Jukebox XI - A cartridge-based music player (runs software too) (Pictures!)

Hello, folks. I present to you, The Jukebox XI!
View on LBP.me
(P.S. Sorry for the thread-moving. I was a bit unsure of where to place this. It is now permanently in the Object Showcase, so your replies won't disappear)

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/1769/aphoto107.jpg
Inspired by sascha_winter's mePod and Serikos's Disk-Based Music System

It is a cartridge-based music player. That means that when you place the Jukebox XI and turn it on, it will ask for a Music Cartridge. You place a Music Cartridge next to the Jukebox XI and it will automatically snap into place and start playing. It supports both custom music tracks and tracks from the game itself. When a custom music track finishes, it will move on to the next track, somewhat like a CD. (You have to do a tiny modification to the music for this, but it is very simple and easy). You can skip to the next track or go back to a previous track by flipping the NOT gates beneath the chips with the icons on them, and stop the music by turning off the Toggle Switch beneath the On/Off icon. When you delete the cartridge, the Jukebox XI will detect this and ask for another cartridge. When you place another cartridge, it will start playing. The Jukebox XI will have a level a bit like the mePod's meTunes, in which you can collect multiple Music Cartridges. A Music Cartridge can hold up to 100 songs! (In theory. So many songs might lag the game.)
In other words, 100 songs per cartridge = an unlimited amount of songs! And the community can make their own cartridges and share them with others.

Feature List

• Create Mode Friendly - When you enter hover mode, the song will automatically replay instead of stop like it would normally do.
• Create Mode Friendly Controls - You can control the entire thing without ever leaving hover mode
• Play Mode Friendly Controls - You can also control it by grabbing the Jukebox XI itself - Grab once to turn it on or off, grab twice to skip to the next song. In Play Mode, the Instructions are hidden. Giving it a nice, clean look.
• Support for Auto-continue - It can automatically play the next track after a track finishes (This only works for custom music, at the moment.)
• Easy to use - You just place the Jukebox XI, then place a cartridge next to it, and it'll automatically snap into the right place and if the Jukebox XI is turned on, will automatically start playing.
• Low on thermometer
• Decoratable - When you first get the Jukebox XI, it looks very bare-bones. You can change it's material, put decorations on it, and sticker it to suit your own personal taste.
• Fancy Animations - Once you insert a cartridge, that cartridge will start fading in and out slowly to indicate that it is on. Creators can add their own eye-candy to the cartridges, and they can also disable the default fade-in fade-out effect.
• Cartridge-based - The music is not on the Jukebox XI itself, it is on cartridges. These cartridges can be made by the community and shared with others.
• Lots of information - When you turn the Jukebox XI on with a cartridge inserted, it will tell you the name of the cartridge and then display the artist and title of the song. When you navigate to another song, it will display the artist and title of that song. It does this using subtitles. You can use the name of the cartridge to display how many songs are in a cartridge and whether it supports Auto-Continue.
• Swapping cartridges without turning it off - If you turn on the Jukebox XI without a cartridge inserted, it will tell you it needs a cartridge. When a cartridge is playing and you remove it without turning the Jukebox XI off, the Jukebox XI will detect you want to swap cartridges, tell you to insert a new cartridge, and turns off the music automatically. When you then place a new cartridge, it will display the name of the cartridge and start playing, just like when you first inserted a cartridge.
• Extendable - People can make their own Jukebox XI Cartridge players. So when people start making Jukebox XI Cartridges and you want to join in on the fun, you can make your own player for the cartridges.
• Easy to add songs - Just follow the instructions inside the empty cartridge which is given to you in the Jukebox XI level.
• Support for Applications, Videos, and more. Even though the Jukebox XI was made to play music, you can put any kind of logic you want onto a Software Cartridge. You can make it play video's by emitting cutscenes, for example.

You can collect 4 Jukebox XI Cartridges in the Jukebox XI level:

• LittleBigPlanet 2 Story Mode Music (26 songs) - These are the songs from Story Mode in LittleBigPlanet 2. They are about 26 songs, though I know I might be missing some. Please tell me which songs i'm missing.
• LittleBigPlanet 1 Story Mode Music (23 songs) - Songs from LittleBigPlanet 1
• LittleBigPlanet 2 Cinematic Music (17 songs) - Cinematic Music from LittleBigPlanet 2. I have only included the ones that loop, so the stingers aren't inside, since they only play once.
• Jukebox XI Software Demo (5 tech demos)

In total, this is 66 songs right out of the box.

In addition, you will get these empty cartridges for starting out from:

• Empty Music Cartridge - A cartridge ready to fill with music of your choice
• Empty Software Cartridge - A cartridge ready to fill with software (chips) of your choice. The Jukebox XI can treat chips as tracks, and can therefore run software.

However, this thing can do more than play LBP2's built-in songs. You can build your own CD's in cartridge-form. Just put your custom music on a cartridge and there you go. Or you can build a collection of all your favourite songs from the community and put it on a cartridge.

