Gernots old school retro gaming thread

[Gernot]

BTW, what can't work is if any of the emulations is already running, the TSR (ultramid) for for the AIL drivers won't work if loadpats was called, SBOS or MAXSBOS is running or if mega-emu runs, latter three won't work in DOSBox even if they would massively spread the functionality for not natively supporting games even old FE2.
Each of the emulations conflicts with the other and has to be unloaded before another can be run. Would be no problem for DOSBox since each game runs in its own environment. The problem is,

Heavy problem here, the EMM is part of the DOS emulation, nothing you can fix here i guess, EMM386 for sure not QEMM386 and 385MAX i downloaded but even here i don't see a good solution this stuff must be bind into config.sys.

Don't even know what that is, can i turn this tard on? i guess not.

Hardware mismatches respectively there is no hardware it would need a cheat of some sort i guess.
The drivers are installed for sure, but they won't be recognized i assume if the hardware isn't present for "real" (or pseudo real).
But it's not to see which version of what mismatches and which driver is ment to be reinstalled, it mustn't be GUS.

MAXSBOS would be very powerful to support games with MIDI music and SFX which don't do this natively, i can't understand why it isn't respected already it would make hundrets of old DOS games much better.

Imagine a Frontier with pimped MIDI music and SFX, it's a must have.

Overall i have to post this on Vogons but well i could need support, as more beg it for the higher is the chance that this will be solved.

secret magical thingy:

Microsoft OneDrive

1drv.ms

 

[Gernot]

I don't know what all:

