"Name that song" game

[FoX]

Hey guys, long time no post

Have had my machine going for awhile now and was recently looking at some roms and found a "Name that tune" game.  The game was fairly old and would play some damn difficult midi songs to identify.  After playing it for awhile it got me wondering if anyone has developed a game that would pull off of ones own mp3 list.

Has anyone heard of something similar?  My searches haven't pulled up much.

I think it would be a sweet little game.

- Would allow you to specify a directory
- Would randomly grab a song and a 10(?) second clip from song (beginning, middle, end, random..).
- Would list 4 songs to pick from (the correct one and 3 other randoms from your list....could pick the other 3 randoms based off of ID3 "Genre" tag to make it more difficult.
- Clock with decreasing point system would go once the song clip ended.  Both teams can answer before clock runs out (earlier answer, more points).  Incorrect answer is 0
- Customizable keys so it could accomdate everyone's varying machines (would really only probably need 8 keys, 4 per player...although I suppose you could have more than 2 players).
- Bonus Round: Just list album names and have to pick that instead of artist/song for song clip.  Double possible points but incorrect answer causes loss of points.
- Could also mix it up by listing a band name and 4 albums, only one of the albums matches to the band (information pulled from mp3s ID3 tag)

Well...now I'm starting to ramble.  Anyone heard of anything similar?  Anyone with some skills interested in writing something similar (*poke* jukebox crew)

[DreamWeb]

I haven't heard of anything like this!  But, it sounds like a terrific idea for a standalone app.. or an addon to a Jukebox FE.

I'd love to see it.

d.

[FoX]

Yea, I was hoping one of the jukebox guys may be interested and put something together.  Be something different....

[NoBonus]

I love this idea.  I always thought it would be fun to play a name that tune game; you could even do a "TV show theme" game to make it more generalized.  I am REALLY interested in this concept and considered it before, but could not find anything.  I did conclude that if you could wire three (or however many) "buzzer" buttons that would all do two things, pause the music and give an identifying key press (so you know who buzzed in first).  Seems like a fun concept for a game, however, I do not know how it would work as far as selecting the answers.  You could either have a human host or multiple choice (with like 10 choices)... typing in the answer seems out of the question.

Anyone else REALLY interested in this idea for a cab game?

[FoX]

Take a look at:
http://www.mameworld.net/maws/romset/nametune

Thats the rom that initially got me thinking.

You would definately want to list 4 or 5 songs to choose from (as you said, keyboard is out of the question).

With all the jukebox coders on this board I have to imagine someone has the knowhow to get this done.

If you've been to a bar and played any of those trivia games on the TVs I would think scoring and gameplay would go similar to that.

[JoyMonkey]

There's a game like this included on every third generation iPod, it's a lot of fun if you've got a huge music collection with a lot of obscure tracks. It plays about 10 seconds and gives you 5 song names to choose from, every couple of seconds a song name is removed and less points will be awarded for selecting the correct song.
It works great as a turn-based game. I'm not so sure how well it would play with people playing simultaneously.

[FoX]

Thats pretty much exactly the game I would be looking for.  I dont see why it couldnt work as well at a 2+ person control panel.  Most have (at least) 4 buttons per player.

[NoBonus]

But where can we get a game like this for PC?  It should be simple to do for a game writer; one could just make a plug-in for WinAmp that does this.  Why not?

[FoX]

While I dont presume this would be an easy undertaking, I would imagine alot of the code would be already written by some of the Jukebox coders.

[NoBonus]

That's what I mean.  A Jukebox with random play is very close to this "game" already.

[Gamecab]

If anyone reading this post decides to makes this program.  I'd like to request that the song "Super-Freak" be added 

[FoX]

Well, the premise of the program is that it pulls from your own mp3 collection.  So if you have super freak, its in 

[Sc0rcheD]

This is a great idea, I am now seriously considering adding something like this into the jukebox software that I am in the process of writing.  My friends and I play games like this all the time, but with a game like this everyone could play and no one would be stuck being dj.  The only thing is that I am learning this programming stuff as I go, so it probably wont be ready to use for a while.

[terabit]

There is a game for the Mac made by the company Freshly Squeezed Software called Rock Star. Unfortunately, it is only for the Mac and I have a PC. The link is
http://freshsqueeze.com/products/rockstar/

Looks like it would be a pretty good drinking game.

[FoX]

That Mac program looks sweet



Looks like it removes incorrect songs as the time/score ticks down.  Pretty much exactly what I'm looking for.  I'm still shocked that I cant find anything like this for PC yet...

[Space Fractal]

This is a great idea. Im look on to addding this function on my coming up Arcade Music Box v2, thier is near finished......

[FoX]

Well, if you need any play testers, just let me know   If its anything like that picture above, I'll be using your software

[NoBonus]

Me too!

[Space Fractal]

The interface is just look the one, I allready did in version v1.12, but you would change the skin to look more a game, than a jukebox interface (after you have setup the game with the speciel way i have made)....

The bonus "game" is not finshed yet.

I add this as just a bonus, and this version is a simple singleplayer (but with hiscore), because the way the whole jukebox works.

[FoX]

I definately look forward to the final release

[Lave Laar]

I got some inspiration from reading this thread, so I decided to see if I could manage to write such a program.

You can get the betaversion of "Name That Song"

[NoBonus]

That's great!  Just what I was hoping for!  My only complaint is I wish it could scan within folders (that are within the input folder), but that is not big enough of a problem for me to really worry about.  Great work! Love it!

[quarterback]

The title don't show up for all of my songs, so there's usually a couple of the 5 choices that are just blank.  Does it work off of MP3 tags?

[Lave Laar]

My only complaint is I wish it could scan within folders

I didn't really need this myself, but it should be easy to fix.

The title don't show up for all of my songs, so there's usually a couple of the 5 choices that are just blank. Does it work off of MP3 tags?

The program use ID3 v1 tags to read the titles.

[FoX]

I also need it to search through subfolders for mp3s

I definately like the custom options in it, I wanted it a bit faster and that was a quick and easy change.  The customizable buttons and other options were very nice as well.

