"Quantum Leap" discovered!

[GratedTopping]

1993: A favourite show of mine, "Quantum Leap" (featuring Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett and Dean Stockwell as Al Calavicci), ended its fifth and final season on a terrible note with one of

the worst finales ever in history.

 

QL dealt with a "time travel experiment that went a little ca-ca." In order to prove his theories or lose funding, "Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the QUANTUM LEAP accelerator...and vanished." Something unexpected takes place and Sam ends up actually 'leaping' into other people's lives. He becomes them and, during the leaps, the leapee is at the QL program in the future. Once Sam puts "right what once went wrong", he leaps and is someone else. At the start, it seemed that it was his aura/spirit changing places. Later, it became known that he was physically changing places in time. I think it would have been cooler and more sensible for just the soul/essence to be changing and it was stupid and confusing in a final season episode (for example) where -- even though he became a Veteran who had lost his legs -- he was able to stand up.

 

Anyway, Dr. Beckett is "hoping each time that his next leap...will be the leap home" (the opening narrative states). The ending of the show? Crappy words on the screen saying that "Dr. Becket never returned home." What a horrible thing to do -- and they couldn't

even spell their own character's last name correctly!

 

In September of that year, a relative and I created a tribute to the show. The music was arranged by him using the "Music Maker" cartridge. Using that data and seeing the musical notes on-screen, CALL SOUNDS for the program were created. I typed in the program in Extended BASIC and designed the graphics based on a photo of Sam Beckett 'leaping'. Of interest is that the music is seamless and the notes flow together (without the mini-pauses normally encountered). As well, I understood the use of the officially undocumented use of turning the pre-scan on/off to get programs to start faster.

 

I know that I uploaded the program to two 'bulletin boards' in 1993 or 1994. The "Music Maker" data has never been sent anywhere. I also wrote to the "MICROpendium" magazine at the time and let them know and that letter was published. I recall that, many years ago, I inquired on some TI forum on the internet if anybody out there might have the program since I couldn't locate it. No luck....until 3.6.2013.

 

I discovered recently two big boxes of disks with TI software in the basement. I thought I had all my TI stuff with me in the apartment, so I was quite surprised. Trying out other disks I had in the last few years, I believed that I had accidentally erased the files at sometime or just lost the disk. Of the newly-found batch, I had a 'feeling' on which of the disks I actually saved the software on and there it was. Along with it was the "Music Maker" data and

everything loaded without a hitch. Those disks were in the basment for almost 10 years at least!

 

After almost 20 years, I get to upload the file again. Although Sam is lost in time out there, this ultimately wasn't. In memory of him and an awesome show, I am pleased to be able to make

a little something right that once went wrong.

 

"Oh boy!"

 

 

 

NOTES:

 

* Please let me kow what you think. I never knew if anybody in the past got to see it and I suspect those bulletin boards were gone not long after the program was there.

 

* The music sounds better on the real TI, but it's certainly not bad.

 

* "QL" is the Extended BASIC program; "QUANTUM" is the data for the "Music Maker" cartridge

 

* MINI-MODIFICATIONS...

 

- deleted CALL CLEAR statements and put DISPLAY ERASE

ALL in their place; this statement does the same thing and

uses a little less memory

 

- changed the names of the subprograms from "QL" to

"QLSCREEN" and "SET" to "COLORSET"; changed the

statements that would CALL those to their new names

 

- defined a new character, changing the "@" to "-" so I could

have a dash between "time travel" since I thought it looked

better that way

 

- increased the delay after the appearance of the screen; I

didn't want the music to begin as quickly as before

 

- of utmost importance, I added the REMark (!) statement that

mentions this was modified 3.10.2013! (-;

QUANTUM LEAP.zip

Edited March 10, 2013 by GratedTopping

[sometimes99er]

Nice one.

[GratedTopping]

Nice one.

 

Thanks. So, you're the first person I know has seen it and that's the first review outside of the family. It feels just cool to be able to share this after such a long time.

 

Thinking about my TI collection and other items I've downloaded over the years, I realize that I have never seen any other "Music Maker" data/songs. I just found, too, that we started on the theme from "MacGyver" -- but only made it up to a portion of the song in "Music Maker". I didn't have any recollection of that being worked-on.

[Omega-TI]

The Quantum Leap music file was great! It brought back a lot of memories from that time period.

 

I'm slowly getting back into the TI (after 23 years) and have been looking for an XBasic sound file, with NO LUCK. It was called "Enter Sandman", it sounded better than the original groups music because there were no lyrics!

[GratedTopping]

The Quantum Leap music file was great! It brought back a lot of memories from that time period.

 

Hey, thanks. I'm glad to see that some have liked it enough to comment.

 

I spoke to Mr. Maalouli of the "TI Game Shelf" and, even though it's not a game, he's agreed to put it on his website during a future update. I also recorded and uploaded its playback to youtube.