                                  (M)  EXTRA FILE
GAME TITLE                   COMPANY/AUTHOR          EMULATOR (D)  NEEDED
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1942                         MicroProse              MegaEM   (M)
7th Guest, The               Virgin/Trilobytes       UltraMID
Aces Over Europe             Dynamix                 SBOS
Aces Over Pacific            Dynamix                 SBOS
Alien Breed                  Team 17                 MegaEM
(Run SBCOMP.EXE before the game to avoice lock-ups)
Alone in the Dark II         ?                       SBOS
Altered Destiny              Accolade                MegaEM
Amazon: Guardians of Eden    Access                  MegaEM
Animal Quest                 Alive Software          UltraMID
Armaeth                      Les Editions du Dolmen  MegaEM  
(MEGAEM -SBOFF .. you can't use SB emulation)
ATC/Tracon                   Wesson International    UltraMID (D)
Battle Chess 4000            Interplay               UltraMID
Battle Cruiser 3000AD        Three-Sixty Pacific     UltraMID (D)
Battle Isle ][               Blue Byte               UltraMID
Betrayal at Krondor          Dynamix                 MegaEM
Beyond Shadowgate            ICOM Simulations        UltraMID
Big Red Adventure            ???                     SBOS
Bilou                        Concepteva              UltraMID (D)
Bioforge                     Origin                  U8Drivers(M)  U8GUS.ZIP
  (same drivers used for Ultima 8)
Bloodnet                     Microprose              MegaEM
BodyLink                     Stragem                 UltraMID (D)
Body Blows                   Team 17                 SBOS
Break Free                   Software Storm          SBOS
Brutal Sports Series FB      Millenium Software      SBOS
Bubble Bobble                Taito                   SBOS
Buzz Aldrin's Race To Space  Interplay               UltraMID
Campain ][                   Empire                  MegaEM   (M) or (D)
Cannon Fodder                Sensible Software       MegaEM
Carrier Strike               SSI                     UltraMID
Castle Of Dr. Brain          Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Chess Maniac 5,000,001       Spectrum Holobyte       UltraMID
Chess Master 3000            Software Toolworks      UltraMID (D)
Chuck Yeager's Air Combat    Electronic Arts         SBOS
  original retail version
Civilization                 Microprose              MegaEM
Clouds Of Xeen               New World Computing     MegaEM
Coaster                      Disney Software         SBOS
Codename Iceman              Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Colonization                 MicroProse              MegaEM
Commanche Maximum Overkill   NovaLogic               SBOS
Command Adventure:Starship   Merit Software          UltraMID
Commander Keen 4             Id Software             SBOS
Contraption Zack             Presage Software Co.    UltraMID
Creepers                     Destiny Software        UltraMID
Cribbage Master              Ninga                   UltraMID (D)
Cruise for a Corpse          Delphin                 MegaEM
Cyberia                      ??                      MegaEM
   Run Cyberia with -m.  Need feedback on this...
CyberRace                    CyberDreams             SBOS
CyberStrike                  Simutronics             UltraMID (D)
Dark Half, The               Capstone                UltraMID
Dark Legions                 SSI                     UltraMID
Dark Queen of Krynn, The     SSI                     MegaEM
Darkside of Xeen             New World Computing     MegaEM
Day Of The Tentacle          Lucas Arts              MegaEM
Deathbringer                 Empire                  MegaEM
Dinosaur Adventure           Knowledge Adventure     UltraMID (D)
Discoveries In The Deep      ???                     MegaEM
DNA Parrot                   T&T Research            UltraMID (D)
Dracula Unleashed            Viacom                  MegaEM   (M)
Dune                         Virgin/Cryo             MegaEM   (M)
Dune ][                      Westwood/Virgin         MegaEM       DUNE2GUS.ZIP
  (For GUSMAX users, MAXSBOS is recommended for better digital FX).
Dungeon Hack                 SSI/Dreamforge          MegaEM
(Run MegaEM with /RIRQ2 _before_ selecting the sound to run the game)
Dysney's Aladdin             Disney Software(Virgin) SBOS
Earl Weaver Baseball ][      ???                     MegaEM   (M)
EcoQuest                     Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Entity                       Loriciel                SBOS
Eye Of The Beholder III      SSI                     MegaEM
