Last date of revision: 10/29/93 2:52am (Yeah.. yeah.. the middle of the night) Welcome to the: ÖÄ¿ ÖÄÄÄ¿ ÖÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÖÄ¿ ÖÄ¿ ÖÄÄÄ¿ ÖÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ º ³ È» Õ¾ º ÕÍÍ» ³ º ³ º ³ È» Õ¾ È» ÕÍ» ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ÀÄÄ¿ Ö½ À¿ º ÀÄĽ ³ º ÀĽ ³ Ö½ À¿ Ö½ ÀĽ ³ ÈÍÍÍ; ÈÍÍ; ÈÍÍ» Õ; ÈÍÍÍÍ; ÈÍÍ; ÈÍÍÍÍÍ; È; ÖÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÖÄ¿ ÖÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÖÄ¿ ÖÄ¿ ÖÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÖÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ º ÕÍ» ³ º ³ º ÕÍÍ» ³ º ³ º ³ º ÕÍÍ; º ÕÍÍ» ³ º ÀĽ ³ º ³ º ÀÄĽ ³ º ÀÄÄĽ ³ º ÀÄ¿ º ÀÄĽ ³ º ÕÍÍ; º ³ º ÕÍÍ» ³ ÈÍÍ» ÚÄÄÙ º Õ; º ÕÍ» Õ¾ º ³ º ÀÄÄ¿ º ³ º ³ º ³ º ÀÄÄÄ¿ º ³ º À¿ È; ÈÍÍÍ; È; È; È; ÈÍÍÍÍ; È; ÈÍ; Version 1.00 (C) Written by Moti Radomski, 1993. (C) Music routines written by Nir Oren, 1992-3. ÚINDEXÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ 1. Introduction ³ ³ 2. Ok, Ok! What about this player? ³ ³ 3. So... How do I activate the player? ³ ³ 4. Keys to use WHILE PLAYING ³ ³ 5. MOD2LIQ - A MOD to LIQ convertor ³ ³ 6. Nope, NOT FREEware! It's POSTware! ³ ³ 7. Distribution ³ ³ 8. Some more information about the Liquid writers ³ ³ 9. Some VERY important ThankYou's ³ ³ 10. Just a little disclaimer I ripped from another doc... ;-) ³ ³ 11. What's next? ³ ³ 12. Known bugs ³ ³ 13. Some closing words. ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ 1. Introduction ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Welcome to the Liquid Player. This player is a part of the LIQUID programs, written by Nir Oren and Moti Radomski. The currently available programs are the Liquid Tracker and the Liquid Player. In the future, the Liquid Editor will also be released to the public. (More info. about the Liquid Editor will be found later, under the "What's next" topic). Using the Liquid Tracker, you can create and edit sound modules. These modules are much like the known MOD files (or STM files if you use the ScreamTracker from Sami Tammilehto). Currently, the only player that supports these LIQ files is the Liquid Player. Some of the Liquid Playing Routines (which are being used by both the Liquid Tracker and the Liquid Player) features are: þ Supports up to 64 channels played simultaneously! þ Up to 64 digitized instruments. þ Support for : - Sound Blaster 1 - Sound Blaster 2 - Sound Blaster Pro (stereo) - Sound Blaster 16 ASP (stereo) þ Uses 80386 instructions, thus increasing playing speed. þ Both the Liquid Playing Routines AND the Liquid Player are written in PURE ASSEMBLY - that means even more speed! 2. Ok, Ok! What about this player? ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ This version of the Liquid Player was created because there was no other LIQ player around. This is just a TEXT version, which serves as a very basic player. It still lacks a lot of features. I am planning a full, graphical player, which will support a lot of other sound formats (such as Amiga MODs, ScreamTracker's STMs, Composer's 669 etc.). I am working on some 3D functions, and plan to create a full 3D featured player. But this will take some time... (Read more about it under the "What's next" topic). Meanwhile, this text Liquid Player only supports LIQ files, which are created using the Liquid Tracker. You can convert your own MOD files into the LIQ format using the Liquid Tracker (For more information about that, refer to the Liquid Trackers manual). The latest version of the Liquid Player and the Liquid Tracker can always be found on our Home Board, The Loan Shark BBS, 972-3-9318789. You can FReq them using the magic names LIQUID for the Liquid Tracker and LIQPLAY for the Liquid Player. 3. So... How do I activate the player? ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Activating the Liquid Player is very simple. All commands to the Liquid Player are given as command-line parameters: LP {liq filename} [/Sxx] [/L] [/H] [/?] Where: {liq filename} is the LIQ module you want to play. Wildcards are (currently) not supported. /Sxx Defines sampling rate in KHertz, i.e. /S22 will play at 22Khz. Minimum is 4, Maximum is 41. /L Will cause the Liquid Player to only play the LIQ once, and then return to DOS. Normally the Liquid Player will loop, until the ESC key is pressed. NOTE: Currently doesn't work. /H and /? Gives a help screen. ÄÄÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÄ N O T E : ÄÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÄÄ The Liquid Playing Routines have a special detection algorithm, that's why there's no command-line switches for IRQ/DMA/BASE PORT settings. If the Liquid Player fails to detect your sound card, please report that to the writers, and we'll take care of it. ÄÄÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÄÄ 4. Keys to use WHILE PLAYING ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ [ESC] - Will terminate the player and return to DOS. NOTE: The music will stop, too... ;-) [1..8] - Will toggle channels 1 to 8, respectively. Shift [1..8] - Will toggle channels 9 to 16, respectively. Up/Down - Will scroll pages. PgDn/PgUp - Will scroll pages faster. Home/End - First/Last screen. Right/Left - FastForward/FastRewind +/- - Increes/Decrees volume. S - Shell to DOS. Be very carefull using this option. It could be a bit risky... 5. MOD2LIQ - A MOD to LIQ convertor ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ I am now working on a MOD loader. (Hope it'll be there in the next version). Meanwhile, you can listen to your favorite MOD files using the Liquid Player by converting them into a LIQ module format file. You can convert any 31 instrumental MOD sound module into a LIQ format using MOD2LIQ.EXE. To convert a MOD, just run MOD2LIQ and give it the MOD filename as a command-line parameter. It will do the rest. 6. Nope, NOT FREEware! It's POSTware! ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ The Liquid Player is a POSTware program. That means that if you use it for more then 10 days, and find it good/bad/nice/interesting you have to send me a postcard with your opinion, comments and suggestions. Please see that this is one of the very first version of the program, I any comment/suggestion/bug report could REALLY help me improve it! ô ô Home Board: The Loan Shark BBS þ 972-3-9318789 ³ Moti Radomski ³ 14K 24Hours, Liquid Folder Support ³ 60 Catz St 49374 ³ FidoNet : 2:401/4.4 ³ Petach Tikva ³ or 2:401/55.3@fidonet.org ³ I S R A E L ³ Internet : quadri@libra.math.tau.ac.il õ õ 7. Distribution ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ The Liquid Tracker is uploaded to the following FTPs: ftp.uwp.edu wuarchive.wustl.edu garbo.uwasa.fi nic.funet.fi Some more information about the distribution and the Liquid sites, read the file Support.Liq 8. Some more information about the Liquid writers ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ The Liquid programmers are Moti Radomski and Nir Oren. Moti Radomski is me (I think... that's what everybody else says..;-) and therefore will be referred as "I" or "ME" from now ;-) Nir Oren is 18 years old, and I am 17. Nir has finished his studies, and waiting to serve his country at the I.D.F (Israeli Defence Force), and I'm currently at the 12th grade. Anyway, Nir started writing the Liquid Playing Routines a few months ago. He added support for SB, SBPro, and SB16 and then released the first version of the Liquid Tracker. By that time, I started writing this Liquid Player you are now using. We had some problems combining our routines, but (apparently...) we have overcome them. In my spare time I compose computerized music, too. I have already released about 10 MOD files. The all of them could be found at most of the GOOD Israeli BBS's, and I'm also going to UL them to some BBS's around the US and Europe. We can be contacted via the Liquid Folder (Which is available on any Liquid Support Site), and also via Snail-Mail, or regular NetMail. (My Fido/InterNet addresses are listed under the last topic). 9. Some VERY important ThankYou's : ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ The writers of the Liquid Tracker and the Liquid Player wishes to thank the followings: ­! - First of all: Sami Tammilehto - our spiritual father. Thank you for releasing ScreamTracker and setting the standards for all PC musicians / PC music programmers! ­! - Eyal Perek - for some important TIPs which helped us on write those programs. ­! - Ofer Wald, the SysOp of the Loan Shark BBS - for being the distribution site, taking care or our mailpoints etc. ­! - Yossi Zinger - For taking care of out InterNet mail, and ULing LIQUID to the ftp's. 10. Just a little disclaimer I ripped from another doc... ;-) ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ This product is distributed AS IS. The authors specifically disclaim all warranties ,expressed or implied, including ,but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to defects in the diskette and documentation, and program license granted herein, in particular, and without limiting operation of the program license with respect to any particular application use or purpose. In no event shall the authors be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. 11. What's next? ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ As stated before, this version of the Liquid Player is just a very basic one. There are many improvements to be added. Here is a list of some of them, sorted by the order of importance: þ First of all: File Manager routine. Instead of giving a filename on the command-line you'll be able to specify wildcards, and get a full list of files. Tag/Copy/Delete commands will also be added. þ Support for MOD format þ Full ProTracker's effects support þ Support for STM format þ Support for S3M format (As soon as Tammilehto finally decides what the format will be..) ;-) þ SBPRO/SB16 mixer þ Graphical environment - by this time the Liquid Player will no longer be a PostWare, it will be a ShareWare, like the Liquid Tracker. þ Then will come - The Liquid Editor: We (Me and Nir) are planning a full script language, which will be a part of the LIQ module. You will be able to write some text messages, and tell the Liquid Player to display them while playing the LIQ. There will be a few ready-made fonts and effects. You will also be able to give the player a GIF file and choose when/where to display the graphics. The Liquid Editor will be the LIQ script editor. It will edit the LIQ file and insert your script commands. We are planning a lot of other features, like Karaoke etc. More information about that will come in the future (and anyway, it'll take some time before we'll even start writing that...). 12. Known Bugs ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ þ The screen scrolling is currently not so smooth... It has something to do with the INT8 handler. We'll fix that.. 13. Some closing words ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ I hope you'll enjoy using the Liquid Player. If you don't have the Liquid Tracker, look for it on the same board you DLed this file from. You can also DL it from any Liquid distribution site. Please take the time to write and send me a postcard/NetMail and tell me what do you think about the program. Thank you in advance, and byebye! Moti Radomski The Liquid Player Author