This is a player for MSX FAC Soundtracker files on MS-DOS computers. FSTR was released in 1994. The code is published only for historic reasons.
The published binary can be find here: http://www.msxarchive.nl/pub/msx/utils/othersys/
Video demo running on DosBox here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYH8B3nKwpk
Following is the original README file. For preserveration, the text is conserved as-is, no evident corrections to grammar problems will be done.
FAC Soundtracker Replayer for PC compatibles.
Overview:
This is a program that lets you hear FAC SoundTracker MUS files on any
PC compatible with an AD-LIB or 100% compatible sound card.
System Requirements:
- 286 or higher processor
- VGA card
- AD-LIB or 100% compatible sound card.
- 95 kb of free memory.
How I use it?
The management of this program is quite easy. No command parameters. No
complicated menues etc.
To start it you must type FSTR at the command prompt and then a graphics
display will be shown at front of you.
The screen looks like this
|---------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------|
|----| |-----| |-----|
| A | | B | | C |
|----| |-----| |-----|
|---| |-----------------------| |---|
| D | | | | F |
|---| | E | |---|
| |
|---| | | |---|
| G | | | | H |
|---| |-----------------------| |---|
Here you got some icons that represent the actions that you can do. All
you have to do is place the cursor above any of them and press the mouse
button or the space bar if you are using the keyboard.
Now, here's the explanation of what they mean.
A. Audio.
With this icon you can turn all the melody channels on or off and let
only the drums channels sound.
B. File Access
Pointing here will display a File selection box from where you can search
and load any song (*.mus), or select a song list.
When you choose a song, its name will be highlighted (note that the list
contains the song name and not the file name). Also you can select more than
one song and they will be played continuously.
C. Drums
From this you can select 9 melody channels or 6 melody channels and 5
channels for drums (they are really 3 pairs of modulators, but we can play
5 different sound at the same time).
This button hasn't the same effect that turning the channels 7 to 9 off
because there are music that uses 9 melody channels + 1 drum channel, so if
you turn drums off you will hear all 9 channels playing the melody.
D. Shell
This is the interesting part, and the one who cause me a lot of pain and
suffering.
When I start this proyect I thought in a little program to play *.MUS
files, but as the time pass I realize that watching a screen that doesn't
change in a long period of time is very boring. So what about placing the music
on the background while using a text editor, or other process that requires a
few of the system power. And yeah... the word 'shell' appear on my eyes.
The problem was that the musics are very short (at least the musics I
used developing this program), and it isn't very comfortable exiting from an
aplication only to change the song. The solution was the file list.
Now the problem was that it isn't convenient to load all the songs of
the list in memory, why don't load only the song that I want to play. But there
will be a conflict if the disk is currently accesed! :-(. Finally after many
hours of hard debugging I get this idea working hapily :-)
E. Peak Meter
From this section you can turn any of the nine channels on or off.
F. Quit
Push here when you want to return to the silent world.
G. Song List Position.
If you want to hear the last song again or send to hell the actual song
you can use this.
H. Song Pattern Position.
Using this you can advance or go back within a song.
Finally I want to warning you that YOU ARE USING THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN
RISK, IF YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR YOUR EARS GET DAMAGED FOR ANY REASON, I'M NOT
RESPONSABLE. THIS IS A BETA VERSION.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read this section if you are a coder, musician or a simple curious guy.
History.
I began this proyect when I saw that exist many *.MUS files with amazing
names and because I love music, then I don't hesitate about writing a *.MUS
player for my computer (PC).
This was necesary beacause here on Chile there are few MSX machines,three
of my friends have one and only with PSG chips. So, experimenting with some
MUS files in TP I found a relationship between them, and 3 days later, I got
the replaying routine working but without the drum channels, because this is
the first time I did a program that uses my sound card. The next step was
imagine how did the drum part of the file works, and how to program the drums
on the sound card.
The first part takes me about 1 day to determine which sounds mean the
codes in the file, but learning to program the drums and obtaining a decent
sound took me a bigger time.