The only thing I prefer is instead of having the game stop when someone wants to guess, let people put in their guess as the song continues to play (and also allow everyone to guess).  You would have to change the buttons a bit.  Instead of having each player with a "Call In" button and then everyone sharing the same answer buttons, everyone would need their own answer buttons.  Then at the end of the countdown it reveals the answer and who got it correct.

Lookin sweet though

[FoX]

It doesnt look like it currently gives you the answer if you let the answer run down to zero.

[DreamWeb]

Lave Laar,

Some really terrific work so far!

Here are my suggestions for features/options thus far (if you were looking for them).  Some of these are mentioned above.

-A player can only buzz in once a round.  So, if they buzz in and get it wrong.. they're out.
-Sub-folders search for mp3s
-genre selection based on id3 tags (?)
-Option to have RANDOM start time on songs (a song doesn't necessarily start from the beginning)
-m3u list support (?)
-Option to limit the song preview to a certain amount of time only.
-a buzz-in sound accompanied by the player's box lighting up (visually indicating to the players who buzzed in first)
-a Ding Ding Ding Ding! sound for a correct answer.
-Configurable Controls (such as arrow keys) with an assigned button for selection so you can play this easily on any cab
-Cursor support in full screen so people with a trackball can easily use it.
-As the time (and value) ticks down, choices are eliminated

I hope you can continue to develop this piece of software!  This looks like it could be a blast to play, and you've done a terrific job so far!

D.

[Space Fractal]

Great job Lave Laar!


Here is what my version whould do:

- I add this as a bonus little minigame to my jukebox application. It allready support for wide selections of arcade controllers (like my old version), and this is of course completly reconfigurations (you can even rotate the screen in any directly).

- It using all added songs in the queue, and use that to make a game out of that. It does not have any mp3 search, because that way the whole jukebox works, but you can add a whole directory at time (using freemode). Maybe I made a m3u support (so you can add songs very quickly), but not in the first version (it use own playlists format).

- This is a singleplayer only game, again that way it works.

[Lave Laar]

I've updated the program to search subfolders, as well as a couple of the other suggestions.

Check it out at : http://home.c2i.net/llin/NamSng11.zip

Let me know what you think.

[tivogre]

I've updated the program to search subfolders, as well as a couple of the other suggestions.

Check it out at : http://home.c2i.net/llin/NamSng11.zip

Let me know what you think.

How about starting at a random spot in the song, instead of always the beginning?

Also, it woul be nice to be able to map 4 different buttons to the selections (1 through 5).

I'm picturing 4 players standing at a 4 player MAMe panel;  assign one buttion per player to "ring in" and one button per POSITION (player) to select choices 1-5).

Hope that was clear.

GREAT job so far!

[AmericanDemon]

I agree.  4 players.  I would love to see a You Dont Know Jack style of interface.  Man that would rock.  Good ideas!

[NoBonus]

Just a note, this name that tune game you wrote ROCKS! I have played it a ton of times!  Thanks!  Keep up the good work!

[terabit]

Anyone having any trouble seeing the song names. I can hear the songs but can't see the song names. I ripped all my music with Itunes, could this be the reason.
Later
Glenn

[quarterback]

Anyone having any trouble seeing the song names. I can hear the songs but can't see the song names. I ripped all my music with Itunes, could this be the reason.

I had the same problem (see my post a few up)  and my guess was that it's an MP3 tag thing (no mp3 tags, no song name)

Hey Lave Laar, is there anyway it could skip songs without mp3 tags?  Or without a song title?  Or, if there's no tag, maybe put in the filename?  Sometimes that would be enough, and if it's not, at least it would tell people which files they need to add tags to.

Just some thoughts.  Cool game

[DreamWeb]

Its' really coming along nicely!

Keep it up!

d.

[Chris]

Interesting concept.  I could see this becoming a standard jukebox feature before long...

[The Man]

I love it! Keep it up.

TM

[NoBonus]

Can we get a sticky for this topic?

[Lave Laar]

Just a quick update for those with mp3 files without tags.

[tivogre]

Can you make it check for v2 tags before resorting to the file name?

[FoX]

Does it pull incorrect song names based off of similar ID3 info from the correct song or is it random?

[NoBonus]

I tried the sound events .wav setup, but the sounds do not seem to work for me.  Is there something I need to know? Also, is it possible to play any random sound from a folder instead of a specific file for the sound events?

 Also, those of us that are not writing this wonderful program, we should put together some .wav sound effects packs to go with the program.  I have a Family Feud one I will post later.

[DreamWeb]

A graphic overhaul would be great too!  I mean, it looks ok right now.. but, I think it could look better.  Skins a possible feature in the future?

d.

[Generic Eric]

I can't download the file

[DreamWeb]

Having it check for v2 id3 before resorting to v1 id3 would also be great!

You're filling a void here!!

d.

[Space Fractal]

the only problem is, ID2 tags can been hell to find, because it can been anyware in the file, and the structur of it is not fixed by a length.

IDv1 tags is easy, and is allways in the end.

On my coming soon (skinable) jukebox, I have used tags.dll for bass.dll to read the tags, and it is very easy to doing that.

Howover it may not like all IDv2 tags, because some of them is very bad tagged, and these need to been retagged.

I have found a way to support the 2nd player, but I are now working on my own version of this game (here a minigame), with credits support and more.

But good luck to Lave Laar to take of this too

[Lave Laar]

Can you make it check for v2 tags before resorting to the file name?

I will look into supporting ID3 v2 in a later version, but as Space Fractal writes reading ID3 v2 can be a pain.

[DreamWeb]

I didn't realize that ID3 v2 tags were a pain.

The only reason I even suggested this is that they allow for longer track titles..  and, seeing a song listed in the game that has a chopped off name makes me want to cry (especially when I know that the name is complete in the v2 id3 tag).  Oh well..  that's a small issue, really.

Great news about the skins!

d.

[FoX]

It does not check against genre or anything.  It's completely random.  Is this a problem ?

I wouldn't call it a problem.  I would think it would make it more "interesting" if it tried to grab incorrect songs based on genre.  Its pretty easy to identify a movie theme when the incorrect songs listed with it are all rap (or a rap song with all rock, etc....)

[DreamWeb]

FoX : That's a good point... but, ugh, that would mean I'd have to go back and standardize all my genres now! :p

d.

