/-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=\ | Brainstar 2: HardCore Software | \-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=/ BRAINSTAR 2: Beta version! Note: Your program may be released as V1.6, V1.7, V1.75(rare) or V1.8 This just depends on the release date. Simply treat it as a Beta version to BRAINSTAR 2, and check our website for a newer version. Thank you for downloading Brainstar 2, by HardCore Software. This short document is meant to be a guide on how to work the software that it comes with, not as a definitive guide on light and sound devices, nor as a mind machine reference. The Brainstar 2 program is a signifigantly better program then the Brainstar 1. It is well worth your time to upgrade to this superior version. Some Improvements: BRAIN2.DOC ---> Updated documentation. Win95 Users ---> Windows 95 users, we finally have a specially made Brainstar just for you. Just use option 5 in Brainstars main menu. Permanent Settings ---> Remember all the hassle it was to reset all of your settings every single time you booted Brainstar? Well no longer! No it will save the settings in the option menu, and even your last used pattern and session if you want it to. Sound Blaster Sound ---> Now Brainstar is an actual Light AND Sound machine! You can now program random noises into a pattern or make your own detailed music to go along with your favorite patterns! Smaller Increments ---> While you are pressing + and - to control the hertz in action mode, you can hold down shift to get greater accuracy. Grahed Sessions ---> Now you can create your own visual sessions! Option 2 in the Sessions menu. Introduction ---> A groovy introduction. Several bug fixes ---> Occasionally the old version would crash because of errors in the code. These errors have been corrected. Efficient on memory ---> Now Brainstar doesn't use up more memory than it needs to. Screen Saver ---> Now your monitor doesn't have to go to waste when you are using Brainstar for long periods of time. You can set whether you want this on or not, and how long it takes for the screen saver to trigger. Peak Warning ---> Sometimes your computer will not be able to keep up with Brainstar, and consequently your reported hertz may not actually be what's happening. Now Brainstar will warn you about when it peaks out by displaying a "PEAK" signal. This should only really be a problem on slow computers at high frequencies (20+ hz). More Sessions and Patterns ---> Several more tested patterns and sessions by HardCore Software. And More! ---> Keep reading for details... The files that should have come with this package are: BRAINSTR.EXE ---> The executable Brainstar 2 program BRAINSTR.BAS ---> The source code for Brainstar 2 BRAINRUN.BAS ---> The source code for Brainrun BRAINSTR.DOC ---> The document you're reading now BRAINSTR.INI ---> Brainstar initialization file BRAINSTR.GIF ---> An Impressive .GIF file for you to admire BRAINSTR.ICO ---> Brainstar icon BRAINSTR.PIF ---> Brainstar .PIF file BRAINRUN.EXE ---> Windows 95 shortcut executable SCORE.TXT ---> Find out how Brainstar scores! Several .PIC files are included for aesthetic quality. 1..........Necessary Hardware You will need a computer (duh.) with preferably at least a 386 processor, 4 mb RAM, a colour monitor, a keyboard, and a brain-wave-machine. The latter is the most important item. For instructions on how to build one yourself very inexpensively, check out CYB0RG/ASM's excellent documents at: http://www.hackcanada.com Check out the Wetware Hacking section, and if you have time, read some of his other text files, they're quite good. 2..........Configuring your software After you have your brain-wave-machine built, you'll probably want to jump right into the fascinating world of wetware exploration, but you should first take a moment to configure Brainstar. First, run BRAINSTR.EXE. It will give you a start up screen. Just wait a second and admire the introduction. Then push '4' to enter the options menu. If your parallel port address is anything other than 888 (in decimal), you should press '1', then type in your port address (in decimal), and press enter. (If you aren't sure, just leave it at 888). If you want to use Sound Blaster sound in accompaniment with your Brain Wave goggles, simply press 2 at the options menu unless it is already ON. Then the next pattern you load up will have random noises that play a certain beat/song. Since these are generated randomly and are generally not to pleasant to listen to, you might want to make your own noises to go along with the premade/your own patterns. More on this later. Note: The Sound Blaster throws off the timing of the Brainstar a little bit on slower processors. You will be warned by the PEAK signal wether or not this is happening. We're working on fixing this. In the mean time, we recommend you use the included .EXE program instead of running the source code, as it will be a bit more accurate. Normal and Reverse mode are in place because I've actually tested Brainstar on a few computers and surprisingly enough, on my NEC laptop the parallel port works in reverse of what most PC's do. If I send '255' it turns on all the LED's instead of turning them off! For most computers, however, normal mode should work fine. Just press 3 in the options menu to toggle between the two. If you have a lot of time on your hands, or you like looking at our pretty graphics, leave the introduction on. If you're like me and you like your software to be instantly up and running, you can turn the introduction off. Just press 4 from the options menu to toggle between on and off. You can press 5 in the options menu if you want a screen saver on Brainstar. If, for instance, you were planning to sleep with a brain wave machine on, you probably should either unplug your monitor or use this screen saver option. Select 0 if you want it off, otherwise type in the number of seconds for the program to wait before initializing the screen saver. When you change the directory of your files, Brainstar will then look for the BRAINSTR.INI file and the .PIC files in the new directory. Note: If you run Brainstar from a foreign directory, the fancy error handling will save the day for you. Even if you don't know the path of Brainstar! (Hey shut up. YOU try programming it. :) ) After you've got your settings just the way you like them, you should probably push 8 from the options menu and save them into BRAINSTR.INI so that you won't have to set them again next time you enter Brainstar. Brainstar will even save your last accessed Session and Pattern files/settings for you! If you find you are constantly changing your settings, simply press 6 to make Brainstar save its settings every time you exit. This will also save the last pattern and session you accessed. 