Does anyone know of a tracker/sequencer program that can create .psg files? I have to write one if I don't find one (It can be an ATARI/MSX/whatever program as long as I'm able to emulate it).

And no, stealing music isn't a solution for me.

Whatever you do, don't use Allegro! As it's a library "other than the RetroHack library and any libraries that you would reasonably expect to be supplied with a compiler", it's size would count towards the total size of your entry. And as the source code is currently 5.1 MB, you'd be disqualified for breaking the 512 kB rule...

The Wikipedia paye for AY-3-8910 mentions "SoundTracker", but the wikilink seems to go to a different tracker with the same name.

Note that the AY in the RetroHack machine is clocked at exactly the same rate as a ZX Spectrum.

Probably one of us (me?) should look into providing a tracker or wider file format support as a service for everyone else — especially as there's no rule against using other people's code. Just remember that it count's towards your file size total.

Oh, I hadn't thought about that at all. The rule, as worded, concerns the file size before the program is built or run, so the save games would not be counted. Since I don't want to be changing rules mid-competition, I guess that's how it'll have to stay.

Great! I'll make that version 1.1 of the library assuming it passes all of my tests too.

I don't think my code liked being adapted from a threaded SDL implementation to an Allegro "please can I have a sound buffer to fill now, if I'm awake at all" type arrangement.

EDIT:

Then recreate Luigi!

I admit the palette doesn't quite span the full gamut, and isn't very close to the traditional RGB TTL-logic of many 80s machines. But its similar (though more expansive) to that on platforms like the C64.

The only ones I found a few days ago are MSX trackers. Use the emulator to log the AY changes to a psg file for use with your RetroHack game. Thomas mentioned FUSE Spectrum (Linux). In windows fMSX creates a psg file (my attempts with it resulted in about 30 seconds of music being a few hundred kb in size) and apparently X128 can do it too, but I can't confirm as it doesn't want to run on my machine .

Either option would be great and make life a little easier on us, particularly as there's a deadline and a few restrictions to adjust to.

Heh, and version 1.1 makes for crappier sound for me. It's slower, the pauses between notes seems to be a little random (either that, or a note is played for a longer period than it should). If it'll help, I can get a wav dump of the tetris demo so you can hear what it's like.

Yes, that retrohack.c file.

Attached are 2 mp3 files:
OriginalTetrominoes.mp3 is the output from the original game you supplied as an example program.
WithNewRetroHeader.mp3 is the output compiled with the new retrohack.c file.

Any chance that you compile and post a new version of the tetrominoes.exe? Then I can check to see if it's my compiler, or maybe something I'm doing (though I've compiled with the original .c file and there were no problems).

I get an undefined reference to rt_Init() linking error. What am I doing wrong?

Im using the function like this:

Nope, already thought about that. Its in the project alright...

What about the allegro timers? Is it okay to use them in this competition?
I was thinking about making a game where you have to race against the clock, do I have to find alternate methods?

I think it's a bit unclear what parts of allegro we can use and what parts we can not. In tetrominoes.c, for example, I seem to recall a call to load_pcx, blit and others. I assume we can use all the allegro functions as long as we use the retrohack ones for graphic display and sound playing?

I believe you can't use any Allegro routines. At least, I'm not going to.

What you say in tetrominoes was how Thomas Harte made his .fnt file from a bitmap font. If you looked at the source, you would notice that GrabFont() is never called.

Nope.

I've set up a special blog for RetroHack on my website. It's pretty much up to everyone themselves.

My current screenshot is a green screen. However, the sound is what is interesting.

I've began putting together my own tracker, and lo and behold, it uses its own format for storing music. I deemed that using the .psg playing functions would be a bit of a cop-out (come on, no '80s computer shipped with a "please play my music" subroutines in their ROM ), so I went all the way. Of course, I will probably fail miserably (due to timing issues and the need to interleave AY/blitter calls), but it's still worth a try. As of now, the tracker routine loads and plays "samples", but is oblivious to the order they should be played .

The other thing I already have is a python converter for graphics, again converting to my homegrown format (which allows even 256-colour bitmaps - if you have the time to blit them).

I have a clear idea for what my game will be, and the type of gameplay is heavily influenced by the way the blitter works. It will be rather simple, so hopefully I will be able to finish it in time, even in between classes and work.

One question, though - are teams allowed? Nothing really deep, I just want to convince one of my friends to write some music for the game. Most people will use ripped files anyways, so I think that should be okay .

Does this have to be a game per se? Could one make an interpretive interface on top of the Retrohack library instead, like the old interactive BASICs and such used for making games back in the 8-bit days?

Just starting here.. and I'm wondering about colors, each sprite can use one 16-color palette out of the following 48 palettes - did I interpret that right?