I don't know how many people would care about this, but I've finally managed to hack Cheapo so that it is no longer restricted to MIDIs for music playback!

You can download the hacked version of wledit2 and wlem2, as well as various support files, here:

http://www.geocities.com/guestlevels/MCIChMus/MCIChMus_v1.0.zip

Included in the zip file is a readme, but installation is very simple, just unzip the contents into your Cheapo folder and you're done!  The hacked versions of the game and level editor are named wlem2x and wledit2x.

So that you can try them out, I included two styles for you to experiment with.

http://www.geocities.com/guestlevels/MCIChMus/AmigaCrystal.zip
http://www.geocities.com/guestlevels/MCIChMus/SNESCrystal.zip

Think of them as the CrystalLemmus style except with Amiga and SNES versions of the Lemmings/ONML music.  AmigaCrystal contains music from the Amiga version of Lemmings, ONML and Lemmings 2.  SNESCrystal contains music from the SNES version of Lemmings and Lemmings 2.

In case you want them for your own styles, you can go here to get the music I incorporated into those styles:

http://www.geocities.com/guestlevels/MCIChMus/lem1_lem2_SPCs.zip
http://www.geocities.com/guestlevels/MCIChMus/L2MEDs.zip

You can get the MODs for Amiga Lemmings and ONML from Mindless's portal.

You can get SPCs (SNES music rips) from many, many SNES games at http://www.snesmusic.org/v2/

Keep in mind that these new music formats will be quite a bit larger than MIDIs, so including them in your styles will increase the style's size, as you may notice when comparing the size of CrystalLemmus to AmigaCrystal and SNESCrystal.  And people without the hacked version of Cheapo will only hear silence when playing the non-MIDI music.  Remember that MIDIs still work in the hacked versions of the game and editor, and you can have a mix of all the supported music formats in a single style.

Oh yeah, btw, unlike MIDI playback, the non-MIDIs formats supported so far will playback with seamless looping.

Very awesome! 8-)

I've also MODs of Lemmings 2 : The Tribes.

Thank you very much, ccexplore!

Wow, Like Wow. :o

There are so many MODs I wanted to put in styles, and now it's possible.

I'm in awe!  :o

EDIT: And now the bandwidth has been exceeded, what luck. >:(

Er . . . Maybe I'm just a little slow, but what's the advantage to using MODs (a format I hadn't even heard of, btw) over MIDIs?

MOD's are the original music type used, MIDI's aren't. MIDI's are of much lower quality (Unless the MIDI maker is amazing/the MOD maker is dreadful :P) and are usually a remade version of the original music piece.

Kudos to you cc, I haven't got around to getting Cheapo yet, but you sure know your onions when it comes to this kind of thing!

Yes, MODs are better than MIDIs even if I like sequencing them. But maybe I'll switch to MODs sequencing soon! :D

Anyway... Amiga used MODs music and it's a very compatible file format for most of the computers (well, I think). Personnally, I prefer listening MODs music, but MIDIs are good too. They're both good.

It's not a matter of which is better, since both are supported.

The point is to expand the number of music formats supported, and hence, the number of music files available for someone to use for their styles.

For example, I pointed out how you can now use whatever you found on http://www.snesmusic.org/v2/

It's my contention that, even if you don't plan to do anything with MODs or SPCs or what-not, everyone should switch over to this enhanced version of Cheapo immediately.  MIDIs still work perfectly fine in the hacked version, so you lose nothing, but you might gain something when it comes time to play a level using a style that uses non-MIDI music. ;)

Wow, you sure have a selective memory when it comes to what your fellow forumers are doing. ;)

Don't you remember this thead: http://forum.lemmingswelt.de/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1127369568   ?

That should answer your question about what the MOD format is.

I could even support MP3s, except I think they tend to be far too large to be included in style files.

Oops, looks like you've exceeded your bandwidth.  I was able to grab MCIChMus_v1.0.zip before it went down, so it's here.

Oh, so that's what people meant about the bandwidth. :-[ Sorry about that.

If you have trouble getting the files, you can e-mail me.  Actually, I'll probably e-mail Mindless all the files so he can host them all.  It looks like Yahoo isn't a very good place to host my stuff.

