SIDin #1–15 — Editorials and News digest (Stefano Tognon, 2002–2015)

The News section of every sidin issue reported the releases of the SID scene "from an issue to another": editors, players, emulation libraries, hardware, competitions and collections. This page condenses all fifteen sections into a dated timeline by topic — one line per item, giving the date the news gives (or the issue's date, marked #n, when it gives none) — and collects what the editorials say about the magazine itself. Names and version numbers are as printed; nothing is added from outside the issues.

The magazine itself (from the editorials)#

• #1 (2002-09): "This is the first issue of a Sid related magazine", born "to give some feedback about sid activity to other sid people"; the news items are "to be considerate evergreen"; written in OpenOffice for "an open archive format … available on most of the platforms" that allows images, distributed as .sxw and PDF; no schedule — "I cannot say when the next issue will be out".
• Rights: #2 "the right of the presented code remain to the two authors" (David Whittaker and Matt Gray — "Matt! Where are you?"); #3 "Andrew Colin and Commodore"; #4 "the copyright of the presented codes remain to the original authors: contact them for a business use of it".
• Hosting: Tognon's own site digilander.iol.it/ice00/tsid/ (later digilander.libero.it) hosted the issues, a revision.txt of fixed errata (#4: "I have already made the version 1.1 of each issue with some corrections"), the SidWine, Tiny Sid and Big Sid compos and HVMEC; from #15 the new page is iceteam.altervista.org/sidin.php (the Ice Team site announced in #14).
• Format changes: #9 switched from .sxw to .odt (OpenOffice 1.5/2.0) and started colouring the 6502 listings through KWrite's syntax highlighting.
• Why the gaps: #3 "the holiday, but the most reason is the too much activity"; #5 a month late — no Christmas holiday, a Linux distribution rebuild, "lot of activity in the engines"; #6 released early because of a minigame competition "until September"; #8 "a lot in delay as I want to release it in May"; #11 fifteen days without Internet in December 2006 and a modem that needed "15 minutes of trying only for sending or receiving a mail"; #12 "a very delayed issue and a very soft one" (XSidplay2, HVMEC and a Java tracker in progress); #13 "the previous number was released in middle 2008" — the time went into JITT64; #14 "the last issue of SIDin was released more than 4 years ago" (JITT64, XSidPlay2's Qt4 port, HVMEC's move to hvmec.altervista.org at "73% of completion"); #15 planned for the end of May, released at Halloween.
• Editorial notes worth keeping: #3 offers to reverse-engineer readers' favourite engines on request; #7 floats the idea of a tiny-SID competition ("why not making a competition about writing very smal sid? A mix about programming and sid composition"); #8 "Martin Galway had read the article about Arkanoid in SidIn #4 and found it interesting"; #10 prints Frantic's correction of #9's analysis of his 256-byte player; #11 the SID Factory and NinjaTracker 2 comparison exists because both "were released in the same week"; #12 announces the Java tracker with instrument definitions of "up to 2KB of data" (jitt64); #13 Tognon found Wally Beben on Facebook; #14 "Matt Gray is again in the scene!!"; #15 PSID files "were extended to allow 3 SID chips", and the Little Sara Sister game is moving from the C64 to Java.

