Mattel Electronics MELODY BLASTER Cartridge Instructions (For 1 Player) USE WITH ANY INTELLIVISION@ MASTER COMPONENT, COMPUTER ADAPTOR, AND INTELLIVISION@ MUSIC SYNTHESIZER. Is it a game? Is it educational? Is it a musical instrument? Yes, it's a musical extravaganza including all three. It's MELODY BLASTER -- a game of falling notes that you shoot down with lasers activated by a musical keyboard. At the same time it's educational because as your skills improve you're learning to play songs like THE ENTERTAINER or even BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH. Or use MELODY BLASTER as a regular musical keyboard and play up to six notes at a time. A special feature even allows you to record your own melodies. Create your own series of notes to blast down! BEFORE YOU BEGIN Insert the game cartridge in the Computer Adaptor. Turn the TV and Master Component ON. Press [RESET] on the Master Component to get the ECS screen. Press the [disc] on either hand controller. Press button [2] and an asterisk will appear to the right of "Cartridge." Next push the [ENTER] button and see the MELODY BLASTER title screen. INSERT OVERLAYS Slide MELODY BLASTER overlays into the Hand Controller frames so they cover the keypads. THE GAME The object of this game is to score as many points as possible while learning to play music on a Music Synthesizer. You will hear a song and see a series of falling nores. Play the keys on the Music Synthesizer keyboard in time with the song and hit as many notes as you can. The closer the falling notes are to the red line when you hit them, the more points you score. The notes to hit are the ones with stems on them. [Stemmed note] The computer will hit the others. [Whole note] Each note appears directly over a Music Synthesizer key on the screen. This lets you know which key to hit on the actual Music Synthesizer keyboard. The moment you strike a key, a laser beam shoots up and strikes the note. If you miss, the beam gives you a visual guide to how close you are. Watch the color of the falling notes to determine which key to strike on the keyboard. A green note is hit by striking a black key. A note of any other color is hit by striking a white key. The name of the song you are playing is at the top of the screen. There are eleven songs already in the computer's memory, but you can add more with tapes (sold separately) or you can record your own melody line using the RECORD mode. CHOOSE THE GAME There are seven basic ways to play MELODY BLASTER. Use the left hand controller to select one of these by pressing the labeled button on the overlay. More advanced features are covered later. Computer Plays The computer plays both hands. In this mode you see where the notes fall for any song and you hear what the song should sound like when all the notes to that song are played. The computer shoots down all the notes using laser beams. None of the notes have stems. Play Right The computer plays the left hand notes while you play the right hand notes. Each stemmed note that you strike at the moment it crosses the red line gives you another 100 points. Try to shoot down as many notes as possible by playing the melody with the proper timing between notes. Play Left The computer plays the right hand notes this time while you play the left. Only the left hand notes have stems. The more notes you hit, the higher your score. Play All This time you are on your own. You must play using both hands. All the notes will have stems, so try to hit them all. Duet Play a DUET with your computer by pressing this button. The computer will sound the melody and will drop stemmed notes. You must play the same melody AT THE SAME TIME. Use your keyboard to fire the lasers as the computer drops the notes. If the computer and you play together, you will hit all the notes perfectly and make beautiful music together. Play Anything This mode allows you to play up to six notes at a time. You can play anything you like and hear it as you play. Let your imagination and musical ear take you anywhere! Tap Melody An easy way to learn a song is to learn the timing first. This button allows you to find the right rhythm to a song without the skill required to play the exact notes. Simply press any key on the music keyboard in time with the music and a laser automatically shoots down and plays the correct melody (right hand) note. Your timing is all you need to worry about. TAP MELODY works best in the SLOW!, SLOW, and MED modes. CHOOSE THE SONG Song Buttons Push any button on the right hand controller and hear a song. Before you begin select one of these songs: CHOOSE THE SPEED Two buttons on the left hand controller allow you to select the speed (tempo) of the song at any time. Slower Each time you press this button, the speed (tempo) of the song slows down. There are four speeds: SLOW!, SLOW, MED, AND FAST. Faster Each time you press this button, the speed (tempo) of the song will increase. The same four speeds are possible. GAME BEGINS Now you're ready to start the game. Each selection (CHOOSE GAME, CHOOSE SONG, CHOOSE SPEED) immediately changes the game which continues until you are prepared to play it. So whenever you're ready, position your fingers on the keyboard and press the key directly in line with the falling note just as that note hits the red line. You score 100 points and hear the note