Hi! |
A|A
(n n)
\_/
Wow! This list is getting hot! Among the 300 EMs I read this
week, only a few were really interesting (there was a lot of
non-MSX related topics, but I am, currently, one of that lucky
knights with free university cable Net access - though it is
getting "pretty" slow these days - so I could simply send them
straight to the slimest swamp in hell - despite the funny side
of some). But the last EMs have shown a "smarter brightness",
as if people has stopped a little to think before sending the
EMs. Not that void-minded EMs can't be find everywhere, but an
uncommonly high rate was merged in my three-month-full EM-box...
Okay, enough. First topic, a recycled one: PC sound. Is it
only in Brazil that SoundBlaster stinks like a cancerous tropical
one-month-long-dead fish? The only thing it plays almost as it
should is Atari Video Computer System 2600 emulator... Fix and
predefined frequencies... Yes, I listenned to the Sound Blaster 32
with software wave table (also known as SB64 - yes, they are the
SAME thing, except that SB64 has the software in ROM and don't
have some connectors, to make it cheaper). It also stinks, but
if you could buy the "Gold" version... Well, that's something
different, even I have to admit it. Absolutely not comparable with
the Rolland sound synthesizers, of course, but even SB32 Gold
is a fraction of its price.
But I'm here to save the MSX users' darkened hearts, not
to give purchase hints to PC users. What MSX has, even today,
in my really honest opinion, that no other system does is a
"soul"! Music has three components: melody (the sequence of notes,
a blend of frequencies - RAP is not music because it lacks a
melody), rhythm (the time intervals of tones and silences -
Gregorian chant is not music because it doesn't have rhythm)
and finally "soul", feeling, emotion! When you convert, say,
Beethoven's 9th Symphony to a computer, you have lost its soul.
I heard it in PC... Ugh! Better it is when an anonymous no one
whistles it along. It is possible to represent the "soul" in a
computer, it depends only on the composer and/or programmer. And
MSX has a lot of wonderful "interpretations" of music, something
I never found in any other system, that includes classics like
Amiga and Atari ST. Amateur works for those computers use to be
better, the "soul" of a music counts, many times, more than the
melodies or the rhythms. If you are the kind that appreciates a
music because of the sound quality, the size and precision of the
samples and the PCMs, then you surely deserves to listen to PC
musics till your bones turn to dust.
You didn't get this thing about the "soul"? Well, then
compare the MSX musics of "Gradius 2" and the arcade musics of
"Gradius II" (completely different, because they are completely
unrelated games). The first was an experimental work, with lots
of emotion in every note, while the second is a commercial job,
built on an expensive hardware, to "fill" players' ears while
they spend their coins...
Oh, sure there are exceptions. My favourite is "Gradius III".
Completely different of MSX's "Episode II", but with an equally
bright soul... Unfortunatelly, "Gradius III" didn't resist the
convertion to the Super Famicom (the soul of a music can be easily
shattered by haste or greedy).
Then, one wants 256 simultanous sound channels, 24 bits sampling
resolution... Then it cannot listen to the best, only to the highest
quality...
Next! Hm... It seems people have listened to my babbling and
checked "Legend of Heroes" opening screen... I didn't, but I'll
trust you all (please, be true, okay?) Well, it seems, then, that
MSX version is slightly different from those of most systems. Yes,
it really counts to be an MSX user, to have a lot of exclusive
versions of many programs. So, the game is officially, in MSX, a
sequel to "Dragon Slayer" series. As someone noticed, DS1 has nothing
to do with DS2, DS2 with DS3 and so on. Of course, it was never
the purpose! "Dragon Slayer", as I said, represents a world, where
adventures are lived. Indeed, I once conducted an adventure in that
world (I based my story most in the "Xanadu - Dragon Slayer Densetsu"
movie, but I used a lot of things from the games - very enjoyable),
but that's another story...
Compression... Ah! So that's what "POPCOM" is, an EXE-packer! I
have the program at home, but never understood what it was for...
