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Audio Overload - computer/console music player
Windows preview release 3 - March 13, 2005 (core 2.0b4)

Emulation core by Richard Bannister

Portions by BouKiCHi, Fx3, Adam Bienias, Juergen Buchmueller, 
Jarek Burczynski, Julien Frelat, Charles MacDonald, 
Mitsutaka Okazaki, Tatsuyuki Satoh, Christian Scheurer, 
m_puusan, GORRY, and the Snes9x team.

Windows GUI and DirectSound driver 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?
---------------

15 console and home computer file formats are now supported.

.AY   - Amstrad CPC/Spectrum ZX/Atari ST
.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
.RAW  - PC-compatibles with an AdLib
.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?
-----------

.AY and .SNDH files were not being run at the proper (PAL) rate.  In
addition to crappy sounding playback this would crash the app fairly
quickly.

Added support for .MOD, .MDX, .RAW, and .YM.

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

The MOD player is a brand new from-scratch engine written in about 12
hours and may not handle all songs properly.  Old 15 instrument
MODs are definitely known to have issues.  However, all the standard
effects torture tests do pass, including "Runaway Scales", "Klisje Paa 
Klisje", "Watch Your Bass Bins", and "Space Debris".

Some .rar files produced by newer versions of WinRAR may not be handled
correctly.

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 file..." button to
bring up a standard Windows 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.

To stop playback, click the Stop button (square icon).

If no song is currently playing, the Play button (triangle icon) 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.  Additionally for this type of
song the edit box marked "Song" will become active and you may jump to 
any valid song number by entering it in that box and pressing Enter or
clicking the "Jump" button.


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

[Windows port specific]
- The ability to save and load playlists will be added.
- The ability to record any song to a .WAV file will be added.
- The framerate of the oscilloscope will be improved.  If you have an
  MFC component for a fast oscilloscope, please contact me on the 
  messageboard :-)

[In general]
- Improved playback and more filetypes.  Suggestions are welcome on the
  official Audio Overload messageboard located at www.bannister.org.
- Improved RAR support.


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