Hello everyone, HVSC Update #31 is now available for you to download, and a very nice update it is too, with no less than four music competitions' tunes in it. IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a new version of the HVSC Update Tool which you need to run on this update (and any subsequent ones thereafter), or else you will find that the update will not work. Windows users should note as usual that the tool is included inside the update zip file, for other OS users you are advised to download the new tool from the HVSC Players and Tools page: http://www.hvsc.c64.org/Players_and_Tools/ After this update, the collection should contain 18,618 SID files. This update features (all approximates): 486 new SIDs 116 fixed/better rips 2 repeats/bad rips eliminated 163 SID credit fixes Main Artists Featured In This Update (new additions only): DRAX Mad Jörg Rosenstiel ASL Avalon Richard Bayliss Blues Muz (Glenn Gallefoss) Blues Muz (Kjell Nordbř) CreaMD Cubehead Djinn Fanta H.M.Murdock Iron Cat Sage Signor László Simon (SLD, Roy) Smalltown Boy Top Secret Zagor Zzap69 and many more... ---------------------------- What else is in this update? ---------------------------- * Lots of real C64/Sidplay2 fixes * Competition entries from Floppy 2002 * Competition entries from Forever3 * Competition entries from Mekka Symposium 2002 * Competition entries from Sid-Wine online competition * The music from the long-lost US version of Spindizzy * Overhauls and corrections to Fanta and Top Secret's tunes * Plenty of credit fixes along the way * and much more... --------------------------- What's to come next update? --------------------------- The next update is an important one for the development in HVSC. After the positive results from the HVSC User Survey, it has been decided that HVSC will adopt the revised SID file format known as PSIDv2NG. This will mean a one-off update to convert the collection to the new format, which will just require use of the new update tools to achieve. At the same time HVSC will become version 5.0 in recognition of this change. The HVSC Team would particularly like to thank Simon White and Dag Lem, who have developed Sidplay2 and reSID emulation respectively, but have also given their time into the new format and in turn helping HVSC with the eventual conversion. Their work is much appreciated. Also, the HVSC Team would like to thank those outside of the current HVSC Team members who put in their time to ensure that the new HVSC Update Tool worked on their OS. Thanks for this go to Michael Schwendt, Phill Wooller, Thomas Neumann, Anders Eriksson and Anders Nordby. ---------------- HVSC User Survey ---------------- The HVSC User Survey officially ended on Sunday 17 March, and there were over 350 people who very kindly took the time out to read and fill out the survey. Many thanks to you all for doing so, it is very much appreciated. The results are available for you to view and see how they turned out. Do note that not everyone chose to answer every question, so the percentages in all cases are the percentage of users who answered. To summarise briefly: * HVSC will go to the new PSIDv2NG SID file format specification * Sidplay2 is now the most popular SID emulator, with Sidplay1 close behind * Three quarters of SID emulator users use a Windows operating system * The HVSC directory structure stays as it is * More than eight out of ten will move to Sidplay2 as it becomes available for their operating system * Rob Hubbard is the most popular C64 music composer Please feel free to digest the results, available here: http://www.hvsc.c64.org/User_Survey/ -------------------- C64 HQ website opens -------------------- A rather good C64 website opened its doors to the public this week. C64 HQnot only has the usual amount of games for you to download and enjoy, but there's also some pictures and audio interviews with some famous C64 composers, including some from when the site's creator, Andreas Wallstrom, went to England to meet Ben Daglish. There's also some text interviews with the composers, and lots of worthwhile information to read, so do feel free to drop by and take a look around. http://www.c64hq.com/ --------------------------- PSIDEdit tool now available --------------------------- Over to the tool's author, none other than LaLa, for the full lowdown: "PSIDedit v2.01 is now available. PSIDedit is a Perl/Tk GUI script that is also available as a standalone Win32 executable file. The basic purpose of PSIDedit is to allow people with sufficient background to modify PSID header data inside .sid files. However, PSIDedit is also an invaluable tool for rippers to create fully PSID v2NG and HVSC-compliant .sid files out of ripped tunes that are saved as C64 binaries on your hard drive. The documentation that comes with PSIDedit (also available online) contains a short tutorial showing you how to create a PSID v2NG .sid file from a raw rip. Note: PSIDedit won't help you rip tunes out of C64 games and demos! It's for turning ripped C64 data files into .sid files. While that may not sound much, all the bitfields in the PSID v2NG specification make creating v2NG files a bit harder, and this is where PSIDedit can help you - as proven by the beta-testers who are all rippers themselves and have praised PSIDedit as an easy-to-use, user-friendly tool that saved them a lot of time." You can also play your SIDs straight from PSIDedit as well as long as you specify the SID player to play the SID with. As a ripper myself, I can vouch for you how