F-14 Fleet Defense           Microprose              MegaEM
F-15 Strike Eagle            Microprose              MegaEM
Falcon 3.0                   Spectrum Holobyte       SBOS
FlashBack                    SSI Inc.                MegaEM
Flight Simulator IV          Microsoft               MegaEM
Flight Simulator V           Microsoft               SBOS
Flight Simulator 5.1 CD      Microsoft               SBOS
Front Page Sport: Baseball94 Dynamix                 MegaEM   (M) or (D)
Front Page Sport: Football94 Dynamix                 MegaEM   (M) or (D)
Front Page Sport: Football95 Dynamix                 MegaEM   (M) or (D)
Frontier: Elite 2            Gametek/Konami          MegaEM
FunBall                      Impulse Games           SBOS
Fun Univ Ntwk Intfc          Fun Univ Ntwk           UltraMID
Gateway To The Savage Frontier  SSI                  SBOS
GateWorld Triology           Home Brew Software      UltraMID (M)
GemStone ]I[                 Simutronics             UltraMID (D)
Genesia                      Microids                SBOS
Global Domination            Impressions             UltraMID
Gobliiins II                 Cocktail Vision         SBOS
Gobliiins ]I[                Cocktail Vision         SBOS
Gods                         Bitmap Brothers         MegaEM
Grand Prix Unlimted          Accolade                MegaEM
Grandmaster Chess            IntraCorp               UltraMID
Great Naval Battles          SSI                     UltraMID
GunShip 2000                 MicroProse              SBOS
Guzzle Puzzles               Redwood Games           UltraMID (D)
Halloween Harry              Apogee/Sub Zero         MegaEM
Hand Of Fate                 Westwood                MegaEM
Hardball III                 Accolade                MegaEM
Harpoon v1.2                 Three-Sixty Pacific     SBOS
High Command                 Three-Sixty Pacific     SBOS
Home Alone                   Capstone                MegaEM
Hong Kong Mahjong Pro        Nine Dragons Software   UltraMID
Incredible Machine           Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Incredible Machine ][        Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Incredible Toons             Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Indiana Jones (Fate of Atl.) Lucas Arts              MegaEM  
Inspector Gadget             Azeroth Publishing      UltraMID
Ishar ][                     Silmarils               SBOS
Jim Power                    Loriciel                SBOS
Jordan In Flight             Electronic Arts         MegaEM
Jurassic Park                Ocean                   MegaEM
Keef The Thief               Electronic Arts         MegaEM
KidDesk                      Edmark Corporation      UltraMID (D)
KidPix                       Broderbund              SBOS -o1
King Maker                   V.S. Gold               MegaEM   (M)
King's Quest II              Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
King's Quest IV              Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
King's Quest V (CD-ROM)      Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Krypton Egg                  Alexandre Krat          MegaEM
Lands Of Lore                Westwood Studios        MegaEM       LOLSOUND.ZIP
Laura Bow I                  Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Laura Bow ][ (Amon Ra)       Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Layout For DOS               Objects Inc.            UltraMID
Legend Of Kyrandia           Westwood Studios        MegaEM   (M)
(Better result if sound is disabled, not applicable for CD-ROM version)
Legend Of Kyrandia ][        Westwood Studios        MegaEM
Leisure Suit Larry I (VGA)   Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Leisure Suit Larry V         Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
(You might need -fast switch with EMUSET)
Lemmings                     Psygnosis               SBOS
Links 386 Pro                Access Software         SBOS
(Use switch -x2 and run links with -s switch)
Litil Divil                  Gremlin Graphics        MegaEM
Lost Vikings, The            Interplay               MegaEM   (M)
Magic Carpet                 Bullfrog                MegaEM
Magic Crayon                 Alive Software          UltraMID
Man Enough(The Ultimate
           Social Adventure) Tsunami                 SBOS
  (Use the -o4 -x3 parameters)
Mario Teaches Typing         Interplay               UltraMID
Martian Memorandum           Access Software         MegaEM
Marvin The Moose             Milliken Publishing     UltraMID (D)
Master Of Orion              Microprose              UltraMID     MOO_GUS.ZIP