Now that I do, I still think if is there a use for it...? Granted,
smaller files are faster to load from disk (far faster from tape!),
but they take an amazingly long time to decompress. For larger
files, you have also the problem of lack of memory (the compressed
and the uncompressed files won't fit together in memory - or does
the unpacker reuse the space of already unpacked blocks? - too
complicate, I think, except if the compression method foresees the
problem and packs the file backward forth...) Packed files are
less easy to crack, but nothing an average programmer cannot do...
As someone used to say, "locks are made to be open", and if someone
is really mean to, it will...
Oh, sure, there is no ".EXE" in MSX (I must thank someone for
that!) For EXE-packer I mean "self-executable-file-packer"... Oh,
that would bring troubles to my fingers to type that over and over...
Still about compression, Adriano Cunha ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
(hi, Adriano!) wrote:
> (...) UNISYS royalties are "only" US$2000 for using LZH decompression
> algorithms in your program... :O
> If I remember right, freewares aren't subject to this (...)
Sorry to say you this, but you are wrong, freewares are ALSO under
the scope of that stupid law or else, Info-ZIP's programs, which are
completely free, would have the algorithms active in their "zip" and
"unzip"... The copyright covers the USAGE of the algorithm, not the
COMMERCE of programs that have it implemented...
I mentioned the Unicamp's FTP site as a concrete example of
address from where to download the Info-ZIP's files. Believe it or
not, not everybody can access HTTP and search through the Net for
downloadable files. Info-ZIP has an address of their own, but I
do not remember it by heart. And by the way, that address at
Unicamp has a lot of programs that cannot be found at SimTel (some
seem to have been "busted" out of the Net - copyright problems?)
And Alwin Henseler ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> (...) Errata: GIF uses LZW (Lempel, Ziv & Welch) method (...)
You are right, sorry for the mistake... But still:
>> (...) Of course, other programs also used LZH (LHA, PKZip and so on)
>> and they also have to pay for the use of the algorithm (that is not
>> all that good - there are better around - but files that use it
>> saturate the world).
>
> Nonsense...these are really different methods (although maybe having
> some common origin).
> LZH = freeware by some Japanese dude, and nobody's gonna change
> that....(sources available too)
> And ZIP is *really* a free format. There have been many companies and
> interested parties who investigated ZIP's copyrights, and common view
> is that it's FREE (and should be).
Hey! Calm down! Agressive attitudes like that makes these lists not
so much fun! Yes, I made a mistake, I already said sorry, but YOU are
wrong this time, LHA USES LZH as ONE of its methods (a good packer
should have more than one method - at least "store"). ZIP is a public
standard, but result of a commercial product of PKWare. They granted,
in the PAST, free distribution of packed files and the unpacker could
be used for non-commercial AND non-institutional groups (if Green Peace
would like to unpack "SaveTheWhales.ZIP", they should pay for it - there
was something they called "evaluation purposes" that, as far as I know,
no longer exists). Yes, of course, lawyers made a fuzz about it and no
one can really say if "zipped" files can or cannot be used. Info-ZIP's
codes are freeware, but not PKWare's ones. If you have the sources, you
are and out-law! Does anyone beside me ever read licence docs? This is
from "pkz204g.exe" (a ZIP file):
(...) A Distribution License is required by an organization, company or
government agency to use PKWARE programs to facilitate the distribution
of software or data to outside parties (...)
Did you read it? They explicitly say "DISTRIBUTION" of soft or
data. That means zipped files, to my understanding (not to the lawyers,
it seems). The "evaluation purposes" no longer exist (it does for ARJ -
I cannot remember what about the others, like RAR, UC etc.) Mel Brooks
said, "life stinks", and I have to agree with him, it does, sometime,
like when we receive rude letters, but then, world spins on people mood
(and mud)...
I have to agree that 100% free standards ought to be used, but you
can't change the way the world is just asking for common sense (the
common sense is that no sense rules). PNG seems good, LHA seems good,
but you can't force the world to leave GIF and ZIP...
I'm too happy today to let some unconsidered words from anyone to
put me down. May Hinotori judge our actions...
... Cyberknight...
<Over and over again...>
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