Key claims — the timeline by topic#

GoatTracker (goattracker, lasse-oorni)#

• 1.33 (#1, 2002-09): "the music editor by Lasse Öörni for cross develop"; "from version 1.3 the 12 raster time lines is not be granted anymore", multispeed since 1.24, Linux through SDL (screenshot title "GOATTRACKER 01.33 (reSID + SDL)"); covertbitops.cjb.net/tools/goattrk.zip.
• 1.4b Final and a stereo version (gstereo.zip), 2003-01-09 (#3): "a programmable (1 or 2 frame) hard restart and better steps programmable filter", a tweak utility and a GoatTracker→NinjaTracker converter.
• 1.4 for Mac OS X, 2003-04-13 (#4): reSID or Catweasel output.
• 1.4c 2003-09-20 and 1.4d a month later (#5): mono and stereo builds "updated for better hardrestart handling (wavetable also executed on hardrestart frame)" and manual fade in/out; 1.4d fixes $D418 and arpeggio execution; 1.4e (December 2003) reSID 0.15; 1.4f (January 2004) Funktempo.
• 1.5, 2004-01-25 (#6): "Playroutine rewritten. Uses testbit hard restart from now on for much sharper sounds"; hard-restart ADSR configurable ("previously only AD"); orderlist cut/copy/paste; delayed wavetable execution; proper gate-off; master fader command 7F0–7FF, timing mark now 7EF; the standard playroutine saves its zero-page locations. 1.51 2004-02-16 (funktempo hack changed), 1.52 April 2004 (better-tuned frequency table; relocation address irrelevant for gamemusic tunes).
• 1.53, May 2005 (#8): packer fix for instruments without hard restart/pulse init.
• 2.0, 2005-06-23 (#8): "extends the version 1.xx and break the compatibility with file format" — "more commands and uniform step programming tables for waveform/arpeggio, pulse effects, and filter effects"; 63 instruments; reSID interpolation /I, hex row display /D, BETACONV; "Pulse modulation speeds are doubled" (RC1). 2.01 under-I/O gamemusic routine; 2.03 wavetable right-side $80 keeps the frequency, relocator strips unused data; 2.04 a "questionable 25Hz mode (/S0)"; 2.05 instrument legato (Hardres/1stwave 00), ADSR writes moved away from wave writes; 2.07 PAL/NTSC and 6581/8580 flags per PSID v2NG; 2.08 finevibrato /V; 2.09 Minimal playroutine; 2.1, 2005-07-30: SHIFT+N negates speeds, no-funktempo/no-octave-0 optimisations ("8 sub-types for each playroutine"), maximum speed 16×.
• 2.12–2.18, August–November 2005 (#9): buffered SID writes (2.12/2.13); 2.18 "Wavetable left side values changed. Delay is now $01-$0F and inaudible waveforms (register values $00-$0F) have been mapped to table values $E0-$EF."
• 2.2, 2005-12-11 (#9): the speedtable "for more precise control of vibrato, portamento and funktempo", SHIFT+O/SHIFT+R/SHIFT+RETURN converters, "Song and instrument format modified for 4 tables"; 2.21 2005-12-21 (NTSC CIA timer fix), 2.22 2006-01-09.
• 2.23–2.35 (#10): SHIFT+F5/F6 multiplier, SHIFT+F7 HR ADSR, SHIFT+F8 SID model (2.23–2.24); relocator error messages, a Mac OS X build (2.25); "optimize everything" on SHIFT+ESC (2.26); mouse control (2.28); 2.29beta "new assembler-based relocator that leaves out unused portions of player code" — "one can choose combinations of player features" instead of a player version, SHIFT+H "hifi" speedtable values (2.29); /O disables pulse skipping and tempo 2 is allowed (2.31); pattern length 128 (2.32); instrument 63's attack/decay sets the default tempo (2.33); 1–2-channel relocator optimisation (2.34).
• 2.4–2.5 (#10): "one bit of accuracy to pulse modulation speed" with a new song format GTS4, pattern commands executable from the wavetable (2.4); shrink/expand and join/split (2.43); /Rxx (2.45); "experimental random delay to write of reSID register, in order to make potential ADSR-bugging on C64 audible" (/Z, 2.47); /G guard (2.49).
• 2.51–2.59 (#11): gatetimer high bit to start the wavetable on the init frame (2.51, removed again in 2.58); SHIFT+SPACE (2.52); /F custom SID clock (2.56); 2.57 "alternative hardrestart method & playroutine that is used when HR attack parameter is at maximum (FF00 or F800 for example) - this can in theory give better reliability"; 2.59 format GTS5/GTI5, gate-off timer bits $80 (HR disable) and $40 (gate-off disable), 1stFrame wave $01–$8F, $00, $FE/$FF; cadaver.homeftp.net/tools/goattrk2.zip.
• Stereo and HardSID builds: Raf's GT 1.53 stereo for HardSID, November 2006 (#11); "stereo experimental version of Goattracker 2.59", 2007-04-12 (#12); 2.66beta "Initial cycle-exact HardSID support (Win32 only)" and 2.67 configurable HardSID buffer (/T, /U) (#12); Goat Tracker 2SID Mono, "a simple hack of Goatracker 2.70 made by Raf that output mono sound of the 2 SIDs" (#14, CSDb 94423).
• 2.6–2.65, April 2007 – May 2008 (#12): 800×600, BME library dropped (2.6); backquote channel/table select, SHIFT+number mutes (2.61); 2.62 "realtime calculated note independent (hifi) portamento & vibrato. Warning: has potential for huge rastertime increase".
• At SourceForge (#13): sourceforge.net/projects/goattracker2 with svn; 2.68: "SID register write order tweaked to resemble JCH NewPlayer 21", unbuffered routine timed like the buffered one, "New reSID-fp engine (with distortion & nonlinearity) from Antti Lankila integrated" (/I 2 and 3), Simon Bennett's command quick reference; 2.69: reSID click fix, newest reSID-fp, filter parameters in the configuration file.

NinjaTracker (ninjatracker)#

• 1.0, 2002-11-01 (#2): "a new tracker by Lasse Öörni (Cadaver)" using "only 10 rasterline" and very little memory, "for demo programs where memory and rasterlines are limited"; 1.01 two weeks later, 1.02 some days after — "only 8 rasterlines even during badlines".
• 1.04, 2003-03-05 (#4): the filter command is back; a gamemusic version "that doesn't save playroutine with music (playroutine separately as source code, can play music from any address) and doesn't lie about the rastertime anymore"; GoatTracker→NinjaTracker converter 1.1.
• 1.05, 2004-01-06 (#5): a slide duration calculator. 1.1, 2004-01-25 (#6): "Hardrestart is more solid (set both AD,SR to $00)" in both standard and gamemusic versions; INS in the pulse and filter tables inserts a 00,00 row (the wavetable inserts 90,00); pointers adjusted on INS/DEL; faster pattern movement.
• 2.0–2.03, August–September 2006 (#11): 2.0 "commands (also used as instruments), 2-column tables and a slide function that stops at target pitch", saving either executable music data or gamemusic data without the player; 2.01 editor and sound-effect playback improvements; 2.02 two-frame hard restart and zero-page use cut to 2 bytes ("slightly slower and bigger"); 2.03 "hifi" style hard restart, a more optimised routine, note duration range 3–65 with no limit on a pattern's last note. Compared with SID Factory in the same issue's article.

JCH NewPlayer, SID Factory, SIDId (laxity, chordian, sid-factory-ii, sidid)#

• JCH New Player 21.g4 Final, January 2006 (#10): "the player coded by Laxity to use with JCH" — fixed "a bug in the vibrato feel, that caused an overflow and made the note go out of tune" and "the synchronization (initialization) bug" (CSDb 14838).
• 21.g5 Final, May 2006 (#10): fixed "the periodical retrig bug, in liveplay mode"; "Implemented stop ($fe in pattern list). Forgot that completely in pre .g5. DOH!" (CSDb 22927).
• SID Factory 0.05 (alpha 1) (#11, 2007-02-14): "a new editor system, developed by Laxity of Vibrants/Maniacs of Noise. The editor has inherited a lot of features and look from the JCH editor. It's been programmed from scratch and is very different from the JCH editor behind the surface"; loadable players v5 (multispeed) and v6 (low rasterline); m-studios.dk.
• SIDId 1.0x, September 2006 (#11): "a small DOS utility letting you know which playroutine is used in a SID file. You can add playroutine signatures manually to sidid.cfg"; 1.01 AND function, 1.02 multiscan, 1.03 listing of unidentified files and scanning of all files, 1.04 search for one specific player, 1.05 no-recurse option, 1.06 directory argument, -c config file, -?, SIDIDCFG environment variable; cadaver.homeftp.net/tools/sidid.zip. Adopted by XSIDPLAY2 2.0.0 ("SidId v1.7 support", #12), ACID 64 Player Pro 3.0.0 (May 2009, "SidID search in properties menu", #13) and Sidplay/w 2.6 (2011, "SidId support (latest sidid.cfg included …), player routine detected is displayed in info page / Ctrl-P", #14).