Math Sequences               Milliken Publishing     UltraMID (D)
Math Zone                    Milliken Publishing     UltraMID (D)
MechWarrior ][               Activision              UltraMID (D)
Merchant Prince              QQP                     MegaEM
Mickey's 123's               Disney Software         MegaEM   (D)
Mickey's ABC's               Disney Software         MegaEM   (D)
Mickey's Colors & Shapes     Disney Software         MegaEM   (D)
MicroLeague Baseball IV      MicroLeague SportsAs.   UltraMID
MicroLeague Cards            MicroLeague SportsAs.   UltraMID (D)
MicroLeague Football ][      MicroLeague SportsAs.   UltraMID
Microsoft Dinosaur           Microsoft               Native in Windows
Millie's Math House          Edmark Corporation      UltraMID (D)
Milliken Story Teller        Milliken Publishing     UltraMID (D)
Monkey Island II             Lucas Arts              MegaEM
(Emuset -F22 MT reported to give better music)
Monopoly Deluxe              Virgin Games            UltraMID
Mortal Kombat                Midway                  SBOS
Mutanoid Math Challenge      Legacy Software         UltraMID
Mutanoid Word Challenge      Legacy Software         UltraMID
My Paint                     Saddleback Graphics     UltraMID (D)
Mystic Towers                Apogee                  SBOS
NFL Challenge                XOR Corporation         UltraMID (D)
NHL Hockey                   Electronic Arts         SBOS     (M)
NHL Hockey '95 (disks)       Electronic Arts         UltraMID
OilsWell                     Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Operation Combat ][          Merit Software          SBOS     (D)
Oregon Trail Deluxe          MECC                    UltraMID
Pickle Wars                  Redwood Games           UltraMID
Pinball Dreams               21st Cent.Entertainment MegaEM
(EMUSET -MT & you have to choose "SB 2.0" at start of the game)
Pirates! GOLD Edition        MicroProse              SBOS
Places To Play               Magnetic Images         UltraMID (D)
Police Quest II              Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Ponctueur, Le                C.R.A.P.O. Inc          UltraMID (D)
Pools Of Darkness            SSI                     UltraMID (D)
Prehistorik ][               Titus                   MegaEM
Premier Manager ][           Gremlin                 MegaEM   (M)
Prince OF Persia I (1.3)     Broderbund              MegaEM
Prince Of Persia II          Broderbund              MegaEM
(Put your SB IRQ at 5 and run MegaEM with /SBI5 to have digital sound)
Privateer                    Origin                  SBOS         AILPATCH.ZIP
                                           or latest MegaEM
Prophecy Of The Shadow       SSI                     MegaEM
Protostar                    Tsunami                 MegaEM
PuttPutt Joins Parade        Humongous Entertainment UltraMID
Quest For Glory I (VGA)      Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Quest For Glory II           Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Ragarok (Valhalla)           Norsehelm Productions   UltraMID (D)
Railroad Tycoon (Original)   Microprose              SBOS
Rampart                      Electronic Arts         MegaEM
Realms Of Avarton            Kram                    UltraMID (D)
Red Baron                    Dynamix                 SBOS
(Select ADLIB in installion.  MegaEM is better music)
(but of course, you get no sound effects)
Red Crystal "The 7 secrets   QQP                     MegaEM
         of life"   (Load MegaEM _before_ configuration)
Red Hell                     Castleworks Gameware    UltraMID
Return of the Phantom        MicroProse              MegaEM
Ring World                   Tsunami                 MegaEM
Rise of the Dragon           Dynamix                 MegaEM
Rise Of The Robots           Time Warner Interactive
                             Mirage Technologies     SBOS
Risky Woods                  Electronic Arts         MegaEM
Rocketeer                    Disney Software         MegaEM
Romance Of The Three Kingdom III  KOEI               SBOS
Rules Of Engagement ][       Bethesda Softworks      UltraMID
Sam And Max Hit The Road     Lucas Arts              MegaEM
(Use "Advanced Soundcard Install" to select soundcards)
Seal Team                    Electronic Arts         UltraMID
Shadow President             DC True                 UltraMID (D)
Sherlock Holmes (CD-ROM)     Icom                    MegaEM
Sights & Sounds              MacMillan/McGraw Hill   UltraMID (D)
SimCity Classic              Maxis                   UltraMID
SimFarm                      Maxis                   MegaEM
Simon The Sorcerer           Adventure Software      MegaEM   (M)
