising.

>>How big would driver + data for that song be?
>>Could that song somehow be used by homebrewers in 
their games?

>I'm not sure how big the driver will be since it's 
encumbered with a bunch 
>of other stuff that's specific to the Synthcart.  But 
it should be pretty 
>small.  A beat/pattern currently takes up 36 bytes.  
I'm guessing the 
>player and a song would cost you around 300-500 bytes.

Sounds even more promising.

>On the Synthcart the beat/pattern player runs out of 
the upper 4k of the 
>8k.  If you're willing to go 8k, you can easily add a 
ton of music to your 
>game.

Well, I thought it'd probably way cool to have the music 
done in the Star Fire intro with your techniques.
I'm more than interested, since I don't want to just 
cover a song again. (And I'm currently somewhat 
reluctant writing a paternized driver myself.)

(I thought a while about doing a Star Wars soundtrack 
medley, but I think I'm gonna reduce that to two short 
jingles (Star Wars Theme / Imerial March) used elsewhere 
in the game.)

With other people probably being able to use the 
synthcart to actually compose a complete set of 
patterns, which then could make a complete song using an 
additional driver, that must result in some way over the 
top music.

So if you can work out anything along those ideas, I'm 
definitely interested in *licensing* these techniques 
for Star Fire.

Hehe, the inventor of AA Label Contests strikes back 
with the 'Compose The Star Fire Intro Tune' contest :-)

Do we have a deal? :-)

Greetings,
	Manuel

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