Platforms
As a powerful and novel concept for entertainment software, MCS was lucrative for Harvey and Electronic Arts. As such, Electronic Arts quickly had it ported to other popular platforms of the era, including the PC and the Commodore 64. In 1986 it was ported to the Apple II where it made use of its advanced built-in Ensoniq wavetable synthesizer. The version of MCS for the Atari ST was not a port and shared no source code with the original versions. The Atari ST version was developed by Richard J. Plom for Intersect Software Corporation under the name "The Orchestrator", it was purchased from Intersect Software by Electronic Arts and renamed "Music Construction Set" in 1987.
The program was completely redesigned for the Amiga, but under the name Deluxe Music Construction Set. It was given the more glorified name because of the advanced music and sound producing capabilities of the computer. This version had more features and better graphics than the other versions of the program. This version also allowed users to type in lyrics for their compositions, though these were strictly for the user (the program didn't attempt to "sing" the lyrics, a feat which the Amiga computer is capable of with the speech synthesis software the computer came with).
A port was written for the Apple II by Randel B. Reiss; it was never released, but its music engine was used for producing the soundtrack for the Apple II game titles Zany Golf and The Immortal, which to date is the only existing audio sample of the software for the Apple II.
The title screens of all the versions included the prefix "Will Harvey's" (i.e. Will Harvey's Music Construction Set), but Harvey had little to do with any version but the original and the follow-up Apple II release.
Read more about this topic: Music Construction Set
Famous quotes containing the word platforms:
“The personal things should be left out of platforms at conventions .... You can argue yourself blue in the face, and you’re not going to change each other’s minds. It’s a waste of your time and my time.”
—Barbara Bush (b. 1925)
“I would rather be known as an advocate of equal suffrage than to speak every night on the best-paying platforms in the United States and ignore it.”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)