
                           \||/
                      ___ (o><o) ___
             _________UUU˙˙\oo/˙˙UUU______________
             / \/ \    \    \    \    \    \ \/ \
             \_   /  \_/_ \_/ /__/  \_/  \_/ /\ /
             / \  \  / \ \  \ \  \    \  / \  / \
             \Y___/e___/s___/C___/R___/E___/W___/
             ======================================
                   ****  GemPLAY Player  ****
   
  
 GemPLAY is a music player for GEM. I decided to make GemPLAY cause
there was no player which would play different native formats,  esp
in GEM. After some GemXXX players, GemPLAY was born to include most
Atari formats together with GEM protocols like an AVSERVER. If your
OS supports the AVSERVER  feature, you may install  GemPLAY to open
*.AM, *.GT2, *.MOD,  *.AON (AO4, AO6, AO8),  *.SND and  *.XMS files
Then you can doubleclick them or drag them to the GemPLAY window or
Taskbar and songs will be load and play automaticaly.  From version
1.70  GemPLAY  also record how many times  certain song were played
 popularity  of certain song (percentage of how many times song was
played against the total number of songs played)  and user  ratings
for  certain song.  Songs database  can also  be exported to a file
(clipbrd/gbase.txt) or  displayed  in  an installed  editor via the
AVSERVER.



 Supported formats:

*.ACE (Ace tracker modules - 16ch, depends on CPU power)
*.MOD (Noise tracker modules - 4,6,8)
*.GT2 (Groumf tracker v2 modules - 32ch, depends on CPU power)
*.AON (ArtOfNoise tracker modules - 4,6,8 ch)
*.SND (SNDH songs.. Currently only Timer C songs are supported, non
       Timer C songs load with a warning and dont play automaticaly
       you have to risk that by yourself :) Timer C is always used)
*.XMS (XLR8 songs. This was added more as curiosity as real feature
       and its a little  unstable if you load many tunes.  Original
       XLR8 replay routine also do not play SID sounds) XLR8 replay
       routine also uses  VBL syncing,  so replay speed will depend
       on vertical refresh rate.)
*.FLX (Flex tracker modules - plays via DSPMOD,  so replay is a bit
       crippled, bacause it lacks Flex tracker's DSP effects)


 Buttons in GemPLAY from left to right:


 - Quit   : This button actualy quits the application, while window
            closer only closes the main dialog.

 - Target : This is a multi-option  button and its function depends
            on player currently active.

 - Load   : Load new song

 - Rwd    : Rewind in GTK mode, multi-function button in other mode

 - Play   : Play

 - Fwd    : Forward wind in GTK mode, multi-function button in other
            modes

 - Pause  : Pause

 - Stop   : Stop



 MENU options in GemPLAY:

 - GemPLAY
    About GemPLAY... ^A : Display About dialog

 - File
     Show Main    ^M	: Show Main Dialog if hidden
     Hide Main	  ^U	: Close Windows (Main and About)
     Rwnd Song	  ^R	: Rewind in GTK mode
     Play Song	  ^P	: Play Song
     Fwnd Song	  ^F	: Forward wind in GTK mode
     Stop Song	  ^S	: Stop playing
     Load Song	  ^L	: Load new song
     Song Info	  ^I	: Toggles display mode (Song Info/Stat)
     Quit GemPLAY ^Q	: Quit GemPLAY

 - Misc
     Options	^O	: Multi-function (same as Target button)
     Database	^D	: Display & Save Song Database via AVSERVER
     Speech	^T	: Switch Talk (STSPEECH) mode ON/OFF
     AutoLoad	^V	: Switch autoloading last tune ON/OFF

 - User Rating
     *		^1	: Rate song Bad
     **		^2	: Rate song Not so Bad
     ***	^3	: Rate song Mediocre
     ****	^4	: Rate song Good
     *****	^5	: Rate song Great



 Description of multi-function actions:

  Fast Forward/Rewind  buttons. Apart from GRAOUMF mode, where they
actualy FWD/RWD module, FWD/RWD buttons are used for diferent tasks
in other GemPLAY modes:

 - SNDH: In SNDH mode FWD/RWD buttons are used to scrol up and down
   thru subtunes if a song is multipart.  At bottom of  the display
   is 32 icons representing subtunes in a song. By clicking  on one
   of those you can jump to a desired subtune.  If you click on the
   currently playing tune, Intro mode is toggled on/off (I) appears
   in status display

 - MOD: in this mode  Forward/Rewind buttons are used to scroll the
   instrument list (info block) up and down.



 Target button (second from left) act as some kind of multifunction
switch. Shortcut is CTRL/O. With this button you can switch:

 - SNDH: In this mode,  Target  button switches  Intro mode  ON/OFF
   That's mainly usefull on a CT6o,  as o6o caches  make some tunes
   sound odd.  Caches are switched off  automaticaly if you stop or
   switch or load a new tune.  Except if you have enabled permanent
   cache OFF (CC!). In that case, cache is OFF permanently; in SNDH
   mode only, of course!
 - ACE: Delay uses a LOT of CPU time,  so ACE Delay can be switched
   OFF with the Target buton or by clicking on Status Display field

 - MOD:  Target button toggles  between SURROUND  and INTERPOLATION
   in DSPMOD mode. U can also click on Status Display field instead
   Target button.

   As not all buttons work  in all modes,  there is an indicator of
active buttons in each mode. If button is active, small mark appear
above the button.



