Need timidity on linux

myke on 2009/09/08 20:07 of Pratfall!

if you're trying to play Pratfall! on linux and having weird crashes and no music, make sure you have timidity installed.  the game uses midi files for music and although it's not super clear from the pygame docs this requires timidity to be installed on your system.  apparently it doesn't just fail gracefully if timidity isn't present.  windows doesn't need anything else since windows comes with a softsynth in the base operating system.

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Comments

cyhawk on 2009/09/08 21:48:

The README does not state if the graphics and music are own art or "found" somewhere else. Could you clear that?

myke on 2009/09/10 23:47:

Sorry, I was in a rush when I did the README.  All art is by jimbobpetemoss.  I was originally going to have some "programmer art" as a joke, if you poke around you'll find a slightly modified "pitfall" screenshot but it didn't make it into the final game.  The song during the game is "Lazy Bird", by John Coltrane, which has its own wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazy_Bird

Credits for sequencing are in the midi itself, one way to see them is to play the song with timidity.  Sorry don't know offhand which windows midi programs will show them to you.  It's one of about a gazillion midis of classic jazz and big-band compositions scattered around the internet.  The opening song is of course the theme from Pitfall 2.

cyhawk on 2009/09/11 18:24:

So under what license are you using Lazy Bird and the Pitfall 2 theme?

myke on 2009/09/12 06:01:

Let's start with the Pitfall 2 theme.  Like most MIDI files this sequence was created without first obtaining a license from the original copyright holder.  The file itself contains this information:

Sequence: Theme from Pitfall 2
Sequence: For the Atari 2600
Copyright: Copyright � 1983 Activision
Text: Who knows
Text: Sequenced by John N. Engelmann.

The name of my game (Pratfall!) and the title screen are a parody of the Pitfall! game itself.  For those not familiar with the original, here's a scan of the game box cover art:

http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1049429061-00.jpg

Here's the title screen of Pratfall! :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/10/lancaster-surveillance-cameras

I am using the Pitfall! theme and claiming Fair Use rights (in my country of residence, the United States of America).  This page discusses fair use in the context of a parody:

http://www.publaw.com/parody.html

Whether or not my use of the Pitfall! theme constitutes fair use has not been decided in a court of law.  I am not a lawyer and am not able to provide a legal opinion on this.  However, please see the end of this post regarding your rights if you do not agree.

Moving on.  "Lazy Bird", as I posted before, is a famous song by the late John Coltrane.  The information in this MIDI file (again, itself illegally sequenced without obtaining rights from the current rightsholder of the composition/songwriting rights):

Text: by John Coltrane. Arr. unknown Mod. Alisdair MacRae Birch akmbirch@aol.com
http://www.notz.com

The MIDI file (along with many others) can be found on this page:

http://www.notz.com/jazz_midi.htm

The page has no licensing information, but contains the following blurb:

These files are for your amusement and education so please do not sell, hire them out or use them to produce music to be sold. Click on Midi to play or download depending on how your browser is configured. Please respect the author and arranger data buried in the file. unauthorised public performance, broadcasting and copying of these files is prohibited.

You could argue that the last sentence prohibits my use of this MIDI file in my game, but then again the producer of this MIDI file (Alisdair MacRae Birch) created the sequence without gaining the rights, and is distributing the unauthorized work publically on this web site.  I have not tampered with the text embedded in the MIDI file, you can verify that the file in the game is the same file as on this web page.  Furthermore since the page is still up the original rightsholder doesn't seem to be concerned about these sequences, weakly implying that they're allowed to be used.

Furthermore I've decided to alter/amend the license of my game.  You may only download the game files, examine the game files, execute the game code, view the contents of the game files, or render the music contained in the MIDI files if you agree that these songs are allowed under the rules of the pyweek contest.  If you do not agree, you must immediately delete the entire Pratfall! game and all associated content.  Furthermore, if you do not agree you may NOT rate Pratfall! in any way, including voting for or recommending disqualification of the game.  Disqualifying Pratfall! because you believe the game uses these MIDI files without proper authorization means you have broken this new amended license, and I'll tell my lawyer/boss and get you in trouble, as soon as he comes back from his epic drunk fishing trip somewhere in Cabo San Lucas.

