913 Reply by Alpine

(16 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Downstate wrote:

i always said there just needs to be a group made on soundcloud. like the chipmusic.org group. everyone has a soundcloud. we add our songs to the group. simples. once its going can always have sub-groups. like chip unce / chip electronica etc.

I think the problem with that idea is that it'll only be our stuff getting shared, not new stuff or stuff from people we haven't heard of or don't know about here.

running.from wrote:

You could use something like libre.fm , and then customize it. The source can be downloaded.
Libre.fm is actually an opensource version of last.fm in development.

That could be the kinda site that op wants. I never used last.fm but this looks pretty cool.

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914 Reply by Alpine

(7 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

DogTag wrote:

I think that after reading the post of 8bitDAD I can give an end to my mod too... Damn, I had that Color opened for several months now and didn't know what to do with the screen, as I had no dremel to cut it with. Thanks man!

@Alpine, You were lucky 8bitDAD gave you such an awesome response. The frontlight GBC topic is apparently quite popular and no one cares to answer anymore when someone asks (which is really bothering to people who are trying to do this mod and don't know how). I got terribly confused with choochoobot and that youtube's girl doing the mods vertical as well...

I happen to have a dremel right next to me that I may use for this, and yeah I was lucky to get a good response. It's kinda strange, there don't seem to be that many threads on it, I even searched and read through a few before I made this one. If anything like this pops up again, I'll be sure to give them a decent reply like the one 8bitDAD did/

kineticturtle wrote:

I've been cleaning fingerprints off gameboy screens and backlights with cleaning cloths for glasses and camera lenses for years with no problem.

They may work on screens, or backlights, I don't know much about them, but I assume they work differently to front lights. Funnily enough they where the first thing I tried, didn't do a thing.

Also thought I'd share this, It's a decent tut for installing the screen horizontally, it starts around halfway down the page though.
http://www.mylkstuff.com/page40.htm

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915 Reply by Alpine

(71 replies, posted in General Discussion)

egr wrote:
breakphase wrote:

Well, it depends on the platform. You wouldn't create a clicky wavetable on a modern PC, like you would on a gameboy. It's fun to work with unique hardware.

The point goto80 is making is that lsdj is more important to why you would make that table than the gameboy is.  Theres nothing about the gameboy thst dictates the use of tables at all, that is an interface choice.

The point is the gameboys limitations. I kinda think it's cheating to use lsdj on a gba as it's more advanced (see what I did there?) although it may use the same software, it doesn't have the same limitations. Back when I first got into chip, I always thought it was to do with pushing the limits of what you can make with the limited hardware. I know this isn't it's true or even original meaning, but I always thought it was about getting the most out of it, pushing the hardware as far as you can to achieve the best sound/s possible. I think that hardware is very important, it's the restrictions and boundaries that I like. I don't like emulating lsdj on psp or ds or anything because the hardware is more advanced. Call me dumb or whatever, but this is just how I see it, I'm not saying that things that don't run on hardware aren't chip, I'm just saying that this is the way I look at it.

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916 Reply by Alpine

(126 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Teh D3th St4r wrote:

While I was perusing the outerwebs, in search of some inspiration for my projects paint scheme, I came across this picture:

Am I the only person that wouldn't be disappointed? I bought a PSP when they were brand new, owned it for exactly two weeks, then went and did what any sensible person would do, and got a DS.

I'd be disappointed as a PSP costs twice the price, if not three times as much, you can pick gameboys up here for £10 or less. Also going to defend the PSP even though I'm still more of a nintendo man myself. It had a pretty decent battery life, the ability to watch films on it was pretty cool, unless you have in iphone like me which kinda makes it pointless. It also had a brighter screen, which I will admit at times is too bright, I much prefer playing disgaea on DS as it's less harsh on your eyes in the dark. Also DSs tend to brake more easily than PSPs, I have 4 broken DSs to the left of me (2 lights and 2 phats) whereas my PSP is still fine, although I have had it for a lot less time.

Would like to point out that I only broke the 2 phats, and that one of them was my fault.

Also congrats on the build, positively badass! Something I may try and replicate when I have a lot more experience.

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917 Reply by Alpine

(7 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

8bitDAD wrote:

""

Thanks man, that was ridiculously helpful. I think I'll get another sp later on this year when the car boots start opening up again, I got the one I tried to use for this mod from one where the LCD had leaked, and although I have at least 2 sp's lying around, I don't really want to trash a working console.

And the guidance for cutting the screen is much appreciated, I found a tut that said that I should cut it down, and I was at a loss of how to do it without shattering the screen. I think what I'll do it cut it down and just use this screen as a test of the mod, If it looks too horrible, I can always replace it at a later date. The only reason that I didn't do anything about it last night was that I don't have a 47ohm resistor (I think that's the one I need) and I don't really have an easy way of getting one. I know you can get 'em from sites like radioshack but I'd rather find a place where I can buy them from a shop, rather than online.