Screenshots

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/1769/aphoto107.jpg
The Jukebox XI without a cartridge inserted. Notice the question mark chip at the top. It contains instructions on how to use your Jukebox XI.

http://img863.imageshack.us/img863/6092/aphoto109.jpg
The Jukebox XI with the LittleBigPlanet 2 Story Mode Music cartridge inserted (holds 26 songs)

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/1354/aphoto110.jpg
The Jukebox XI with the LittleBigPlanet 1 Story Mode Music cartridge inserted (holds 23 songs)

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/7286/aphoto111.jpg
The insides of a Jukebox XI cartridge

http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/8813/aphoto112.jpg
An empty Jukebox XI cartridge. Notice how simple it is to add new songs. The Instructions chip on the right of the Jukebox XI cartridge insides will tell you how to fill up your cartridge.

Not really sure why this has no replies... probably because it is so epic, almost too much to digest in one sitting.

When ever I look at all your logic sharing efforts I always think OK you've gone too far this time. That's just mental.

But then... well I start using the shared logic and ideas. So I'll have to check this out, although it does seem like you've gone too far this time! :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr_Fusion

Not really sure why this has no replies... probably because it is so epic, almost too much to digest in one sitting.

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That's because I moved the thread around the different forums too much and the replies got deleted in the process.. Woops :P

Quote:

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When ever I look at all your logic sharing efforts I always think OK you've gone too far this time. That's just mental.

But then... well I start using the shared logic and ideas. So I'll have to check this out, although it does seem like you've gone too far this time! :p

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Heh, thanks ^^

Once you have the Jukebox XI in your posession, can you share your experiences please? I mean can you then answer questions such as: Is it worth it to load a cartridge (which takes long to load) vs. loading normal music? is the Jukebox XI fast enough? is it easy to understand? would you use it daily or do you find it a gimmick? etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by robbit10

Once you have the Jukebox XI in your posession, can you share your experiences please? I mean can you then answer questions such as: Is it worth it to load a cartridge (which takes long to load) vs. loading normal music? is the Jukebox XI fast enough? is it easy to understand? would you use it daily or do you find it a gimmick? etc.

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Without being super mean, this doesn't seem like something I'd use while creating. I have my PS3 right next to my Mac and I don't even have iTunes on while creating!

I can't play music at the same time that I'm creating. So this has nothing to do with your efforts.

However, your efforts, once again; are phenomenal and have opened yet another avenue of creativity for the community. I think it'll take a little while but I am sure this will take off.

I didn't find the load times of selecting cartridges and putting it in a huge deal breaker, but it lagged up a little when I first placed the LBP2 cartridge so I got a litte worried about how it would perform in large stages. But it seems to behave OK and it's thermo use isn't too bad either.

The speed is fine and the ideas behind how to build and add extra things along with your tutorial stage make this super simple to use and implement. If I were to use it it would probably be re-purposed as a software trigger, as I always try to contain my logic in central locations.

This is the digest bit for me. As an example, I saw that you played my Object test stage for my DeLorean (I hope you liked it), The car is covered in logic to make it run, and do it's thing. Because of the amount of stuff going on I built most of it modularly and added a single chip that looks after game modes, basically a master over-ride for each circuit. There are several stages I am building around it and any changes to how it behaves goes into the game mode chip (with each level having its own MC) making it super easy to edit and tweak behaviours.

I can really see using this player idea in the future to help with how I like to do my logic, as I can build stages of Hill Valley for each time period, but use a single chip controller to tweak globally. That might sound a little confusing right now but after looking at your design... It makes sense to me... so if I do implement it I'll share my discoveries!

Wow,
The base looks clean and simple,
But I'm guessing the rest isn't. >.<

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maxi

Wow,
The base looks clean and simple,
But I'm guessing the rest isn't. >.<

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Guess again. Just take a look at the logic, you'll see it's quite simple. The logic is hidden in the chip with the ON/OFF sign. The rest of the logic, which serves to redirect Tag signals and make the cartridge snap to the right place, is hidden in the cartridge area (i shrunk it down until it was invisible)

In other news, a new version of the Jukebox XI is coming up. It has cleaner logic, support for Remote Control (You can control it with a Remote Control that can do these features: Previous Song, Next Song, Eject Catridge (deletes the cartridge remotely), ON/OFF). With the Eject feature, you can just eject a cartridge remotely and then place a new one in front of you, wherever you are in the level, and it'll fly towards the Jukebox XI and start playing. This remote is optional and is given away as a seperate object.

The Jukebox XI itself also has a new Volume Slider that lets you control the volume of the music by simply adjusting a counter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by robbit10

You can control it with a Remote Control that can do these features

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OK... Now you've gone too far :p

I have no idea how you come up with this stuff!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr_Fusion

OK... Now you've gone too far :p

I have no idea how you come up with this stuff!

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Heheh, thanks ^^

Version 1.1 has been released! It has a new volume slider that you can use to control the volume of the music, and a new Remote Control Panel that appears behind the Jukebox XI when you place it. Simply grab the tab that sticks out of the Jukebox XI and drag it away from the Jukebox XI to reveal it. Take it with you anywhere in the level, and you can control the Jukebox XI while being far away from it. You can even remotely delete a cartridge (Eject) so that you can place a new one. Once the cartridge has been Ejected, just place a new one wherever you are and it'll fly all across the level to the Jukebox XI and start playing.
If you intend to use it frequently, you can capture it so that you can place it wherever you're at, and instantly have a control panel at your fingertips. When you put the Remote Control Panel close to the Jukebox XI again, it'll slide back into place. If you delete it, don't worry. A new one will spawn behind the Jukebox XI.

(Pics coming up)

OM lordy!!!! I need to clean my keyboard now...