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Pokey tunes while BBSing?


Xebec

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We're any terminal programs ever written that could play music while using a bbs or even transferring files ?

 

If not would this be possible on a stock Atari or would music playing clobber the serial port too much even for slower speeds like 1200bps?

 

Also how many bytes of space or ram would a tune plus code to play end up needing roughly ?

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No reason that you can't get some tunes, provided the flow is low, and most BBS interactions are... quick burst followed by some reading... it would more that likely work similar to music while loading from disk extrapolated for sio based modeming (850 etc.), which should be a easier with PBI based modeming (BB, MIO, etc) and maybe a bit easier still with a dual pokey (stereo, gumby) as you could conceivably use the second pokey to play a mono tune, not sure how the alternative music add ons would handle it....

Edited by _The Doctor__
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We're any terminal programs ever written that could play music while using a bbs or even transferring files ?

 

If not would this be possible on a stock Atari or would music playing clobber the serial port too much even for slower speeds like 1200bps?

 

Also how many bytes of space or ram would a tune plus code to play end up needing roughly ?

 

Most pokey music is a few KB to 16 KB, a few longer ones I have in my collection are up to 28-32KB.

 

There is a pokey player that is BASIC that can run during the vertical blank interrupt. That way you could add music to any BASIC game.

I suppose you could use that with a BASIC terminal program.

 

I am working on restoring my entire collection of pokey music and players from the Action Annex BBS back in the day. It's going to be at least on 16MB hard disk sized .ATR when I am done. At very least a bunch of smaller .ATR files.

 

Here's a sample of one old pokey player from the BBS:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-UlX3Y5gcWyTiafb_AhtAEwrZqfwzDha

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Edited by mechanerd
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There is a pokey player that is BASIC that can run during the vertical blank interrupt. That way you could add music to any BASIC game.

I suppose you could use that with a BASIC terminal program.

 

The problem is not so much playing music during VBI. The problem is that the pokey timers that create the music are also responsible for the serial timing. IOWs, two of the four voices would have be to be allocated for the serial transfer, the others could play music. You are hence a bit restricted on the musical score.

 

There are a couple of games that could play music during loading the game - they face the same problem. "The Eidolon" by Lucasfilms is a fine example. Since Disk I/O operates at 19200 baud, a BBS operating at 1200 baud should be well possible - if you write a dedicated music player that only uses two of four voices.

 

 

 

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that would work but during down loads with 850.. P:R: and using floppies, you might have to shut down the screen extend a buffer during downloads , I can't believe I just said that :)

to be honest you can still download today depending on how the bbs has it's box configured via telnet, of course real dial up still works just fine....

Edited by _The Doctor__
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For what it's worth, I found the Antic magazine pokey player construction kit that allowed you make a bootable player, play in basic, and see if the music plays during the VBI correctly. Its from Craig Chamberlain himself.

 

I don't have an 850 to test with right now, but I can boot a 130xe and then see if disk I/O trashes the music.

I believe you are right.

 

How about rewrite the code to play on the second pokey chip that some people have installed. ?... heheh

 

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vckfpwIMG7B3WxvSESilGBYIpEfywuY8

Edited by mechanerd
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I don't recall one that played Pokey music, but there was one where you could play a simple Breakout game while downloading at the same time. That was an impressive feat to me at the time.

I remember that one! What was it called?

 

Gotta look. Might still have it if the disk isn't bad.

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As BBSing was even slower in that days, music during download wasn't impossible.

Also, digitizing is too much underestimated, using the Atari...

 

The best impression, what's possible, show the Hard-Software Demos...

You know the emulation shows a small yellow indicator, when SIO happens....

 

 

 

Digital channel(s) and one 16 Bit channel would even allow to have correct pitched music there....

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I don't recall one that played Pokey music, but there was one where you could play a simple Breakout game while downloading at the same time. That was an impressive feat to me at the time.

I think it was AModem, written in BASIC but using ML routines. I remember we discussed it sometime ago.

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As BBSing was even slower in that days, music during download wasn't impossible.

Also, digitizing is too much underestimated, using the Atari...

 

The best impression, what's possible, show the Hard-Software Demos...

You know the emulation shows a small yellow indicator, when SIO happens....

 

 

 

Digital channel(s) and one 16 Bit channel would even allow to have correct pitched music there....

You get a like just for posting a HARD demo.... :)

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