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Music Construction Set
''Will Harvey's Music Construction Set'' (''MCS'') is a music composition notation program designed by Will Harvey for the Apple II and published by Electronic Arts in 1983. Harvey wrote the original Apple II version in assembly language when he was 15 and in high school. ''MCS'' was conceived as a tool to add music to his previously published game, an abstract shooter called ''Lancaster'' for the Apple II. ''Music Construction Set'' was ported to the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, IBM PC (as a booter), and the Atari ST. Two years later, in 1986, Will Harvey released a port for the 16-bit Apple IIGS, utilizing its advanced sound. Also that year, a redesigned version for the Amiga and Macintosh was released as ''Deluxe Music Construction Set''. Overview With ''MCS'', a user can create musical composition via a graphical user interface, a novel concept at the time of its release. Users can drag and drop notes right onto the staff, play back their creations through the co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Will Harvey
Will Harvey (born 1967) is an American software developer and Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He wrote ''Music Construction Set'' (1984) for the Apple II, the first commercial sheet music processor for home computers. ''Music Construction Set'' was ported to other systems by its publisher, Electronic Arts. He wrote two games for the Apple IIGS: ''Zany Golf'' (1988) and '' The Immortal'' (1990). Harvey founded two consumer virtual world Internet companies: IMVU, an instant messaging company, and There, Inc., an MMOG company. Career Education After high school, Harvey studied computer science at Stanford University, where he earned his Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. During this period, he started two game development companies and published several additional software products through Electronic Arts. Early games Harvey went to the Nueva School for middle school. He attended Crystal Springs and Uplands for high school. The first game Harvey developed was an abstract shooter for t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joystick
A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal control device in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a centre stick or side-stick. It often has supplementary switches to control various aspects of the aircraft's flight. Joysticks are often used to control video games, and usually have one or more push-buttons whose state can also be read by the computer. A popular variation of the joystick used on modern video game consoles is the analog stick. Joysticks are also used for controlling machines such as cranes, trucks, underwater unmanned vehicles, wheelchairs, surveillance cameras, and zero turning radius lawn mowers. Miniature finger-operated joysticks have been adopted as input devices for smaller electronic equipment such as mobile phones. Aviation Joystic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apple II Software
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ''Malus sieversii'', is still found today. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe and were brought to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse, Greek, and European Christian tradition. Apples grown from seed tend to be very different from those of their parents, and the resultant fruit frequently lacks desired characteristics. Generally, apple cultivars are propagated by clonal grafting onto rootstocks. Apple trees grown without rootstocks tend to be larger and much slower to fruit after planting. Rootstocks are used to control the speed of growth and the size of the resulting tree, allowing for easier harvesting. There are more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 Software
Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). * January 10 ** The United States and the Vatican (Holy See) restore full diplomatic relations. ** The Victoria Agreement is signed, institutionalising the Indian Ocean Commission. *January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh personal computer in the United States. February * February 3 ** Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth. ** STS-41-B: Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission. * February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk. * February 8– 19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bank Street Music Writer
Bank Street Music Writer is an application for composing and playing music for the Atari 8-bit family, Apple II, Commodore 64 and IBM PC. It was written by Glen Clancy - Biblio.com and published by Mindscape. The original Atari version, developed under the name "Note Processor," was released in 1985 and uses the computer's on-board sound chip to produce four-voice music recordings. The Commodore 64 version also uses that system's sound hardware, while the Apple and IBM PC versions require a which was included in the retail box (a clone of the |
Pinball Construction Set
''Pinball Construction Set'' is a video game by Bill Budge written for the Apple II series, Apple II. It was originally published in 1982 through Budge's own company, BudgeCo, then was released by Electronic Arts in 1983 along with ports to the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64. The game created a new genre of video games: the game creation system, construction set. Users can build and play their own virtual pinball machine by drag and drop, dropping Pinball#Bumpers, bumpers, Pinball#Flippers, flippers, Pinball#Spinners and rollovers, spinners, and other parts onto a table. Attributes such as gravity and the physics model can be modified. Tables can be saved to floppy disks and freely traded; ''Pinball Construction Set'' is not needed to play them. Versions were released for the IBM Personal Computer, IBM PC (as a self-booting disk) and Macintosh in 1985. EA followed ''Pinball Construction Set'' with ''Music Construction Set'', ''Adventure Construction Set'', and ''Racing Destr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ahoy!