Slater & Charlie             ???                     MegaEM
Soccer Kid                   Krisalis Software       SBOS
Solitaire's Journey          Quantum Quality Prod.   UltraMID (M)
Space Adventure              Knowledge Adventure     UltraMID (D)
Space Chase I, ][, ]I[       Safari Software         UltraMID (M)
Space Ho PC                  Prestage Software Co.   UltraMID
Space Hulk                   Electronic Arts         UltraMID (M)
(copy GF1MIDI.ADV over MIDI.ADV in \HULK\DRV_DIR and use SoundBlaster)
Space Quest III              Sierra On-Line          MegaEM
Spectre VR                   Velocity                Windows
Speed Racer                  Activision              SBOS
(Use MSDOS 5.0 with EMM386)
Spell Caster 2000            ???                     UltraMID
Spelljammer:  Pirates of ... SSI                     UltraMID
StarControl 1                Accolade                MegaEM
  (use the -mt switch)
StarTrek: 25th Aniversary    Interplay               MegaEM
  (Works for disks and CDROM version. EMUSET -F22 -M14 -MT  recommended)
StarTrek: Judgement Rites    Interplay               MegaEM
Stellar 7                    Dynamix                 MegaEM
Stepping Stones Bonus        Compu-Teach Inc         UltraMID
Stickybear Townbuilder       Optimum Resource        UltraMID (D)
Strong Hold                  SSI                     MegaEM
Stunt                        Spectrum Holobyte       SBOS
Stunt Island                 Disney                  MegaEM
Super Speed                  Game Factory            SBOS
Switch Progressions          Cooper, R.J. & Assoc.   UltraMID
Switch Quik                  Cooper, R.J. & Assoc.   UltraMID
Tankkk                       Jari Jaaskelainen       SBOS
  (Native support soon)
Teddy's Big Day              Interactive Software    UltraMID
(Copy GF166.COM over SOUNDRV.COM and copy GF1MIDI.ADV over MIDIPAK.ADV)
(This puts the MILES drivers from the GUS in the game, and you can now)
(use UltraMID)
Terminator 2029              Bethesda Softworks      UltraMID
Test Drive III               Accolade                MegaEM
The Chaos Engine             The Bitmap Brothers     SBOS
Tom Landry Football          Merit Software          UltraMID
Tony Larussa Baseball ][     SSI                     UltraMID
Treehouse                    Broderbund              SBOS -o1
Trump Castle ]I[             ???                     UltraMID
Two Towers, The              Interplay               UltraMID
Ultima 6                     Origin                  MegaEM
Ultima 7                     Origin                  SBOS           U7GUS.ZIP
Ultima 8 : Pagan             Origin                  U8 Drivers (M) U8GUS.ZIP
Ultima Underworld I          Origin                  UltraMID
Ultima Underworld II         Origin                  UltraMID
Unnecessary Roughness        Accolade                SBOS
Veil Of Darkness             SSI                     MegaEM
VGA Jigsaw                   Alive Software          UltraMID (D)
VGA Mah Jongg 3.1            Ron Balewski (shareware)MegaEM
(Command line MJVGA R for Roland MT-32 Music)
Virtual Pool                 Interplay               MaxSBOS
(The strangest thing about that game is that it supports the
  GUS natively only for the intro and movies, not the game)
Warlords II                  SSG                     UltraMID
Waterford Mental Math        Waterford Institute     UltraMID
Wayne Gretszky Hockey ]I[    Bethesda Softworks      UltraMID
Wheel Of Fortune             Gametek                 UltraMID  
When Two Worlds War          Impressives Software    MegaEM
Where in the World is ...    Broderbund              MegaEM
Wing Commander               Origin                  SBOS
(MegaEM music is better, but no SFX)
Wing Commander ][            Origin                  MegaEM
(Load MegaEM before running INSTALL from floppy)
Wing Commander Armada        Origin                  MegaEM
Winter Challenge             Accolade                MegaEM
Winter Olympiade 94: Lillhammer   U.S. Gold          MegaEM
Wizard                       Psygnosis               SBOS
Wizardy 7                    Sir-Tech                MegaEM
World Atlas                  The Software Toolworks  UltraMID
World Circuit                World Circuit           SBOS
(MegaEM does better music, but you lose engine noise)
World of Xeen (CD)           New World Computing     MegaEM
X-Wing Fighter               Lucas Arts              MegaEM
(To remove pauses, do not use QEMM in stealth mode.  Recommended..)
(to use EMM386.EXE from MSDOS 5.0 or the one provided with Windows)
Xargon 1: Beyond Reality     Epic Megagames          SBOS
Zeppelin                     Ikarion Software        SBOS