[FoX]

Well, it wouldnt be a requirement to play the game but maybe have it look to see if it has genres broken down and if it does, try to select based off of it, if not...just be random.

[DreamWeb]

FoX : it's definitely a good idea.

With the help of the freeware program that was linked to earlier on in this post.. I was able to do a huge chunk of my id3 housekeeping quickly.

Highly recommended!

d.

[Generic Eric]

I can't download the file

Checked the links. And they all work. Don't know what this could be.  Still got the problem ?

Crazy! I dunno.  I got 'em now though. 

[FoX]

Yea...thank god for those ID3 generators....otherwise it would be one hell of a pain to get your songs setup for a game like this.

[IntruderAlert]

HEY!!! CAN I PLAY???!!!

...da..da..da..dooo.da.da......da..da..da..dooo.da.da......da..da..da..dooo.da.da......da..da..da..dooo.da.da

OK.. CAN YOU GUESS IT???






...sorry.. too much coffee

[Chris]

HEY!!! CAN I PLAY???!!!

...da..da..da..dooo.da.da......da..da..da..dooo.da.da......da..da..da..dooo.da.da......da..da..da..dooo.da.da

OK.. CAN YOU GUESS IT???
...sorry.. too much coffee

Looks like "Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay".

(Edit: Formatting)

[NoBonus]

HEY!!! CAN I PLAY???!!!

...da..da..da..dooo.da.da......da..da..da..dooo.da.da......da..da..da..dooo.da.da......da..da..da..dooo.da.da

OK.. CAN YOU GUESS IT???






...sorry.. too much coffee

Huh?

[IntruderAlert]

Looks like "Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay".

YOU GOT IT CHRIS!!!

[NoBonus]

This is NOT a thread to play "name that tune"!  This is a thread to develop a game that plays "name that tune" on your PC.  I have nothing against playing name that tune in an appropriate forum, but please take it to the "Everything Else" forum and discontinue hijacking this thread!

[IntruderAlert]

i already apologized once
it was just a little joke
i didn't expect anyone to actually play

Interesting concept.  I could see this becoming a standard jukebox feature before long...

I love the whole idea of this sort of game
it'll make a great addition to my upcoming jukebox project
It would be really cool if the game were incorporated into the jukebox software Chris.
I was planning on using a touch screen for input
Do you guys think this would still be possible or would you really need a "real" keyboard to play?

[NoBonus]

Here's another request:

Perhaps you could add a "High Scores" list and some sort of "Victory" screen for the winner.

[Lave Laar]

I've just released a new version at http://home.c2i.net/llin/NamSng15.zip

Some of the new features in this version :
* ID3v2 tag support
* Basic skinning
* A couple more game modes

Make sure you unpack the archive with the folder structure intact.

[tivogre]

A couple of things:

<u>Bugs:</u>

1.  The program appears to have to re-load my song list each time I start (first game = long delay).

2.  If I change the default key settings for players, they are reset the next time I start the program

3.  I can't map the enter key for a player buzz-in

4.  I get problems when two players ring in nearly simultaneously.  Often, both player lights will flash;  after the first player answers, the second player to buzz in either can't hear the music anymore, or gets buzzed in right at the start of the next song.

5.  If I play more than 1 game, the player scores aren't reset at the start of the second game.

<u>Suggestions:</u>

1.  Number of players should be selectable at start-up

2.  After each song, put up a window that shows the artist / album info (maybe even the cover art, if available) for a few seconds

3.  Start at a random spot in the song

4.  Don't allow the SW to pick a song that is SHORTER in duration than the required countdown.
     -  also, if you start from a random spot, don't start too close to the end

5.  Automatically take away the "wrong" choice that a player guesses

6.  Allow mapping of DIFFEREND 1-5 buttons per player.

I'll post more bogs / suggestions if I find / think of them.

I 'm NOT complaining about or busting on this SW.... It's great and much fun as is.  HOWEVER, with some improvements, I think it will be a staple on MAME cabinets and jukeboxes everywhere.

[NoBonus]

This already is a staple on my game system!

[DreamWeb]

Some really terric updates!  Thank you for the Id3 v2!!  Thank you for the skinning.  Thank you for the music-starts-not-at-the-beginning (although, perhaps this should be an option?)

One thing I've noticed.. is that when playing in Artist mode..  I've sometimes had the same artist listed more than once.  I guess this happens when there are more than one album on your HD by the same artist?

Wondering if you were aware of this... and if it's something that's fixable!

Terrific work!!  Keep it up!

d.

[NoBonus]

WOw! I cannot wait to try the new update! Can we get a sticky for this thread?

[FoX]

I'm running into the same problems as Dream Web.

If 2 players enter at nearly the same time you can't tell who actuall rang in first (as all both players will start to blink).  This can often lead to the player who entered second to be forced to answer the next song right away.  I also ran into the program closing when 2 players entered at exactly the same time.

It also doesnt seem to hold all of my preferences when I set them (player ring in buttons and answer buttons).

As a "finished product" I would also include a "Save" button in the options screen.  I realize it saves the options once you change them but the first time I went in I didn't know that.

You also cant map some other buttons (left shift, right ctrl, etc....)

As Dream said, dont take these issues the wrong way.....this is a sweet game and people tonight where chomping at the bit to play it....it just wasn't playable with multiple people slamming down their buzzers at the same time.

[Lave Laar]

A quick update to address the more serious bugs.

[Space Fractal]

great work, Lava Laar (even I do not have seen it yet, because I have used my time to work on my own mini version, without stick and inspired from that version).

Keep working 

I'm have now got the game configuration (using the playlist system, wich I would have added first) to work, I now really make the main game to finished. It may have support up to 3 players at once (I have addressed the key-handler system to handle more players, which it was not have to do).

[tivogre]

A quick update to address the more serious bugs.  Get it at  http://home.c2i.net/llin/NamSg155.zip

Fixed the player select bug
Fixed the preference bug
Program now loads the songlist at the start of the program and not at the start of every game.  Doh ! 

Included singleplayer / multiplayer select at startup.

For now it's not possible to map special keys like "shift" and "enter".  Maybe in a later version.
I can't find any problems with the players score not resetting.  Anyone else experiencing this ?
I can't duplicate the multiple artist answers either.  Are they spelled excactly the same ?