played. If you hit the note a little above or below the line, you score fewer points. The score will erase at the end of the song and the song will automatically start over unless you select another. Press the disc to pause the action or to note your score at the end of a song. The TILT feature keeps you from hitting too many keys at once in an attempt to score more points. If you do, the word TILT will block out your score. You won't lose any points, but no points may be score while the TILT is blocking your score. SPECIAL FEATURES There are other special features that you may select using the buttons on the left hand controller. Record This button allows you to record a single melody line (no chords) into memory and play it back later. When the memory is filled completely with notes, a "FULL" message will appear. Press the disc to end the recording and immediately hear the song played back. Later, in order to hear what you've recorded, press the [MEMORY] button on your right-hand controller. You can only play one note at a time into the computer's memory. Play games with your song just like any other song in the computer's memory, but PLAY RIGHT and PLAY LEFT modes work the same as the PLAY ALL mode (only stemmed notes fall). If there isn't a recorded song in memory, a "NONE" message prints out. The song is erased from the computer's memory when you turn the unit off. Help Push [HELP] and you will see a quick summary of each button's function on the hand controllers. Simply press that button once and the summary will appear. Press [Disc] to return to game. Change Tone This button allows you to alternate between short tones and long tones on any given melody. Each push of the button changes the sound. Cut Begin The "CUT" buttons allow you to cut off part of a song. The music remaining after you cut repeats until you cut it again or you reselect the complete song. Press the [CUT BEGIN] button at the point where you want the song to begin again. When the song reaches its end, it will start over at the point that you marked by pressing the CUT BEGIN button. To hear the complete song again, simply press that song button. Cut End This button is similar to the "CUT BEGIN" button only it marks a NEW ENDING to the song. The song now ends the moment you press the [CUT END] button. To hear the complete song again, simply press that song button. If you cut a song down to one note or less, an "EMPTY" message will appear. CUT BEGIN and CUT END allow you to choose a particular part of a song that you might be having some difficulty with and have just that part repeat over and over again so that you can practice it. Pause The DISC will pause the game at any time. Press the [DISC] again to resume the game. Note: You can push any button, anytime and get a response. READ TAPE * Follow these steps to read new songs into memory from a data cassette tape:* Connect your cassette tape recorder to the ECS module using connector cord. Each of three plugs is inserted into the proper tape recorder outlets: earphone, microphone, and remote. (For further instructions, see your OWNER'S MANUAL.) Adjust the tone control (if present) to TREBLE. Adjust the volume control to the middle of its range. Insert the tape and rewind to the beginning. Push [PLAY] on your recorder. (Nothing happens since the recorder is now controlled by the Intellivision Computer.) Press [READ TAPE] button on your hand controller. "READING" appears on your screen which indicates that the songs are being fed into the memory of your Intellivision computer. If an "ERROR" or "NO DATA" message replaces the word "READING" the problem may be improper tape recorder hookup, tone control not fully Treble, volume control too high or too low, damaged tape or even no tape in your recorder. Fix the problem and try again by pressing the [READ TAPE] button. The Intellivision computer will automatically shut the tape recorder off when the memory is full. Usually 3 to 5 songs fill the computer's memory. Not all the songs on the tape may fit in the computer's memory at once. (To stop a tape in the middle of a "READING" press [RESET] or stop the tape.) If you press the [READ TAPE] button again, the memory is erased and new songs (if there are any left on the tape) are read. Note: You may start the tape at any point you like. For instance, you may only want to play the last song. Just fast forward your recorder to the song you want. (Make sure you unplug the remote plug and earphone plug from your recorder first.) To get to the song you want, count the gaps between the songs because you will not be able to identify them by hearing them. You will hear a strange series of sounds instead of music because the songs are pre-recorded digitally. The gap between the songs may be identified by relative silence. It is best to start the tape during one of those gaps so you can read the whole song. * Pre-recorded tapes sold separately. (See enclosed card for details.) HOW TO PLAY TAPED SONGS Press [MEMORY] button (button 12). If there is only one song in the memory, the song automatically plays. If there is more than one song, keep reading. The following message appears onscreen: TO PLAY SONG, PRESS 1 THRU ___. The blank may be filled by the number of songs there are in memory. If the message reads: TO PLAY TAPE SONGS, PRESS [1 THRU 4]. Your selection should be one of four