Variations on a Theme -- Three variations of the ALITE slideshow program.


     With the Christmas season here again, it is time once again to dig out
those Music Studio Christmas carols to fill the home.  However, the only
player program available for MS songs is the old Audio Lite Christmas
slideshow demo.  The player program, unfortunately, is limited.  Each song
must have a picture file, which greatly limits the number of songs which
can be played from a single disk.  It only accepts .NEO format picture files
with a .PIC extender, which limits it to systems with a color monitor.

     This year, I had enough.  I decided to hack the ALITE program to better
suit my needs, and hopefully yours, also.  To this end, I developed three
different variations of the ALITE player program.

1.   ALITED.PRG
     This version is the same as ALITE.PRG, except that it reads and displays
low resolution DEGAS format pictures.  All pictures must have a .PI1 extender.

2.   ALITEX.PRG
     This version reads and displays a SINGLE picture file, and plays ALL the
song files on the disk.  The picture file must be a .NEO format file named
ALITE.PIC.  The picture is reloaded once each time through the song files.

3.   ALITEXM.PRG
     This version is the same as #2, except it runs in monochrome.  The picture
file must be high resolution DEGAS format file named ALITEM.PI3.


     If there is any demand, I can also create a monochrome version like #1,
that is, one picture/one song.

     Instructions for using ALITE*.PRG:

     ALITE.PRG and ALITED.PRG each display a picture for each song.  The
picture file and the song file must have the same name, with different
extenders.  The songs are played in the order that the PICTURE files were
saved to disk, not in the order that they show on the desktop.  If you are
using the origional ALITE.PRG (not included in this archive), the pictures
must be in .NEO format, but renamed with a .PIC extender.  ALITED.PRG requires
DEGAS low resolution .PI1 files.

     ALITEX.PRG and ALITEXM.PRG display a single picture while cycling through
all the songs on disk.  Songs are played in the order they were saved to disk,
not how they show from a desktop directory.  After all the songs are played
once, the picture file is reloaded from disk, and the cycle repeats.


     Music Studio and ALITE.PRG were created by Audio Lite, and distributed by
Activision.  DEGAS was written by Tom Hudson for Batteries Included, now
distributed by Electronic Arts.  Neochrome is available from Atari Corporation.
I would also like to thank Alain Birtz for his TinyTool editor accessory, and
Scott Swentex for his 68000 disassembler.  Last, but not least, I would like to
thank all the people who have shared their Music Studio song files.

     Any questions, comments, or complaints may be addressed to T.EARLY on
GEnie, or 73765,1173 on Compuserve.  Have fun, and Merry Christmas.

                                Timothy Early
                                December, 1987