Outstanding updates / response time!


All of my previously reported bugs appear to be fixed... including the score reset between games, which you said you couldn't reproduce.

Suggestions I'd Still Love to See:

1.  Number of players should be selectable at start-up (1 through 4, not just single or multi).  Often have just 2 or three players.

2.  After each song round completes, put up a window that shows the artist / album info (maybe even the cover art, if available) for a few seconds before the next round

3.  Don't allow the SW to pick a song that is SHORTER in duration than the required countdown -  I've experienced this since you implemented start at random location.
     -  also, if you start from a random spot, don't start too close to the end - I've also experienced this since you put in start at random location

4.  When a player buzzes in and guesses incorrectly, remove their wrong guess from the choice list for remaining players.

5.  Allow mapping of DIFFERENT 1-5 buttons per player.  This feature will make it more playable standing around a 2 / 4 person MAME CP.

Thanks for all the work on this!

[terabit]

Has any one seen the error "A problem occurred in initializing MCI". Anyone have any idea what this is. It happened after 2 songs played.
Later
Glenn

[DreamWeb]

I'd also love to see a feature where each player has their own unique button to buzz in (like you already have)..  but, once they've buzzed in.. they can then use a common joystick and an assigned button to make their selection.

But, I realize that this feature probably wouldn't be useful to a lot of people.

Lovin' it.

d.

[Lave Laar]

New version 1.8 available at : http://home.c2i.net/llin/NamSng18.zip

Some of the new options in this version include :

* Map individual keys for all 4 players and possibilty to use all kind of keys.
* Support for m3u and pls playlists
* All players can guess each round
* Optional infoscreen after each song
* Selction with cursor keys and "space" / "enter"

Unzip with folder structure intact.

[DreamWeb]

Lave Laar,

NICELY done!!  This is almost a complete piece of software for me now!

Thank you!

A few things I noticed just now..   The directional keys for selection works great now.  But, please allow the user to assign their own key for selection.  I have neither the space bar or the enter key assigned to any button on my cabinet..   But, I'm sure the use of the arrow keys would be pretty much universal.

The other thing I noticed is some strange flicker when moving between selections both in windowed mode and in full screen.

If the selection of arrow keys and selection button is selected in the options.. then there should probably be a way of selecting everything (multi/single/title/random) using just the arrow keys and the selection keys.

A bug..  (with - All Players Can Guess In The Same Round ON)  I started a multi player game.  I buzzed in with player one and selected a song..  I got it wrong, and my score reflected that... but I was given no notice of wrong or correct.  The song started playing immediately after I made my selection.  Then, I buzzed in with player 2 and selected the correct song.  My score reflected the correct points.. but, once again I wasn't told if I was right or wrong..    I think this is a terrific mode of play..  but.. it's kind of pointless if the players can see each other's scores reflected immediately after their selection.  The only way to make this option useful is to only update the scores AFTER everyone has made a selection.

Also.  If arrow keys and selection button is selected, can the mouse be completely deactivated?  I noticed I could still move the mouse around and hilight 2 options by using the arrow keys and the mouse at the same time. 

Another bug.  I ran the program.  Selected Multi.  Hit start.  And the mode selection menu popped up with the #1 selection being "Singleplayer" as opposed to "title mode".  Once I hilighted #1 though, it became "Title Mode".

Selections don't disappear once you've selected it (if it's a wrong selection).  I think it should.

Skins - I think you should add the option to change the colours for the Info Screen contents/background.  As it stands now.. the colours kind of blend into the background a little too much.

I think that's it for now!

Thanks!

d.

[tivogre]

Excellent!

This is getting to be AWESOME fun.


Suggestions I'd Still Love to See:

1.  Number of players should be selectable at start-up (1 through 4, not just single or multi).  Often have just 2 or three players.

2.  When a player buzzes in and guesses incorrectly, remove their wrong guess from the choice list.

3.  Don't allow the SW to pick a song that is SHORTER in duration than the required countdown -  I've experienced this since you implemented start at random location.
     -  also, if you start from a random spot, don't start too close to the end - I've also experienced this since you put in start at random location

4.  Allow mapping of DIFFERENT cursor and selection buttons per player.  This feature will make it more playable standing around a 2 / 4 person MAME CP (think buzz in with button, move cursor to selection with your individual joystick, press button again to select choice).

5.  How about a Player XXX Wins! banner in the Game over square?

[Lave Laar]

I will look into beeing able to assign a different selection key.

[NoBonus]

I like the selections disappearing as points decrease more than wrong selections disappearing.

[tivogre]

I like the selections disappearing as points decrease more than wrong selections disappearing.

I agree... but I'm not sure why it's hard to do both.

You would just remove the "wrong" choice and re-start the music.  Set a flag that indicates the number of "wrong" choices that have been made (n) and skip the next n "auto-disappears" as the timer counts down.  As you cross the "normal" time for a choice to go away, look at the value of n.  If it's 0, proceed as now, removing one choice.  If n >0, decrement n by one, and SKIP removing a choice.

I obviously haven't seen the code being used, but the algorithm is straight forward.

Am I missing something here?

Also, I saw no mention in Lave's post above about allowing multi -player to select the NUMBER of players (2,3 or 4).

My wife and I have been playing this a lot;  if we both miss, we have to wait out the rest of the count-down.  If there was an ability to select 2 player mode (or 3 player mode), the round could end once all players guessed incorrectly.

[KenToad]

Is this thing getting updated?  None of the links above work for me. 

KenToad

[Lave Laar]

Is this thing getting updated? None of the links above work for me.

There is a problem with my ISP.

[Space Fractal]

It seen I was a bit to late to make this function. I have still no working version, because I need to made some other features to work first (it was not problemfree).

I have released a beta, but the 1 to3 player minigame would first appear in the second beta, but only the setup of the game may work.

[Lave Laar]

The downloads should be back up.

I'm working on a new version with the following options / fixes

* Joystick-type selection for all four players
* Removal of wrong guesses (works both alone and together with automatic removal)

[Space Fractal]

Lava Laar, I know it is not your thread, I just say this to respect your software, that was made for some other people, that asked for this game.

