EPlay 1.16

VGM files of any size. 1.15 refused a VGM over 8 MB ("too big to play"). Now a file plays if there's memory for it. When there isn't, the alert says how much it needs, and EPLAY.LOG gives the sizes. Only AY/YM2149 and SN76489 music plays so far; a file for another chip says so.

The window's first place. On a first start (no place kept in EPLAY.INF) the window opens as tall as the desk, centred across, as the family's standard asks. After that EPlay keeps the place you leave it at.

For the FireBee's tester: FBPROBE.PRG. A small program that only reads. It writes FBPROBE.TXT beside itself with what the machine says about its sound: the cookie jar, the memory, the video mode, the Falcon's XBIOS sound inquiries, and whether the MFP's Timer A, a YM2149 at $FF8800, the Falcon's sound registers and a DSP answer. Please pass it to the tester and send back FBPROBE.TXT: it decides how a FireBee edition of EPlay plays its sound. It isn't part of EPlay and is safe on any Atari.

EPlay 1.15

VGM and VGZ game music. EPlay plays VGM files, the sound chip's own writes as a game made them, and VGZ files, the same gzipped:

• AY-3-8910 and YM2149 music (Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, MSX, ZX Spectrum) plays on the Atari's own YM2149, the real chip, on the Falcon, the TT and the STE. A chip at another clock (the Spectrum's 1.77 MHz) is put at its pitch.
• SN76489 music (Master System, Game Gear, BBC Micro) plays on the Falcon's DSP, through the Falcon's output or the FDI. The DSP is held only while it plays.
• The list shows the track, the game and the composer from the file's GD3 tag.
• A file with a loop plays it once more, its last 4 seconds fading out.
• Seek, Pause and the volume work as for any file.
• While one plays, the keyboard's click and the bell are off.
• Music for another chip (the Mega Drive's FM, an arcade board's) says so and isn't played.

Find station's pop-ups open with the chosen row over their button, as Settings' do.

EPlay 1.14

EPlay 1.14 brings it in line with the family's UI standards.

Settings (Options > Settings..., ^,) is the family's dialog now, with three pages:

• Playing: the Output (Auto, FDI, DSP; one the machine hasn't is greyed) and ReplayGain.
• Stations: the Gateway's address and port.
• Files: Use the system file selector (off at the start): Open... then opens the system's own file selector (TOS's, Selectric, FreeMiNT's, MagiC's) instead of Add files.

Every control is reached by the keyboard: Tab, Space and the arrows.

The playlist takes several rows:

• Shift+click adds a row or takes it out.
• Control+click adds the rows from the last one clicked.
• Edit > Select all (^A).
• Del, and the row's menu, act on all of them.

Tips: rest the pointer on the bar's controls and a tip says what each does and its key (BubbleGEM's where it runs).

Fixed

• Open... of an .M3U holding a station's address added nothing. A station line now goes into the list as a station, named by its #EXTINF line.
• A Shift or Control pressed while EPlay is busy is no longer lost.

EPlay 1.13

Find station (File menu): search radio-browser.info's stations by name, genre, country and language, sorted by votes, listeners or name; play or add them. Directly (MP3 stations) or Through the Gateway (any station; needs AERA-Gateway's radiogate 1.3).

Fixes from a tester on a CT60 with MiNT and XaAES: no lock-up under MiNT's memory protection; EPlay killed no longer takes the system down; the sound system is held only while EPlay plays; runs on the 68060 (one program for every CPU); no garbage in the info line; the window redrawn under Settings and About; Add files takes double clicks under XaAES and reads long names under MiNT.

The window can be iconified (MagiC, XaAES, N.AES) and made full height, and keeps its place and height in EPLAY.INF.

EPlay 1.12

ReplayGain: Settings has a ReplayGain row (Off, Track, Album, Auto; Auto by default: the album's gain in order, the track's shuffled), from the files' tags or LAME's header, louder only as far as a file's peak allows; on an STE only quieter. EPLAY.LOG is kept across runs as in the family's other programs, with a line at each start, the connections' lines in it (EPLAYNET.LOG no more), rolled over to EPLAY.OLD past 256 KB. The family's UI rules: greyed menu items whose keys do nothing; Settings first in Options; Help > EPlay help and Keys...; Settings and Open URL with a title band, Cancel before OK, buttons 10 wide; a bad Gateway port refused with an alert; Add files' pop-ups over their ticked choice, Esc only empties its filter; the About box names the Falcon, TT and STE. A new README with screenshots.

EPlay 1.11

Gapless MP3: albums encoded with LAME now join sample-exact on the Falcon's DSP, using the encoder's delay and padding from the LAME tag, so no silence is heard between tracks. A row played with Return or a double click starts faster again (70 ms, was 340 ms).

EPlay 1.10

Gapless, first step: no break between files.

• When the next file in the list has the same sound (an MP3 at the same rate, or a WAV or AIFF of the same format), it now follows on in the same stream: no stop, no DSP reload, no gap of most of a second. The bar, the title, the time and the album art switch as its first sound is heard. On the Falcon, the TT and the STE.
• An MP3 still carries its encoder's own silence at the join (some 25 ms, its delay and padding from LAME's header); leaving that out on the DSP is the next step.
• Files of a different kind or rate open at the end, as before.

EPlay 1.9

Stations' logos through the Gateway.

• A station that names no picture of its own now shows its logo when a Gateway's address is in Settings, on a Direct connection too. The Gateway looks it up in the radio-browser.info directory; a station it knows none for keeps the disc, and nothing is said either way. Logos are kept in cache\.
• This needs AERA-Gateway with radiogate 1.2 (its next release).

EPlay 1.8

The Gateway's radio service, hardened (radio/radiogate.py, for AERA-Gateway; EPlay itself plays as in 1.7).

• Pictures through the Gateway: ffmpeg now runs with one thread, so it stays within its memory limit (on a 4-core machine it didn't, and pictures failed).
• ffmpeg reads only what the Gateway passes it, and at most two pictures are made at once.
• The guide: the radio service comes with AERA-Gateway 1.33 (aera-gateway install radio), pictures through it with 1.34.

EPlay 1.7

A station's picture, and new Play/Pause.

• Play/Pause is now a bare symbol in the accent colour, without the disc round it (Erez's design E).
• A station's picture: where a station names one with its titles (Radio Paradise sends each song's cover, SomaFM its logo), it takes the album art's place. On a Direct connection EPlay fetches it itself and the 68030 unpacks it, a few seconds while the music plays on (the DSP is busy with it); through the Gateway it comes as a small picture and shows quickly (AERA-Gateway's radio service 1.1). Pictures seen before come from cache\. Stations that send none keep the disc.