WinFellow Module Ripper ReadMe 0.11 (2000/12/18)
================================================

Since many users asked about it the old mod-ripper contained in  DOS  Fellow
has been ported into the new Fellow environment and has undergone some major
changes. This document is meant to  describe  Fellow's  mod-ripper  in  it's 
current form.


Credits
=======

Special thanks must go out to Laurent Clvy for his file format  section  on
Exotica (http://exotica.fix.no) and Sylvain "Asle" Chipaux for his Amiga Mod
Packers Described Page  (http://www.multimania.com/asle/ampd.html).  Without 
the information provided on their pages the mod-ripper  wouldn't  have  been 
possible in that form.
Another source of information was the xmp source code which  also  has  some
nice information about various module formats (http://xmp.helllabs.org).


Formats
=======

The following formats are currently supported; more  are  probably  to  come
later (we'll have to see the demand):

- ProTracker and clones (Protracker, Noisetracker, Startrekker 4/8 channel,
  ...)
- SoundFX 1.3 and 2.0
- SoundMon 1.0, 2.0 and 2.2
- FredEditor
- ProRunner 2.0
- ThePlayer 4

Note that while Protracker files play fine  in  many  music  replayers  like
Winamp this isn't the case for the other more exotic formats. When you  look
for a good module player capable of playing all kinds of Amiga  formats  try
DeliPlayer (http://www.deliplayer.com) which is a port of the good old Amiga
DeliTracker and plays really alot of formats.


How to invoke the mod-ripper?
=============================

The mod-ripper is a bit  hidden  in  Fellow's  integrated  debugger  on  the
"Sound" tab. When running it you're first prompted if you want to  scan  the
emulated Amiga's memory for modules. This is  the  recommended  way  to  rip
modules; start the game or demo you want to rip the music from and when  the
song you want to rip is actually playing you may halt the emulation and  run
the mod-ripper to gather the song out of the memory. The other possible  way
is to rip from  floppies;  the  module  ripper  detects  when  floppies  are 
inserted and prompts you for each one if you want to rip from  that  floppy;
this works ok with some games or demos that use custom trackloaders but will
usually result in damaged modules when used on formatted AmigaDOS  disks  so
that you have to be abit careful with modules ripped off a disk.


Naming conventions
==================

Whereas common module types like Protracker have  a  unique  ending  (*.mod)
this is not the case for many other formats. For these, the ripper uses  the
default extension .cus to indicate a format that  is  not  very  widespread;
these are the ones that won't play in most players so you'll need  either  a
capable Amiga module player or a converter to play these.


Dump Chipmem option
===================

In the debugger's sound tab you also find a button "Dump chipm.".  This  may
be used to save the contents of the whole chipmem into a file and so  allows
you to run other external module rippers over that.


Final note
==========

The mod-ripper is currently in a highly experimental state. So generally  be
careful with the resulting modules and if the mod-ripper gives you a  module
that is defective don't wonder about that. When this happens, send  Fellow's
logfile along with a description of what you tried to rip  from  (game/demo)
and the information the file save requester showed to  me  (carfesh@gmx.net)
so that I can possibly try to fix the problem.