stuff that antimatters

Voddler 2.1.1390 in Ubuntu

2010-09-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

I updated the ubuntu-voddler-installer with the registry file supplied by sylttyarttu in the comments. It also uses a new url for AIR (again). Since Voddler on their homepage says AIR 2.0.3 is buggy, the script installs 2.0.2 instead as long as it is still available and once 2.0.2 is removed it downloads the latest (whichever version that may be).

Do not update to 2.0.3 when AIR asks if you want to.

The script now also display some information if a file can't be downloaded, so if Adobe changes the structure again it will hopefully be obvious were things went wrong.

A funny thing I noticed while testing the script is that Voddler seems to have open sourced part of the client :-)

Inside the VoddlerPlayer.air (unzip it) you can find backups of a few actionscript-files:

./com/voddler/flash/remote/UserService.as.bak

./com/voddler/flash/view/PauseBannerMediator.as.bak

./com/voddler/flash/view/components/player/VideoManager.as.bak

./com/voddler/flash/view/PlayerMediator.as.bak

./com/voddler/flash/view/VideoSettingsMediator.as.bak

Merge information suggests it is recent code.

Songs forged into SID classics

2010-07-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

When I recently saw the epic Chipophone video, I felt a bit nostalgic and decided to share a Commodore64 inspired Spotify playlist I created some time ago. It is special since half of the list are songs that influenced Rob Hubbard to make some of his masterpieces.

In other words: If you grew up with a C=64 you probably thought these games had original music, but as you soon will hear they were actually inspired by other songs. It does not diminish Rob Hubbards work one bit, since so many of his ideas and the C64-style (some say limitations) are brought into the final results.

Remember that the C64 sound chip only had three channels (as in number of voices, not 2.1 stereo with sub). One chord and you were out of instruments! And each channel could only play one of sine, square, triangle or noise waveforms. And most games would only have a handful of kilobytes left for the music to use.

Some of the music I discovered myself, and the rest I read about in the High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC).

• Spotify playlist

Use the playlist above to hear the originals. The rest of the playlist are songs from albums on Spotify you may want to check out. I have only included one song per album, like "Comic Bakery" from the album Project Galway, and "The Last Ninja" from the album Instant Remedy, and so on. They are all C64-worthy albums you should explore.
Below are some short explanations and youtube recordings of the C64-versions, since most C64-songs are not on Spotify.

Delta Title (Koyaanisqatsi)

Rob Hubbard made the music for the classic C64 shoot 'em up, and the title song is an uptempo jam version of Philip Glass' "Koyaanisqatsi". If you never heard Koyaanisqatsi before, you will find it in the Spotify playlist above.

Delta Ingame (On the Run + Pruit Igoe + Resources)

For the ingame music the producer of Delta wanted it to be like Pink Floyds "On the Run", which it definitely is! The surreal tunes later morph into Philip Glass, "Pruit Igoe" and "Resources". It is well over 10 minutes long and a classic masterpiece, a fusion of minimalism on the C64.

Zoids (Ancestors)

Rob Hubbard made a lot of songs on the C64, and it is possible he sometimes got "composers block". I don't know if the game producer wanted him to make Zoids sound like Synergys "Ancestors", or if he just made a cover to have something to show. Both are wonderful songs.

Master of Magic (Shibolet)

Master of Magic was heavily influenced by another Synergy song, "Shibolet". However, Master of Magic is a much better version than the original. It is alive and interesting, while Shibolet sounds dull and mechanical.

I-Ball (Whip Blow)

The I-Ball developers wanted the main theme to sound like Cabaret Voltaire, and Rob Hubbard delivered a song in their style -- most recognisable in the song "Whip Blow".

International Karate (Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence)

Inspiration from Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the result is stunning.

Warhawk (The Unknown Planet)

The melody is the same as in John Keatings "The Unknown Planet", yet it is a completely different song.

Monty on the Run (The Devil's Gallop)

Based upon Charles Williams "The Devil's Gallop".

Run web Voddler in Linux

2010-04-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I updated the instructions and the script to work with Voddler 2.1.1390.

The screencast is now old, so ignore the icons created in it (now it's just a "Start Voddler" icon :-) and ignore the Connection Status window (not needed anymore since connection is much quicker now). And ignore the demo of the stand-alone player at the end since it ceased to function many releases ago (it's just the web now). The rest is still representative of how the current release of the script works.

Ubuddler

2010-04-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Can now run Voddler 2.1.1390.

I turned my step by step instructions for installing Voddler under Ubuntu Linux into a script to make it easier for beginners:
Ubuddler, the Ubuntu Voddler Installer.

Be aware that 64-bit support is a mess and not tested well, so you should probably only try this if you are on a 32-bit system (and if you don't know what you have, the installer will ask if you are really sure if 64-bit is detected).

Follow these simple steps to install Voddler in Ubuntu, or check out the screencast.

1) Download the automatic installer script here (right click link and select "save link as...")

