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Retro music visualisations inspired by Cthugha and the Atari Video Music. The sound is drawn into an image that burns, flows and mirrors itself from frame to frame – rebuilt effect for effect from the original programs. The first music visualiser for the home, Atari's Video Music C240 from 1977, comes back as a simulation of its circuit. And your playlist turns into a Compact Cassette that runs in a working tape deck of the 70s, 80s or 90s.

Modes

• Cthugha 5.3 DOS (320 × 200, 1995) – with all extras: palettes, pictures and translation tables
• Cthugha98 (640 × 480, 1998) – including its particle scenes and the 3D views of the 3dfx version
• Cthugha-L (Linux, 2000) – adapts to the panel size, with its 3D displays
• Cthugha-4-Winamp (640 × 480, 1998) – the Winamp/ModPlug plug-in: beat-driven, 3D letters spell the song title
• Atari Video Music C240 (4:3) – the Atari Video Music C240 (1977): diamonds, holes and rings in the colours of the music, with its front panel
• Tracker – the screens of 18 classic music trackers (Amiga, DOS, Windows, C64, CPC) playing along with your music
• VSG+ DOS – VSG 1.0 VGA by Neven Pintaric with 20 effects and 16 palettes
• Compact Cassette – your playlist as a running cassette with real tape physics: 210 blank cassettes from the 70s to the 90s or bought cassettes printed from the album cover, in seven working tape decks whose buttons control foobar2000
• Credits – the credits of all modes, each section with its mode in the background
• Mix – all of them in turn, with a short fade

Each panel remembers its own mode, so several panels can run different modes side by side.

Features

• True to the originals: same formulas, tables, palettes, frame rates and random sequences; bugs that spoiled an effect are fixed
• Fullscreen on one or more monitors (middle click or F11)
• Effect changes per mode: as in the original, after beats, every few seconds, on each new song
• Presets like Cthugha's CTHUGHA.INI, the classic Cthugha keys (press F1 in the panel for the keys of the running mode)
• Song title overlay in the original VGA font
• Automatic input level, so today's music drives the effects as lively as a well-set sound card did
• Optional CRT filter for every mode – RGB monitor or TV
• Compatible with the Default User Interface (Default UI) and the Columns User Interface (Columns UI)
• Also available as a plug-in for Winamp / WACUP and AIMP: github.com/Oxensepp/fomalhaut

Installation
Add the panel to your layout: Default UI – category Visualisation; Columns UI – category Visualisations. Right-click the panel to choose a mode.

Videos: Fomalhaut 1.3 – Cassette mode and AIMP · Fomalhaut 1.2 – presentation

Credits: Cthugha © 1993–1998 Kevin "Zaph" Burfitt, Torps Productions · Cthugha-L © 1995–1998 Harald Deischinger · Cthugha-4-Winamp © 1998 Krunoslav Pisacic · the Compact Cassette in memory of Lou Ottens (1926–2021). Not affiliated with the original authors; the tape decks are recreations with fictional names.

• New mode: Compact Cassette – your playlist becomes a running cassette: the tracks of the album are laid out on sides A and B of a C46 … C120, the reels turn with real tape physics, the counter runs and the cassette is turned over at the end of side A
  • Blank cassettes: 21 types from the 70s to the 90s in ten colours each, that makes a total of 210 different cassettes (Space: next type, P: colours)
  • Bought cassettes printed from the album cover: Album Print, Album Tracklist, Album Tint and Album Art – with artist, album, year and the titles of the side
  • Seven working tape decks (W: next deck, F: finish, F2: what it can do): a 70s three-head deck, an 80s studio deck with real-time counter, locator and loop, an 80s ghetto blaster, an 80s East German radio recorder, a 90s closed-loop deck and a 90s three-head deck in black or gold. Play, pause, stop, rewind and fast forward control the player; volume and balance knobs follow it; counters, memories and switches work like on the real devices
  • Preferences > Mode options > Tape: cassette, colours, deck, how the sides are filled and the colour of digital counters
• Album art for the cassettes: foobar2000 uses its album art settings (embedded and external); Winamp / WACUP read cover.jpg, folder.jpg … next to the track
• Keys: Shift + letter steps backwards in all modes; F1 now lists the keys of the running mode, F2 describes the scene
• Right-click menu: the parts of the scene (flame, wave, display …, in Tape: deck, finish, counter) can be changed directly from the menu
• Credits: new section for the Compact Cassette – in memory of Lou Ottens (1926–2021)