I guess it not good to talk about 2 defficent software in the same thread, after you released the first version.

It just better for be to doing that the AMB2.0b thread, becuase I going add this as a bonus minigame, that may function a bit diffecent.

Of cource, I notice, when Im a finihsed by me here, and let se what people think.

[Lave Laar]

New version available at : http://home.c2i.net/llin/NmSg20b1.exe

Some of the news in this version :

* Joystick-type selection for all four players
* Removal of wrong guesses (works both alone and together with automatic removal)

[DreamWeb]

Terrific update!  Can't wait to give this a try when I get home.

Cheers!

d.

[Space Fractal]

Great work, Lava Laar  .

I have downpritoty my simple minigame version, because I have made some other features first (Screen saver etc). Sorry about that, but there are now a least one version of this concept to PC.

[DreamWeb]

This is a really terrific piece of software.

I haven't yet messed around (figured out?) the joystick control only bit yet.. but, I'm going to..  as soon as we stop playing

I've got the Billboard Top 100 hits from 1980-present on my machine.. and it's ideal for a piece of software like this.

d.

[Lave Laar]

An update is now available at : http://home.c2i.net/llin/NmSg20b2.exe

Nothing major new in this version

* Fixed a couple of minor bugs
* Tidied up the options-screen a little

This will probably be the last version of this program as it now seems to be doing what most people want.
I have not found any other bugs either.

[DreamWeb]

Hey there!

Very nice release (yet again)!

The only problem I'm having is selecting the mode I want to play...  I'm in Joystick control mode, which works beautifully, except when I'm trying to choose my mode.  I can select up and down just fine... but, I can't select unless I hit ENTER.  I don't have enter mapped to my CP.  Could't this be mappable by the user?  Or.. just make it player 1 select?

Oh.. and you may not be concerned about this.  But, when I run this on my dual monitor desktop (on my comp, not on my cab).. the windowed screen centers itself right smack dab between the two monitors.. spanning the two of them.  Very annoying    It also resets my mouse to the bottom right of my right monitor every time I hit START.

If I select Full screen at startup.. it comes up full screen.. but on my right (2nd) monitor.  Should be the first.

Thanks!  And terrific work.

d.

[Lave Laar]

All keymappings is set to player 1 keys when selecting number of players and mode.

[tivogre]

I loaded this into my arcade cabinet for the first time today;  I had some issues.

Could someone please explain how the joystick select mode is SUPPOSED to work?  I assumed that once a player buzzed in, he/she could then control the cursor with their stick and then hit select.

What I observed was that the player 1 stick ALWAYS moved the cursor (even before they buzzed in), and that players who buzzed in (including player 1) would select whatever answer player 1 had chosen BEFORE they buzzed in.  FWIW, my player 1 joysticks are mapped to the 4 arrow keys, and the player 1 buzz button is the enter key.

I also experienced issues in joystick select mode with players being able to buzz in AT ALL.

No apparent response when the correct key was pressed.

Anyone else have similar issues or suggestions for me?

[DreamWeb]

Oops.

I meant to post this earlier.

You're right, Lave Laar.

I was accidentally trying to select my mode using my buzz in button.  Not my select button.

And thanks.. concerning the dual monitor issues.

d.

[Lave Laar]

Could someone please explain how the joystick select mode is SUPPOSED to work? I assumed that once a player buzzed in, he/she could then control the cursor with their stick and then hit select.

This is correct.

[tivogre]

Could someone please explain how the joystick select mode is SUPPOSED to work? I assumed that once a player buzzed in, he/she could then control the cursor with their stick and then hit select.

This is correct.  Keys assigned to up, down and select are used for each player.

What I observed was that the player 1 stick ALWAYS moved the cursor (even before they buzzed in), and that players who buzzed in (including player 1) would select whatever answer player 1 had chosen BEFORE they buzzed in. FWIW, my player 1 joysticks are mapped to the 4 arrow keys, and the player 1 buzz button is the enter key.

This is because moving between buttons with the arrow keys is default windows-behaviour.  That's why they always work.  Therefore, in the current state of the program, there are some limitations.  Arrow keys will always move between the buttons.  The Enter key can't be used as a Buzz-in key and you can't use arrow keys as select buttons or Buzz-in keys.  I will try to find a solution to this.  I will probably have to override the default key-handling.

I also experienced issues in joystick select mode with players being able to buzz in AT ALL.
No apparent response when the correct key was pressed.

What keys are mapped to the buzz-in keys ?

My player 1 buzz key is ENTER;  my player 2 buzz key is E.

Well,  that certainly explains the behavior.  Unfortunately, this limitation makes all of the work you did on joystick control useless for my cabinet (and I expect others).

I have (and I suspect many others do too) player 1 joystick mapped to the arrow keys, and player 1 button 1 mapped to ENTER.  I have player 2 joystick mapped up=pg up dn=pg do left=[ right=].

This mapping allows me to use the two joysticks to move through front ends pretty efficiently.

Hopefully you will be able to (and want to) correct these LAST few issues.

If you do, this will certainly become a party STAPLE on many cabs!

Thanks for all of the hard work!

[Space Fractal]

Hi Anyone.

After a delayed developing of this game, I have now got my own minigame like version, fully playable today.

- This is going be a 1-2 player battle mode (that can choose a answear simulations), both with hiscore support (that is still mising, but this is the last thing.

- THere are Full reconfiguration controls, rotation of the screen and skin.

- Support all bass.dll fileformats (including mod files), including mp3, ogg, flac, wma and wav with ID1 and ID2 support (the may be a small issues left in the tagger, so please update bad taggede mp3's).

- The minigame may be a bit less feature packed in the great Lava Laar version, but I did going my own way. Of cource I dosen't want a direct plagiat of his software.

I only have the some configuration missing, and a how to use documention. A release is on Tuesday or Thursday.

The rest of the jukebox features can been found in the jukebox section, but is not a subject in this thread.

Regards
Space Fractal

[Lave Laar]

Well,

[tivogre]

I don't HAVE to use it... it's just a standard configuration, and makes the cabinet very easy to use for OTHER games / features.

Losing that isn't worth making the joystick selection in this on game work.

Don't get me wrong...  I LOVE what you've done, and I am VERY thankful.  I'll just have to continue to play without the joystick mode support until you fix this (if you fix it).

