diff src/console/readme.txt @ 316:fb513e10174e trunk

[svn] - merge libconsole-blargg into mainline libconsole: + obsoletes plugins-ugly:sapplug

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+++ b/src/console/readme.txt	Thu Nov 30 19:54:33 2006 -0800
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+Audacious Console Video Game Music Plugin
+-----------------------------------------
+This plugin plays music from video game consoles of the 1980s and early
+1990s. It uses the Game_Music_Emu sound engine and supports the
+following file formats:
+
+AY        Sinclair Spectrum
+GBS       Nintendo Game Boy
+GYM       Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
+HES       NEC TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine
+KSS       MSX Home Computer/other Z80 systems (doesn't support FM sound)
+NSF/NSFE  Nintendo NES/Famicom (with VRC 6, Namco 106, and FME-7 sound)
+SAP       Atari systems using POKEY sound chip
+SPC       Super Nintendo/Super Famicom
+VGM/VGZ   Sega Master System/Mark III, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive,BBC Micro
+
+Text information tags and track length information is supported in all
+formats, though some files might not make use of it.
+
+Most formats include the actual music player code, "ripped" by hand from
+the original game to allow it to run on its own. This plugin then
+emulates the original processor and sound chip(s) in order to reproduce
+the original sound, glitches and all. Band-limited synthesis is used to
+give crystal-clear sound quality.
+
+Contact: Shay Green <[e-mail]>
+
+
+Notes
+-----
+* Errors and warnings are logged to stdout, which might help if you want
+to figure out why a music file isn't playing properly.
+
+* The HES and KSS music formats lack proper track numbering, presenting
+the game's music sometimes randomly scattered among the 256 possible
+track numbers. Because of this, most HES and KSS music files are
+distributed with an .m3u file in a non-standard format which specifies
+which tracks actually have music, among other things. When a game music
+file is opened, a corresponding m3u file is opened if in the same
+directory. There's not much that we can do about the situation,
+unfortunately.
+
+
+Things not supported
+--------------------
+* Gzipped files (Audacious needs to support these in its VFS layer)
+
+* KSS: FM sound
+
+* GYM: files without a header
+
+* HES: ADPCM samples (used in only a few soundtracks, if that)
+
+* SAP: "digimusic samples" and more obscure tracker formats
+
+* VGM/VGZ: original Sega Master System FM sound chip (Sega Genesis/Mega
+Drive music plays fine)
+
+
+Source code notes
+-----------------
+Game_Music_Emu library configuration is in blargg_config.h. See
+gme_readme.txt and gme.txt for library documentation.
+
+* See TODO comments in Audacious_Config.cxx and Audacious_Driver.cxx for
+things which would be good to address.
+
+* The library does not use C++ exceptions, so you could disable them in
+the makefile to reduce code size a bit.
+
+* The cause of errors and also warnings about possible problems are
+logged in log_err() and log_warning() using printf().
+
+* The vfs_* functions are used for file access, so gzipped game music
+files must currently be decompressed before playback (in particular,
+.vgz files).
+
+* File types are determined based on the first four bytes of a file; the
+file extension is never examined. Some .gym files don't have any header,
+so these won't play.
+
+* Some music formats have more than one track in a file. This track is
+specified to the console plugin by appending ?i to the end of the file
+path, where i is the track index, starting at 0. For example, foo.nsf?2
+specifies the third track.