quite a list of games no?

Ah, i see another mistake it would be magaem for FE2 and not maxsbos.
however not working is not working

Oh cool X.Wing with GUS support, the score of X-Wing is already great, very decent made MIDI files, very good compositions.

Besides all what is labelled "ULTRAMID" will work in DOSBox with GUS.
This is the TSR for the Miles sound drivers (AIL).
A little complicated to setup because you have to find the proper to exchange drivers first.

A sort of:

Source: https://youtu.be/Jw8eBo5f_q0

I hope not!

Also i see that for some games more as one solution is possible.
However if the game uses miles sound drivers ULTRAMID should work, again should, i started to alter BARIS it contains miles sound drivers but in a sleek way they are named snddrv1.bin up to snddrv9.bin, i had to try each and peep into the file afterwards to see which driver it is.
I thought already i'm a winner but FAIL!
No Music to hear, "grmbl"
The score of BARIS is quite good, i posted that in the games music thread here, mom really asked me who played it, "it's a MIDI mom it's played by the machine".

A listening example:
later, it's morning i missed that

 

[Gernot]

Just one thing,
It isn't really needed to have GUS for good sounding MIDI files recent wavetable synths like fatboy are as good as.
But if you have a game like i.e. FE2 with minimal MIDI (.ROL) music you could get something out of it because you could write patches for each track.
Turn the stupid sounding Woodbass in the Intro (which sounds rather like a glockenspiel because it's pitched high) to a nice sounding french horn which will turn the Intro to something Star-Wars like. Also fro FFE because Frontier haven't changed much on Intro and jupalt for FFE.
I compared today to what Tom Morton used for GLFE2 and now i wonder if he changed the instruments or if it sounded this much better on the atari.
However if i get GUS running for FFE i can do this and a lot more.

 

[Gernot]

Just one thing,
It isn't really needed to have GUS for good sounding MIDI files recent wavetable synths like fatboy are as good as.
But if you have a game like i.e. FE2 with minimal MIDI (.ROL) music you could get something out of it because you could write patches for each track.
Turn the stupid sounding Woodbass in the Intro (which sounds rather like a glockenspiel because it's pitched high) to a nice sounding french horn which will turn the Intro to something Star-Wars like. Also fro FFE because Frontier haven't changed much on Intro and jupalt for FFE.
I compared today to what Tom Morton used for GLFE2 and now i wonder if he changed the instruments or if it sounded this much better on the atari.
However if i get GUS running for FFE i can do this and a lot more.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I'm no expert on this but I think some limited Hardware is able to put out quite different results. Like an Artist interpreting a piece differently. Ever since I heard this System Shock them Version I'm like "that's the way it should sound!":

 

[Gernot]

"navigare necesse est"
I knew this thread will be like a flower
Great stuff! (mother hates it)

You don't have to be an expert of nothing to have a choice in music as long as you have a own choice.
True different hardware different results, that's what makes soundtracker and MIDI such interesting.
It's composed by a human (more or less) but interpretet by the machine.
And well you can lay your hands (or feet) on it, it's up to you how you like to listen to it, you are free and easy able to alter it.
It forces also ppl to dig deeper into it and to get creative without the need to play an instrument or to understand anything of music except that you have your own choice.
This is the real revolution in electronic music and not the wishi washi which is made to please the ear of "john-henry" and "mary".

I like what different ppl i encounter here on frontier forums.

I'm not very interested in the ESC, but my mother liked to know who won so i watched a few of that competition today.
Personal opinion, i like the australian act, she's was the only natural sounding who needed no voice morpher or harmonizer and it didn't contains the today vital so called "millenial whoop".
Stuff which was born in this electronic revolution but it's now abused overused and of little interest it's boring the same.
Most criticized that her voice sounds thin, well for sure your ears are damaged because you think that it must sound like morphed and harmonized but none of them can really sing.

And yes it's also a different "talent" which convinced me of her

 

[Gernot]

Better listen to something like what you posted that's creative, creative beeps but creative.
Oh i can rant a lot abut todays "techno" in a very wide sense, when it started there was no fine scaleing between house, tekkno, techno, gabber, even hip-hop was very electronical music at start and blended a lot of what was hip in the '80s.

OK it's no musical thread here but let's say i rule here and i don't mind, it's cool.

friends forever:

 

[Gernot]

Besides that's all virtual hardware and on a real hardware it would even sound different.
To sad i can't show off how the MPU sounds for real it differs much to the wavetable synthesizers, software driven is cool and expands it a lot.
But it's not a synthesizer controlled by a program it's all virtual and the instruments are samples of real instruments while a synthesizer synthesizes the sound that's a different pair of shoes.

