"AM Radio CD" Gauge for Microsoft FS2000/FS98/CFS -- By R.L. Clark 05/15/2000
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
The accomanying "gauge" file, AM_Radio_CD.gau, simulates a four channel push button AM Radio for playback of music, recorded broadcasts and the like from your computer's CD drive for purposes of ambiance and general entertainment while flying FS2000/FS98/CFS aircraft. On-off, relative volume and and channel selection controls are included. The push buttons cycle through the different tracks or songs on your audio CDs. Songs are programmed to play as looping segments until the channel selection is changed or the radio is turned off.
I put in the audio CD and make sure it's not in autoplay before I start FS. For CFS and FS2000, you may need a no-CD "crack" file to get this to work. For an FS2000 "crack", you can try cdfix.zip available at at www.SurClaro . For CFS you can get a "crack" file at:
The radio is turned on and off by mouse clicking the center of the on-off control knob (marked with a white dot), on the left side of the radio. The on-off knob on the radio doubles as a volume control, as on a real radio. Mouse click to the right of the knob to raise the volume (the knob appears to turn clockwise), and click to the left of the knob to decrease the volume (the knob appears to turn counter-clockwise). Different songs are selected by mouse clicking on one of the four push buttons in the center of the radio, again as on a real radio.
PROBLEMS
Some users of my earlier radios have reported problems with FS crashing when a song is to be played. Virtually all of them were able to solve the problem by installing the lastest version of Mircrosoft's DirectX drivers (Version 7.0a) avilable for free down load at http://www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp . If you don't have them these drivers should probably be installed in any event for optimal graphics card performance and FS frame rates.
CREDIT
Credit and thanks go to Ian Luck (http://www.icl.ndirect.co.uk/music/) for his BASS DirectSound library files that enabled the audio gauge file programming for this project. Credit and thanks also go to Michael Vader and Roger Gaylor who helped conceptualize this project package.
DISCLAIMER & COPYRIGHT
The accompanying files should not harm your computer in any way but, if you believe they have, I accept no liability. The files are released as "freeware" and are not to be used re-distributed in exchange for any payment, fee or other value.
