> From: "John A. Ardelli" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > I would say impossible. I don't know where you got this information, > but with only 16 colors to work with, I can't imagine there would be a > JPG viewer that would work with a 64.
JPG viewer on a stock C64: http://www.ffd2.com/fridge/jpeg/index.html And I've seen C64 Demo programs that display images that look like they are using Hundreds of colors. I think that there are two main programming tricks to do this (these are just off the top of my head, and could be somewhat to completely wrong): First, the C64 has a palette of 16 colors, but those colors are chosen from much more than 16, it is possible to sneakily alter the color palette several times during the time it takes to draw a frame to the screen. Second, by drawing a pixel blue one frame, red the next, blue the next, red the next, you can get a rough, sometimes flickery, approximation of purple. Now try red one frame, blue the next, orange the next, and so on... the options are limitless. > And an MP3 player? The 64 has no > sound card, and its processor can't even APPROACH the SLOWEST sample > speed you can run an MP3 at. Hmm, I know I remember reading about an MP3 player for some old computer, but now that you test me I can't find one. Will you settle for a hardware MP3 player for your C64? (Or an IDE hard drive, CD-ROM, Ethernet card, etc.) http://www.volny.cz/dundera/ I'll bet that it would be possible to make a working C64 software MP3 player. It probably wouldn't be very nice to listen to, as it would have to throw away 95% of the information in the MP3 to get it down to a manageable amount of data. What if you wrote a C64 program that played MP3s as SID "music" rather than digital sound? I mean... MP3s are the JPGs of the audio world, they don't represent an exact audio file bit-for-bit, but rather give a general overall picture of the sound wave. Could it be possible to make a program that converted those general overall sound wave pictures into the nearest possible SID chip instructions? Interesting to think about at least. I wonder what it would sound like. > Actually, I wasn't talking about Commodore 64 MUSIC (which actually DOES > sound awesome). I was talking about DIGITIZED SOUND on the Commodore > 64. It has been done with speech in the games "The Three Stooges" and > "The Last V8" ("V8: Return to base immediately!"). Or Impossible Mission: "Destroy him, My Robots!" and "Another visitor! Stay a while. Staaaaay, FOREVER!!!!" http://www.classicgaming.com/rotw/visitor.au There was also text-to-speech software for the C64. I had a program that used the C64 as an alarm clock, shouting (customizable) increasingly aggressive warnings at you every time you hit the snooze button. > http://www.sidmusic.org/sidplay/mac/ > > Oh, did THAT ever bring back memories. Thanks for introducing me to > this. :) > > I've just spent my last hour and a half digging around for Commodore 64 > history and stuff on the 'net... I'm on a serious nostalgia kick > here... :) Glad to hear it! Have you downloaded a C64 emulator yet? I don't know if there is one for OS X yet, but if there is it would be on: http://www.emulation.net Just talking about it is making me wish my C64 (and my four or so spare C64s, and my C128 and my VIC-20, and My Atari STs... etc.) weren't packed away in my parent's basement 2000 miles away... Emulation is one thing, but you just can't beat the real thing. D'oh... is that a coke commercial? -John -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
