This page contains links to the file format specifications for TrackerBoy Module files, or .tbm files.

Specifications

Current list of specifications, ordered from newest to oldest.

Major 2

• TBM File Format Specification - Major Revision 2 (HTML PDF)
  • Revision D (2.0), introduced in libtrackerboy v0.8.0

Major 1

• TBM File Format Specification - Major Revision 1 (HTML PDF)
  • Revision C (1.1), introduced in Trackerboy v0.6.0
  • Revision B (1.0), introduced in Trackerboy v0.5.0

Major 0

• TBM File Format Specification - Major Revision 0 (HTML PDF)
  • Revision A (0.0), introduced in Trackerboy v0.2.0

Revision history

Changes to the file format are listed here, ordered from new to last. Revision names use alphabet letters ie A, B, C, .., Z, AA, AB, .. onwards. Any change in the major or minor version results in the letter being advanced.

Revision D (2.0)

Introduced in libtrackerboy v0.8.0

• Custom framerates are stored using floating point
• Per-song framerate setting that overrides the module setting.
• Add support for envelope sequences
• Remove initial envelope setting (use a 1-value envelope sequence instead)

Revision C (1.1)

Introduced in Trackerboy v0.6.0.

• adds a new effect, Jxy, for setting the global volume
• added specification for instrument/waveform files (*.tbi/*.tbw)

Revision B (1.0)

Introduced in Trackerboy v0.5.0, adds multiple song support.

• file revision is now a major/minor set of numbers
• SONG, INST, and WAVE blocks each store a single song, instrument and waveform, respectively.
• The payload can now contain up to 256 songs
• Removed the INDX block
• Removed numberOfInstruments and numberOfWaveforms fields
• Added scount, icount and wcount fields at offset 124 (replacing the removed numberOf* fields). These fields contain the number of SONG, INST and WAVE blocks present in the payload. Note that only scount is biased (0 => 1).
• String encoding now specified for all strings. Header strings use ASCII, everything else uses UTF-8.
• LString now uses a 2-byte length instead of 1-byte
• Added a terminator to the format

Revision A (0.0)

First initial version, introduced in Trackerboy v0.2.0.