To pre-empt replies along the lines of "you're just a leeching scum using other people's work, if you were a real artist you'd feel differently..." - I am in fact a professional musician, in that I've been paid for both live and recorded musical performances.  The band I founded was called "Filet of Feedback" and it ended right around the time Timmy Lee made his very first web page.  In particular take a look at this page from the Google cache:

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:Zfobwn9_NBcJ:www.subterranean.org/bigcat/bigcat07.html+%22filet+of+feedback%22&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Specifically this entry:

FILET OF FEEDBACK
"Live!"
SSS 44-4 cassette $6.45
Two live performances and one studio track (90 minutes total) from Pittsburgh's big time noise-makers (featured on the "Subterfuge" compilation). (SSS)

SSS is the record label of one Manny Theiner, infamous Pittsburgh scene master (SSS itself is a take-off on famous noize record label RRRecords, http://www.rrrecords.com/, which may at one time have stocked my 7").  What's the point of the entry above?  I found out about the existence of that recording by googling "filet of feedback".  I've never seen the cassette itself or heard what's on it.  I assume Manny glued together some of the copious source material he'd been given over the years (never let it be said noizesters aren't prolific in their recordings).  That's right, Manny made up a Filet of Feedback album, never told me or any of the other band members about it, and collected 100% of the profits.  For all I know they're not even Filet of Feedback recordings at all.

Finally, I am really bummed about this whole situation.  In a previous pyweek entry I licensed the entire game under a CC license, which started a discussion about how CC wasn't appropriate for code because of some technical reason prohibiting any changes to the code if it were to be reused.  Notably there was no discussion whatsoever of the game itself, only my choice of license.  Now again, there's no discussion of Pratfall!, only legalistic minutiae about the licenses and authorized use of two songs, one a jazz classic well-known enough to have its own wikipedia entry, and the other a 19-second clip from a video game older than most pyweek participants.  If I do get DQs because of this (accompanied no doubt by snotty self-righteous "should have followed the rules" commentary) this may well be my last pyweek, and I'll look for a community that's more interested in having fun than playing armchair intellectual property lawyer.
 

myke on 2009/09/12 06:05:

Should have proofread better!  I messed up a URL, this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/10/lancaster-surveillance-cameras

has nothing to do with anything, it was supposed to be:

http://alcazar.omgcats.com/dump/pratfall-titlescreen.png

adam on 2009/09/12 08:32:

Dude, I'm pretty sure that if you want to refocus discussion onto the content of your game rather than "legalistic minutiea about licenses", I'm pretty sure that making bizarre legal threats against anyone who votes to DQ your game is not the way to do it.

cyhawk on 2009/09/12 15:33:

Rant for rant!

I don't like the copyright system. And this is why it is important to avoid violating copyrights. By writing free software and contributing to other free projects, like Wikipedia, we are building a world where you can build on the work of others and the benefits are shared by everyone. And it is all jeopardized if someone introduces copyright violating material. If someone downloads Wikipedia and distributes it on DVDs in Africa, they can face legal charges if someone's carelessly uploaded copyright violating material ended up on the DVD. If I take a GPLed PyWeek entry and build on it, I may be one day asked to stop distributing my work, if the original entry contained a small copyright violating piece. By uploading copyright violating material to PyWeek you are exposing Richard to legal attacks. Everyone who used the PyWeek 9 torrent distributed copyright violating material because of you. A single MIDI file of a song everyone know (which is entirely irrelevant) is not much you say, but what if their ISP automatically checks torrent contents and cancels their internet access because of this? (I don't suppose this happens today, but give it a few years and it will!)

If you are just downloading music or movies from the internet, you are not jeopardizing other people's work (publishers may claim otherwise of course :)), but when you build something new that you publish, it should have a clear licensing status so that you do not cause problems for those who touch your work.

On a completely different note it is unfair to other contestants. I made a game with Icarus and thought it would be hilarious to play "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles before a boss fight against the Sun. I did not do this for the above reasons and because it is in the contest rules and because it would have been unfair to other contestants.

You are not the only one using copyright violating music, and I hope all will reconsider next time. Making music for your game is good fun, shows off your skill in one rarely presented aspect of game making, lends a more personal atmosphere to your game and increases your production scores. Especially if you are a musician you should have done so.