Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
Archive of the
Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group
messages
|
|
|
|
|
Message: 5124
Author: Daniel
Date: 21/11/2005
Subject: Changing tunes in JSW128 / JSW64
Before I say anything else, thank you SO MUCH, Andrew, for your
detailed comments on "Mind Control" :-) . I appreciate both your
praise AND your criticism. I will analyse your remarks carefully and
post a reply as soon as I can. And I look forward very much to your
comments about the rest of the game :-) .
Thanks also to John for releasing the new version of JSWED :-) .
I am gradually preparing the final version of Sendy's and mine "Jet
Set Willy: Mind Control". I now have the title screen ready, kindly
designed by Zoran Miladinov. I have also worked on changing the
tunes, and I would like to share my experience with the Group.
The following detailed description is really meant for the
inexperienced in the Group, like myself. It may seem stupid to the
experts, I imagine. However, I have a question to the experts: let me
know if there may be any problems with the method I applied, which
may not be visible at first but at some point during the game.
In the final version "Mind Control" will most probably use the
following tunes:
- Ian Collier's "Cannonball" as the title screen tune (I still have
to ask Ian if he doesn't mind, but I'm quite confident he won't);
- "cheat.tun" for the regular in-game tune;
- "In The Hall Of The Mountain King (Grieg)", programmed by John
Elliott, as the cheat-mode tune.
I have done the following operations:
I used the Warajevo ZX Spectrum emulator
(ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/emulators/pc/dos/warsp251.
zip). I used the "Tape Files" function.
I used the file "Playtune.tap" downloaded from
http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Jsw/jswtune.html .
I selected "Playtune.tap". I extracted the "Cannonball" tune using
the "Blocks" "Extract" function. I extracted two pieces: piece # 7
("CANNON.TUN", which is described as "byt 0.2080") and piece #8
("Headerless", which is described as "len 2080 F:255").
After the extraction, those files are visible as "PLAYTUNE.7"
and "PLAYTUNE.8".
I selected "MC.tap" game file. I used the function "Blocks" "Add"
to add (one by one) the two above-mentioned files, whose names are
seen as "PLAYTUNE.7" and "PLAYTUNE.8" and which after adding are seen
in the "MC.tap" file as "CANNON.TUN" and "Headerless", as described
above.
I used the "Blocks" "Delete" function to delete the last two
original components of "MC.tap" file at numbers 23 and 24
"title.tun" described as "byt 29994.1710" and "Headerless" described
as "len 1710 F:255".
I used the "Blocks Edit" function (in ASCII) to change the
name "CANNON.TUN" to "title.tun".
I didn't have to save anything, because evidently "Warajevo" saves
any changes immediately (if you give it a try, work on a copy!).
After this operation the title-screen tune in "MC" became Ian
Collier's "Cannonball". It seems to me that it is working fine, and I
like it a lot :-) .
I also performed a similar operation on the "cheat.tun byt
63746,254" and the "Headerless len 254 F:255". I extracted them from
one of the JSW64 files (but I could have done it using the same
original "MC.tap" file, I think), I put them right after
the "main.tun byt 63232,256" and the following "Headerless len 256
F:255" files (using the "Blocks" "Reorder" function"), I deleted
the two original files ("main.tun" and the following "Headerless",
using the "Block" "Delete" function) and then I changed the name of
the inserted "cheat.tun" to "main.tun" using the "Blocks" "Edit"
function (in ASCII). This also seems to have worked and if I am
right, the cheat-mode tune has now become the regular in-game tune
in "Mind Control".
For the final release I think I will in turn substitute the cheat-
mode tune with another of the existing tunes (probably the current
JSW64 in-game tune).
Now, several points for the lay people and for the experts:
After the above operations, the game seemed to be operating fine, and
the tunes were changed and sounded nice. However, when I loaded the
modified "MC.tap" file into JSWED and then resaved it (as .tap), it
got screwed in the sense that the game started with the title-screen
already flashing with the scrolling message. So while it seems to me
and please correct me, those of you who know, if I am wrong that
this above-described method works fine, it must be used at the very
last moment, as the last change made to the game file before
releasing it, and afterwards the file cannot be modified in JSWED
again (unless the problem can be fixed by manual editing, but I
wouldn't know how to do it).
Now, enumerating the existing tunes John Elliott wrote:
> * Cannonball (SKY), programmed by Ian Collier. Never used in anyIt looks like "Mind Control" will be the first JSW game to
> JSW, and may be too big to fit.
use "Cannonball" :-) . John, if I understand correctly the
information Warajevo shows, "Cannonball" is 2080 bytes long. In your
document concerning "JSW 128 Music Format"
(http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Jsw/jswtune.html) you say: "Starting
tunes can occupy up to 2775 bytes". This means that "Cannonball" is
NOT too big to fit, isn't that right?
Also, what does SKY mean?
And by the way, while enumerating the tunes, you say:
> Danza (SKY), programmed by Ian Collier. The original JSW128 titleI tried it, too (it is in the "Playtune.tap" file), and it sounds
> screen tune.
nice. I think I will use it as the title screen tune in the Special
Edition of "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" (which I have decided to prepare
at some point).
However, it seems to me that it is NOT the "original" JSW128 title
screen tune I have a file called "JSW128 Hacklevel 1.tap",
downloaded from somewhere, and the title screen tune there is the
same as in the original 48k JSW (and the in-game tune is the original
one, too). This Hacklevel 1 JSW 128 .tap file doesn't have the ".tun"
components at all, by the way, so it must have preserved the original
music, somehow (the in-game tune changes the pitch as you lose lives,
just like in the original).
Also, you said, enumerating the tunes:
> In The Hall Of The Mountain King (Grieg), programmed by me (oneIt seems to me that this is not 100% accurate, either. The current
> channel only). The current JSW128/JSW64 in-game tune.
JSW128 in-game tune is STILL Ian Collier's "Grace", isn't it?
Well, sorry for the "massive" and detailed post, but I hope it may be
helpful to some of you. And a request to the experts do let me know
if there may be any unexpected problems with the method I have used.
Keep editing, everyone!
Daniel
|
|
|