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Audio Overload - computer/console music player
Windows preview release 4 - June 8, 2005 (core 2.0b5)

Emulation core by Richard Bannister

Portions by R. Belmont, BouKiCHi, Fx3, Adam Bienias, 
Juergen Buchmueller, Jarek Burczynski, Julien Frelat, 
Shay Green, Charles MacDonald, Kerwin Medina, 
Mitsutaka Okazaki, Haruhiko Okumura, Tatsuyuki Satoh, 
Christian Scheurer, m_puusan, GORRY, smf, the 
P.E.Op.S. team, and the Snes9x team.

Windows port and GUI by R. Belmont
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What's this?
------------

Audio Overload is a player for various types of music files which you may
find on the Internet.

What's it play?
---------------

21 console and home computer file formats are now supported.

.AY   - Amstrad CPC/Spectrum ZX/Atari ST
.COP  - Sam Coupe
.GBS  - Nintendo Gameboy
.GSF  - Nintendo Gameboy Advance
.GYM  - Sega Megadrive/Genesis
.HES  - PC Engine
.KSS  - MSX
.MDX  - Sharp X68000
.MOD  - Commodore Amiga
.NSF  - Nintendo NES
.ORC  - TRS-80 Orchestra-90
.PSF  - Sony PlayStation
.QSF  - Capcom QSound
.RAW  - PC-compatibles with an AdLib
.S3M  - PC-compatibles with a GUS or SoundBlaster
.S98  - NEC PC-98
.SAP  - Atari XL/XE
.SNDH - Atari ST
.SPC  - Super Nintendo
.VGM  - Sega Master System/Game Gear
.YM   - Amstrad CPC/Spectrum ZX/Atari ST

In addition, AO can find files of those types when they are inside a .zip
or .rar container.

What's new?
-----------

* A brand-new RAR engine derived by Shay Green from the latest UnRAR sources
means all RAR files including ones created with the latest versions of RAR
and WinRAR should now work fine.

* Added engines for .COP, .ORC, .PSF, .QSF, .S3M, and .S98 formats.

* MOD engine has greatly improved compatibility and now auto-analyzes
  MODs in an attempt to better support common types.  Big thanks to
  MLD from the UADE project (http://uade.ton.tut.fi/).  If you need
  perfect MOD playback on non-Amiga hardware, look no further than UADE.


What's wrong with it?
---------------------

S3Ms with FM instruments don't work yet.  There's partial support in
the engine but not enough to make noise.  The S3M engine in general
is pretty "fresh", but it's sufficient to reproduce all the songs
I've tried, including the Future Crew classics like Unreal and Second
Reality.

Some .SPC files, especially those from Squaresoft games, may not sound
100% correct.

.GSF files may lose sync between the digital channels and the Game Boy
PSG after a while due to a core bug.


How to use?
-----------

Launch the "aowin32.exe" application.  Click the "Open" button to
bring up a standard open file dialog.  Choose a file of one of the types 
above or a .zip or .rar file containing files of those type(s).

You may remove a file from the list by clicking the "Delete item" button
while it's highlighted.

Unpacked files will appear by their filename in the list.  Files inside
a container (ZIP or RAR) will show the name of the container in parenthesis
after their name.  To play a file, simply double-click on it and it will 
start playing.  Container files are tree roots - you can "open" and "close"
them to show/hide the files they contain.

To stop playback, click the Stop button.

If no song is currently playing, the Play button will become active 
and you may click it to play whatever file is selected in the list.

Some filetypes (such as .NSF, .KSS, and .HES) contain multiple songs 
in each file.  If this is the case, the forward and back arrows will
become active when the song is playing and you may click the arrows to
navigate back and forth through the file.


What's coming in the future?
----------------------------

[Windows port specific]
- The framerate of the oscilloscope will be improved.  If you have an
  MFC component for a fast oscilloscope, please contact me on the 
  messageboard :-)

[Linux specific]
- Additional GUI functionality, especially the Jump To... button/box.

[In general]
- The ability to save and load playlists will be added.
- The ability to record any song to a .WAV file will be added.
- Improved playback and more filetypes.  Suggestions are welcome on the
  official Audio Overload messageboard located at www.bannister.org.


Legal
-----
Copyright (c) 2001-2005 Richard Bannister.
Port code and GUI (c) 2005 R. Belmont.  All rights reserved.