Other C64 editors and music tools#

• JohnPlayer 1.6 / 2.0 beta (#2, 2002-11-21): aleksi-eeben's "music player editor" — 1.6 "uses only 7 rasterline", the 2.0 beta improves the sound-table and sequencer steps at 8 rasterlines.
• Asterion Sid-Tracker 1.0, 2004-01-26 (#6): "a new SidTracker from Asterion of Tinnitus", track-based, with sample tunes by Asterion, Borgon and Trompkins (asterion-sid-tracker); 1.1, 2004-05-31 (#7): vibrating portamento, vibrating arpeggio (experimental), per-instrument detune, "multispeed up to 4x", pulse step programming, "11-bit filter step programming", a "heavily refined packer".
• TFX 2.97, 2005-01-21 (#8): Unreal's editor — symbolic command names instead of hex, multiframe "up to 10x on all channels, and 72x on a single channel", "a new hard restart system … anywhere from 0 to 255 frames, with the sid parameters of your choice", a PC packer/relocator, dual pulse/filter tables, track-settable variables, 11-bit filter programs, "Hard Note mode"; 2.99, 2005-07-15: sac 16-bit set command and a sound-effect mode for games ("call init+9 with the note in 'a', the channel*7 in 'x', the instrument in 'y'").
• Polly Tracker by aleksi-eeben: 0.9 beta / 1.0, 2005-07-13 (#8) — "a four channel sample-based music editor", 8-bit unsigned raw samples at 4–9 kHz ("C-2 = 8000 Hz"), 8-bit internal mixing with 4-bit output on a stock C64, "dynamic mixing based on polling the hardware timers", 48 K for samples, "No SID voices used (except voice 3 output as sequencer sync :)", module-to-executable and module-to-SID tools, 40 samples; 1.1, 2005-07-19 (crash and NTSC fixes, a second sample disk); 1.2, 2005-08-20 (#9; demo modules, loader fixes); 1.2+, March 2007 (#12; three demo-module disks and a Digimax version with 8-bit output).
• SID DUZZ' IT 2.0 beta, early 2006 (#10): GRG/Shape's editor — "Player sources have been rewritten and optimized. New filter effects and detuning in the player", dumper fixes, CBM/CMD/IDE64 drives.
• X-SID 1.00, April 2007 (#12): "After a lamer had released some incomplete and not to spread Jeff's editors, Soeren Lund had decided to release … a more usable version of X-SID, but that it still incomplete … no further develop will be done" (CSDb 47985; a relocator at 48017).
• CRD-Tracker64 Alpha, 2007-05-09 (#12): Owen Crowley's unfinished tracker, its history in the readme on the disk (CSDb 39695).
• Hermit 3SID-Tracker 2008, May 2008 (#12): "Hermit Soft releases … a new tracker that can handle 3 sid chips … on $d400,$de00,$df00 (yet). 9 polyphony, 3 filters. (no need arpeggio to have chords)"; "a modern fasttracker-like editor" with separate edit and play cursors and loop-play on F7 (CSDb 66065) — see hermit.
• SIDwinder 1.23 Enhanced, 2011-04-17 (#14): PCH's version with "an improved stay function" and a live piano (CSDb 99574).
• Rippers' tools: Audio::SID / SIDedit by LaLa (Perl/Tk; "the definitive utility for a SID ripper!") — 3.01 (#2) RSID support; 3.03 and SIDedit 4.00 2004-02-02, 4.01, 4.02 (#6) the "C64 BASIC" RSID flag, byte modification, a menu/toolbar UI, HVSC-compliant filenames; Audio::SID 3.10 2005-07-18 (#8) RSID MD5 fix, name→title, isRSID(). SidDasm 1.0 ("SidAsm"), 2003-09-30 (#5): Gufino's SID disassembler that "is able to separate data from code", DOS and Linux, hosted on Covert BitOps. JC64Dis beta 1 (#5): Tognon's Java disassembler for PRG and SID files, MUS instruction flow, memory-state files from a patched SIDLD. HARDshit 0.2, November 2006 (#11): Raf's "fake hardsid.dll allowing realtime monitoring SID chip(s) writes", up to four SIDs ("you can monitor stereo in VICE"). SID Known 1.03 (#14): "a command line tool which you can use to identify SID tunes from SID and PRG files" (CSDb 103744). TSID 0.8 / TSID2 0.1–0.2 (#2–#4): Tognon's listening-statistics library, MD5-fingerprinted.
• HVMEC (hvmec): announced in the #5 editorial (2004-01-11) as "High Voltage Music Engines Collection … collects and give credits to (all) the available C64 tools for made music"; 0.3 "in high working stage" with a new "Other" category (#6); 0.4, 2005-06-02 (#8): "83 editors, 53 trackers and 24 other kinds of music programs" (added: DMC v4.0y, Future Composer v2.2, TFX 2.97, Voicetracker V4.0/V5.0, Digitronix V1, Hardtrack Composer V1.0, Rockmonitor VI, Cynthcart, Pro-Drum V2.0 …); 0.9 (#13): 140 editors, 84 trackers, 70 others, a Wordpress version planned at hvmec.hellospace.net/blog; #14: the move to hvmec.altervista.org.
• PSID64 by Roland Hermans (makes "a C64 self extracting executable from a PSID file" with a pre-relocated player and, space permitting, an info screen): 0.4 (#1), 0.5 2002-11-07 RSID support ("You can now listen to the real C64 rips on your C64"), 0.6 (#4), 0.7 (#8): improved RSID compatibility, INST/DEL screen toggle, +/- song select, an NMI bank-register fix.
• Browsers and front-ends: SIDBrowser 2.2 (#4) and 2.4 2005-01-02 (#7; STIL, songlengths, playlists, six languages); SidTool (#11; Madman's .NET front-end for Sidplay2/w and TinySID); HVSC Search 1.4 (#13; exotica.org.uk/wiki/Special:HVSC); the HVSID IDE64 plugin v3 (#5).

