        MIDAS Sound System v0.5 Release Candidate 1
        -------------------------------------------

A Sahara Surfers production.

Copyright 1996 Petteri Kangaslampi and Jarno Paananen
(a.k.a. Alfred & Guru / S2)

This file is part of the MIDAS Sound System, and may only be used,
modified and distributed under the terms of the MIDAS Sound System
license, LICENSE.TXT. By continuing to use, modify or distribute this
file you indicate that you have read the license and understand and
accept it fully.



1. Introduction
---------------

This archive contains MIDAS Sound System v0.5 Release Candidate 1. As
the name suggests, this version is now very close to the final MIDAS
v0.5.0 release. However, there have been many changes in the code since
M32PRE4, and we are reluctant to make a full release before getting
everything completely tested, and thus this Release Candidate -release.
If everything works as expected, MIDAS v0.5.0 should be released in a
week or so, with possibly exactly same core system code.

To be able to release MIDAS v0.5.0 as soon as possible, we need your
support: Please test this release as thoroughly as possible, and let us
know what works and what doesn't. Note that we don't just want bug
reports - we'd like you to let us know if MIDAS works flawlessly as
well. Before releasing MIDAS v0.5.0 we want to be confident that it
actually works, and for that we want it to be tested on as many
computers as possible.

The MIDAS distribution is now much better organized than before, and
there are more examples. However, none of the examples really show how
to do anything more complicated than play a module or a few effects,
and we are hoping to get some better examples written for the final
v0.5.0 release. Likewise, there is still very little documentation, but
make sure you read everything there is - in particular the file
"timer.txt" in the "doc"-directory is very important for DOS users.


2. New features
---------------

There are a number of new features and additions since pre-release #4,
a brief list follows:
        - Support for Windows NT/95 and Linux is now included
        - The mixer now supports 8- and 16-bit mono and stereo samples
        - Support for digital audio streams (not in DOS currently)
        - Several FastTracker 2 compatibility problems are fixed
        - Several crashes due to incorrect S3M files fixed
        - New timer code that should work under Win95 as well, make
          sure you read doc\timer.txt!
        - Support for GUS Plug and Play in native Interwave mode
        - DOS libraries are now compiled with Watcom C 10.6

For a longer list of changes, see "rcslog". Note, however, that it does
not contain all changes since pre4, as we haven't been using RCS for
very long.


3. What is supported?
---------------------

MIDAS now supports the following platforms and compilers:
        - 32-bit MS-DOS under DOS/4GW, with Watcom C/C++
        - Windows NT/95 with Watcom C/C++
        - Windows NT/95 with Visual C/C++
        - Linux with GNU C/C++


4. Using MIDAS
--------------

Basic MIDAS usage is not very difficult - check out the examples in the
"samples" directory. Everything should compile and work as is, but some
files (such as makefiles) might require a bit tweaking on some systems.

MIDAS can be used freely for free programs, read LICENSE.TXT for more
information. Commercial licenses are also available, contact us for
more details. However, keep in mind that _MUST_ include proper credits
in your program - after all, you get all this for free.


5. Contact Information
----------------------

Comments? Bug reports? Want to send us money? Contact us! E-mail is
naturally preferred, you MIGHT get an answer to a letter as well, but
probably not. If you are serious about developing software and do not
have Internet access yet, do yourself a favour and get it...

Note! Jarno is doing his military service, so try to contact me
(Petteri) if you want a response in a reasonable time...


E-Mail:
        Petteri:        pekangas@sci.fi (preferred)
                        petteri.kangaslampi@research.nokia.com
                        k153997@cs.tut.fi (slow)

        Jarno:          jpaana@iki.fi
                        p153737@cs.tut.fi (slow)

Snail:
        Petteri:        Petteri Kangaslampi
                        Insinoorinkatu 60 A 49
                        FIN-33720 Tampere
                        Finland
                        Europe

        Jarno:          Jarno Paananen
                        Insinoorinkatu 60 A 31
                        FIN-33720 Tampere
                        Finland
                        Europe

Telephone:
        Petteri:        +358-31-3172204
                        Note! This number is changing to +358-3-3172204
                        on 12 October 1996 at 00:00 hours (11 October
                        1996 at 21:00 UTC).

The latest version is always available at our WWW site:
"http://kalahari.ton.tut.fi/s2/midas.html". You can also find all MIDP
versions there plus all latest MIDAS related news.

-- Petteri