3.................Setting patterns Patterns are simply which LED's flash when, and in what order. You can choose from one of the several preset patterns, or make your own. Press '2' from the main menu to get into the pattern menu. To choose a preset pattern, just press the button of the pattern you want, and go back to the main menu. To create a pattern of your own, simply press '1'. It will ask you how many frames you want. Frames work in order. The computer displays Frame 1, then 2, and so on, until it gets to the last one, and then it repeats. Ie: Flip Flop has 2 frames: Frame 1: * * 0 0 0 0 * * Frame 2: 0 0 * * * * 0 0 After you enter your amount of frames, you can use the +/- keys to change between frames, and the number keys 1 through 8 to activate and deactivate LEDs in the current frame. At any frame, you may wish to have brainstar play a noise. Once you are at the desired frame, press 's' and then a number between 1 and 20, and then enter. The number you choose will determine the sound it plays. We don't have a guide on this, the key is experimentation. Press 'x' to go back to the pattern menu. Press 5 to return to the main menu, and then 3 to use your pattern, but we'll get into that later. You can also edit your pattern which works in a similar fashion. Saving/Loading your patterns: From the pattern menu, you can either select Save or Load pattern. After you have created/edited a pattern, simply select Save, then type in a filename, complete with path and extension. Example: c:\cooljunk\brainstr\flasher.pat You pattern will be saved onto disk. To load the pattern again, simply select Load pattern, and type the exact same thing. Your pattern will be loaded into memory. 4.................Setting Sessions Sessions are a pre scripted way to configure your viewing time so that for different periods of time you can have different hertz coming at you. To get to the sessions menu, press '1' from the main menu. You can choose one of the pre-selected sessions, or you can make your own. Just follow the instructions on the screen. It is very similar to making patterns. You can also save and load sessions exactly like patterns. Now, with Brainstar 2, you can use the option to create graphed sessions. Press 2 in the sessions menu. From there you can use the arrow keys to increase the hertz and time on the graphs. Up/Down control the hertz and Left/Right control the time elapsed. Press 'e' to set the end point of the session. 'x' will end the editing session so you can use the session or save it. The +/- keys change the step of the graphs, so you can make it jump up to 10 minutes with 1 key press. The graphing feature was not easy to pull off, so consider yourself lucky! After a session has been loaded, created, edited, etc., you exit the sessions menu, and press 3 at the main menu. The session will immediatly start, and will stop and inform you when the session is over. 5..................Action After you have set a pattern and (optional) a session, press '3' at the main menu, and your brain-wave-machine will immediatly start flashing. If you have created a session, your frequencies and time will have already been set up for you. If you haven't, simply use the + and - arrow keys to increase the speed that the LEDs flash at. Holding down shift while pressing the + and - keys will decrease or increase the hertz in smaller increments. The minutes and seconds elapsed are displayed. You can also use the up and down arrow keys to select which speed you want to use. All of them are adjustable, so you can switch between your own settings easily. If you are finding that Brainstar is giving you 'PEAK' warnings, this means that Brainstar wants more from your computer than your processor can handle. Either slow down the frequency, stop using sound, upgrade your computer, or use the .EXE instead of running from QB. 6..................Tips -You can also press 'x' at any menu to get to the previous menu (and exit from the main menu). -If you hold down the one of the shift keys while pressing the + and - buttons, the hertz will decrease or increase in smaller increments. 7..................Contacting us HTML: Come visit our website at www.hardcoresoftware.8m.com or www.bearcountry.cjb.net ! We have lots of great, freeware downloads available, and more to come. Don't forget to sign up for our mailing list! IRC: Come visit us on #hardcoresoftware on DALnet. Our bots are there 24 hours a day. You can access our File servers there, and download unreleased projects intended for HardCore Software developers, and get the news and information from here that won't be released anywhere else for days. E-Mail: You can E-Mail the authors of Brainstar with any questions/comments at: fractal@programmer.net or tenelien@hotmail.com -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- \/\/\=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-\/\/\/ /\/\/ Brainstar 2: HardCore Software /\/\/\ \/\/\=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-\/\/\/ -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- / The wave of the future... \ \<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>/