NTRQ

(officially pronounced "N-Track"

) is the first native tracker for the Nintendo Entertainment System, developed by NES veteran developer Neil Baldwin

. This project started in mid-to-late November 2009

, and the first version was released on April Fool's day 2010

, with a major bug fix release

three days later. Its initial release did not go unnoticed here on BotB. Within days it was given its own format and we had a major battle with it... with only five entrants. Since then, virtually everyone's ditched it. Which is a shame because not only is it the first of its kind, but it also posses a few unique features that NES MCKs and FamiTracker do not. I know of only one NTRQ song made outside of that compo that isn't mine (I've published 2). Instead of using MML envelopes as in NES MCKs and FamiTracker, NTRQ uses tables. Also, aside from note entry in the harmonic channels and setting a few options, everything you modify are bytes in hex.

For those new to NTRQ, you can download the latest version, 1.8, here

. Feel free read Baldwin's own tutorial

. I've never read it, though, I've learned (most) of NTRQ through tinkering and referring to the PDF manual included with the download. For those who just want to dive in like I did, here are a list of pages in the manual that will help you get started right away (the ones in bold are probably the most important):

• 14 — Notes data limitations.
• 17 — Explains NTRQ's non-destructive transposing. Nice feature.
• 30 — You're always editing. '
Note this.

32 — General controls.

33-34 — Controls in the song table.

37-39 — Controls in the pattern editor.

45 — Notes the persistence of pattern effects.

46-47 — Controls in the three bottom tables: instrument, pitch, and duty. Not too different from everything else.

63 — Explains ADSR volume envelopes. For those unfamiliar with ADSR.

65-67 — Goes over how the speed table works.

68-69 — Explains how DPCM is used (it has some special treatment).

72-73 — Goes over clearing data and options you can set in NTRQ.

77 — Goes over how changing the pattern length can seriously mess up an established song.

78 — Guess what? You can access the hardware sweep registers. Yay!!

79 — Completely destroying your progress with two steps.

80-81 — Explains "Auto Echo".

89-92 — Quick reference for every table. This is goes over what value does in each table. Very, very helpful.

]

Starting this week, we shall put NTRQ's neglect to death!

I have not firmly decided on a schedule; feel free to read this paragraph and discuss it here or on IRC. My hope is to host a NTRQ OHB on some day of the week for six weeks. I wanted to do Thursday, as to (somewhat) revive "NSF Thursdays", but Friday will work better for me. I will be on IRC, for sure, starting at around Friday 21:15 UTC waiting for a good time to start (though at some point I will need to eat), though this time might change with discussion. Check this post once in a while, I guess, just to make sure.

The first OHB will be simple: a .sav pack will be provided with predefined instruments, pitches and duties that cannot be changed (after all, setting that up can take a while). Later on there will be varying levels of restrictions and flexibility. At some point, patched ROMs with custom DMC samples (using Baldwin's own utility) will be used in the pack. I have been waived by Neil Baldwin via e-mail from having to include the copyright notice (license.txt).

I'll be happy to consider any instruments or ideas that you guys come up with. To keep things as much of a surprise as possible, please contact me about those privately. Feel free to PM me on IRC if I'm there (with /msg SoiledBargains), I'll try and be on #botb as often as I can. Alternatively, you can contact me with my new address. The user name is mendelbridge, and the domain is the answer to this riddle: Strobe's favorite software company ever acquired this service in 1997 (hint: he hates *nix). If you're submitting an instrument, please include the AD, SR and Gate bytes for the instrument, and, where applicable, its pitch table entries before and after $3F, and its duty table entries. Don't be greedy with the tables, though. Try and limit yourselves to at 2-4 entries in the pitch and duty tables. Refrain from using eight entries unless it is truly necessary.

Lastly, I'm sorry for this long, hasty post, I've been working on it for a couple of days, and it's been hard getting this stuff typed up. More importantly, I want some lead time on this.

Oh, and feel free to post any questions here, too.

Squadala, we are off!

My only issue is, I don't know how to transport songs to and from my PowerPak.

EDIT: I'm sorry if some of the information here is irrelevant; I misread your question. Perhaps the last paragraph is the most related answer?

Since NTRQ uses 8k .sav/SRAM files, you're going to need to have a few on the card, as the PowerPak won't make one for you. NTRQ comes with a "ntrq-blank.sav", a pre-formatted SRAM file for NTRQ. I made several copies on my Compact Flash card by running this command in bash in my NTRQ 1.8 folder on the card:

$ for i in $(seq 0 16); do cp ntrq-blank.sav 18-song${i}.sav; done

There are two ways to save a song: you can save it after you're done, or you can select a .sav file before you begin. In the first method, after you're done, you'd hold the "RESET" button for a few seconds and then let go. The PowerPak will ask you if you want to save the SRAM anywhere. Here you can use its file browser and select a .sav file to use. With the latter method, you could select a .sav before you start NTRQ on the little "ROM selected" screen. Since NTRQ will see the .sav as properly formatted, NTRQ will skip the starting screen and go straight into the editor (which is nice if you have an idea in your head and you don't want the starting jingle to mess with it). Then when you're done you can hold and let go of "RESET", and the .sav you chose earlier will have been selected. Also, here's a nice little tip: if you have to turn your NES off and come back later, you can hit "START" as soon as you turn on your NES again; the NTRQ ROM and .sav file you used will have been selected for you.

Of course, with the .sav file you can move it on to your computer and load it in an emulator, or run it through ntrq2nsf. SRAM files will be saved depending on your operating system and your emulator. On Windows, the emulator will normally create its own folder within the hidden AppData\Roaming\ folder in your user folder. On Linux, it's normally in the typical ~/.binNameHere/ folder. In either of these cases, there should be a folder for .sav files in these places. All of the emulators I've used will try to load a .sav file that's the same base name as the ROM loaded (err, so "ntrq.nes" would have an emulator checking for a "ntrq.sav").

plus now there's pulsar! is that gonna get it's own category too?

Also PR8! You can make whole tunes with it, it seems to me...I've barely scratched the surface of what it can do.

And 32k SRAM!

Seeing as neither Pulsar nor PR8 have a utility to convert their SAVs to a NSF file, I could see it happening. Maybe we could have a Pulsar/PR8 battle... melodies in Pulsar, percussion/loop with PR8, both mixed into one song? It'd be nice to see it happen. I would like to think that showing some interest in NTRQ would increase the likelihood of having Pulsar and PR8 getting their own formats; it seems a little random going from showing some interest in NTRQ and then branching off.

also now that i think of it, those two maybe dont work on a power pak? there's some problem i remember baldwin talking about.

It is true that Baldwin's use of SXROM

isn't supported by many things

, the PowerPak included. However, the inventor of the PowerPak, Brian Parker, released an update for the MMC1's mapper file

(MAP01.MAP) that supports SXROM. This updated .MAP file is included with Pulsar and PR8.

ya know... this sounds expensive

Only if you don't know how to use an emulator (if that's what you're getting at).