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ContactQTeM
V5.02 (21/03/2008): qtem.zip (9,964 bytes). Suitable for RISC OS 3 (and 2?) to RISC OS Select (26bit). Source code included.
QTeM is a module that translates most TrackerModule *commands and SWIs into their QTMModule equivalents. This is so that old games written for the TrackerModule can play their music through QTM instead.
Why would someone want to do this?
As far as I know there are 3 main versions of the TrackerModule in circulation:
- An old version, which will play music at the wrong speed on newer machines.
- A new version, that plays music at the correct speed, but doesn't allow other sounds (e.g. sound effects in games) to play at the same time as the music.
- An inbetween-y version. I don't know much about this version with respect to playing speed and sound effects, but I do know that it's StrongARM (and RiscPC?) incompatible, making it useless for most users.
As you can see there isn't a version that plays music at the correct speed, is StrongARM compatible, *and* allows the playing of sound effects over the music. This is where QTeM comes in, because unlike the TrackerModule, QTMModule supports all of the above.
So, how do I use it?
Just copy QTeM over the tracker module for your chosen game, and ensure you have a copy of QTMModule in your !System directory. You will need QTM version 1.22 or above for the transparent sound system to work (to allow you to hear sound effects over the music).
Some games use Tracker formats that aren't supported by QTM, so you'll have to use a program such as !TrackConv to convert them. I'm not entirely sure what the best output format is, but SoundTracker seems to do the job for the games I've tried.
Game compatibility
So far, the following games have been tested. The location of the trackermodule to replace has also been listed. Remember to keep backups of your original files, just in case there's some incompatibility that I've missed. Games that use different music modules to TrackerModule haven't been listed.
| Game | Status | Notes |
| Cycloids | Incompatible | Game appears to use a compressed copy of TrackerModule, along with compressed music files. |
| DinoSaw | Compatible | TrackerModule is !DinoSaw.Music.PlayerMod. |
| F·R·E·D | Compatible | TrackerModule is !F·R·E·D.Modules.Player_Mod. Music requires conversion using TrackConv. |
| Fyarena | Compatible | TrackerModule is !Fyarena.PM. Music requires conversion using TrackConv. |
| Hamsters | Compatible | TrackerModule is !Hamsters.Music.PlayerMod. Music requires conversion using TrackConv. |
| Ixion | Compatible | TrackerModule is !Ixion.Code.PlayerMod. However the game never appears to play music and sound effects at the same time, so there's little point in using QTeM. |
| Lemings | Compatible | TrackerModule is !Lemings.Musix.PlayerMOD |
| Splodge (David Johnston version) | Compatible | TrackerModule is !Splodge.PM. Music requires conversion using TrackConv. The game has no sound effects though, so there's little point using QTeM. |
| Staka | Compatible | TrackerModule is !Staka.!S/Tracker.PM. The game has no sound effects though, so there's little point in using QTeM. |
| Styx | Unrequired | The copy of Styx linked to on Acorn Arcade has already been patched to use the QTMModule. |
| Wavelength | Semi-compatible | TrackerModule is !WaveLgth.Music.PlayerMod. Music works fine, but no sound effects are heard. Perhaps a game limitation? |
The future
There are a few other music modules that QTeM could be expanded to support, e.g. MusMod/TeqMod (as used by Krisalis), Coconizer, and StasisMod. These would most likely be done in the form of extra QTeM modules, one per module being emulated.