Guess that Song
How many notes do you bid?
by KARL E. WIEGERSA musical quiz show emceed by your Atari. How many notes do you bid to Guess That Song? This BASIC program runs on all Atari computers of any memory size, with disk or cassette.
Now, in the privacy of your own home, you
can experience the thrills and suspense of being a contestant on one of
the classic television quiz shows. Just type in Listing 1, check it with
TYPO II, SAVE a copy and get ready to play Guess That Song against your
friends!
With this program, your Atari can perform the first ten
notes of 40 songs-rock, classical, TV/movie themes, and general.
After entering the names of the contestants, each opponent
bids to see who thinks they can identify the song from the fewest number
of notes.
The bidding starts at 10 notes and ends when someone presses
[P] to pass. Players alternate bidding and each bid must be lower than
the previous one.
The computer will play the number of notes bid. You can
press [R] for a repeat playing of the notes (don't press [RETURN]).
BIG CHANCE
Here's your big chance! Now is the time to guess the mystery song.
When you think you have it, press [A] to see the correct answer. Then you
must tell the computer if you identified the song correctly. Press [Y]
if you got it right, or [N] if not. Use your judgement to determine how
accurately a song's title must be stated to be considered correct.
If you won the bid and guessed the song correctly, your
score will increase by 11-minus the number of notes in the bid.
For example, a song successfully identified from four
notes gives that player seven points. The fewer the notes, the more points
awarded for a correct identification.
However, if the guessing player misses the song, then
the score decreases by the number of notes in the bid. When prompted, press
any key to go on to another song. The player who passed on the previous
song gets the first chance to bid on the next one. Fifty points wins the
game.
Correctly guessed songs won't reappear in the current
game. A missed tune might pop up again later, though.
ADDING SONGS
You can replace any of the tunes in "Guess That Song!" with your own
selections. You must construct a DATA to replace one already in the program,
using the same line number. Lines 4000-4090 are the rock songs, 4 100-
4190 are classical, 4200-4290 are theme songs, and general songs live from
4300-4390.
The DATA statement for each song has five factors. First
is the relative tempo (speed) at which the song is played. Smaller tempo
numbers play faster.
Second factor is separation of the notes in the song.
Increasing this number gives a more staccato character to the tune, as
well as slowing it slightly. Third comes a string of 10 funny looking characters-which
will be explained later.
Fourth is a string of 10 letters, which represent the
relative duration that each note is to be played. For example, if the letter
A represents an eighth note, then B represents a quarter note, D is a half
note, and H a whole note. Finally, the title of the song completes the
DATA statement.
Write down the notes in the song and their relative durations.
Check Table 1 and look up the keystrokes corresponding to that note.
The pitch values for the SOUND command are also shown. The ten-character
string in the third position of each DATA statement is the sequence of
keystrokes you found in the table for the first 10 notes of your song.
TRYING NEW TUNES
To try out your new tune, replace one of the DATA statements in Guess
That Song with the entries for your song. It will take some experimenting
to get the song to sound right, so let's use a quick way to test the new
selection. Add this line to the Guess That Song program:
2255 GRAPHICS 0: LN=????: LIST LN: PRINT "GOTO 2255"
Replace the ???? with the line number you are using for
your new song. Now type RUN, then press [SYSTEM RESET] without entering
player names. Now type GOTO 2255.
The screen will clear, your new DATA line will be listed
on the screen along with a GOTO 2255 line, and you'll hear the song. Disregard
the error message which appears. To change any part of your DATA statement,
edit the line shown using the cursor keys, and press [RETURN] twice.
Repeat this procedure for all your new songs until they
are just right. Then, type 2255 and press [RETURN] to delete line 2255,
and SAVE the modified program. SAVE it with a different filename than used
for the original Guess That Song so you can keep both versions.
SAMPLE SONG
As an example, let's do "Red River Valley" in the key of E The notes
are: C F A A A A G A G F. Table 1 tells us to type, in inverse Video:
s 6 [CTRL] P [CTRL] P [CTRL] P [CTRL] P "[CTRL] P " 6. The complete data
statement might look like this:
PROGRAM TAKE-APART
50-80 Initializations
110-150 Call subroutines for main parts of program
160-220 Decide whether to continue, play again,
or quit
800-820 Subroutine to make error sound
900 Subroutine to get
a keypress
1000-1150 Subroutine to get player names
1500-1540 Subroutine to show players and scores, select next
song, show category
2000-2120 Subroutine for bidding on number of notes
2200-2260 Play specified number of notes of current song
2270-2310 Let user play again or see the answer
2500-2550 Play the song
2800-2840 Let user indicate whether guess was correct
2850-2890 If correct: increase score, play all ten notes,
set flag so song isn't played again this game
2900-2910 If wrong, decrease score
3000-3010 Get keypress and go on with game
3100 Subroutine to make sound
when score goes up
3500-3680 Judge if there is a winner, play tune if yes
4000-4090 Data for rock songs
4100-4190 Data for classical songs
4200-4290 Data for theme songs
4300-4390 Data for general songs
5000 Data for song played when
someone wins
Table 1
Pitch values and Keystrokes for Notes. ([INV] stands for Inverse Video
key.)
| Note | Value | Keystroke |
| C | 243 | [INV]s |
| C#/Db | 230 | [INV]f |
| D | 217 | [INV]Y |
| D#/Eb | 204 | [INV]L |
| E | 193 | [INV]A |
| F | 182 | [INV]6 |
| F#/Gb | 173 | [INV]- |
| G | 162 | [INV]" |
| G#/Ab | 153 | [INV][CTRL]Y |
| A | 144 | [INV][CTRL]P |
| A#/Bb | 136 | [INV][CTRL]H |
| B | 128 | [INV][CTRL], |
| C | 121 | Y |
| C#/Db | 114 | r |
| D | 108 | l |
| D#/Eb | 102 | f |
| E | 96 | [CTRL]. |
| F | 91 | [ |
| F#/Gb | 85 | U |
| G | 81 | Q |
| G#/Ab | 76 | L |
| A | 72 | H |
| A#/Bb | 68 | D |
| B | 64 | @ |
| C | 60 | < |
| C#/Db | 57 | 9 |
| D | 53 | 5 |
| D#/Eb | 50 | 2 |
| E | 47 | / |
| F | 45 | - |
| F#/Gb | 42 | * |
| G | 40 | ( |
| G#/Ab | 37 | % |
| A | 35 | # |
| A#/Bb | 33 | ! |
| B | 31 | [ESC][CTRL]* |
| C | 29 | [ESC][CTRL]= |
Listing 1 GUESSIT.BAS Download