[Omega-TI]

"I have never seen any other "Music Maker" data/songs"

Believe it or not, I have an old DS/DD diskette with Music Maker on it and a copy of Greensleeves as the only song (made by my ex-wife over 23 years ago). I had the chance to get it converted about a month ago and passed on it, now I regret doing so because I know now that someone could have used it. Next time I meet up with my friend I'll ask him if he can convert it for us.

[Opry99er]

I also recorded and uploaded its playback to youtube.

 

Link please?

[Opry99er]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16VH7EhlUOY Edited April 3, 2013 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

This is very cool, man. =) Love it!

[GratedTopping]

Hey, "Opry99er"! Looking over your profile at the ATARIAGE forum, I read that you were a musician. So, to hear your approval was even better than I expected. We were just around 18 then, but thought it sounded alright.

 

Hmmm...in the playback of the program in the YouTube video, I was surprised to see that the 'leap lines' disappeared at 58 seconds. That's not what happens in the program, so it looks like I'll record and upload again.

[Opry99er]

Heh... Just wait til I get ahold of the ASLP by Marc Hull... I'll be writing all kinds of craziness. =)

 

Here's a little something for you to paste into Classic99. =) It's the "YOU WON AND KILLED ALL THE A-HOLE BAD GUYS" music from "Riding for the Brand".

 

Had some fun writing all the music for that game, and this one has probably not been heard by any player of the game... The game isn't very easy to beat (unless you know the little patterns and tricks...) and I don't know if anyone has even tried. =)

 

Hopefully with the falcon's compiler (2.1) I can make it much more efficient and a more playable game. Enjoy the tune. =)

 

 

 

10211 CALL SOUND(200,196,1):: CALL SOUND(200,220,1):: CALL SOUND(200,247,1)
10212 CALL SOUND(200,262,1,784,1):: CALL SOUND(200,262,1,523,1)
10213 CALL SOUND(200,196,1,659,1):: CALL SOUND(200,196,1,523,1)
10214 CALL SOUND(200,262,1,587,1):: CALL SOUND(200,262,1,523,1)
10215 CALL SOUND(200,196,1,392,1):: CALL SOUND(200,196,1,330,1)
10216 CALL SOUND(200,196,1,494,1):: CALL SOUND(200,196,1,392,1)
10217 CALL SOUND(200,196,1,784,1):: CALL SOUND(200,196,1,698,1)
10218 CALL SOUND(200,196,1,494,1)
10219 CALL SOUND(200,262,1):: CALL SOUND(200,294,1):: CALL SOUND(200,311,1):: CALL SOUND(200,165,1)
10220 CALL SOUND(200,165,1,659,1):: CALL SOUND(200,165,1,698,1)
10221 CALL SOUND(200,165,1):: CALL SOUND(200,330,1,659,1)
10222 CALL SOUND(200,165,1):: CALL SOUND(200,123,1,659,1)
10223 CALL SOUND(200,392,1):: CALL SOUND(200,110,1,523,1):: CALL SOUND(200,110,1,440,1)
10224 CALL SOUND(200,196,1,587,1):: CALL SOUND(200,196,1,659,1)
10225 CALL SOUND(200,175,1,523,1,698,1):: CALL SOUND(200,175,1,220,1)
10226 CALL SOUND(200,147,1):: CALL SOUND(200,165,1):: CALL SOUND(200,131,1,392,1,523,1)
10227 CALL SOUND(200,131,1,392,1):: CALL SOUND(200,131,1,659,1)
10228 CALL SOUND(200,262,1,392,1,659,1):: CALL SOUND(200,262,1,587,1,659,1):: CALL SOUND(200,196,1,587,1)
10229 CALL SOUND(200,196,1,494,1):: CALL SOUND(200,196,1,587,1):: CALL SOUND(200,131,1,196,1,523,1)
10230 CALL SOUND(200,131,1,196,1,659,1):: CALL SOUND(200,131,1,392,1,523,1)
10231 CALL SOUND(200,196,1,659,1):: CALL SOUND(600,131,1,523,1,1047,1)

 

 

Edited April 20, 2013 by Opry99er

[GratedTopping]

NEW LINK TO YouTube PLAYBACK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwTepiBb2_w

 

** NOTE: PROGRAM SOUNDS BETTER ON THE REAL TI **

Edited April 21, 2013 by GratedTopping

[GratedTopping]

Hello, everyone. I've been watching season 4 of "Quantum Leap". My collection of the series is complete and I wanted to bump this posting up (just once) in case there are QL & TI fans who missed it.

Edited April 21, 2014 by GratedTopping

[RXB]

NEW LINK TO YouTube PLAYBACK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwTepiBb2_w

 

** NOTE: PROGRAM SOUNDS BETTER ON THE REAL TI **

Why is the video disabled?

[GratedTopping]

You're right. I tend to set it so that none of my videos can be embedded elsewhere (I wanted people to see them right on youtube and then, perhaps, be curious about other vids I had).

 

I'll make it so this one can be seen.

[TheMole]

I was kinda expecting a post about this thing: http://oldcomputers.net/ql.html

 

But this is neat to . Although I always wished these music maker songs used the features of the chip a bit better and allowed for attack and decay controls to make the music sound a little bit more lively...