[Lave Laar]

I really don't know how to express myself.

[Steve B.]

You can add me to your growing list of happy users of your program. I've been having a lot of fun with it.

I just have one aesthetic request: At higher resolutions, everything is pushed up into the top left-hand corner. Would it be possible to center the answers in the window?

Thanks again for all of the fun,
Steve

[DreamWeb]

Lave Laar,

You probably have more users than you realize!!

d.

[tivogre]

Lave Laar,

You probably have more users than you realize!!

d.

I agree.  If you DON'T have a large user base, it's because people haven't stumbled across this thread.

You should send some type of notice to SAINT and get a front page anouncement.

[KenToad]

Yeah, I downloaded the game, but haven't posted because I haven't got any questions.  It's still on my laptop waiting to get moved to my desktop and installed.  I've been kind of busy lately.  I'm still looking forward to getting it on my desktop, where all my music is and I can play it with my desktop CP.

Cheers,
KenToad

[Space Fractal]

Hi Anyone.

Now I have made my own version, so there a 2 much deficient versions to choose from.

All suggestions may be hold in my own thread about Arcade Music Box, so I or Lava Laar doesn't missfill a thread, that was to the other version.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,37973.msg339474.htm

[Lave Laar]

I just have one aesthetic request: At higher resolutions, everything is pushed up into the top left-hand Corner. Would it be possible to center the answers in the window?

I don't remember which version I added this option, but at least in the already available 2.0b2 version you can do this.
Go to options and check "Resize with one of the following methods".

[froggerman]

Interesting concept.  I could see this becoming a standard jukebox feature before long...

I was hoping you would find this thread.   

[SalmonKing]

hmmmmm....might add something along these lines to SKJB.   

[Chris]

My juke is so far behind these jukes, I need to spend more time on fixing bugs and finishing the promised features, so I think I'll have to back out of the name-that-tune horse race...

[tivogre]

I really don't know how to express myself.  What I ment was that why not use one of your other buttons ?

Anyway. I got some of it sorted out.  Now it's not possible to use the arrow keys before you buzz in.  It's also possible to use Enter as buzz key. It's still not possible to use the arrowkeys as "select" -button or as "song"-buttons when not in joytick mode.  Other than that just about every other button is available to use.

Any other bugs or suggestions before I release this ?

As very few people seem to be using the program, the next version will be the last.

I actually do have ONE more suggestion / request.

Most 4 player cabinets have Player 1, Player2, Player 3 and Player 4 Start buttons.  Can you set it up so that pressing one of these starts the game with the correct number of players without putting up the selection menu for # of players?

[Lave Laar]

Most 4 player cabinets have Player 1, Player2, Player 3 and Player 4 Start buttons. Can you set it up so that pressing one of these starts the game with the correct number of players without putting up the selection menu for # of players?

Setting this up would probably require to select number of players before each round.

[tivogre]

Setting this up would probably require to select number of players before each round.  Is this what you want ?

I have to do that already (I think because I don't have the option that says start with a default # of players selected). 

Now I get the pop-up and have to press an on screen button.

What I'm suggesting is to have 4 start buttons defined (vs. the one you have now).  When the program starts or a game ends, if I press "Start Button 2" the game starts in 2 player mode.  If I press "Start Button 4" it starts in 4 player mode.

Also, could you add to the options page a "Start in Default Mode".  That way, I could define to always start in "Random" mode or "Title" mode.  I would then require NO selections on start-up or between games.

This would make your application behave just like any other "arcade game" on the cabinet.

Thanks again for all of the GREAT work on this, and for continuing to support and implement our requests!

[Lave Laar]

Final version now available at : http://home.c2i.net/llin/NTS20b3.exe

This version includes above mention suggestions as well as couple of others.

I changed the name of the exe-file to "NTS.exe" so if you want to keep your previous settings you will have to rename the old ini-file to "NTS.ini".

[DreamWeb]

Many sincere 'thank yous'  for the software.

Nicely done!

Now.. if you're actually interested in bugs.. I'll tell you what I found from a couple of quick games.  #1)  When I change to full screen... or Start a game.. my mouse pointer teleports to the bottom right corner of my second (right) monitor.  #2)  If I select the same key for buzzing in and selection...    it automatically selects one of the songs whenever I buzz in.  I don't get the option to select a song after buzzing in... if that makes sense.

d.

[tivogre]

I hope you didn't mean it about the "last" version.   

I love that you added the credits option.  Makes it fit right in with the Arcade cabinet games.

There are a few VERY minor things that would improve usability... especially for guests who don't use the machines every day:

In my priority order of implementation:

Buzz in button should be able to be different from the player start button.  Player start buttons are (often) not located near the player's joystick / other buttons on an arcade panel.

Buzz in and select button should be able to be the same.  This would then be a true one stick / one button per player game.  Hit the button to buzz in...  Move to highlight answer...  press button again to enter selection.

To make the coin / credit feature useful on most cabinets, you need to be able to specify multiple (up to 4 different) buttons that will add a credit.   Most folks who have multiple coin slots have each slot mapped to a different key-press. (i.e. 1=player 1 credit, 2=player 2 credit, 3=player 3 credit, f=player 4 credit).  You would just want to add a credit regardless of WHICH credit button was entered.

Allow the order of the players across the top to be changed.  My 4 player panel actually has player 3 at the far left, player 1 left center, player 2 right  center, player 4 far right.  The player start buttons are in that order... so that's where folks will expect to stand.  It would be nice if the player scores could be ordered the same way.

It would be nice in the skin options if the "hi light field" color during joystick selection could be a different color for each player.

This is an AWESOME piece of software;  a great credit to you that you're down to "user interface" clean-ups and improvements in such a short time.

[Lave Laar]

Actually some of the last suggestions made so much sense that I've decided to release a new version.

* buzz in and select can be the same (it's now possible to play a four player game with only six buttons)
* Added the extra credit options
* Option to select player display order
* Option to not move mouse cursor to lower right corner

Renamed captions.txt to captions.dat and moved it into the data-folder. Folders.dat should also go into this folder.

So I guess one should never say never

[tivogre]

This is B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!   

The ONLY bug I found is the implementation of the coin credits.