songs. Press the numbered button on the right hand controller which corresponds with the number of the song you want. Example: If you select song #3 by pressing button [3], the song title appears at the top of the screen and the computer plays that song for you until you select another song. The moment the recorder has read the first song from the tape, you may play it by pressing the [MEMORY] button. In this case, no message appears because there is only one song in the memory. The computer will select it for you and start playing it immediately. The rest of the songs continue to be read while you play the first song. You can play any game while the taped songs are being read. Note: A message will remain onscreen until replaced by another message. ADDITIONAL HINTS Try recording a melody and then challenging a friend to play it on the YOU PLAY ALL game. The winner is the one who comes closest to matching the tune. OR he could challenge you to play his song and compare the score to the one he got on your song. Get some eerie experimental sounds by cutting a melody down to one note using the CUT END button and then playing over it with your music synthesizer. Alsotry changing the speed and see what happens. Never stop experimenting with your MELODY BLASTER. You'll be surprised at the number of things you can do with it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ABC's OF EASY-PLAY SPEED MUSIC PLAYING THE MELODY Melodies are made up of NOTES and are played by your right hand on the upper keyboard, or solo section. Seven letters -- A through G -- repeated over and over, name every note you'll ever play. They name every key on your keyboard too. Speed Music makes it easy by using these letters in each note. SHARPS AND FLATS In Easy-Play Speed Music, a SHARP (#) tells you to play the very next key to the right and a FLAT (b) tells you to play the very next key to the left. These are usually black keys. TIME VALUES In music, time is measured in BEATS. The illustration shows the types of notes you'll play and how many beats each type gets. RESTS are shown in the lower part of the illustration, along with the number of beats each type gets. A rest indicates a period of silence, when you don't play. However, rests still must be counted. THE STAFF, MEASURES AND BAR LINES The STAFF consists of five lines and four spaces and each is named with one of the letters A through G. Any note that appears on one of the lines or in one of the spaces is called by that letter-name. The S-shaped symbol at the beginning of the staff is called the TREBLE CLEF and tells you all the notes that follow are to be played by your right hand. The staff is divided into equal sections by using vertical lines called BAR LINES. The sections between the bar lines are called MEASURES. TIME SIGNATURE The two numbers at the beginning of a song are known as the TIMS SIGNATURE. The top number indicates the number of beats in each measure. The bottom number 4 tells you each quarter note ([Quarter note]) receives one beat. TIES A TIE is a curved line connecting notes on the same line or in the same space. It indicates the first note is struck and then held for the total time value of the tied notes. |: REPEAT SIGNS :| AND DOUBLE ENDINGS These tell you to play certain parts of a song more than once. If a song has more than one set of lyrics, you'll generally see repeat signs. Sometimes a repeated song, or part of a song, has two different endings. In these cases, DOUBLE ENDINGS are used. PLAYING THE ACCOMPANIMENT Accompaniment consists of CHORDS, indicated by CHORD SYMBOLS in your music: [C] [G] 7. Generally, there are three ways to play chords: One finger, traditional or three-note Easy-Play chords. Your owner's guide can help you decide which methods your keyboard is capable of. Be sure to try them all. N.C. tells you "No Chord" is played -- just the right-hand melody. SUBSTITUTE CHORDS appear in brackets [ ] to the right of a chord symbol -- use whichever sounds best to you. Like substitutes, OPTIONAL CHORDS are up to your taste and preference. They're not necessary to the song but they do make the accompaniment more interesting. These are the SMALL chord symbols that appear above the melody. The small 7 that appears to the right of certain chords indicates another form of optional chord. A seventh is a fuller-sounding chord. However, they are not necessary -- it's a matter of personal taste. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ERRATA SLIP IMPORTANT NOTICE! The "pre-recorded data cassette tapes" referred to in the instructions are no longer going to be made and distributed. Please disregard any game buttons, instructions, and warranty information relating to the use of such tapes. This includes the "READ TAPE" buttons designated by the overlay and the reference material on those buttons which is stored in the "HELP" function of your cartridge. In your instructions, pages 13 through 16 Are No Longer Applicable. Specific references to cassette tapes on pages 4 and 36 should also be disregarded. Correction on page 7: Song in Memory (Button #12) -- The Song You Recorded (page 10) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- İMattel Electronics No. 4540 All Rights Reserved. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original text version of this document can be found at The Intellivision Library.