Hello folks,

With the recent HVSC Update #32 involving the conversion of HVSC
to the PSIDv2NG file format, this was the first stage of eventually
making HVSC more C64-compliant than ever before.

The forthcoming HVSC Update #33, due to be released around 
mid-to-late October, will further progress the C64 compliance by
for the first time allowing real C64 sample tunes to be played
without the need to hack into them and do PlaySID sample
conversion.

You will have to use a Sidplay2-based SID emulator (such as
Sidplay2/Windows) to play them correctly, however, as playing any of
these SIDs on PlaySID or any Sidplay1-based emulator will most likely
cause them to crash.   Do not fear though, there will be the _PSID
file equivalents for those users, which are already in HVSC, and we do
not plan to phase those out for the foreseeable future.  Please see
sections 7 through 10 of the HVSC FAQ for further information.

The downside though is that admittedly some of the real C64 rips will
mean that, for example, the tools people sometimes use to check rips,
generate playtimes etc may not work correctly anymore, and therefore
this is an advance warning to those tool writers to ensure that they
have adequate time to work together to update those tools.

We make no apologies however for pushing to make HVSC more
C64-compliant.  We are sure you agree that being able to play _all_
the SIDs on the host machine should be the ultimate aim if possible -
it is a tribute indeed to almost all of us having our roots firmly
embedded in the C64.

One final word to the rippers out there: if at all possible,
please prioritise your ripping work so that you help us add
more real C64 rips into HVSC, as well as fix those tunes in
the Sidplay2 Bugged SIDs list and those in the HVSC
BUGlist.txt file.  This would be most appreciated not just
by us, but by many SID fans too. A current list of those
real C64 versions already ripped can be found here:

 http://www.hvsc.c64.org/News/realc64.html

Also, you may be interested to know that a new version
of Sidplay2/Windows was released yesterday, which allows
for full support of PSIDv2NG.  Please consult the following
page for more information:

 http://www.d.kth.se/~d93-alo/c64/spw/ 

Kind regards
The HVSC Team.