You have it set up so button 1 issues 1 credit, button 2 issues 2 credits, button 3 issues 3 credits, and button 4 issues 4 credits.

Each of the 4 coin buttons should issue ONE credit.

The point being, if I have players inserting coins into my 4 slot coin door, they get 1 credit per coin, regardless of which slot it is put in.

The interface on this is now AWESOME!

This is my new favorite game for the cabinet.

I can't wait until my next party!

[koolmoecraig]

How about a vertical version??

Any plans for that?

[Lave Laar]

I have no plans to build rotation into the program itself.
It will however work with a video card that supports hardware rotation and as such will rotate the whole windows desktop.

[Space Fractal]

The 2player minigame (wich my version is based on), I made recently have support for vertical monitors in both ways (just select the supported skin).

How about a vertical version??

Any plans for that?

[Space Fractal]

I have released a new version of my jukebox application. For the "name that song" users, I have now got the hiscore to work and have fixed some flaws in the minigame. The game is now fully playable and is fun to a little game.

Here is a thread for all AMB versions, that is may released (the old v2.02 thread is locked):
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,39000.0.html

[Lave Laar]

Had some time to kill, so I made a very small update to the program.
New in this version :

* Option to select the number of credits for each button
* Possibiblity to add your own letters to the high score entering
* Button to cycle through the different game modes

Avaiable at : http://home.c2i.net/llin/programs.html

[JamIt]

Lave Laar,
Just downloaded and tried it for the first time...
Much love!  This is a great app!  Definitely will get some play at next party!
--JamIt

[fiscap]

Is anyone else having a problem with errors and songs not playing? I saw a mention of this earlier in the thread, but I don't think the question was answered. The error that I am receiving is "The specified file cannot be played on the specified MCI device. The file may be corrupt, not in the correct format, or no file handler available for the format."

I get the error roughly 9 out of 10 times, but I don't see a pattern.

[Hutt]

Hi,
Just downloaded....GREAT program.
I thing I didn't care for was how it chose some of the randomness.
For example....it the song title was the option.
Let's say Beethoven was picked and the other answers were songs by Led Zeppelin, Korn, System of a Down and Van Halen.....or it a Led Zep song was played and the choices were songs by Bad Religion, Clutch, Mozart, and Madonna!
What I am getting at is that these are to easy to answer.

It would be nice if it was a Zep song then at least 3 of the songs to choose from were Led Zep songs...and the others were from the same Genre.
Something to make the game a little harder.
Just a thought....

Besides that I think it is great so far...I have to play around with it tonight after work 

Thanks for the program!!

[Hutt]

Everytime I finish a game it goes back to the default directory of C:\mp3

?
It doesn't seem to be saving the changes....

[Lave Laar]

Is anyone else having a problem with errors and songs not playing? I saw a mention of this earlier in the thread, but I don't think the question was answered. The error that I am receiving is "The specified file cannot be played on the specified MCI device. The file may be corrupt, not in the correct format, or no file handler available for the format."

I get the error roughly 9 out of 10 times, but I don't see a pattern.

I've actually experienced this on my own machine with a couple of songs.

[Space Fractal]

I've actually experienced this on my own machine with a couple of songs.  The same songs work fine if I try them on a different machine.  I suspect it's an hardware incompability problem with TMediaPlayer, but I haven't been able to solve the problem. What OS and soundcard are you using ?  SB Live ?
I'm however looking into finding an free alternative to TMediaPlayer for the decoding the MP3-files.

I used bass.dll (www.un4seen.com) for my own Arcade Music Box (wich is also have "name that song" as minigame too), and that dll have works great ). You may try this.

[fiscap]

Is anyone else having a problem with errors and songs not playing? I saw a mention of this earlier in the thread, but I don't think the question was answered. The error that I am receiving is "The specified file cannot be played on the specified MCI device. The file may be corrupt, not in the correct format, or no file handler available for the format."

I get the error roughly 9 out of 10 times, but I don't see a pattern.

I've actually experienced this on my own machine with a couple of songs.

[Lave Laar]

I've released a new version. New in this version :

* Switched to bass.dll for the decoding of the files (thanks for the tip Space Fractal)

This solves the problem with the songs I previously had problems with.

[sac01]

Great work, will make nice addition to cabinet.  wondering about the screen formating, my cab screen max is 640x480.  and this seems to be the default setting in the .ini for the game, but i'm looseing alot of the display, especially in the options menu, and player 4's stat display.

Am I just missing something stupid?


thanks, and nice work!

sac

[Lave Laar]

You will have to turn off the statusline to be able to use the program at 640 x 480. As you will only be able to see the whole options screen at 800 x 600 you can edit the nts.ini file instead.

Changing the following options will make the program work at 640 x 480 :

Start Full Screen=1
Hide Statusline=1
Resize Components=1
Resize Method=0

Everything can be configured by altering the ini-file and the dat-files in the data folder.

[Lave Laar]

New version available.

Added :
* Option to randomly select playlist during gameplay
* Simple program (GPGen.exe) to create playlists based on genres

http://home.c2i.net/llin/programs.html

[whatisk]

Possibly a little off topic, but does anyone know of somewhere to get some good sound effects to use within the program?

For when players buzz in, etc.

[The Man]

Possibly a little off topic, but does anyone know of somewhere to get some good sound effects to use within the program?

For when players buzz in, etc.

I downloaded the PacMan sample and used the sounds for my game.

TM

[Lave Laar]

You can get some great soundeffects from this game :

http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=familyfeud

And a bunch of others here :

http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/gssfx/

[whatisk]

You can get some great soundeffects from this game :

http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=familyfeud

And a bunch of others here :

http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/gssfx/

Thanks. I'll check them out.

[Lave Laar]

New version available :

Added :
* Individual sound for each players buzz-in
* Sounds for high-score and countdown
* Individual colors for each player
* Support for multiple sounds for right/wrong/high-score
* Optional informationscreen at startup
* Redesigned the options-screen to fit in a 640x480 setup

[cerebus]

Great game Lava Laar. My cabinet got it's first real run with my family last weekend and your game was a hit 

[quarterstringer]

Lave Laar,

Thanks for the great game, it's a lot of fun. I'm using the joystick type selection, but it never remembers that I remapped Player 4's UP. I'll go into the options and Player 4's UP changes to the same number as Player 1's UP. So everytime I play I need to remap Player 4. But in the cfg file, it remembers the correct remapped number. Can you see if you have the same problem?