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918 Reply by Alpine

(16 replies, posted in General Discussion)

token wrote:

chiptune memes chiptune overly attached chiptune meme grumpy bit shifter meme. "Hey I just found this gem of a console in my Dads attic. I thought it was pretty awesome myself."

i'll pass ty

I'm pretty sure he just means reddit styled site, upvoting, downvoting, links and sections, not necessarily the same userbase as reddit.

I think this is pretty cool idea, I don't use reddit much myself, I think I've only been there 3 or 4 times, but the layout doesn't seem to bad, and your idea sounds promising.

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919 Topic by Alpine

(7 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

So I read and watched some tutorials on how to frintlight a GBC, but a few people on here are suggesting having the lighty part horizontal rather than vertical. The problem that I've come across is that all the tuts that I've seen have the screen vertical, the one by that female youtuber, the one by choochoobot and that one by whatshisname on instructables.com. I've also come across another problem, I got a few fingerprints on the lighty bit and I can't get them off. I followed kitsch's advice;

kitsch wrote:

a good trick for removing dirt/debris/dust/some fingerprints from the panels is scotch tape.  it doesn't leave residue and picks up a lot of stuff really great.

in case that helps anyone...

After googling scotch tape, it turned out to just be what us brits call sellotape. Or so I thought, I tried using it and ended up with residue from it on the lighty bit as well as fingerprints, I'm probably using the wrong kinda tape but whatever.

Basically, does anyone know what type of tape I should be using, or any other methods for removing fingerprints and does anyone have a tut that shows how to install the lighty bit horizontally?

Oh and sorry if this is the wrong section.

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920 Reply by Alpine

(24 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Vex wrote:

@nitro Thank you yours worked.

@Silph thats actually what Im doing right now. Ive gotten to the point where it says use this command

pcx2gb n d *imagenameyousaved*.pcx *tilesfilename*.c *mapfilename*.map

and Im a a loss. I have no idea what the hell it means. Ive tried running PCX2GB and it just flashes and shuts before I can do anything with it. Am I suppose to go into command prompt or something?

Oh I've only just noticed this, I could only get pcx2gb to work through command prompt, I placed mine in a folder called pcx2gb on my C drive to make using cmd easier.

open CMD and type in "C:\wherever-you-put-pcx2gb\pcx2gb.exe" and press enter, then type  "C:\wherever-you-put-pcx2gb\pcx2gb.exe n d C:wherever-you-put-the-pcx\whatever-its-called.pcx whatever.c whatever.map" and press enter again. For me pcx2gb goes into fulscreen, shows my image, then makes it greyscale, a colour pallete shows up on the right after I press enter a few more times then it stays in full screen, just Alt+Tab out of it and either follow my above instructions, or the one on the site.

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921 Reply by Alpine

(58 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I started play bass at 13, gave up quite quickly and moved onto piano. I got a keyboard for Christmas when I was 13/14 and only really messed around on it every so often, now it's right in front of me, I have to lean over it to type. I spend a lot of time listening to music and attempting to play music, so far I'm not to good at writing music and mostly I just play songs from games using midis. I suppose one of the things that inspired me to try music was that my dad played guitar which I always thought was really cool.

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922 Reply by Alpine

(24 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Timbob wrote:

Jup. Or use .bat file.

But if you try to create a rom like the example on that page, it won't work.
In the thread I posted earlier there's an explanation why, and some solutions smile

It has to do with the program calling too many sprites at once, more than fit in the memory.

Yeah that's what happened with me, I read through more of the thread, and about how you can only display x amount of tiles because of somethingorother, I used the "classic360" download in this post to get my roms up and running.

budmelvin wrote:

I don't really have time to make up a whole tutorial but I put up some example code for 360 unique tiles on gb classic (http://www.budmelvin.com/dev/gb/classic360.zip) and gb color (http://www.budmelvin.com/dev/gb/color360.zip).
For those having trouble with pcx2gb I would suggest trying it in dosbox.

SurfaceDragon you will be happy to see the zips include a rom file which should be extremely easy to edit with yy-chr, each tile is labeled with x and y coordinates.  I haven't tested them on real hardware though, hopefully someone else with take the time to try that and let me know.

Oh yeah, this is important to remember, because the *tiles.c* file that is used for this one is split into two parts, you have to c+p your *whatever-you-got-pcx2gb-to-name-it.c* in two separate parts. I'll upload the *tiles.c* file I use, I formatted it so that it's easier to c+p into it.
http://www.mediafire.com/?4if227z77nr6eaf
If you still have problems let me know.

Go to forum: Nintendo Handhelds

923 Reply by Alpine

(14 replies, posted in General Discussion)

rasta_dan wrote:

This is going to sound very stupid and very n00bish, because i am very much a n00b, and i do not understand this chiptune business, so please do not assail me with your mace-like words.
but yeah, i have a gameboy with lsdj and anything thats free, an ipod running nanoloop and sunvox, a laptop running anything thats free (primarily famitracker and lmms, but i might buy renoise as well), a microphone, and im considering buying a really cheap synth like a casio vl-1.
what things do i need to go in the middle?
i know i need a mixer, i was thinking  a behringer eurorack 1002 (because its cheap and looks okay)
i think i also need a midi-controller type thingy. to control the laptop, ipod and gameboy; synchronise them; make them go at the same time; maybe add effects or control them as synths?
i don't know.
thats why im here instead of spending dolla.
so, any recommendations?
i work to a tight budget because im 15, but i'll probably spend 2 years building my supplies up.