HVSC (hvsc)#

• 5.0, 2002-08-17 (#1): "an epochal version: it uses the new sid file format PSIDv2NG"; "about 18,616 SID file"; update 32 = 0 new SIDs, 346 fixed rips, 122 credit fixes; update 33 announced "for end October" with "some real C64 tunes".
• 5.1 = update 33, 2002-10-26 (#2): "contains the real rip (RSID)"; 19,203 files; 504 new, 90 fixes of PlaySID/Sidplay1-specific SIDs, 317 credit fixes.
• 5.2 = update 34, 2002-12-21 (#3): "the most big update ever!" — 20,325 files, 1009 new; needs update tool 2.8.2.
• 5.3 = update 35 (#4, 2003-06-21): 20,660 files, 276 new, 368 credit fixes.
• 5.4 = update 36, 2003-10-09 (#5): 21,272 files, 566 new.
• 5.5 = update 37, 2003-12-19 (#5): 23,453 files, 1977 new, 219 RSID fixes of digi tunes; martin-galway's "long lost Street Hawk … in two fantastic versions" thanks to chris-abbott's connection to Galway and "Boz" Bowness's ripping; new tunes by 20CC, Neil Baldwin, Wally Beben, Mark Cooksey, Geoff Follin, matt-gray, jeroen-tel, Michael Winterberg and others; group subdirectories (20CC, FAME, Rockin Limited, SoedeSoft, Mitch and Dane, Megastyle).
• Update 38, 2004-02-21 (#6): 25,149 files, 1695 new, 280 SID-model infos; "reached the magical 25,000 mark!"
• 5.7 = update 39, 2004-05-27 (#7): 27,087 files, 1946 new, 470 model infos; "we also finaly managed to completely unload our huge queue of unreleased tunes"; real BASIC rips as RSID with a _BASIC suffix (the C64 User's Manual and Programmer's Reference Guide examples, Sword of Fargoal, Telengard …); Peter Weighill's Master Composer collection; Wilfred Bos rejoined the crew.
• 5.8 = update 40, 2004-09-27 (#7): 27,653 files, 563 new, 724 fixed; the Turrican 3 soundtrack; "about 500 multi speed fixes" because "the C64 has $4CC7 and not $4CF9 cycles per frame, due to running at 50.125Hz instead of 50Hz" — CIA-converted multispeed tunes had played 0.2 % slow (multispeed); the update split into /fix and /new.
• 5.9 (update 41), 2005-01-26 (#8): 29,055 files, 1405 new; the Amorphis directory dissolved.
• 42, June 2005 (#8): 30,001 files, 943 new; "New version numbering … consistent with the number of the current Update"; "Complete songlength database now included!" (Laust Brock-Nannestad and Stephan Schmid, with Michael Schwendt's tool and LaLa's sorting); three tunes now earn a composer directory; update tool 2.8.3; Murdock and Ramos joined.
• 43, 2005-09-21 (#9): 30,743 files, 759 new, 600+ model/clock infos. 44, 2005-12-24 (#9): 31,330 files, 620 new.
• 45, April 2006 (#10): 32,000 files, 663 new, 1004 fixed; DRAX, Laxity, Barry Leitch, Jeroen Tel featured.
• 46, 2007-01-21 (#11): 33,000 files, 1014 new, 664 credit fixes; the 10 Years HVSC music collection; "Fundamental directory structure change": /DEMOS and /GAMES sorted 0-9/A-F/G-L/M-R/S-Z, and /MUSICIANS — the old root and VARIOUS merged into "a plain alphabetic flat sorting structure" (three tunes still required); Laxity "churning out blips and blops again, as if it was 1989!", Jeroen Tel "gave the scene three 'new' songs".
• 47, July 2007 (#12): 34,127 files, 1127 new, 773 credit fixes, 700 SID-model flags; Motion joined, Steppe retired as admin and Rambones (jan-harries) took over; update tool 2.8.4 for the new structure.
• 48, March 2008 (#12): 35,030 files, 918 new (Vandalism News 49, Adam Gilmore's unreleased tunes, Jeroen Tel, Conrad …).
• 49, 2008-11-09 (#13): 36,081 files, 1059 new. 50, 2009-05-01 (#13): 36,000 files, 678 new — "We decided to remove all the old _PSID files that have a RSID equivalent" (573 eliminated; kept in C64MUSIC_PlaySID.rar). 51, 2009-08-22: 36,937, 950 new. 52, 2009-12-24: 37,801, 874 new. 53, 2010-06-25: 38,714, 1045 new, 897 fixed, 1076 credit fixes.
• 54, Christmas 2010 (#14): 39,626 files, 933 new. 55, 2011-06-25: 40,400 files, 804 new "(62 2SIDs)" — "from this update we've introduced PSID v3 format to allow SID files meant to be played in stereo", the 31-character limit on text fields relaxed to 32, the filename length limit gone. 56, 2011-12-23: 41,250 files, 861 new — "we finally got rid of all PlaySID/Sidplay1 specific SIDs, by replacing all the remaining ones with proper RSID rips. Quite a milestone."
• 57, 2012-06-24: 42,212 files, 975 new, 3136 credit fixes. 58, 2012-12-21: 43,116, 906 new. 59, 2013-06-28: 43,856, 747 new, 750 model/clock infos. 60, 2013-12-22: 44,670, 825 new. 61, 2014-06-28: 45,418, 749 new, 1479 fixed. 62, 2014-12-21: 46,056, 639 new.
• 63, June 2015 (#15): 46,851 files, 798 new, 121 fixed, 412 credit fixes.
• BOV 2002 (#3): the "Best Of Various" fan vote on the tunes in HVSC's VARIOUS directory, nominations until 2003-02-08 (The Shark's site).

