Jsummers: Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Audio and Music |released=~1984 }} '''PLAYER PIANO''' is a music format conversion utility. It is a component of '''PIANOMAN''', a ..."

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{{FormatInfo
|formattype=electronic
|subcat=Audio and Music
|released=~1984
}}
'''PLAYER PIANO''' is a music format conversion utility. It is a component of '''PIANOMAN''', a music application for DOS. One of the formats it can convert to is an executable self-playing song file.

PIANOMAN and PLAYER PIANO were developed by Neil J. Rubenking. "PIANOMAN" is sometimes written in other ways, such as "PIANO MAN" or "piano man".

For v2.1-3.04, self-playing songs use [[DOS executable (.com)|COM]] format. For v4.00-4.01, they use [[MS-DOS EXE|EXE]].

== Identification ==
More research may be needed.

For COM format v2.1-3.04, the first 30 bytes seem to always be the same. The first 16 are {{magic|b4 06 b5 00 b1 00 b6 18 b2 4f b7 07 b0 00 cd 10}}.

In unmodified COM files, the string "{{magic|>piano man<}}" appears somewhere.

EXE files are observed to have the string "{{magic|PINFO*}}" at offset 1152.

== Software ==
PIANOMAN / PLAYER PIANO:
* v2.1: [{{CdTextfilesURL|carousel344/003/}}] → PIANODOC.ZIP + PIANOMAN.ZIP + PIANOMUS.ZIP + PIANOUTL.ZIP
* v3.02: {{CdTextfiles|pcblueii/PCBLUE/VOL216.ZIP|VOL216.ZIP}}
* v3.04: [https://archive.org/details/frostbyte_1980s_DOS_collection Frostbyte Collection] → floppyshareware.zip → LUNACY/PIANOMAN.ZIP
* v4.0: {{CdTextfiles|pcsig12/HOM/DISK0279.ZIP|DISK0279.ZIP}}
* v4.01: [{{CdTextfilesURL|jcsm9311/CL680/}}] → PIANOM1J.LZH + PIANOM2J.LZH

Other:
* {{CdTextfiles|carousel344/005/MADTRB5.ZIP|MADTRB5.ZIP}} → PIANO.* - Possible predecessor or early version, for research purposes.

== Sample files ==
* {{CdTextfiles|carousel344/003/COMTUN.ZIP|COMTUN.ZIP}} - COM format
* {{CdTextfiles|nightowl/nopv06/040A/CHEYENNE.ZIP|CHEYENNE.ZIP}} - EXE format

[[Category:Executable envelopes]]

PIANOMAN PLAYER PIANO self-playing song - Revision history

Jsummers: Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Audio and Music |released=~1984 }} '''PLAYER PIANO''' is a music format conversion utility. It is a component of '''PIANOMAN''', a ..."