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Nomad's Land

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...



Download Houston Tracker 0.3

Sound demo

Sound demo 2


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)

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matt's mind

wish i had this on my calculator back in the day instead of just 'drug dealer'!!!

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Holland

Awesome. :-)

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California

Cool! Man, I wish I had an 82 now.

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I just bought a TI-82.

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.

Last edited by BlakePalmer (Mar 20, 2018 10:59 pm)

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United Kingdom

Wow. If I get a TI-82, assume I need some kind of cable (custom) to get this loaded in? Total newb when it comes to calculator tunes wink

Cheers,
LW.

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Unsubscribe

SICK

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ad-hell-aide

Amazing.

I will buy an 82 just for this.

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vancouver, canada

inb4 TI-8x chip scene documentary

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Milwaukee, WI

Insane!  Buying an 82 just for this also!

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Matthew Joseph Payne

So good! Very unique tonality. I can't wait until this works on my TI-83+

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Columbus, Indiana
bryface wrote:

inb4 TI-8x chip scene documentary

Too late I have already started filming

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Nomad's Land

Wow, thank you all for your encouraging responses! Now I'm really motivated to keep working on this smile

VCMG wrote:

Cool! Man, I wish I had an 82 now.

They're easy to get on Ebay, especially in the US there are lots of them floating around for 15 bucks or so.

Just remember, DON'T get a TI82CS, they suck. Even though I'll eventually make a ROM 19.006 port, I can't do anything about the fact that a) the link port is flimsy and doesn't work most of the time and b) CrAsh for 19.006 isn't completely stable.

@LamptonWorm Yes, you will need to build a (very simple) serial or parallel link cable, or get an old TI-GRAPH LINK from somewhere. There's a link in the manual to a site which has schematics and all.

@kineticturtle TI83+ port will have to wait a while, because it'll require a complete rewrite of the sound routine. As it looks now 83+/84+ might be done by third party developers, actually.

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I got the new TI-82, 83 and 85.. But I hate trackers. Next project should be drum machine!

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United Kingdom

Hi smile

Ah I don't have serial/parallel on current setup, and I read the USB cable only works for MAC, not sure if that is true, if so - any other ideas? Interesting project, keep going!

Cheers,
LW.