CGSC — Compute's Gazette Sid Collection (Peter Weighill, c64music.co.uk)#

• 1.9, December 2001 (#1): 5773 MUS, 1233 STR, 1523 WDS (73 with Extended Words); stereo STR files play in sidplay2/w, sidplay2 or xsidplay with libsidplay2, and the site explains VICE's dual-SID setup.
• 1.10, 2003-01-01 (#3): 5799 / 1235 / 1527. 1.11, 2004-05-08 (#7): 5913 / 1314 / 1567. 1.12, 2004-08-21 (#7): 5998 / 1314 / 1567.
• 1.13, June 2005 (#8): 512 MUS, 138 STR and 200 WDS new → 6507 / 1448 / 1766, "due to the donation of 62 disk images by Troy Rutter (Datasid)".
• Updates March 2009, May 2009 ("26% of increase") and May 2010 (#13): 8395 / 1966 / 2631.
• 1.18, October 2010 (#14): 8580 / 2142 / 2737. 1.19: +94 / 66 / 56. 1.20, 2011-12-03: "14% more files" → 10005 / 2346 / 3218. 1.21, 2012-02-12: 10593 / 2399 / 3288. 1.22, 2012-03-11: "19% more" → 12228 / 3597 / 4360. 1.23, November 2012: 12483 / 3705 / 4461. 1.24, June 2013: 12511 / 3707 / 4480. 1.25, February 2014: 13481 / 4019 / 4658. 1.26, May 2014: 13532 / 4026 / 4689. 1.27, May 2014 (the issue repeats 1.23's totals). 1.28, June 2014: 13644 / 4043 / 4737. 1.29, January 2015: 13896 / 4135 / 4791.
• 1.30, 2015-03-28 (#15): +506 MUS, 4 STR, 163 WDS → 14397 / 4139 / 4948.

Players, libraries and emulation#

• Sidplay2/w (Windows, Adam Lorentzon): 2002-09-15 (#1) on libsidplay2 — "the best emulated sid sound ever", runs in Linux through Wine; 2002-10-20 (#2) RSID support — "RSID is just a PSID (with the new PSIDv2NG extension) that require a real C64 environment to run (Real SID)"; 2003-09-23 (#5) VIC cycle stealing, BASIC tunes, an improved real-C64 environment; 2004-02-20 (#6) reSID 0.15, CIA TOD emulation; 2004-05-27 (#7) multi-subtune BASIC tunes, sprite stealing, .p00, stereo MUS→SID conversion; 2005-06-02 (#8) reSID 0.16; Sidplayw 2.5 (#13) "Contains the latest (v32) filter distortion emu by Antti Lankila. Uses a lot of raster time (cpu). 35-45% cpu on my P4 2,4 GHz … Works in Wine!" (CSDb 76056); 2.6 (#14, the day of HVSC 56): PSIDv3/2SID, full 32-character fields, "8580+digiboost selectable", SidId.
• libsidplay2 2.1.0 / sidplay2 2.0.8, 2002-12-27 (#3; Simon White; one package for Unix builds); libsidplay2 rebuilt for reSID 0.16, 2004-06-15 (#7); libsidplay1 1.36.59, 2004-08-17 (#7; a Debian security fix).
• reSID (Dag Lem): 0.14, 2003-01-14 (#3): "The SID external audio input is now emulated: now we can have 8580 sample listen as with a external resistance", filter settings updated immediately on a model change, "improvement in exponential counter emulation"; 0.15 (#5): "The last know bug of the Resid engine is now removed. This bug affects the Delay ADSR bug duration" (test with Revenge and SurSumTheme); 0.16, 2004-06-11 (#7): fixes "a one cycle error in the ADSR delay bug emulation" (fast sampling only) and, with Laurent Ganier, resampling "highly optimized and streamlined for vectorizing compilers" so that "High quality resampling can now be run in real time on off-the-shelf hardware".
• "SID chip distortion simulation efforts" (#12): "In February 2007 Antii Lankila released a patch against ReSID engine in libsidplay2-2.1.1 to make its sound closer to 6581R4 chip." The nonlinearities he lists: "Filter distorts high volume sounds a LOT" (modelled on the op-amps' input/output difference, distorting the LP/BP/HP outputs above a threshold); "Filter resonance frequency shifts up if the intensity of sound grows, up to roughly 1 full octave" (the "drums" of Jeff's Hard Track, Elite); the reSID 6581 cutoff table is wrong for his 6581R4 — "CF value of 1024 selects approximately 4.6 kHz resonance frequency, but my measurements indicate it's approximately 1.1 kHz instead!" (with "considerable variation between chips"); "Filtered outputs are 4.5 to 6 dB quieter than unfiltered outputs"; a filter-order bug "confirmed by Dag Lem and fixed in ReSID upstream". Costs "some 20% of CPU or so of an AMD64 3200+"; breaks the 8580 model; David Dunn's filter interplay "only partially emulated". Integrated as reSID-fp in GoatTracker 2.68 and as "v32" in Sidplayw 2.5 (#13).
• XSIDPLAY (Unix): 1.6.5pre15 (#1; libsidplay 1.36.57 or libsidplay2 CVS, PSID2NG), 1.6.5.1a (#3; KDE3/Qt3), 1.6.5.2 October 2004 (#7). XSIDPLAY2 (Tognon, #12): 2.0.0 "based onto xsidplay 1.6.5.2" with SidId 1.7 and TSID2 fixes, 2.0.1 SDL sound, 2.0.2 a songlength LCD; 2.0.3 March 2009 (#13; Windows/Qt3 build, ALSA, multispeed indication); 2.1.7, 2015-09-20 (#15): "Use libsidplayfp 1.8.1 (support 3SID)", better Qt5 porting, win32 build.
• ACID 64 (Wilfred Bos; HardSID and Catweasel): 1.0, 2003-07-30 (#5): "emulates the MOS 6510 micro processor to run the code of a SID tune and controls the cards for playing the music on a real 6581 or 8580", all undocumented opcodes, "exact timing for normal speed and multi speed songs"; 2.0, 2004-05-05 (#6): "Cycle based emulation of 6510 CPU, 6526 CIA and 6569 VIC-II chip", sample playback of RSID and PRG files; 2.0.3, January 2005 (#8): STIL, "The next version will support the Catweasel MK4"; 2.2–2.4, June 2008 (#13): HardSID 4U response time, "Increased FIFO memory on Catweasel MK4 for better playback of digi tunes"; Pro 3.0.0–3.0.2, May 2009 (#13): incremental search, seeking, SidID search; Pro 3.04 (#14): playback "via JSidplay2 and JSidDevice".
• SIDPlayer (Christian Bauer; from Frodo, SDL): 4.3, early 2003 (#5; Catweasel via --cwsid on, CIA timer speed control; an IRQ bug affecting Master Composer tunes); 4.4, 2004-05-08 (#7; BeOS, Linux); a Dreamcast port by Troy Davis (GPF), August 2006 (#11, headed "SIDPlayerDS").
• SIDPLAY for Mac OS X (sidmusic.org): 3.1.2, 2003-04-13 (#4): libsidplay 1.36.57, reSID 0.13, libsidplay2 2.1.0, Catweasel MK3, HVSC browser, songlengths, STIL (STILView 2.17), AIFF/MP3 export, PRG export via PSID64, "First-ever graphical adjustment of reSID's filter emulation"; 3.3, 2004-08-17 (#7): HardSID support (Teli Sandor), composer photos from composers.c64.org; 3.4, March 2006 (#10): universal binary — "a complete rewrite of SIDPLAY for Mac OS, which was originally released in June of 1996". SidPlug 1.0b2, 2003-04-13 (#4): a browser plug-in with an oscilloscope, RSID-capable.
• NanoSIDPlay 0.2b (#3): Tom Roger Skauen's Windows player on Laurent Ovaert's NanoSID library, whose ZSID files carry "information about the sound generation (like ADSR bug)" so that "a very old computer can perform sid music with a quality near to RESID".
• Java: JSIDPlay 0.3, September 2005 (#9; JaC64-based, "Emulation of combined waveforms using same method as re-sid (sample-lookup)", an online version); Java SID Player Music Library V2, December 2007 (#12; kenchis's port of sidplay2 2.0.8 / libsidplay 2.1.1); JSIDPlay2 2.0, September 2010 (#14) "after 3 years from the last version".
• Plug-ins and other players: XMMS-SID 0.8.0beta14 (January 2005, #8), beta15 (2005-11-10, #9; "Complete re-write", libsidplay 2.x, songlength DB), beta17 (January 2007, #11); XMPlay's SIDPlay2 plug-in (#8), beta 24b (2006-01-06, #9), beta 24d (October 2006, #11); amaroK 0.5.1 with a SID plug-in (#5); Fap 0.1.0 2006-01-12 → 0.2.3 2006-07-15 (#10; Dr. Fiemost; modules, SID with songlengths, experimental HardSID); SID PC64 Winamp plug-in 2.0, 2004-05-16 (#7): plays .sid "on real C64 through a PC64 cable", multispeed yes, samples no, a C64-side player "$6a bytes long"; PocketSID 0.47 / 0.64 (2004-03-30, #6; Windows Mobile, sidplay2/reSID); iPhone Sid Player (#13; App Store, HVSC "over 33.000 songs from 1125 authors"); Rockbox firmware plays SID files (#12).
• On the C64 itself: Sidplay64 0.3, 2005-12-19 (#9): plays HVSC files "on a real c64" from CBM/CMD drives, 196-entry playlists, relocates itself per the header's startPage/pageLength within $0400–$D000; PSID64 (above).
• SOASC (#11): Stone Oakvalley's "automated recording technique … to mass record music from the Commodore 64 and its SID chips (6581 and 8580)" — every HVSC tune "in both 6581 and 8580 chips", MP3 224 kbps mono 44.1 kHz, "something like 300GB" (6581-8580.com).

