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              ............ _________   _________
              '::::::::;::_\      /_._\_     _/_.
                       ::|     -     |   |   |  |
              OOOoOo.  :;|           |   |   |   |
              OOoo:;:  ;:|.    .     |.  |   |   |
              Oo::;O::o::|:..  |     |:. |   |   |
              'Oo:o::::://_____|____//___|___|mcL!     

               Just Another Musicplayer V 0.9beta
                
                   (SNDH-player for Windows)


              www.creamhq.de      jam@creamhq.de

      
                                                     may 16, 2003
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< Introduction                                                   >
<---------------------------------------------------------------->

In the late 70's, early 80's, when the first  homecomputers  were
provided with 'real' soundprocessors,  a new kind of enthusiastic
user came up. The Chipmaniac. Living in  his  own  little  world,
he switches on his machine for only  one  reason. Computermusics.
Funny little songs of three or four voices, made of simple square 
waves, noise,  or  triangles,  sometimes  filters  and  realtime-
effects. He loves to  listen  to  these  noises,  which  'normal' 
people consider painful.

He meets his mates to swap demos just to get some new  pieces  of
his favourite composers. And he gets mad challenging  endmonsters 
in chance to get a new levelmusic or an endmusic. After some time
he gets bored playing games and starts ripping the songs for  his 
growing collection. But he isn't satisfied by  listening  to  his 
fave songs only at home, so he records  them on  tape  or  CD  to 
enjoy them by driving his car or riding  his  bike,  wherever  he 
wants to.

He grows older, buys new generations of computers and expieriences
new,  different  styles  of music.  One  day he  remembers the old 
songs. His old machine isn't available anymore so he  explores the 
net for the old  chippies and for emulators. His taste of music is 
still a  mystery to  his  new  friends. He  doesn't  care.  He's a 
chipmaniac...for good.


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< The Concept                                                     >
<----------------------------------------------------------------->

'Jam' has been originally  developed for  Atari 68K-computers. The
idea behind the  project  was to deliver an  opportunity to replay
the  most  poular  music-formats  from C64, Atari XL and  Amiga on 
Atari STE/Falcon.

We can't deny that there are a lot of people out there,  who would
like to liste to the old songs on their windows - machines at home
or at work.  There isn't a fully satisfying solution for replaying
Atari-based YM2149-chipsounds on these machines available yet.  So
this is our attempt...

This  version  for Windows is not supposed to offer  replayers for 
such a range  of formats. It is  basically  planned  to be able to 
replay Atari ST - specific  music-formats. So  this  first version 
just replays SNDH-formatted files. Other  formats (e.g. .YM) could
probably follow.


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< How to use                                                      >
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Select a SNDH-file using the program's file-selector, drag & drop,
or  associate  SNDH-files with "Jam" ('configuration' -> 'register 
filetypes')


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< Bugs, problems & future:                                       >
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- In some cases there could be problems with the output via Direct
  Sound. Using the "Force WaveOut"-option should work anyway. 

- "Jam" offers no opportunity to restore filetypes, that have been
  registered  before  using the  program's  "register filetypes" -
  function. You'll need to do that manually, if necessary.

- The YM2149-emulation might lack of accuracy in details. We'll put
  hands on it.

Future plans:

- Depending on the feedback, we will probably do more features:

  - playlist mode.
  - STE-DMA-Emulation
  - support for other filetypes (like .YM, .tsd)
  - browser-plugin


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< Credits:                                                       >
<---------------------------------------------------------------->
	
	main program by Abyss
	YM2149-emulation by Tao

	Starscream 680x0 emulation library by Neill Corlett
 	(corlett@elwha.nrrc.ncsu.edu)

        ASCII-Logo by Lotek Style (fka MC Laser)


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< Feedback:                                                      >
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For bugreports, suggestions or other kind of feedback just contact 

  jam@creamhq.de