One week after I finished the replaying part which runned with a black
screen and it was computer speed dependant.
I hadn't all my time free, because I have to study too. A period of finals
exams at Univerity came and the proyect was delayed. When this period end, it
took me a lot of time to return to code because I was working in, at first
look, small programs that stealed me a lot of time.
When I get back on FSTR I pass for many problems because I wanted a small
program (<10 kb long) made 100% in Assembly language. You can ask why not in C
or TP,my answer is that C requires about 15Mb of disk space and it doesn't fit
on my HD, in the other hand TP is a nice language but the compiled programs
include info that make the program grow. Also I choose assembler because it is
the only language that I know what does exactly happen with my code.
It took me many hours learning how to do many things that I was used to do
with high level languages. One day I worked many hours and the coding was very
successful, the program was running with many of the facts I want to. Then,
when I gone to bed I made a back up of all the work, but instead of moving
the files from the working to the back up directory, I did it from the old
files overwriting the new files, so all the work was lost and with that files
I lost my patience and my brain :-(
With that accident on my back, I got up again and re-coded all the program
again but new stranges bug's appear. And finally, 2 months later I killed the
last bug (I think) and the program is ready for your use.
Observations.
- MUS file format was created by FAC on the MSX systems. I 've never
heared a MUS song on a MSX computer, the replaying routine was developed
testing and hearing what happened. I wrote an article on the MSX mailing
list (msx@stack.urc.tue.nl) if somebody could help me with the MUS
format, but nobody respond me. If you think that you can help me with
it, I will be very grateful and I promise that I will do the corrections
on the next version. See at the end of this TXT for contacting me.
- This program was made for my own use, but I believe in Public Domain so
we all can enjoy the creations of each others. I code because I love
coding (and girls of course), f*ck you business only coders.
- For now I can't play musics beacause I sold my sound card, I think that
the next version could have 9 melody channels and 1 drum channel using
a Sound Blaster DAC for the drums, also if you help me I can improve the
replaying routine to support effects (I still don't know what does some
of the codes mean).
- The system requirements says 95 Kb, but if you start using buttons the
program needs more memory.
- As you can see, using shell will reserve about 13 kb for code 16 kb for
song and 6 kb for file list #|->.
- Don't use directories full of musics because I don't check the limit of
files (about 500 files)
- On my country we read FAC as f*ck O:-)
- If your song doesn't sound correctly read the first topic on this
section.
- If using the shell and when FSTR tries to load one song the system
crashes, you have to select only one song and not a song list.
- Sorry by my poor english but I think if I write in spanish many of you
will not understand me.
- Don't look at the code, it's very ugly, most of it is midnight code.
- I don't know if the video and CPU detection works because I couldn't
find any computer with less than VGA & 286.
- I include the song desert-dessert by E.J. Schuller if you don't have
any song. I found it in the file UNICORN.LZH in /pub/msx/music at
nic.funet.fi.
Acknowlegments
- Borland International. There's no one best than them. ;^)
- Jeffery Lee for the info on FM-chips programming (What happened with
the drums?)
- David Jurgens for his HELP PC.
Greetings
- MSX & PC freaks all over the world. MCX (Max Celedon), some day I'll
finish your PSG sound routine for VDPower, and when do you will finish
it?. Luis Cueto (Thank you for the internet access, I believe you can
finish your career if you set it as a goal). JHM & CHM (Creators of
the Spectrum emulator on MSX). Javier Gutierrez (Yeah, cool guy).
Fernando Diaz. (get ready for xCommand)
Contacting with the author.
E-Mail hydefus@inf.utfsm.cl (MCX account)
or i5esp101@loa.disca.utfsm.cl. This last only until November '94
Phone +56 32 944871 (only if you speak spanish)
Snail Mail Eucaliptus 386 5§ sector Belloto Sur
Quilpu‚, V regi¢n
Chile.
All of them must be directed to Franco Catrin.
F.Catrin '94