As someone in pretty much exactly the same situation as you (even the same age) I can tell you that you probably won't need a mixer any time soon, and if you do then you go and buy one. There's no point spending money on kit you aren't going to use when you could either save it or spend it on better things. As someone who has already spent 2ish years building up their supply, I don't even have half of what you do. I have famitracker on my laptop and I only ordered a flashcart for LSDJ last wednesday. Kinda building on what FaBE said here, but it's better to work out what kind of music you're making first, and what zef said, just because you have expensive kit doesn't mean your music is going to be good.

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924 Reply by Alpine

(135 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

-snip- Nevermind, I'll give it a go myself, no point wasting someone else's time.

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925 Reply by Alpine

(22 replies, posted in Trading Post)

Interested in the vic and/or nanoloop, pm'd

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926 Reply by Alpine

(213 replies, posted in General Discussion)

egr wrote:

There are emulators for EVERYTHING and they can output files for hardware.  Also, and I'm guilty of this too, saying "just samples" ignores a huge chunk of chiptune history... hell, "chiptune" as a word originally referred to using small single-cycle SAMPLES.  Also, Fast Tracker II ... Impulse Tracker ... LGPT ... knowwutimeanvern?

If new peeps were even more strongly pushed towards trying emulators and dos trackers before getting any hardware at all then we would probably see a much more interesting variety of tunes being made rather than such a gameboy-centric situation.

Disclaimer:  Thinking that everybody using gb's is boring assumes that the compositions would be better on other hardware and obviously that's not true.

I'm not trying to sound like I don't know anything, or that I'm ignoring all of those trackers from back then. I use some trackers occasionally, not fastracker II, but I've got milky and nitrotracker on my DS, I use them quite often, but anything I make on them is then transferred into famitracker.

I see what you mean here, there are a lot of tracks made on LSDJ, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Then again (as you said) even if artists did use other means of making music, if there song writing skills suck and are unoriginal, than all they are are sucky and unoriginal in a different format. As a cheep-skate, I can tell you that after more than 2 years of having interest in this kinda stuff, I only bought a flashcart and LSDJ on Wednesday. I've been using famitracker, I love it and I wish more people would use it. I would like to point out that I don't think there's anything wrong with using any kind of means of making music, whether it's on a C64, gamboy or on a tracker and that as long as your songs are good then the format doesn't matter either.

Back to what I said earlier about how "if it doesn't run on hardware then it isn't chiptune" this is after all only an opinion. I'm not going to get angry or complain at people if they use samples from LSDJ in another program, that's just fucking dumb.

e.s.c. wrote:

also, referring to things as fakebit was a joke in the first place, not a serious distinction anyone was making

What. No way. Shit, I guess I'll shut up for a bit and lurk/learn more then.

Go to forum: General Discussion

927 Reply by Alpine

(213 replies, posted in General Discussion)

egr wrote:

I think the perceived "hardware or its fake" attitude pushes newcomers towards the cheapest and easiest to find platform which is obviously gameboy.  The same attitude prevents new and sonetimes old chippers from considering all the great dos options which anyone can run totally for free.  I dont have a solution, just saying its a shame.  :'(

But it is fake, it's called fakebit for a reason. If anything fakebit has become more accepted, before it was just called "shit" or "not real" or a variety of insults. I've always been under the impression that if it can't run on the hardware, and is for example just some samples, then it isn't chiptune. I have no problem with fakebit as a separate genre, just calling it chiptune isn't right imo. Because this is the best example I've managed to come up with imma gunna use it. Calling a fakebit song a chiptune is to anime fans calling avatar an anime. It may look like an anime, but it's a western animation, it's a knockoff, a fake, an impersonation of the real deal. I'm not saying that it's a a bad thing that it exists, I'm saying that it shouldn't be called something it isn't

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928 Reply by Alpine

(430 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Well up until this thread I thought there was no chiptune scene in leicester, although ForaBrokenEarth, then again I haven't been actively searching for musicians though.

ForaBrokenEarth wrote:

There was a chip show in Leicester during the 2009 boom. Apart from my own gigs there haven't been any since (as far as I'm aware). I'm in Nottingham currently but I'm looking to tap my little well of local resources and try to put on a chip gig in Leicester at some point. If there are any east midlands folks around these parts, get in touch! It'd be nice just to have a pint with some chip musicians and see what we can put together.

My lady friend is from Liverpool and I'm pretty excited that that puts me a pretty sweet position to go see some great gigs and maybe meet some of the folks I've been listening to for so long.

I can't have a pint with ya' but I'd certainly be interested if you where having a show in leicester, I would definitely try and get some of my mates to come with me to it.

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