What You Will Need:
P75 Or better CPU and Board (I have had some success on slower systems... I will test them and post the results)
Something to case it.
RAM... 16MEGS should be good (for a ramdisk) , although 4 or 8 *should* work (without ramdisk)
A true sound blaster sound card. Cheapo clones won't work.
A decent sized HD for storing the MP3s
An LCD or VFD module with a HD44780 controller chip
A temporary video card (for testing purposes)
Some electronics knowledge and soldering skills (not much needed)
Some cabling
A Power Inverter (12V DC to 120V AC converter)
Keypad for input
My software and XTC-PLAY
Time :-)
Patience

Complete instructions coming soon....

Software
Download the entire package here(590k)
It is here free of charge, although compensation would be greatly appreciated :-)

Heres a short explanation of how it all works: First of all, you'll have to install your soundblaster drivers. The autoexec and config.sys is set to create a 14meg ramdisk. it is set to D:\
some of the program files are copied to the ramdisk, so that HD use is minimal.
the line in the autoexec reading "xtc-play /e C:\mp3\thx.mp3" plays a mp3 for me to
let me know when it is done booting up. "11235.bat" is the standard frontend that i use
The autoexec redefines "*" on the keypad as "p" (pause) and "/" on the keypad as [esc] (escape key) which is used as a stop and clear (in the frontend). "112358.bat" is the ramdisk player. There is a slight delay before when you hit enter and when the song starts playing, since it copies the entire mp3 to the ramdisk. Using 112358.bat
allows me to turn off the system at anytime without a chance of it damaging the HD, since it will
not be accessed at all. All files in the zip go in the root directory (C:\). All mp3s go in the C:\mp3\ directory. mp3.lst is the proprietary playlist that my player uses. I have included my mp3.lst so that you can use it as a reference to make your own. The first 3 charachters of each line is the 3 digit number that the song corresponds to. Then comes one space. Then The short filename. Then one space. Then the long filename or ID3 tag. The third column is what is displayed on the LCD. The last character of the mp3.lst file must be a "$". This lets the forntend do errorchecking, in case you give it an invalid #.
The instructions for making your mp3.lst can be found here.
The frontend will display "Song #: " when you run it (either the standard or ramdisk). You can see what you type. Enter any invalid number, and it will quit out (the .bat file keeps it in a loop so it will enter back into the program). if you make an error, just hit "/" which is equivalent to [esc](assuming you use my autoexec and config.sys). ".9" is the exit code. It will exit the frontend and quit out of the loop the
.bat file is in.

The frontend is designed for a 16character x 2line LCD display with the port address set to 0x378 on your computer. Changing the code to accomidate for a larger display should not be too much of a problem Just before the frontend launches the player to play the mp3, it outputs to the lcd the info in the third column of mp3.lst to the corresponding 3 digit number you have selected.
additional controls are:

right arrow key = fast forward
left arrow key = rewind
+ = increase volume
- = decrease volume
Home(with numlock off) = goto beginning of song
End(with numlock off) = goto end of song
* = pause
/ = stop
[enter] = stop

Now, about the source code:
The source code is also availablefree of charge. If anyone wants source code for the frontend, email me. Tell me what you are planning to do, and I will most likely send it to you.

What I ask of people reading this page:
If you know C fairly well, there are a few things I would like to add to the player:

Multiple song input. for example, to play songs 5, then 12, then 15, I would type in "5.12.15", using the decimal as a spacer

I tried playing with an interrupt that would run diskoff.exe after 5min of inactivity, but i couldnt get it to work. diskoff.exe is a is a program i have that shuts down the HD. This would help a lot with power saving.

• Some better graphics for the LCD.
• Song Name Scrolling.
• Sogn Time display.