Hardware#

• HardSID: the Quattro PCI on sale (#4, 2003-06-21) with 32-bit WDM MIDI drivers for XP/2000; the single-chip HardSID PCI, 2003-10-15 (#5); HardSID 4U (#12, 2008-05-24): "the most powerful SID synthesizer since the legendary C64!" — USB, two CPUs, "VSTi interface with 8000Hz update rate on all SID registers", "up to four SID chips (6581/8580/6582 in any combination)", Vista drivers, a Studio Edition with the SIDs physically separated from the USB circuits; HardSID Uno and UPlay (#13): USB without a power supply, one SID of any version (Uno) or "one old 6581 + one new 8580/6582" switched from the player software (UPlay), Windows XP/Vista/7, "Cycle-accurate playback".
• Catweasel (Jens Schönfeld; see catweasel): MK3 PCI/Flipper (#3, 2003-02-07): one 6581 or 8580, "programmable switch to PAL and NTSC frequency"; MK4 announced July 2004 (#7): a DC-DC converter against noise from graphics cards and drives, "Cycle-exact control" through a script language and a FIFO, "Digiboost for new SID versions" (two sigma-delta converters restore the fourth voice on 8580/6582), filter capacitors "chosen with a few jumpers" (Commodore's three values), the 8701 clock chip cloned in the FPGA with PAL/NTSC "software-selectable", two SIDs for stereo, a re-configurable FPGA, drivers for Linux/Windows/AmigaOS 4 (Mac later); the #8 editorial: "at the moment it cannot be used for sid music :("; MK4plus (#13, 2010-06-28) replaces the "sold out and discontinued" MK4 — no longer low-profile, better SID-socket placement, more audio filtering, an external jack.
• SwinSID (#9, 2006-01-14): a "16-bit stereo hardware sound module for C64" — SID-socket compatible, "Software compatibly with SID ( almost ful )", 3 main + 3 effect channels, wavetable synthesis, 9 instruments in flash ROM, programmable ADSR, stereo reverb, 16-bit DAC at 31.25 kHz (swinkels.tvtom.pl); the SwinSID2 specification: pin-compatible, up to 8 voices, two noise channels, 16 flash waveforms, 16 effects, two LFOs, one global filter, 31.25 or 24 kHz, "Requires special software to work".
• MSSIAH (#13): "a MIDI cartridge for the Commodore 64" — "MIDI SID Software Integrated Applications and Hardware" — whose applications "play the C64's audio circuit (SID) via MIDI or stand-alone with the internal sequencers" (8bitventures.com).