useful this tool really is. Feel free to snag it as soon as possible. http://lala.c64.org/ ------------------- Searching for SIDs? ------------------- One of the many responses that came up in the HVSC User Survey was that it would be nice if the collection had a search function offline. One does already exist, and the HVSC Team do recommend that you use it. Vincent Voois' excellent SIDBace tool allows you to generate your database of SID tunes (normally HVSC) and then search all the fields (including the STIL entries too!) for the relevant SIDs that match. You can also play the tune straight from SIDBace, once you configure it to use your favoured SID emulator. http://members.tripod.com/sidbace32/ Other users also stated that they would like to know which tunes were used in which demos. Although compiling a list would take too much time and effort, for the more popular demos you may wish to consult Stephan Schmid's "C64 Demo Dungeon" page which has popular demos and the SID tunes that feature! http://demodungeon.c64.org/ -------------------------- Back In Time Live 3 Update -------------------------- Back in Time Live 3, Gossips, Soho, 21st June 2002. Not long to go, and with 230 or so places booked, and with the club only holding 300, get there before everyone else does! Make sure you visit the site and click the "Wanna Go" link. Latest additions to the personalities coming include: Michael Delaney (founder of Gameboy Audio.com) Andrew Barnabas (well known Amiga musician) The Shark (the original HVSC founder) several members of the HVSC Team And also there's now the virtual stall open, so you can order the merchandise online and pick it up on the night, saving you having to carry money around. For all the info you need, including directions to the club, where to stay etc please consult the official site: http://www.backintimelive.com/ ----------------------------------------------- YODELKING & UL-TOMTEN'S SID QUIZ #2 Results ----------------------------------------------- Hi people, It's been fun to see your intrest in solving this second Sid Quiz, and it's been very much fun to read your answers and especially your comments. We would like to thank you all for taking the time to compete. And looking at the results, we can tell that there is reason for us all to listen some more to even the most classic SID tunes. But every tune in the quiz was found by at least one person, so it seems everyone has their own favourites. Once again, the unbeatable Chiummo found the most tunes with an outstanding point of 25 out of 27 tunes. We congratulate him, and still think he deserves the respect and admiration of other sid freaks. Also Fanta, Map and Smalltown Boy are among the three best, and know their sids for sure. It was also fun to see so many C-64 composers compete this time. Here are the results: ================================== 1. CHIUMMO GAETANO 25/27 2. Alexander Rotzsch (Fanta) & Map 20 3. Michal Hoffman (Smalltown Boy) 14 4. Pex Tufvesson (Mahoney) 9 5. Ari Yliaho (Agemixer) 8 6. Stephan Schmid 5 7. Jan Krolzig 4 8. Stefano Tognon 3 ================================== The correct answers are: Tune 01 is: /Huelsbeck_Chris/Spherical.sid #1 Tune 02 is: /Daglish_Ben/William_Wobbler.sid Tune 03 is: /Daglish_Ben/Bobby_Bearing.sid Tune 04 is: /C64MUSIC/Bjerregaard_Johannes/Eagles.sid #2 Tune 05 is: /C64MUSIC/Tel_Jeroen/Noisy_Pillars.sid #3 Tune 06 is: /C64MUSIC/Rock/Future_Composer_Demo_Song1.sid Tune 07 is: /C64MUSIC/Mad/Hotline.sid and /C64MUSIC/Mad/Scorpion.sid #1 Tune 08 is: /Lee_Steve/Falcon_Patrol_II.sid Tune 09 is: /VARIOUS/S-Z/Trident/Pill-Box.sid Tune 10 is: /Link/Take_Over.sid Tune 11 is: /VARIOUS/G-L/Goto80/Snyft.sid Tune 12 is: /VARIOUS/A-F/Agemixer/Patakakkonen.sid Tune 13 is: /VARIOUS/S-Z/Shavitt_Guy/Sidchip_Music_Score_5.sid Tune 14 is: /Huelsbeck_Chris/Hollywood_Poker_Pro.sid Tune 15 is: /Danko_Tomas/Busstrafik.sid Tune 16 is: /Brandt_Georg/Bob_Moran-Rittertum.sid #2 Tune 17 is: /VARIOUS/G-L/Krolzig_Jan/Monster_Time.sid Tune 18 is: /Gehrmann_Holger/Top_Secret.sid Tune 19 is: /Knatter/No_Sleep_II.sid Tune 20 is: /Gehrmann_Holger/Graffiti_Man.sid Tune 21 is: /VARIOUS/A-F/Devilock/Cyber_Intro.sid Tune 22 is: /Daglish_Ben/H_A_T_E.sid #1 Tune 23 is: /Brimble_Allister/Spellbound_Dizzy.sid #1 Tune 24 is: /Clarke_Peter/Tai-Pan.sid #2 Tune 25 is: /DEMOS/Soundtracker_64.sid Tune 26 is: /Galway_Martin/Rambo_First_Blood_Part_II.sid #10 Tune 27 is: /Whittaker_David/Lazy_Jones.sid #21 One of the nicest comments we got was this one: "huh, i think the level was rather high but still we had a lot of fun with it. thank you for some sleepless hours and a lot of fishbrain music in our ears during the last weeks, every day and every night, bastards! ;-))" Best regards, Peter Sandén & Per Bolmstedt ------------------------ Commodore Format Archive ------------------------ Between 1990 and 1996 Commodore Format was an excellent Commodore 64 magazine, with games, tips, hardware and demos all featuring regularly along with some good ex-Zzap! 64 staff writers writing for it etc. And now, like the Zzap! 64 archives, there is an archive of its issues as well as interviews with people who worked on the magazine. Well worth a look: http://www.commodoreformat.co.uk/ --------------------------------- Enjoy the new update, and please feel free to send some feedback - we appreciate all responses. Kind regards Warren Pilkington. -- This message has been sent to you via the HVSC-Update List. To unsubscribe at any time simply send a mail to hvscupdate-unsubscribe@scenelists.com .