High Voltage SID Collection Update 51
Date: August 22, 2009

Resulting Version: 51
Previous Version: 50

Hello fellow lover of SID music!
Nice you found some time to read through this script, to see what has been
changed in the HVSC and for what reason.


After this update, the collection should contain 36,939 SID files!

This update features (all approximates):
953 new SIDs
93 fixed/better rips
6 PlaySID/Sidplay1 specific SIDs eliminated
14 repeats/bad rips eliminated
320 SID credit fixes
159 SID model/clock infos
8 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/ identified
6 tunes from /GAMES/ identified
38 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their composers´ directories
14 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their composers´ directories


We are always looking for others to help make HVSC a better collection. If you
find any errors or have new rips to add, please email:

Jan Harries, iAN CooG


Thanks to all the people who have helped to make HVSC the
collection that it is today, without your help it would be
a much tougher task.


SID RELATED NEWS:

########################
# ACID64 player v3.0.2 #
########################

From Wilfred Bos the new and improved version of ACID64. In version 3.0.x many
things have been changed. With the new release it is now possible to search
as you type through your SID collection very quickly and easy. Also you can now
seek through a SID song immediately.

What´s changed in version 3.0.x

New
- Fast incremental SID file search on title, author, year and publisher fields
- Seek through SID tunes via slider bar
- Digital clock
- Scroll wheel support when hovering over grids and list boxes
- Anonymous usage statistics

Fixes
- No error anymore when last directory was a root folder
- Corrected memory bank setting for PSID tunes
- Resizing window was corrupting active row of search grids
- Minimal width is now set correctly

Improvements
- GUI changes, like a new tree view of folders
- SidID search is done in background now to access properties dialog faster
- Downloaded files are automatically matched with HVSC location
- Last played file is remembered now when ACID 64 is started
- Copy filename strips HVSCRoot automatically
- Seeking (dragging thumb) can now be cancelled by pressing escape key or by
pressing right mouse button
- Scrolling search results will now update rows immediately without releasing
the thumb
- Clicking on folder name in Folders tab will expand the folder
- Keyboard navigation improvements
- Emulation improvements
- Many small improvements/fixes


http://www.acid64.com/


#####################################
# HardSID 4U Winamp Plugin v1.0.0.1 #
#####################################

HardSID 4U Winamp plug-in v1.0.0.1 has been released.

It has one new feature: It does not require a local HVSC download at all.
(while still supports a local copy of course)
It downloads the song length database and the STIL database from the
internet automatically in a few seconds the first time you run the plugin.

New HardSID users only have to install the HardSID driver and the Winamp
plugin and then they can start searching/playing the whole HVSC immediately
at http://c64jukebox.hardsid.com with song-length and STIL support.


http://www.hardsid.com/drivers_apps_docs.php


###############################
# GoatTracker 2.68 / Mac OS X #
###############################

From Andreas Varga (MrSID) a new port of the SID composing program.
Quoted from his site

"
After a really long time doing other things, I´ve finally decided to adapt
another version of GoatTracker for Mac OS X. Many things have changed and
GoatTracker has definitely matured into a state-of-the-art C64 music editor.

This time around, the Mac OS X integration is much more complete, offering
standard keyboard shortcuts, built-in help windows, and open/save dialogs for
songs and instruments. There´s more room for future improvements though. If
you´re actively using GoatTracker, please let me know of any ideas and
suggestions you might have.
"


#################
# Hoxs 1.0.5.27 #
#################

The new version is optimized to run slightly faster most of the time.

Also, it closes the 1.0.5.x branch started in October 2007. There are several
VIC-II findings that haven´t made it into the emu yet, but they will have to
wait for the new debugger in v1.0.6.0, which should allow to improve the
emulation more efficiently.

13 August 2009 v1.0.5.27
========================
1) Added general option to enable/disable opposing joystick directions.

2) Speed optimisation to the CPU, CIA and VIC. The emulation is noticeable
faster on lines with no DMA fetches and no IRQs

3) Bug fix to the reverse keyboard matrix. Was broken for years!

4) Accurate emulation of the $DD00 VIC bank switch bug.

Unless something is majorly broken, the next release will include the long
awaited debugger. Work on the debugger is now in progress.


http://hoxs64.net/


#############
# HVMEC 0.9 #
#############

Quoted from the Lemon64 announcement by Ice00:

"
After very very long time, a new version of HVMEC (High Voltage Music Engine
Collection) is ready to download.

This version comes with 31 new music programs, for a total of 140 editors, 84
trackers, 70 other tools.

The good thing is that other 50 programs are ready to be released (but this
will be done some time in the future) and others are adding. With this version
Stephan Parth is now a co-author of the collection as he did most of the hard
work.

The collection can be viewed online or downloaded from:
http://digilander.libero.it/ice00/tsid/hvmec.html

I also try to create a torrent for helping in download:
http://utenti.lycos.it/ice00/hvmec-0.9-all.tar.bz2.torrent

From scratch I start even this Wordpress version of HVMEC:
http://hvmec.hellospace.net/blog
(takes it as a alpha preliminary version). Now it has only 2 editors in it
(just to see that the system can work), a simple layout, and it will take at
least a year to add all other editors present into actual HVMEC.

The advantage of this methods is that I can add more contributors and they can
add/modify editors by themself and else subscribed people to RSS Feed can see
in realtime the new added editors.