[cerebus]

Lava Laar,

If you're thinking about the next round of enhancements, an option to continue playing the song when the song information displays after each round would be nice. Because in my experience some players can buzz in very quickly, so it would be nice for everyone to be able to hear a bit more of the song...

[Lave Laar]

I'm using the joystick type selection, but it never remembers that I remapped Player 4's UP.

This is a bug.

[Lave Laar]

Update available.

[Space Fractal]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=39000.0

ArcadeMusicBox V2.09 is released with "Name That Song v2" updated. It now much eaiser to mainstream that game.

[Lave Laar]

New version out

* Added an additional resizing method
* Should now work with resolutions below 640 x 480.  Tested OK at 320 x 240.
* Renamed skins to themes
* Included some sounds with the default theme
* Added a bonus round to the gameplay
* Minimized the "blinking effect" when alternatives where removed and an image was used as the background
* New version of GPGen.exe which is much faster

http://home.minlos.no/~lars.lindgard/programs.html
 

[Lave Laar]

* Added a new label so that you can see what you are guessing for
* Fixed a few bugs
* Removed GPGen.exe from the installfile
* Created a new website with a few themes available for download

http://home.minlos.no/~lars.lindgard
 

[Animeka]

Found some bugs in the game... the bonus questions, once in a while, the question gets asked and before we have time to answer, the next regular question pops up...

Also,

when offering choices for albums, etc, you should validate if the field has actual values in it, sometimes I get empty choices (obvioulsy because the source mp3 doesnt have all the fields filled in...

Good job, me and my son are having fun

Marc

[Lave Laar]

Found some bugs in the game... the bonus questions, once in a while, the question gets asked and before we have time to answer, the next regular question pops up...

I'm having a little trouble reproducing this one.  Does there seem to be a pattern to this or is it random ?
Will work on it some more and see if I can figure it out.

when offering choices for albums, etc, you should validate if the field has actual values in it, sometimes I get empty choices (obvioulsy because the source mp3 doesnt have all the fields filled in...

This one I've fixed.  I've got all my MP3s tagged so this one slipped by me...

Good job, me and my son are having fun

Thanks.  Great to hear.

[Lave Laar]

New version available

* Fixed a bug with blank alternatives in the bonus round
* Rewrote the code that shows the background text to avoid the text beeing cut off
* Moved the text-alignment of the buttons to the themes section
* Changed the various resize-methods to better support windows 125 DPI setting

http://home.minlos.no/~lars.lindgard

[Lave Laar]

Yet another update :

* Added option to start the songs with increasing and/or decreasing frequency
* Added code to display which playlist/folder is selected when using one of the "cycle-keys" and the statusline is hidden
* Added play-buttons for the soundeffects
* Fixed a bug in the folder selection
* Grouped some of the options

http://home.minlos.no/~lars.lindgard

[Lave Laar]

And another one... 
New in this version :

* Changed the code for the sound-effects.  All soundeffects are now handled by bass.dll  (This should fix the problems for those that have reported that the soundeffects don't play)
* Fixed a bug where the bottom text on the playfield would be cut of when using large fonts
* Changed the key-configuration to display the actual key used instead of the key-code
* Changed the "pop-up" windows to scale with the font so they would not be so stupidly large
* Fixed a bug where the "prefix before the answer" would function in reverse for the bonus round
* Fixed a couple of other minor bugs

[sac01]

Nice work, this was a favorite on my arcade machine bak when you first released it, but it was unstable back then so I kinda gave up on it.  Thanks! this will see alot of use again!

-sac

[sac01]

ok I just installed the game, and went to create the mp3 list with the GPGen.exe  It gets to song 275 and has an access violation error in the gpgen.exe module.  I tried changing what mp3 was #275 in case it was something wrong with the mp3, but it didnt matter.

Am I doing someting wrong?

* oh never mind, my bad, just noticed the game itself handles the mp3 list

[Lave Laar]

As you discovered you only need to use the GPGen-program if you want to create playlists based on genres.  The playlists can then be used by the game to select songs from the same genre and thus make it a little harder.

Did it create a file called "MP3_errors.txt" in your installation-folder ?  This should contain name of the MP3-files it crashed at.  If you could send me one of the the offending files I will try to fix the generator.  Probably got something to do with the tagging of the file.

[sac01]

yes it did create that file. It was a long list in it. pretty much looks like every mp3 up to 275.  so maybe the problem was it didnt like any of my mp3's and it kept adding each one into the error log, and the error log crashes at 275 entries?

[Lave Laar]

New update :

* Updated bass.dll to version 2.3
* Improved errorhandling
* Added support for the following audioformats :  FLAC, OGG, WMA, OFR, MPC, AAC
* Will play other formats that is supported by the add-ons (plugins) at
  http://www.un4seen.com/bass.html#addons, but these does not have support for reading tags with tags.dll
* Added a fileinfo mask to read songinfo from directory/filestructure. For files without tag-info :
  XM, IT, S3M, MOD, MTM, UMX, MO3, MID, TTA, APE (might work with tags.dll), ALAC, AC3, SPX, WV
* New version of GPGen.exe with support for the new audioformats supported by tags.dll

This should fix the problem with GPGen as the old library I used for the reading of tags created the "access violation" error when it wasn't able to read the tag.

Available at http://home.minlos.no/~lars.lindgard

[MustardTent]

How do you deal with DRM'ed AAC files?

[Lave Laar]

I don't really.  Since the plugin that adds AAC-support doesn't handle DRM-protected files.

[Lave Laar]

Not much done since the last version, but I've had a couple of requests so here is another one :

* Added support for Playstation 2 buzz controllers
* Added support for setting different colors on the buttons to match the colors on the buzz controllers
* Added option to easily switch between different key configurations
* Fixed a bug under the captions option and added two extra captions
* Changed the default theme
* Fixed a bug that caused the program to display "Time's Up" to every following answer if you let the bonus time run out

Available at http://home.minlos.no/~lars.lindgard