GemGT2 is a Groumf Tracker module player for GEM. It works under MagiC and MiNT in whatever flavor of AES/desktop you might happen to choose. In my search for a decent media player for GEM, I do believe I found it. GemGT2 was created by SWE of YesCrew, and uses extremely highly optimized Groumf Tracker routines created by earx/FUN. The one thing I couldn’t help but to realize is that before playing an XM, S3M or whatever particular song you have interested in an in the full version of Groumf Tracker, it is quickly converted to native Groumf Tracker format. What this means is that every module you load up, will then save out in GT2 format. This means that in a short amount of time you can revamp your entire collection of tracked music and turn it into Groumf Tracker GT2 files. As a test of the multitasking ability I snapped this shot of GemGT2 while playing a highly complex and large GT2 file, then I converted size and converted from GEM XIMG to GIF. The machine never faltered, and didn’t even really feel slower at all. The multitasking ability of this player is exceptional and the authors should be commended.

One problem that I did notice however, under MagiC 6.1, is that while playing there seemed to be artifacts appearing on the screen. In a short while MagiC crashed altogether. After a reboot I noticed any DSP app crashed miserably. I turned the falcon off and then on again and it still did it. Finally I decided to leave the computer off for about 15 minutes, after which everything worked fine again. Could it have possibly overheated my non-overclocked DSP? Who knows.

Update: Later versions no longer work on my falcon. The author blames my falcon; I blame the author. We haven’t gotten very far ;)

Related Link: Dead Hackers Society.