Welcome To The Home Of SuperSparky

The multi-purpose all-in-one framebuffer console media player for the car, RV, van, or home.

It features easy operation with just the arrow keys (configurable).

Ideal for keeping kids busy on a long trip.

News

SuperSparky is now up to version 1.17.  See the Downloads page to see the details.

If you have ideas for new features, then go ahead and contact me.

The code for version 1 of SuperSparky is very stable now and unless new errors or bugs are found, it will remain as it is.  Development of version 1 has ceased in favor of version 2 development.

Features

• Written completely in Perl.
• Plays MP3's of any bit rate
• Automatically converts another sound file format into a MP3 file.
• Utilizes a MySQL database for easy song management.
• Shuffle play is supported
• Filters for playing by song name, file name, genre, album, and/or artist.
• Filters for avoiding by song name, file name, genre, album, and/or artist.
• MP3 storage is easy to maintain by either direct copy from a DVD/CD-ROM or by direct FTP to place the MP3 files in the file system.
• Database maintenance includes searching for new MP3 files for cataloging.
• RIP audio CDs and automatically have the files named, tagged, and inserted into the database (must have a network connection for this).
• Plays DVD, SVCD, and VCD disc formats.  Plays the movie only, no menus to deal with.
• Plays nearly all video file formats, including most Windows and Apple formats as well.
• Plays video games.
• Simple key driven (mostly arrows) menu design.  Keeps your eyes on the road!
• Animated display and VU meters for MP3 playback mode.
• Works on any sized console screen.
• Designed for the console and framebuffer, no X Windows!

The media player is really just a fancy overlay for the core software applications of which it calls or utilizes to achieve the desired result.  It is written in Perl and utilizes many handy libraries for system interaction.  The following are the software for which it acts as a user interface for:

• MPlayer - This is called to play a DVD, SVCD, VCD, and all video files.  For 2.4.x kernels, the Matrox MGA driver is utilized and works magnificently.  For 2.6.x kernels, the cxvidix driver works great.
• XAWTV - This app is used to watch TV via the Rainbow Runner G card.
• XMAME - Yes, what fun are long trips in the car without the ability to play some good old arcade video games?  This baby plays most flawlessly.  No, I don't give away or sell ROMs.  So don't ask.
• XMESS - Is used for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Jaguar, Sega Genesis and Master System emulation.  This capability is user expandable to other machines too!

If you wish to contact me, then my email is supersparky(at)cox.net.

If you would rather me put together a system for you, then all I ask is $100 for the labor involved in configuring your hardware.