Utz has just released
a TI-82 music making program called Houston Tracker, allowing you to create chiptunes on your calculator.
Unlike most other calculator music programs, this one produces a different sound, similar to the ZX Spectrum, rather than just square samples. Here are the features so far:
- 1-bit PFM sound (similar to various ZX Spectrum beeper routines)
- 4 tone channels + 2 interrupting drum sounds
- (Pseudo-)Stereo sound (channels hardpanned l/r)
- Compact editor+player
- Linear song data, no patterns
A sound demo is available on his
SoundCloud profile (although some notes seems to be off-key
). It is not finished yet and it lacks saving/loading, but if someone still owns a TI-82 with ROM 16.0 to 19.0 (not the Parcus model), then he might enjoy this.
Download it here!
This comes a few months after the same author released
TI-1-bit Pack, a TI-76/82/82 Stats/83 sound tool. With this tool, you made your songs on the computer then exported the song to ASM data before compiling it for the calculator. The TI 1-Bit Pack contains several ZX Spectrum 1-bit (beeper) routines, which have been adapted for use with TI82 and TI83 graphic calculators. As a result, you can produce various kind of sounds, ranging from NES-like sound to PC88 (which sometimes sounds like Sega Genesis music, but with much less bass).
You can hear a sound demo
here. Another sound demo (which includes Warpzone) is available
in TI-82 format, which requires CrASH (and ROMs 16.0-19.0).
The author has no plan for TI-83 Plus ports, let alone TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, so such port will have to be done by another member if people wants versions of those programs to be available for non-discontinued calculator models.