''Ahoy!'' was a computer magazine published between January 1984 and January 1989 in the US, focusing on all Commodore color computers, but especially the Commodore 64 and Amiga. History The first issue of ''Ahoy!'' was published in January 1984. The magazine was published monthly by Ion International and was headquartered in New York City. It published many games in BASIC and machine language, occasionally also printing assembly language source code. ''Ahoy!'' published a checksum A checksum is a small-sized block of data derived from another block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. By themselves, checksums are often used to verify data ... program called ''Flankspeed'' for entering machine language listings. ''Ahoy!'s AmigaUser'' was a related but separate publication dedicated to the Amiga. It was spun off from a series of columns in ''Ahoy!'' with the same title, and the first two issu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sample-based Synthesis
Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. The principal difference with sample-based synthesis is that the seed waveforms are sampled sounds or instruments instead of fundamental waveforms such as sine and saw waves used in other types of synthesis. History Before digital recording became practical, instruments such as the Welte (1930s), phonogene (1950s) and the Mellotron (1960s) used analog optical disks or analog tape decks to play back sampled sounds. When sample-based synthesis was first developed, most affordable consumer synthesizers could not record arbitrary samples, but instead formed timbres by combining pre-recorded samples from ROM before routing the result through analog or digital filters. These synthesizers and their more complex descendants are often referred to as ROMplers. Sample-based instruments have been used since the Computer Music Melodian, the Fairlight CMI an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wavetable Synthesis
Wavetable synthesis is a sound synthesis technique used to create Periodic function, quasi-periodic waveforms often used in the production of musical tones or Musical note, notes. Development Wavetable synthesis was invented by Max Mathews in 1958 as part of MUSIC-N, MUSIC II. MUSIC II “had four-voice polyphony and was capable of generating sixteen wave shapes via the introduction of a wavetable oscillator.” Hal Chamberlin discussed wavetable synthesis in Byte (magazine), Byte's September 1977 issue. Wolfgang Palm of Palm Products GmbH (PPG) developed his version in the late 1970s and published it in 1979. The technique has since been used as the primary synthesis method in synthesizers built by PPG and Waldorf Music and as an auxiliary synthesis method by Ensoniq and Access Music, Access. It is currently used in hardware synthesizers from Waldorf Music and in software synthesizers for PCs and tablets, including apps offered by PPG and Waldorf, among others. It was also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ensoniq
Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally Sampler (musical instrument), samplers and synthesizers. Company history In spring 1983, former MOS Technology engineers Robert Yannes, Robert "Bob" Yannes, Bruce Crockett, Charles Winterble, David Ziembicki, and Al Charpentier formed Peripheral Visions. The team had designed the Commodore 64, and hoped to build another computer. To raise funds, Peripheral Visions agreed to build a computer keyboard for the Atari 2600, but the video game crash of 1983 canceled the project and Commodore sued the new company, claiming that it owned the keyboard project. Renaming itself as Ensoniq, the new company instead designed a music synthesizer. Ensoniq grew rapidly over the next few years with the success of the Mirage and the ESQ-1. The plant in Great Valley, Pennsylvania employed nearly 200 people and housed the manufacturing facility. A number ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tandy 1000
The Tandy 1000 is the first in a line of IBM PC workalike home computer systems produced by the Tandy Corporation for sale in its Radio Shack and Radio Shack Computer Center chains of stores. Overview In December 1983, an executive with Tandy Corporation, maker of TRS-80 computers, said about the new IBM PCjr: "I'm sure a lot of people will be coming out with PCjr look-alikes. The market is big." While preparing the Tandy 2000—the company's first MS-DOS computer—for release in November 1983, Tandy began designing the Tandy 1000, code named "August". Unlike the 2000 it would be PC compatible with the IBM PC, and support the PCjr graphics standard. Released in November 1984, the $1,200 Tandy 1000 offers the same functionality as the PCjr, but with an improved keyboard and better expandability and compatibility. "How could IBM have made that mistake with the PCjr?" an amazed Tandy executive said regarding its chiclet keyboard, and another claimed that the 1000 "is what the PCj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IBM PCjr
The IBM PCjr (pronounced "PC junior") was a home computer produced and marketed by IBM from March 1984 to May 1985, intended as a lower-cost variant of the IBM PC with hardware capabilities better suited for video games, in order to compete more directly with other home computers such as the Apple II and Commodore 64. It retained the IBM PC's 8088 CPU and BIOS interface, but provided enhanced graphics and sound, ROM cartridge slots, built-in joystick ports, and an infrared wireless keyboard. The PCjr supported expansion via "sidecar" modules, which could be attached to the side of the unit. Despite widespread anticipation, the PCjr was ultimately unsuccessful in the market. It was only partially IBM compatible, limiting support for IBM's software library, its chiclet keyboard was widely criticized for its poor quality, expandability was limited, and it was initially offered with a maximum of of RAM, insufficient for many PC programs. Models The PCjr came in two models: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