BUT
If you have a decent made MIDI it will sound allright on an MPU even if much more synthetic as played back from wavetables.
On my old machine where i still have a SB with an MPU i used it to play some games in this mode because i feel it has to sound this brittle or weak.
It differs really much to wavetable synthsizers which is already the wrong term because they don't synthesize they play back software driven.
"virtual synthesizer" is the proper term in my opinion.

A reason why i like the above posted "Intellivoice" it's hardware it's a chip (thx to humblejack who gifted this to me) unlike todays speech capability of computers which is software driven.
Yes they had to record the voice for this but only to program the instructions for the synthesizing of voice, no wavetables or such, no space for such all just instructions how to synthesize the waves.

What a tremendous work record first the syllables or words then program (handknitted) a special synthesizer with that in assembler, stores the instruction in a couple of bytes. Makes todays technology looking lame compared to it.

Games which need many gigabytes of space and aren't better to play as a game on 8 kilobyte rom space (in despite of that i posted this already).

What is a game? this is a game, even when broken a great work of a single dude who liked to create something different even when it already existed, procedural generated adventure but if i'm right it was all text adventures before and yes he liked them and yes it was the reason why.

The game lacks totally of sound except when you die and it's buggy like nothing i played, it's an unfinished attempt and was years later finished by INTV.
In general they just stripped it of half of the procedural stuff. Most time you die because of a failure in the program in a quite mysterious way.

But this is it and this is btw also the reason for the uninhabited systems in FE2/FFE which show a market and a quite large population.
You can't control exactly the result and if you do so you rob the spirit of it, then you start to limit the procedural generation and it starts to follow given patterns which repeadingly will be used, it counteracts to the idea.

Depending on if you play it like in this clip on a real hardware or emulatet the result differs, the maths aren't exactly the same and a tiny difference can lead to a complete different result here.

It's unplayable on the real hardware and with jzINTV it has only half of the bugs and it's halfaways playable in MAME.
Using MAME i managed it to finish the 32 levels, impossible on the real Inty mostly because you can't save the game, a savegame loses a couple of bytes as it seems to me at least some bugs vanish if you reload the savegame.

What would maybe help if that code which you see at end of the game would be displayed after each level so you could restart the level if something failed.
In general this is possible but well i'm not clever enough to reconstruct the maths he used.
The real mystery in the "tower of mystery", to crack the code to derivate the magic number which will give you this key.

Now tell me this is something quite different on 16kB as on 80GB, isn't it?

The capabilities of a single dude represented in a "few lines" of assembler code.
To me easy a masterpiece like Elite, Civ or any of the glorious games it's just not known widely.

And yes i'm a victim of the tower of mystery, i'm lost and i became a monster, lol.

 

[Gernot]

Erm yes if you think now i had no idea what i do in "tower" you're right you have no idea what you do.
In the original version the meaning of the items change with every start, you can't depend on anything you experienced before, what was healthy before means dead in next play. So you will be careful and each time you think "shall i or shall i not?" but there is no way except to try it, oh tard i'm dead - oh fine note this will help.
Very little is repetive in use and effect on you.
What i also like much is that all depends on your play, theoretically you can win the game in different ways like me as a sword leading warrior, as trader if you have this skill or as a magician, but unlike in the latter revision you don't start with given capabilities (characters) you form your character by your play.
I'm bad in trading also in real life and magic is a dangerous thing here so what is left to me to cut heads and to face stronger enemies due to that.
Get as soon as you can the most powerful unbreakable sword and start to kill 'em all. But it's not the only way, i just have no success with trading and some magic you will use e.g. to get this unbreakable sword, fortunately this procedure is always the same.

A found mortar will forge your sword, but it only works in the room you found the mortar and if you carry the mortar with you it slows you down and slowly takes life from you, you have to experience this but at least this is repetive. At first you are convinced after it was such a helpful thing that it might be of use so you will run into this mistake. But what is a positive magic in one situation is a bad magic in another situation.

I never played the finished version though, but i know some manage the game without a single sword stroke.
It has more patterns and you will know next time better which magic will help you and which monster accepts which gift.
But i guess it's still surprising.

