So you like the idea of making 1-bit music on your calculator? Looking for a native tracker for the Z80-based TI8x series?
Well, how about...
EDIT May 31st, 2013: Houston Tracker 0.3 has been released. Features a lot of internal optimizations, a new load/save system that allows for multiple save slots, and a new drum sound. Also the download now contains "light" versions which take up only half the memory, but have a lower song length limit.
EDIT April 19th, 2013: Houston Tracker 0.22 has been released. The package now includes a TI83+ port, and fixes a minor bug in the TI83 version.
EDIT April 16th, 2013: Houston Tracker 0.21 has been released. The package now includes a TI83 port, and fixes a bug in the TIM-FX sound routine. Please re-download.
EDIT April 12th, 2013: Houston Tracker 0.2 has been released. For a list of changes, see here: http://chipmusic.org/forums/post/164463/#p164463
This is an early beta, which currently works on TI82/83 only. Furthermore some important features like copy/paste are not implemented yet. However at this stage I would like to get some input from the community. Also volunteer bug hunters are more than welcome, of course.
Please post bug reports, feature requests and other feedback in this thread, or send me a mail (see the manual for my address).
Features:
- 3 different sound routines, PFM or XOR square wave sound
- (Pseudo-)Stereo sound
- Compact editor+player
- Linear song data, no patterns
Not done yet:
- Internal compression
- Dumping/Loading song data via PC soundcard
- TI85/86/82CS/73 ports
The editor is pretty straightforward and should be intuitive to use. However, it uses hexadecimal input instead of note names. Why on earth, you may ask? Well, there are only about 27K of RAM available on the TI, and there are no fancy flash carts or sd card readers. So I tried to keep the editor as lightweight as possible, and max out space for song data instead. Implementing a note table lookup might easily double the size of the editor Besides, the hex-do has another advantage: you can easily use non-western tuning, make "phat" basslines with detuning, etc... Well, don't worry, the manual includes a pitch-to-hex conversion table. If you feel like making a better one, please do!
Questions? Suggestions? Post them here!
KNOWN BUGS:
- [FIXED] Playing from Row 000 will freeze up calc when $ff byte is set in the drum channel of that row
- [FIXED] TIM-FX (Engine 2) does not exit
- [FIXED] Drum 2 doesn't play in TI83 version
Last edited by irrlichtproject (May 31, 2013 12:33 pm)
