FoxM1 Player Release Notes
--------------------------
Author: Matt Kellner (KieferSkunk)
E-mail: KieferSkunk@earthlink.net


What It Is
----------
FoxM1 is a Windows MFC-based frontend for the M1 sound-only emulator.
It serves as a fully-functional interface to the M1 Sound Core and
provides the user with an easy, intuitive way to play music and sound
clips from arcade games.

FoxM1 allows you to browse a list of supported games (and see which
ones you have and which ones are missing), play soundclips from each
file, record soundclips to WAV files and save them on your hard drive,
and store titles for each clip, as well as weed out blank clips.


Credits
-------
Portions of FoxM1 are based on the m1i Windows GUI designed by Olivier
Galibert.  The core interface code was supplied by R. Belmont in the
form of a very helpful SDK.  Thanks!

The FoxM1 user interface style and many of its functions are based
on those of FoxPlay, also copyrighted by Matt Kellner (KieferSkunk).

The "animated cat" is one of the sprites used in Chrono Trigger, a
fine SquareSoft RPG for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

This program is not intended to promote software piracy in any form.
Please do not ask me for ROM files or ask where you can find them -
you are on your own there.  I will be happy to provide support for
the program itself, however.


Known Issues
------------
* Blank Clip Detection is chancey - on many games, it fails to detect
  a clip that is actually blank because there may still be some sound
  from the previous clip.  This is a core issue and has to do with how
  the core emulates sound in some games.

* Silence Detection takes approximately 5 seconds to determine that a
  clip has ended or is blank.  I'm still tuning this feature.

* According to R. Belmont, Normalization is an unsupported core
  feature that may be removed in a future release.  After playing a
  certain game for some time, you may notice that having Normalization
  enabled doesn't have the expected results - songs will still play
  very softly or not at all.  This is a core issue and cannot be
  addressed by FoxM1 itself.

  - Tech note: There was some talk on the M1 board about the M1 core
    not outputting any sound at all in the future, and instead passing
    that responsibility on to the frontend.  If that happens, FoxM1
    will eventually provide its own volume control and possibly an
    Automatic Gain Control (AGC).

* FoxM1 does not currently audit any ROMs - just checks to see if they
  exist.  If you attempt to load a bad ROM, you will get several error
  messages.

* If you come across anything not listed here, please let me know!


Things on my To-Do List
-----------------------
* Implement support for auditing ROM zips, so that FoxM1 can tell whether
  a file is good or not before trying to open it.

* Improve the randomizer in Playlist Mode

* Allow the user to edit titles directly in the ROM/Playlist Browser
  list control, without having to play them first.

* Implement filtering and sorting of the ROM list by manufacturer and
  driver.


Legal
-----
This is the standard MIT/X11 license from opensource.org.  Please read
it carefully to determine your rights.

"M1" sound emulator core is Copyright (c) 2000-2003 R. Belmont.
"m1cui" commandline frontend is Copyright (c) 2000-2003 R. Belmont.
"m1i" Qt-based GUI frontend is Copyright (c) 2002 Olivier Galibert.
"FoxM1" MFC-based GUI frontend is Copyright (c) 2002-2003 Matt Kellner.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy 
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal 
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights 
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell 
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is 
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in 
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR 
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, 
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE 
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER 
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING 
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS 
IN THE SOFTWARE.


Revision History
----------------

v1.2.1
------
* Implemented support for multiple ROM folders.  You can access your folder
  list from both the ROM Browser dialog and the Options dialog.


v1.2
----
* Implemented Playlist support!  A new Playlist Manager gives you full
  control over what ROM-Clip combinations get played in what order.  You
  can load, manipulate and save Playlists easily and efficiently.

* FoxM1 now operates in two modes:
  - ROM SoundClip Mode: Allows you to play all clips from a selected ROM,
    mark clips as blank, modify their titles, and a range of clips for that
    ROM.
  - Playlist Mode: Allows you to play selected clips in a Playlist.  In
    this mode, you cannot mark clips as blank or set ranges, but you can
    still modify their titles and play clips in either sequential or random
    order.

* Major changes to the UI!  In implementing support for Playlists, I
  reworked the main interface a bit to allow for more functionality.  The
  interface is a bit taller than it was before, but is the same width.

* Added a standard menu to the program, with added functionality.  Among
  other things, you can now import and export clip data and access various
  options from the menu.

* Fixed a crash that occurred when "Move on to the next clip" was selected
  for what to do when silence was detected, and silence was detected when
  FoxM1 was not the currently active application.

* Made it possible to select a solid VU meter (minimum segment width).
  Also corrected a small problem with the color gradient function.

* The "Next Clip" button no longer becomes the default button when you
  edit the Clip Title or Clip Number fields.


v1.1
----
* Fixed a bug that prevented FoxM1 from being able to find and use ROMs in
  the root folder of a drive, such as a CD-ROM. ( eg. D:\ )

* Added a much nicer-looking VU meter!  It's multicolored, and it supports
  peaks.  Much better than the standard MFC Progress Control I was using
  before.  It's also fully customizeable!  Check out the new options! :)

* Updated the copyright notice above for 2003.

* Corrected a problem (not really a bug) where hitting ENTER or ESC would
  quit the program.  You must now use ALT-F4 or the mouse to quit.

* You can now correctly select items using the keyboard in both the ROM
  Browser and the SoundClip Browser.


v1.0
----
* Initial release