Contents :


FOREWORD
FIRST USE
TOOLBAR
EDIT MENU
FILE MENU
TOOLS MENU
OTHER
BUGS
CREDITS






F . O . R . E . W . O . R . D


Read Whatznew.txt for latest changes.

Welcome In Zzt Piano ! The goal of this utility is to help you doing musics for ZZT. People usually don't write musics for it because it is way too complicated or because they are too Lazy. Now you have no excuse ! Let your soundchip musical creativity EXPLOOOOOODE !
Zzt Piano is Freeware but please try to give some credits to me and my app in your games if it contains some musics generated with zzt piano !
And don't forget to e-mail me comments, support messages or critics, insults at darkflr@bigfoot.com.




F . I . R . S . T . . . U . S . E


OK. Even if zzt piano has an user-friendly interface, I still find it somehow hard to master. At startup, a new project is automatically created. Push the record button OFF and try hitting the piano keys with the mouse. When you get something listenable, record it and push the record button OFF again. Go on until you get something interesting. Save your project if you plan to modify it, and then export it as a Zzt Board file, in your zzt directory. Launch the Zzt Editor, create a new board or choose a board you don't need anymore, Hit "T", choose "Import" and type the filename of the board you exported. Voila ! the object in the middle of the board is your music. Feel free then to add ryhtmics, remove comments, etc...




T . O . O . L . B . A . R

Each toolbar button has a specific function:


NEW PROJECT : Erases the old project and let you create a new one. You'll be asked for confirmation.


LOAD PROJECT : Erases the old project and replace it with a previously saved zzt piano project (*.ztp). You'll be asked for confirmation.


SAVE PROJECT AS *.ZTP : Saves your project as a zzt piano file (*.ztp).


EXPORT AS TEXT : Saves your project in a plain text file. The point of this function is to cut the code from the notepad and then paste it in an object already holding some code. Use Alt+Enter to reduce your Dos window and use the upside buttons to paste the text in an object.


EXPORT AS ZZT BOARD FILE : This is damn useful ! This function will create a zzt board file (*.BRD) containing an object holding the music code of your project.


TOGGLE RECORD ON/OFF : If this button is on the OFF position, you can freely push the piano keys without having them entered in the music code. On the ON position, each note played will be included in the music code.


DECREASE TEMPO : The tempo value will be decreased by one. The tempo value is the number of rests added after each note.

(=- No picture -=)

TEMPO VALUE : This is the number of rests added after each note. It can be deactivated throught the setup window.


INCREASE TEMPO : The tempo value will be increased by one.


INSERT A LINE OF CODE : Inserts in the music code the line of code being written. You need to specify where you want to put it by choosing (click) a line in the music code window.


DELETE A LINE OF CODE : Deletes the selected line of code. You must select a line in the music code window.


PREVIEW MUSIC : Calls an external DOS program called previewer and plays your zzt music code. The previewer (made by Kiwihead) works pretty fine now. Read preview.txt for more information.




E . D . I . T . . . M . E . N . U


Errr.... You can delete a selected line of code from here, or insert a line of code (the line currently written).
You can also reach the Setup menu :
PREFERENCES : You can now choose from here whether to use a background image or not. If you are willing to make a background image, Please use a size of 599x478 pixels. If you download background images, put them in your skin\back\ directory.





F . I . L . E . . . M . E . N . U


You can Save, Save as, Load and export your music from here. Export as Text if you want to (manually) add the code to an existing object, Export as Board if you wanna add the music to an object-free board, Save if you wanna continue to write your music later, And quit if you wanna leave.




T . O . O . L . S . . . M . E . N . U


This is a new menu, introduced in version 1.1.1. The tools menu contains shortcuts to external apps or tools for Zzt piano.

* TOOLS MENU ITEM #1 : THE ZZT MUSIC RIPPER
This is an interesting and useful tool. Select a zzt game, then type its name, and the ripper will extract all objects which contains a #PLAY command. For a perfect rip, do the following:
1) Choose the zzt game by clicking the "..." button.
2) Enter the name of the game in the second prompt box.
3) Click GO!
4) The Ripper will launch ZztFF by Wep (http://welcome.to/wep).
5) Wait for Zztff to close and your hard drive to stop.
6) wait for the Ripper to finish its job
7) All songs were extracted in the "Ripped/NAME_OF_THE_GAME/" directory. If the directory is empty, there was no music in the game.
8) Load songs with ZTP and preview them.

* TOOLS MENU ITEM #2 : THE MANUAL CODE EDITOR
This is the way to manually edit lines of code generated by zzt piano. You can also create new lines and even write some zzt-oop non-musical code. To make a new line, simply launch it, type your line and push the "Add to the code button". If you want to modify a line of code, choose the line of code in the blue/yellow list by clicking on it and launch the editor(it does work even if the editor was already launched). Then push the "Modify" button.

* TOOLS MENU ITEM #3 : SEARCH THE DZSE
It's self-explanatory. Note that the DZSE will accept ZTP skins.

* TOOLS MENU ITEM #4 : MUSIC LINE GENERATOR
I made this stuff for fun only... It isn't able to produce "listenable" music, but it's worth a try...





O . T . H . E . R


CLICK ON THE LINE OF CODE BEING WRITTEN : Will delete and add the line of code into the code window.
THE "X" BUTTON : Adds a rest to the line of code.
THE "DEL" BUTTON : Deletes the line of code being written.
THE NOTE DURATION BUTTONS : Choose the note duration for next notes. You can choose from 32nd, sixtennth, eight, quarter, half and whole.




B . U . G . S


- No known bugs for the moment.
- NEXT RELEASE : - Will try to add the rythmics support.
- Push customization further by allowing people to change buttons image and color schemes.
- Maybe midi exporting support.
- Text Imports.




C . R . E . D . I . T . S


This free stuff is delivered to you by Dark FLR. The partial copy of this program is FORBIDDEN. The complete copy of this program ( including the help file, the readme.txt file and all the waves ) is authorized and even strongly recommended.
Zzt Piano is copyrighted by FLEIRE Benoit (aka Dark FLR), 1999.
The previewer is copyrighted by Kiwihead, 1999.
ZZTFF is copyrighted by Wep and is released under GNU license.
IF you wanna contact me ,
e-mail me at darkflr@bigfoot.com
Visit me at http://come.to/darkflr
And Mail me at : Benoit FLEIRE - 9, Allee du Velay - 31770 COLOMIERS - FRANCE.