2) Right click on the script you downloaded and select properties:

3) In the properties window, check the execute box:

4) Close the window and double click the icon to start the script, select run:

5) The installation begin (please, always leave default values when asked for paths etc by the external installers, just click next-next-next):

6) When it is done you have a "Start Voddler" icon. Click it to get a test page at voddler (via Firefox for Wine, since the voddler browser plugin is windows only and must be running). Wait for two "check!".

These screenshots are old, so ignore the "Connection Status" window. Voddler connects much quicker now so I skipped it in this release.

7) Then launch a movie from the browser. If you have not logged in to your keyring (i.e. you have autologin on your computer), you may get a prompt to log in. It may cause focus issues with the player window, so try again if you have problems.

8) You still need a fast system.

Install new Voddler in Ubuntu

2010-03-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Instructions adjusted to work with Voddler 2.1.1390.

This was done on 32-bit Ubuntu 10.04.

NOTE: the player client is running native, only the p2p-service and the browser-plugin is using wine. Which means that it is mostly up to Adobe to improve the performance of AIR on linux.

I also created a script that automatically performs the instructions below, go here to read about it. It should work on Ubuntu 8.04 or better, and has some experimental support for 64-bit too.

If you use another distribution the steps below should be fairly easy to translate into your environment.

# Install wine in Ubuntu 9.10 (at least 1.1.4x)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa

sudo apt-get update

# If using Ubuntu 10.04+, the correct version is already in the repository, so skip the above

sudo apt-get install wine

# Install Firefox for windows (Voddler will install a browser plugin .dll later)

wget http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.6.8&os=win&lang=en-US

wine Firefox\ Setup\ 3.6.8.exe

# Download and install Voddler

wget http://www0.c33399.cdn.qbrick.com/33399/assets/setup/VoddlerSetuplite-2.1.1390.exe

wine VoddlerSetuplite-2.1.1390.exe

( # Service and Systray will start automatically after install. To do it manually next time:)

( wine net start VoddlerNet )

( wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Voddler/service/VNetManager.exe )

# Install Adobe AIR 2 (http://get.adobe.com/air ... "latest" is currently 2.0.3, which is buggy)

wget http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/lin/download/2.0.2/adobeair.deb

sudo dpkg -i adobeair.deb

# Install 7zip

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

# Extract Voddler archive

7z x VoddlerSetuplite-2.1.1390.exe

# Install the Voddler AIR client (uncheck "Start app after install")

Adobe\ AIR\ Application\ Installer /full/path/to/extracted/files/VoddlerPlayer.air

# Copy a Voddler config-file (make sure it is readable!)

chmod +r VoddlerPlayer/xml/config.xml

sudo cp VoddlerPlayer/xml/config.xml /opt/VoddlerPlayer/share/xml/

( # If you are not using Gnome or KDE, make sure the keyring daemon is running, see http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/492/cpsid_49267.html)

( ps -ef | grep gnome-keyring-daemon )

( export GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID=1 )

# The old standalone client does not work anymore, so do this to start movies directly from the wine web browser

mkdir -p ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Voddler/VoddlerPlayer

ln -s /opt/VoddlerPlayer/bin/VoddlerPlayer ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Voddler/VoddlerPlayer/VoddlerPlayer.exe

# Add a registry key. Voddler plugin checks the uninstall key on start for some reason.

# Maybe to get the version in order to auto-update the client? If so the version should maybe be really great to avoid that?

# (Thanks to sylttyarttu in the comments for this one!)

# Put this in a file.reg:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\VoddlerPlayer.22AA32E1C519F8FB77514A36DC6C2AE2C623240F.1]

"DisplayIcon"="C:\\Program Files\\Voddler\\VoddlerPlayer\\VoddlerPlayer.exe"

"DisplayName"="VoddlerPlayer"

"DisplayVersion"="2.1.1390"

"VersionMajor"="2"

"VersionMinor"="1"

"InstallLocation"="C:\\Program Files\\Voddler\\VoddlerPlayer\\"

"NoModify"=dword:00000001

"NoRepair"=dword:00000001

"Publisher"="Voddler Sweden AB"

"UninstallString"="msiexec /qb /x {E7D6D8D0-B750-0A0E-8FAA-BC0388CBD5F1}"

# and then run

regedit file.reg

# Start the Voddler Test Page, wait for two green checkmarks

wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Mozilla\ Firefox/firefox.exe http://voddler.com/help/test

# If both green, you can start a movie from Firefox in wine (try again if the movie exits after ads, happens in windows too).

# If you think the fonts are ugly without AA in wine 1.1.x, try this (makes Spotify pretty as well): http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1050920

# In the future you should just have to start Firefox.exe and go to voddler.com to launch a movie.

# The voddler p2p-service will autostart when wine is running. Use "wine net stop VoddlerNet" if you don't want that.

Other:

- Adobe AIR 2 installs Flash 10.1, but it doesn't support GPU-decoding on Linux (or Mac, or most graphics-cards older than a couple of years), and the software decoder is not multi-threaded it seems.

- Check the settings in the OSD while playing a movie if your computer is too slow, or try "renice 5 `pidof voddler.exe`"