8.14) What programs support stereo and upgraded sound?

Subject: 8.14) What programs support stereo and upgraded sound?

This section by Andreas Magenheimer.

There is already a lot of stereo software for the upgraded Atari computers
available, of course most of these programs are limited to certain/special
upgrades and merely perform their stereo effects on these items (with
otherwise upgraded or non-upgraded Ataris, the sounds or programs will
only play in mono):

a) software for the various stereo-upgrades:

- stereo with one Pokey (POPS-software): Afaik for this kind of upgrade,
there merely exists a patched version of the Pokey player program, I am
not sure if there is anything else for it; anyway, refer to Analog
Computing, issue 66, november 1988, pages 54 -60;

- stereo with two computers (thus two Pokeys): Afaik for this simple trick
there merely exist two programs, they are "Perestroyka" and "Sky
Network" by T.Liebich. In order to achieve the stereo effect, you
have to boot/load one of these demos on two computers (connected to
different TV's or monitors, there is no need to connect the computers to
each other!). When done, press 1-5 on the first computer while pressing
Shift-1-5 on the second computer. Meaning, if you want to hear the first
sound in stereo then press 1 on computer 1 and press Shift-1 on
computer 2 simultanously (that`s a little tricky, I know). If you want
to hear sound 5 in stereo, then press 5 on computer 1 and Shift-5 on
computer 2 simultanously. Tricky at first, but sooner or later you will
get the hang of it. Of course you can also connect the two Ataris to
a hifi-system, using the sound output of one Atari for the left channel
and the sound output of the other Atari for the right channel...

- stereo-sound with Stereo-Blaster Pro (Portronic/AMC): Afaik there was
at least one demo disk (early version was single-sided only, later
versions were double-sided), that contained some demo-software, namely
the simple "Stereo-demos" (by AMC, side 1) and the "Stereoblaster-Demo"
(by HU-Soft, side 2 if available). The Stereoblaster demo was written
in Turbo-Basic and played back via Compiled-Turbo-Basic, it uses Chaos
Music-Composer Sounds (*.CMC) and a few of these provide stereo effects,
if equipped with a stereo-blaster-pro and a hifi-system. The simple
stereo-demos included some programs written in Atari Basic, for example
a (pong-like) bouncing ball and a flying helicopter. Equipped with a
stereo-blaster-pro and a hifi-system, one could see the ball bouncing
left and right and simultanously hear the sound fx on the left or right
channel. The helicopter started at the left side and produced a loud
sound on the left channel, when it was flying to the right side, the
sound faded on the left channel and got louder on the right channel,
until the helicopter disappeared (and the sound completely faded away).
There were some more of these simple demos available, but I don`t
remember them anymore.

- Stereo with two Pokeys: There already exist dozens of sounds and demos,
that support this upgrade, most of these programs were made in Poland,
but a few sound-demos were also made in other countries. Anyway, the
following programs support stereo via two Pokey chips:

- Alf-Demo by the Unknown Base (Netherlands);
- Alpha-Demo by GMG (Slovakia);
- AMS-Stereo player by ??? (author unknown), USA;
(there are at least two AMS-stereo-players, that let you play
*.AMS sounds in true stereo or at least simulated stereo!);
- ARS-Mori 16k Intro by Tristesse (music shortened and ripped from
Drunk Chessboard by Infinity!), Poland of course;
- Ballada sound by DJ V / BK (Poland);
- Base 33 by AIDS (msx by Greg, Poland);
- Chaos Music Composer version x.x patched by ??? , Poland;
(=> the original version by Janusz Pelc / LK Avalon is only mono,
but there is a patch available, as well as various patched CMC
versions on the internet; thus *.CMC sounds can be generated in
stereo!);
- (many) *.CMC sounds created by one of the many stereo-versions of
Chaos Music Composer;
- Cogito-Demo by AIDS (Poland)
- Do you see the light? sound-demo by Roemer of UNO (Germany);
- Draconus, patched version by ANG and/or Micro Discount (NL/UK)
(the original version by Zeppelin games is only mono!);
- Drunk Chessboard by Infinity (music by X-Ray!), Poland;
- Dynakillers (Game) by GMG, Slovakia;
- First of All (sound) by Raster, Czech Republic;
- Impossible but Real Demo by MacGyver (Poland);
- King of Aggregat by X-Ray / Slight (Poland);
- Megaplayer Versions 1.6 and 2.0 by MacGyver (Poland)
(=> and thus all *.CMC, *.MPT, *.TMC, etc. sounds played with
this sound-player tool can be heard in true or simulated stereo!);
- Multi-Pro-Tracker 2.4 (various versions) by Jaskier/Taquart?
(=> thus *.MPT sounds can be generated in stereo!), Poland;
- (many) *.MPT sounds created by the stereo-version of Multi Protracker;
- Nazebany by DJ V / BK (Poland);
- Overload sound by X-Ray / Slight (Poland);
- Raster Music Tracker 1.x by Raster, Radek Sterba (a PC program
that creates mono/4-channels or stereo/8-channels *.RMT sounds that
can be played back on the A8 or any Atari 800/XL/XE emulator);
- (most) *.RMT sounds created by Raster Music Tracker;
- Stereo-Patch for Pokey Player by ??? (author unknown)
(=> thus all Pokey-Player / *.V sounds can be heard in stereo!);
- Stereo-Patch for Softsynth by Freddy Offenga (Netherlands)
(=> thus Softsynth will create stereo-sounds!);
- Stereo Patch for World of Wonders by Freddy Offenga (Netherlands)
(World of Wonders is a great Softsynth sound-demo!);
- Still Alive (TMC-sound) by Greg, Poland;
- Time sound by X-Ray / Slight (Poland);
- Theta-Music-Composer version 1.x by Greg (Poland)
(=> thus *.TMC sounds can be generated in stereo!);
- (most) *.TMC sounds created by Theta Music Composer;
- Vanity sound by Kuchara / Excellent (Poland) ;
- Worms (320k-Demo) by Datri, Czech Republic;
- Zybex, patched version by ANG and/or Micro Discount (NL/UK)
(the original version by Zeppelin games is only mono!);
- thats all what I found so far... (A.M.)

b) software for other sound enhancements:

- enhanced-sound with Covox: Afaik this upgrade will playback digitised or
sampled sound in 8Bit resolution rather than in 4Bit resolution. The
following programs support the Covox-Upgrade:
- Inertia 2.9, a MOD-player by MadTeam;
- Inertia 4.5, a MOD player by MadTeam;
- Protracker x.x, a MOD-editor and player by ???;
- NeoTracker 1.x, a MOD+NEO+... player by EPI/Allegresse;
- that's all I have found so far;
note that all programs (except neo-tracker?) will still work with pokey...;