PLAYSID V2.0 -------------- Reviewed by Simon Plumbe -------------------------- TITLE : PLAYSID V2.0 TYPE : MUSIC PLAYER/MUSIC DISK NO. OF DISKS : 3 AUTHORS : HÅKAN SUNDELL AND RON BIRK AVAILABLE : MOST PD LIBRARIES Do you remember the demo from 1990 that featured conversions of tunes from 100 games on the C64? Well, the authors, Håkan Sundell and Ron Birk recently released an updated version, with new features and, more importantly, even more tunes! The format of the "demo" if you can call it that, has been changed dramatically since its first release. No longer does it look like a demo or traditional music disk. Instead, the disk now runs under Workbench (don't scream!) and is far better for it! The release comes on 3 disks, one of which contains the sound player, PlaySID, and a few tunes, the others containing the remainder of the songs, taken from over 300 different games and demos. To load any of the tunes, it's simply a matter of clicking on the appropriate icon which then loads the music-data into the PlaySID program. The PlaySID display features the usual information at the top of the screen about the tune name, author and who owns the copyright to the tune, with the centre of the screen being given over to the equalizers. The controls available are quite limited, but they do the job - play, fast forward, stop which also quits the player) and turn filter on/off. Since its first release, the play routine has been vastly re-written with a large number of useful (and not so useful) features including the ability to handle sampled sounds (such as those found on later Martin Galway pieces), full compatability with NTSC machines and it is now fully multi-tasking (imagine writing letters while listening to C64 tunes from your Amiga!). The actual sound quality is almost perfect. There are a couple of problem areas with some of the sample-based songs, but for the most part they are VERY accurate conversions. There is also a very good selection of songs included on the initial 3 disk release including ALL of the tunes from the first release, as well as the music from Arkanoid, Wizball, Cybernoid, IK+ and hundreds of others with music from Martin Galway, Rob Hubbard, Maniacs Of Noise, Jonathan Dunn, Matt Grey, Fred Gray, Chris Huelsbeck and probably any of the other major composers from that great machine! It's a shareware release, so you are encouraged to send the authors $15 if you like the software and in return they promise to send an updated version of the software (and no doubt some more tunes to go with it!). Future updates to the player are planned with faster emulation (multi-tasking IS slow at the moment), the option to display KOALA format C64 graphics, a built-in file requester, emulation of the C64's filter (the Amiga's filter makes all the songs appear to have a washed-out feel!), a jukebox facility (to play several tunes after each other) and any other features that registered users ask for! I have already seen other disks released with additional tunes so it's fairly obvious that this program is starting to get a fair amount of support and I can certainly see it continuing to do so in the future. Put simply, if you used to have a C64 and you loved the music, or if you love chip music on the Amiga, then this release is definately one you should look out for. I have always felt that when it comes to synth sounds, the Amiga still has real problems with achieving the same standards heard on the C64 and you can't beat a good chip song for "atmosphere" and "feeling". Get this NOW!