This archive seems to be corrupt...  :-/

Wow, today's not my day.  :-/

I e-mailed Mindless a good copy of the file.  He now has all my other files available in the portal, so if Yahoo's whining about bandwidth again, you know where else to go.

ccexplore, are you also making the other Lemmings and Oh No More Lemmings styles with Amiga/SNES MODs?

You should add MP3 support anyway. People using it could always give players an option between MP3 styles and styles with regular midis.

when i tried compiling a style i had made using MODs in the Music: section, the cheapo editor program said the files could not be compressed  :o please help! thx in advance

O lookie, I'm taking an interest in this! ^_^

HappyFeet probably is trying to insert an s3m, xm, or it file.  I tried to, because theoretically it should be able to play those along with MOD, as they're all supported by BASS.DLL.  And when I included them, I got that.  Just included .mod, and it made the style, but here's where my problem crops up...

I open my style in Wledit2x, go to set the music, pick music #1, which was replaced, and attempt to play it.  I get the "cannot play this music" error.  But, I thought it might just be an editor problem, so I selected music 1 anyway and made a level, then went into the hacked version of the game.  The level music was silent-- nothing played.  I can confirm, the files I used were valid MODs.  The style in question simply takes the graphics from Orig-Fire.sty but adds MOD music.  And yes, I have most stuff except the GFX and Objects referenced to Default.sty.  If you want, I'll post the STT file.

[highlight]You need to use the hacked version of the editor.  In the download I think I named it wledit2x.exe.  Feel free to replace your unhacked wledit2.exe with the hacked version.

If that doesn't help, then make sure the MOD file is in the same folder as the STT file, I think that's where Cheapo would look for materials. [/highlight]

Of course I am using the hacked Editor. I can't replace the editor, the hacked version complains it can't find the original. Yes, the MOD files are in the same folder.

[highlight]HappyFeet probably is trying to insert an s3m, xm, or it file.[/highlight]

You must think I'm stupid. It's a MOD extension file.

*sigh* I think I've been misunderstood...  I didn't even think that the hacked versions supported s3m/xm/it, just MOD, SPC, and MED.  So I used MODs... and the compress problem came to me when I included XMs, S3Ms, and ITs in my style.  Once I took them out it worked....

But meh.  See for yourself on the mods I'm trying so far: http://www.ksoftgames.digibase.ca/files/attemptedmods.zip  These are the ones that refuse to play in the editor/game.

*sigh* No one thinks you're stupid... I think... but if that is the case, Pooh probably isn't helping the situation.  ;)

Edit: And actually, even if it has the MOD extension, it might really be another format -- many players will play files correctly even if the extension is wrong.

Bleh I dunno. I'm sure they're MODs as theyre ripped from Lemmings. They're on your file archive, Mindless. Winamp verifies to me that theyre not some other format. If I could use VGM, I would, but failing that, I'll go with these MODs...

Crap, not another person to fall to the corrupt file bug... something's really up with my server; many people who download ZIPs from it get corrupted files.  You using IE?  That's known to be a cause.  And the download works OK for me.

okay i somehow got the MODs to compress, but now the editor doesn't recognise them. so i go to put the music into the game, click Test, and it says it can not play specified blah blah blah!! i put my music in slots 22 thru 40 :( whats wrong now ? :'(

Well i wasnt trying to hide or anything lol.

anyway i tried to make a level with the music in place, i just hear the default midi stuff. then i switch all the slots to anything past 22, and it says cannot play blah blah blah. all my STYs currently reference a STY i sent you by PM ccexplore, which contains the music. well i sent you the STT, but i compiled it..... you get it

(note: back when i was jasonxv, i was rather rude. i apologise sincerely. this new nick wasnt meant to hide me. i just wanted a new nick. lol.)

thanks that helped! say ccexplore, will you ever get around to GYM? genesis lemmings sounds way better than snes lemmings :P have a listen for yourself ^_^ how about VGM? hehe just askin', not expectin'..

Aha, it was sort of a dumb mistake, but NOT an obvious one.

I remembered having BASS.DLL in my Windows/System folder for my game development, and Windows looks there before trying the one in the MusicSupport folder.  Turns out the one in Windows/System was a really, really old version (modified date said... 2000!?) and replacing it instantly fixed the problem! Yay!