Compos and events#

• c64.sk SID Compos (annual; see compos): II, 2002-10-08 – 11-04 (#2): 30 entries from 13 countries, "open to all the kind of music players, while the previous (Goattrk compo) was open only to Goattrk player" — 1 Dane/Crest "trial_and_error" 490, 2 Vip "Cyber Zound Prancah" 465, 3 DaFunk "Euro(S)cream" 452 (Cadaver 7th, Aleksi Eeben 11th, luca-carrafiello 13th, richard-bayliss 18th). III, 2003-10-08 – 11-08 (#5): 43 tunes, anonymous, a composers' jury plus the audience — jury: Jammer "Floatee" 191, Dane "Shining Hour" 181, Abaddon "Cybersoap" 158; audience: Cadaver "Illumination" 413, Smalltown Boy "Downtown Connection" 409, Dane 407. IV, 2004-11-22 – 12-05 (#7): DRAX "Natural Cause of Death" 500, Fanta "Natural Cause of Life" 492, Dane "Crush" 467. V, 2005-10-08 – 11-13 (#9): Randall "Assatas Song" and Fanta "Bombs Over Dresden" tied at 473, Dane "Pick It Up" 449. 6, end of 2006 (#11): public vote Dane "Arctic Circles" 1269, Linus 1227.5, Fanta "Albino Human" 1205; jury "Arctic Circles" 157, CreaMD "Critical Grid Voltage" 128. 7 (#12): Cadaver "Darkening" 1314, Randall 1167, Orcan "Autumn Symphony" 1152. 8 (#13): "the Last SidCompo (the 8 of the series)", with a radio stream during voting — Dane "Eskimonika" 852, Conrad "Intrinsic" 850.5, Randall "A Liquor Store Anthem" 787.5. Music Cover Compo (#12, the first): A-Man "Elysion" 738, Linus "Cauldron II Sinus Milieu Studie" 725.5, Stainless Steel "Englishman In New York" 717.5.
• Goat Tracker 2 Music Compo, July 2005 (#8): c64.sk's celebration of the new editor, anonymous, "source of the tunes will be included as examples into the Goat Tracker release" — Randall "I'll Be a Pimp in Cabrini Green" 223, Jammer "My Own Hyperspace" 207, No-XS 195, nata "Stargate" 191, Cadaver "On a sanction from CIA" 187, Hein 182, Richard Bayliss 136.
• Tognon's own compos (digilander.iol.it/ice00/tsid): SidWine 2, 2003-02-21 – 04-21 (#3, results #4): tie at 213 — "Jaette Gorr" (Peter Sandén & Per Bolmstedt) and "Loretta" (Dane), then Dalezy "paper shuriken" 192, Luca Carrafiello 9th; SidWine 3, 2004-02-21 – 04-25 (#6): Turtle "Septic Shock" 174, Hein Holt "Ole!" 152, Slowhand 141, Asterion 6th; Tiny Sid Compo (tiny-sid-compo), 2005-01-15 – 05-08 (#8), "only 256 and 512 bytes music were allowed" — 256 b: Agemixer "My Block .. one block" and Frantic "New Kid on the block" tied at 186, laxity "Repeat me" 152, Aleksi Eeben "Electronic" 151, Steve Judd "Splatform256" 145, Tapio Viitanen "Imperial March" 118, Stefano Tognon "Random Ninja" 117, Jaymz Julian "Crue Gurl Freestyle" 105, Freaky DNA "128 Byte Blues" 91, Peter Weighill "Repetitive Tune BASIC" 75; 512 b: 4mat "Empty" 206, Laxity "Twone Five" 171, Tognon "15BB" 154, Jaymz Julian "Crue Gurl" 118; Tiny Sid 2, concluded 2006-04-21 (#10) — 256 b: Frantic "BLOCK ACID DUB" 96, Tognon "XL5" 94, Eric Odland "Miniature Rhapsody" 86, Jaymz Julian "Back To Basics" 55; 512 b: GRG "Plaster" 103, Tognon "RM" 92, Odland "Resolution" 64, Leif Bloomquist "Mini Digi Drum" 57; no third edition (#11: "I cannot grant to have all the time it could took me"); Big Sid Compo (#10): "some big sid tune where more composers will work onto the same peaces using the same editor", submissions until 2006-12-02.
• Rip compos for HVSC: Steppe and Yodelking's Rip Compo, until 2003-03-31 (#3) — SID Hunt requests, RSID versions, bug fixes, disk images; results (#4): "65 SID HUNTs, 8 bugged tunes and 88 RSID rips" — Ninja/The Dreams 123 points, Inge Pedersen 74, Adam Lorentzon 73, Smalltown Boy 59, Peter Sandén 30 … Stefano Tognon 7th with 15, Roland Hermans 14th.
• Others: 2010 SID COMPO V1, ended 2004-07-01 (#7; Rolemusic): Hein "Chill Addiction" 7.16, Richard "High Speed" 6.64, Surgeon "NICE DREAM" 6.58; PollyTracker Compo, August–September 2005 (#9): Abaddon "Polyhunter" 98/110, Randall "Poly wants a tracker" 96.5, E. Jones "Supernoid" 87.5; DMC Music Compo 2007 (#12; Richard Bayliss, "all the versions were allowed"): Psycho "Wot Da Funk" (DMC V4 modified by Glover/Samar), Surgeon "Extreme - Part 2" (DMC V7.0), Rio "Tanker" (DMC V7.0 IDE64 version), all 8580.

