koolnESS by The Furnace Posse
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....t.h.e...................f.u.r.n.a.c.e................p.o.s.s.e......
presents
=. k.....o.....o.....l.....n.....E.....S.....S .=
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=' a n e s f m m u s i c d i s k `=
..(post-party version - first released at Mutimatograf 2024)..
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:: system requirements
.min 486DX (maybe even 386+387), 8 MB RAM, VGA, DOS 3.3+ and of course,
an ESS AudioDrive/Solo-1 sound card with ESFM (ES1688 or higher)
obviously, without ESFM-enabled card you can't hear songs :)
"nointro" may work even on 4 MB, untested. such high memory req's are
because the musicdisk preloads all songs in RAM to quickly switch
between them (especially in dos shell mode)
.rec Pentium 90, 16 MB RAM, fast PCI VGA card for 60fps
for ESS ISA cards, make sure that the BLASTER variable is set correctly!
Solo-1 is PCI autodetected, but BLASTER settings take precedence.
works under EMM386/QEMM/Jemm, but if possible, run under HIMEM only
may work under Win9x (not in the background tho) if VxD drivers are used
WDM drivers seem to block access to ESFM ports and I have no time to fix.
if you don't have an ESS card, latest DOSBox-X has recently added ESFM
emulation - set [sblaster] sbtype=ess688 and oplmode=esfm in dosbox.conf.
core=dynamic and cycles=100000 are also recommended.
note that (at the moment of release) ESFM emulation is not very optimized,
so you may need fast host CPU to run it without glitches.
:: video settings
runs in 320x200 8bpp 60hz, supports VGA mode 0x13, Mode-X and VESA modes
if possible (an if your machine allow), choose 320x200 VESA linear 60fps,
some videocards (like S3 Trio64) are faster in VESA modes than in VGA.
keep vsync on, unless the interface is running too choppy (else on fast
machines, the scroller may run too fast or not work at all)
ATi users: choose 320x240 VESA (not VGA), vsync on.
:: command line
auto - automatic video mode selection
potato - lower graphics quality (may help for a bit)
nointro - skip intro
rtc - use RTC IRQ8 for timing instead of IRQ0
fast - remove delays from ESFM register write routine
(can be used to improve speed, but may introduce sound glitches)
:: keys
Up/Down - select song
Enter - play selected song
+/- - mixer FM volume up/down
L - toggle play mode (sequential, loop one song, or shuffle playlist)
Esc - exit
and a couple of additional keys:
D - DOS shell (see below)
P - toggle low and normal graphics quality
B - show debug statistics
R - toggle CPU usage rasterbar
F - toggle remove delays from ESFM register write routine
:: dos shell
yes, you can jam to the ESFM tunes and simultaneously work in DOS!
note that this is wildly experimental stuff, and i take no responsibility
for any screw-ups and bugs - use at your own risk :)
if any DOS application reprograms IRQ0, music tempo will screw up! in
this case, run musicdisk with "rtc" switch to use RTC IRQ8 instead of IRQ0
by default, PMODE/W is configured to take all the extended memory in
the system, so if you shell out to DOS, EMS/XMS memory is not available.
fortunately, there is a workaround - use external DPMI server such as
HDPMI32, which allocates DPMI memory on demand:
------- cut -----------
hdpmi32.exe -r // make HDPMI32 resident
koolness.exe rtc // use RTC IRQ8 to keep music tempo
------- cut -----------
then press 'D' in main menu and you're set!
another neat feature of HDPMI32 is that it can run multiple DPMI apps
at once - including DOOM ;)
:: bugs and issues
sorry for slow intro - made in a total hurry and totally unoptimized :)
dos shell is not quite stable for the same reason
:: credits
idea, code, gfx and design - wbcbz7 (also known as artёmka)
music:
1. essneuro (aka Eccentric Super Frequency Modulation) by Abstract 64
2. Cielos ESFuMados by Natt
3. Deadline by Raijin
4. Devil Detective by Laggy
5. experiment by tapekeeper
6. Second Start by Spinning Square Waves
7. Walk in the Park by PotaJoe
8. Napalm-Loader by GTR3QQ (original by Phandral/Sanxion)
9. X EVIL SOUL by dj.tuBIG/MaliceX (original by shyoo)
lz4 decompressor made from heavily butchered smalllz4 by stephan brumme
rocket by a bunch of norwegian sceners
pmode/w by tran and daredevil
hdpmi32 by japheth
:: thanks
tildearrow - for making the best multisystem chiptune tracker in the world!
natt - for awesome tunes and overall interest in the release :)
gtr3qq - for testing on ES1688 and Solo-1
pator and grongy - invaluable moral support
thegreatcodeholio and kagamiin - for DOSBox-X and ESFMu, respectively
:: contact
join furnace tracker discord at https://discord.gg/EfrwT2wq7z!
for contacting me (artёmka), write at t.me/wbcbz7, discord:wbcbz7, or, as
last resort, mail to wbcbz7(dot)at(at)gmail(dot)com (sometimes i'm lazy
to check email often :)
:: last words
actually the furnace posse is just an one off label solely for this prod
but if this will take off, why not?
.26.o6.2o24 - o5.o5.2o24
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