 Status Display: (first two indicators are player dependant)

 SNDH Mode:

1: NRM/INT 		     Normal/Intro mode
2: CC+/CC-/CC!		     Cache ON/Cache OFF/Permanent CC-

 MOD/Flex Mode:

1: NRM/SUR/INT/S+I 	     Normal/Surround/Interpolation/Surround
			     and Interpolartion
2: ---		             Not used

 ACE Mode:

1: DY+/DY-		     ACE Delay ON/ACE Delay OFF
2: ---		             Not used

 GT2, XMS and AoN Modes:

1: ---			     Not used
2: ---			     Not used



 GemPLAY modes:

  GemPLAY has two main modes. Normal mode and database mode.  Modes
are indicated in 3rd Status field (DB+/DB-) If GemPLAY is in normal
mode (DB+) database is used.  If you switch database  off (DB-), no
database will be used. That may be of use on slow machines, because
maintaining big base take some time.

  There is also 3rd mode,  Intro  mode, which only  applys  to SNDH
replay mode. In Intro mode, multipart songs play each song for some
15 seconds and then skip to next subtune.  Any user action switches
Intro mode off. Intro mode also don't increase a songs popularity.



 Misc options:

 Info menu option (CTRL/I) is used to display song infos. Especialy
Art Of Noise tunes  can have big info blocks,  so this option calls
the AVSERVER which opens your prefered text editor and display info
in the editors window.  If the editor is not set or Info is  called
in TOS the file is saved to the CLIBOARD. This is curently replaced
with displaying Info/Stat in the Main Dialog.

 Speech menu option  (CTRL/T) switches  the fancy talk mode  ON/OFF
When active it uses  ST-SPEECH  to communicate with  the user. This
mode is completely useless,  but it is quite funny!!  ST-SPEECH  is
still under copyright (A.D.Beveridge & M.N.Day),  but i  hope  they
will not be angry, as GemPLAY is freeware project...

 GP2ACC:

 GPACC is a very minimalistic ACC player, using  the GemPLAY engine
Use with caution,  we will not be held resonsible for any potential
crash or data loss,  as locking of DSP&Sound system is a bit quirky
Also you  *must* create a  GEMPLAY folder on your boot partiton and
copy the PLUGINS folder in to it. Without that, GPACC will not work



  Known problems:

 - SND crashing. Some SNDH tunes crash. Because of that database is
   not saved in realtime (when each song is playing), but only when
   GemPLAY is closed.  Reason for that is that some songs crash two
   or more seconds  into playing,  and it is possible that database
   would be saved at that time.  That could lead to data loss.  Now
   if crash happens, only current session is lost.  However you can
   save database manualy pressing "^D".
   WARNING! Disabling caches slows down o6o A LOT!!  GemPLAY switch
   caches back when no SNDH is playin, or when you quit GemPLAY. If
   GemPLAY crashes in SNDH  mode,  you may need to switch caches on
   manualy.


 - Button highlightning, when loading file via the AVSERVER,  don't
   work so either wrong buttons are highlighted or none.. Need some
   more insight in to GEM :)

 - FWD/RWD is  enabled for GRAOUMF modules,  but in MiNT that works
   kinda shaky....

 - Seems there is a problem with GT2 replay on  CT60+Phantom  board
   This is probably due to the DSP clock problem.. One solutions is
   to add a 50MHz oscillator for DSP.

 - ACE Delay ON/OFF works however when delay is switched off, music
   stops as well.  It probably is a feature of  ACE replay routines


  ToDo list:

 - Playlist?
 - Databse TOP10 playlist, etc?

							                      
  Credits:
  
  GemPLAY Shell.........................................SWE/YesCREW
  ACE.replay.routines................................Thomas/NewBeat
  MOD.replay. routines.......................Bitmaster/TCE+Evil/DHS
  GT2.replay. routines.............................Laurent de Soras
  AON.replay. routines....................................TaT/Avena
  SND.replay. routines...BDC/Aura+Ozk/Assemsoft+Evil/DHS+Grazey/PHP
  XMS.replay. routines...................................Iso/Sentry
  ST-SPEECH.routines..........................A.D.Beveridge&M.N.Day
  GUI.Design........................................C-REM/MJJ Proud

 BIG THANX to Grazey/PHP,  for finding problem with SNDH v2 archive
and Evil/D.H.S. for help, especialy with GFA wrappers!!

  Included tunes:

  ACE:400.Beats......................................Thomas/NewBeat
  MOD:Glutamin.Extended........................Toodeloo/DHS/YesCREW
  GT2:YesCREW.Theme............................Toodeloo/DHS/YesCREW
  FLX:Spring.........................................505/CheckPoint
  AON:DNA.Warrior........................................Lego/Twice
  SND:Spunge........................................Per Almered/XiA
  SND:Enchanted.Lands.Multipart..............................MadMax
  XMS:Enchanted.Lands....................................Iso/Sentry

  NOTE:
  
 GemPLAY  needs  Falcono3o computer and atleast 4MB of RAM. We also
don't take any  responsibility  for your hardware  or ears damage!!
Use GemPLAY at your own risk. U HAVE BEEN WARNED! ;))

							
                             *********


http://yescrew.atari.org..............................YesCREW.Pages
http://www.bright.net/~gfabasic...............Lonny.Pursell's Pages
swe@atari.org / jvalant@atari.org...............SWE's.email.address