Collections, sites and projects#

• composers.c64.org (#5): converted to a database — 51 new composers and better photos for 28, "a total of 328 composers".
• SID in-depth information site, kubarth.de/sid (#5): "technical articles, sid history, die photos, link to hardware devices that use the sid chip and lot of software players".
• SID2TIA (#5): Cybergoth's converter from SID tunes to the Atari 2600 TIA, matching SID registers to TIA registers after each TinySID player call.
• Reformation (#14, 2015-01-25): "With a come back to the scene after more that 20 years, in end of 2014 matt-gray realize a Kickstarter projects full of remixes and new sids"; the editorial: "Matt Gray is again in the scene!! This was the dream of all sid fans" — and the issue presents "the Matt Gray editor he has released for his Reformation project".
• The Piano Collection (#14): "chris-huelsbeck has launched another musical project onto Kickstarter at the end of 2014".
• Project Sidologie (#15, 2015-10-31): "by Marcel Donné - this luxury box set features Commodore 64 music remakes with classic JARRE and Vangelis soundscapes" (a Kickstarter under the c64audio account).
• Tel Me More (#15): "jeroen-tel (Maniacs of Noise) remakes of his most memorable Commodore 64 video game soundtracks" on Indiegogo — Robocop 3, Cybernoid II The Revenge, Rubicon, Hawkeye, Myth, Turbo Outrun, Supremacy, Stormlord, Battle Valley, Cybernoid, Eliminator, Iron Lord.
• Back in Time Symphonic Collection (#15): "A C64 symphonic music campaign in 8 bits: 3 main albums, 5 stretch albums. The first step to the Albert Hall with the LSO? We hope so." (a Kickstarter under the c64audio account).

Practical takeaways#

• The news dates the hard-restart lineage of the Covert BitOps editors: programmable 1–2-frame HR (GT 1.4b, 2003-01), test-bit HR "for much sharper sounds" (GT 1.5, 2004-01), AD and SR both $00 (NinjaTracker 1.1, 2004-01), the alternative routine when the HR attack is at maximum (GT 2.57, 2006), timer bits $80/$40 (GT 2.59), "hifi" HR (NinjaTracker 2.03, 2006) — the background to hard-restart.
• The wavetable value scheme on goattracker's page ($01–$0F delays, $E0–$EF inaudible waveforms, $80 keep frequency, speedtable) dates from 2.03–2.18 (2005) and 2.2 (2005-12-11); "one bit of accuracy to pulse modulation speed" arrived with 2.4 (2006) and the note-independent speeds with 2.62 (2007–08).
• Emulation caveats with dates: the ADSR-delay bug in reSID was only fully fixed in 0.15/0.16 (2003–04); the 6581's filter distortion and cutoff curve were first modelled in 2007 (Lankila) and reached GoatTracker in 2.68 as reSID-fp; a PAL frame is $4CC7 cycles (50.125 Hz), which HVSC used in 2004 to re-time ~500 multispeed tunes.
• The format milestones in one line: PSIDv2NG (HVSC 5.0, 2002-08-17) → RSID (update 33, 2002-10-26) → the C64 BASIC flag (2004) → songlength database inside HVSC (42, 2005-06) → PSID v3 / 2SID and 32-character fields (55, 2011-06-25) → 3SID (2015) — see sid-format.
• Tiny players are a discipline of their own: 256- and 512-byte SIDs from the two Tiny Sid compos are analysed in issues 8–12 (tiny-sid-compo).

Notable quotes#

"Well, as this is the first issue there are about 20 years of sid news to add!!!" (#1)

"Playroutine rewritten. Uses testbit hard restart from now on for much sharper sounds" (GoatTracker 1.5, #6)

"Filter resonance frequency shifts up if the intensity of sound grows, up to roughly 1 full octave, or 2x the frequency." (Antti Lankila, #12)

"In this release we finally got rid of all PlaySID/Sidplay1 specific SIDs, by replacing all the remaining ones with proper RSID rips. Quite a milestone." (HVSC 56, #14)

Relevance to the wiki#

The only dated release history the wiki has for goattracker, ninjatracker, sidid, the JCH NewPlayer 21 by laxity, the first SID Factory (sid-factory-ii), hermit's 2008 3SID tracker, aleksi-eeben's Polly Tracker, hvsc (5.0 → #63 with sizes), the CGSC, the reSID/Sidplay2 line, and the SID hardware for PCs (HardSID, catweasel, SwinSID, MSSIAH); it also documents the c64.sk and Tiny Sid compos and the 2014–15 remake projects of matt-gray, chris-huelsbeck and jeroen-tel.

To verify#

• (unverified) The #11 contents list says "HARDshit 0.2" and the changelog "version 0.2", while the heading (and inbox/sidin-toc.md) says "HARDshit 2.0" — 0.2 is taken as the version.
• (unverified) "SIDPlayerDS" (#11) is a Dreamcast port, not a Nintendo DS one — the text says "a port for Dreamcast".
• (unverified) The #4 heading "Sidplay 3.12 Mac OS X" refers to SIDPLAY 3.1.2 (the download is SIDPLAY-3.1.2.dmg.gz).
• (unverified) CGSC 1.27's printed totals (12483 / 3705 / 4461) repeat 1.23's and are below 1.26's — a copy error in issue 14.
• (unverified) HVSC #50's "should contain 36,000" after #49's 36,081 is as printed (573 _PSID files were removed).
• (unverified) SOASC's "about 93336 tunes" for HVSC counts subtunes, not files (HVSC had ~33,000 files at the time).

Pages touched#

sidin · goattracker · ninjatracker · lasse-oorni · laxity · chordian · sid-factory-ii · sidid · hermit · hvsc · sid-format · sid · commodore-64 · catweasel · hvmec · aleksi-eeben · tiny-sid-compo · matt-gray · jeroen-tel · chris-abbott · chris-huelsbeck · stefano-tognon · hard-restart · multispeed · compos