Trackers & Demoscene
We check out a streaming service for chip music, with a choice of players built in
Demoscene music comes in many shapes and sizes, with formats spanning myriad software on various hardware platforms, which can make finding and listening to your favourite tunes quite the chore. But now there’s a new kid in town called Chipmachine. Described by the developer as “Spotify for scene/chip/game music”, Chipmachine aims to simplify the
“Chipmachine kicks in with the correct music player for your choice, from SID to Mod to MP3”
process by letting you search and play music directly from just the one interface. Connected to various scene data sources, simply start typing on the main screen and you’re presented, in real time, with a list matching your search criteria of artists, songs and playlists. Hit Enter and Chipmachine seamlessly kicks in with the correct music player for your choice, from SID to Mod to MP3. It looks and feels a shade rough around the edges, and there are a couple of lesser-known formats we found it couldn’t play, but these are early days and the wealth of music already available makes up for these shortcomings. Get it for Windows, OS X, Linux and Raspberry Pi. bit.ly/Chipmachine
DEMO OF THE MONTH
Romanesco by Desire A relatively no-frills effort caught our eye this month: a little 1KB Javascript demo that runs straight in your web browser. Presumably named for the fractally delicious Romanesco broccoli you’ll find in the posh aisle at Waitrose, Desire have created visually stunning Mandelbrot geometry that morphs into all sorts of beautiful shapes as you move your mouse around the screen. Accompanied by some seriously avant-garde bleep and blops, this is a fun way to kill your precious time. bit.ly/DesireRomanesco