tfmx-play 0.15

  by Jonathan H. Pickard
  (marxmarv@anime.net)

Rule number one is that -h shows the usage.  All the info about the cool
features is in here.  There's no proper readme file because the one I
wrote got eaten by a stupid tar command.

COPYRIGHT
---------
The tfmx-play package, including the tfmx-play executable, its sources, and
its accompanying documentation, is copyright (C) 1996 Jonathan H. Pickard.
This package may not be redistributed, and is only available from the
author's <a href="http://www.anime.net/~marxmarv/tfmx.html">WWW page</a>, or
by direct communication with the author.

This is so because:
* I get some idea of how widespread the use of this package is.
* People are more or less forced to read the cautionary statements about this
  software being highly highly alpha, etc.
* People are more or less forced into knowing who the author is =:^)

Of course, it would be trivial to simply pass the files along to a friend,
or to use them in the commercial venture _du jour_, but I can't vouch for
the safety of your system or your pets should you do so.  You'd be stupid to
do so anyway, as the fully debugged version will probably be under a
BSD-style copyright.  So, if you reeeeally want to steal my code or put it in
a demo, hang out for a few months so that it doesn't make _me_ look bad.

USE
---
The included binary is in ELF format.  If you want to build your own, just
type "make" and it will use the default compiling tools.  No sweat.  If
you're using a libc older than 5.3.9, you should uncomment the -DNO_SCHED
line to avoid compiler errors.  (If you're using libc 5.3, you may have to
adjust the /usr/include/sched.h file because of a typo on the libc guys'
part.  Figures.)

This version includes stereo "blend" to make better sound for headphone
wearers.  Degrees of blend run from 2 (full stereo) to 0 (full mono).  Note
that this is changed from prior versions which had blend!  I decided to have
one level of blend that I considered comfortable to keep from slowing things
too severely.

This version also includes a simple low-pass filter with four settings: off,
high, medium, and low (describing the cutoff frequencies).  Don't ask me to
give you exact ratios of the cutoff frequencies; I don't know or understand
the math behind weighted-sum filters.  Approximately, though, the time
constants of the filter are: high=1.2, medium=1.5, low=2.4, referenced to
the playback frequency.  This sounds reasonable-ish.  If anyone has the real
numbers, please send 'em.

This player should play _most_ stuff.  I know for a fact that it plays all
_my_ stuff rather well =:^) , and I did use some twisted TFMX constructs in
places.  Otherwise known to play are MasterBlazer, Apidya (mostly), Turrican
II and III (all?), and JimPower.  Most TFMX-1.5 stuff (Turrican, et al) sound
broken in some places, and admittedly, it's not my highest priority to fix
it.

NOTE: Turrican III title tune could use a little patch if you don't hear any
lead lines in song 1.  History behind this was, the module as ripped crashed
most TFMX players.  I modified the thing with a hex editor (converting the
offending commands to wait's) and passed the version around.  Unfortunately,
the wait paralyzed the whole soundmacro for 5 seconds before it would give
us audio.  Anyway, I have the (un?)fixed MDAT available.  Email me if you
need it and you can't find it on my web page.

Email any (other) bug reports, suggestions, or even snide comments to
marxmarv@anime.net.

Thanks!
-jhp