 

[AndyJ]

I compared today to what Tom Morton used for GLFE2 and now i wonder if he changed the instruments or if it sounded this much better on the atari.
However if i get GUS running for FFE i can do this and a lot more.

Hey Gernot! I must admit it's been years since I was really up to speed with DOSBox, and the old versions that I used to be able to use are some how able to corrupt my video card memory and crash the system now!

But I came across DOSBox-X earlier in the year which runs fine for me - and I was just able to get FFE running with Gravis Ultrasound using the current release. (releases are found: here - I've used the x64 Windows, SDL2 compiled version)

In the folder you'll either want to copy dosbox.reference.conf to dosbox.conf to start with, and then edit dosbox.conf in notepad, or run up DOSBox-X and use its built-in GUI to set the options. (I find notepad easier tbh)
If you do use the GUI then you can save the settings by clicking "Configuration" in the main config window to find the save option, I think you'll need to close & reload DOSBox-X too for the changes to take effect..

Anyway - for my sound settings in [sblaster] I've set:
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5

and in [gus] I set:
gus=true
startup initialized=true
gusbase=220
gusirq=11
gusdma=1
gustype=classic
ultradir=C:\ULTRASND

FFE's set up autodetects the GUS for digital and tests ok, setting the midi to use ultrasound fails to initialise the drivers for a test, but when loading the game the patches are spooled in and it then starts ok.
I had a quick test with Ultrasound Max but although setup detects it, it doesn't play digital sound in either setup test or the game. Midi has the same setup test fail as classic GUS but loads the patches and plays in-game.

HTH!

 

[Gernot]

That helped a lot Andy! (i had to google HTH)

are some how able to corrupt my video card memory and crash the system now

hmmm... i stumbled over such problems on vogons too, a riddle to me because i never had any problems.

THX a lot so my thread where i asked for help can be closed.

I guess i will try both, DOSBox-X looks good already
It will keep me busy for a long time i guess.

Notepad is fine to me as well i like to see what i do, i'm no pushbutton presser

(even if i virtually register as "General Pressbutton", i should have chosen this as nick, i am the general pushbutton presser everything which had a button to press attracted me as child much. I mean i had my dads homebrew calculator as toy just to press buttons and i liked it much when it overflowed and showed weird stuff on the nixie tubes, one has to be a child of the '70s that was a different time electronics was pure magic and left to some geeks, nerds or other weirdos. Today any flatearther uses a better machine as i and claims the earth is flat, where have we come to? I digged in an npp and in a farther sense i made the power to drive their computers i feel they aren't allowed to use one, give that thing to me it belongs to me! I wish they would still claim "the cross sum of computer is 666" and keep their hands off that. But well Gernot you was yourself such an idiot for a short time that's really a riddle to me if i look back, but it was a good experience nonetheless because whenever this is the topic i share my experiences and hope i can lay a oo's egg. "the oo is a pretty bird". To sad most have forgotten in old europe what the meaning of "oo" is and why we sang "Auf einem Baum ein Kuckuck sass" which will be killed by a hunter but returns next year, simsalabim, it's the cry for freedom, justice and brotherhood)

"where would we come to if everybody would just ask <where would we come to?> and no one would dare to go there"

How to type Kuckuck if not type it Kuckuck? zum Kuckuck nochmal!

You know this "pretty" bird which lays eggs in foreign nests, quite complicatet.

"Cuculus canorus "

 

[Gernot]

Looks like DOSBox-X was mainly developed to run demos? (guessed that mostly because of a config entry)
I didn't knew there was a demoscene on PC - wrong machine (which i noticed on the website)

It's a monster, if i can get it working in DOSBox i will rather post this here, DOSBox-X is for advanced users and not the thing for the common gamer i guess.
Of course most you can leave default and it works just like DOSBox in general.

"After countless hours of hard labour we was able to get the Amiga bouncing ball on our screen" lol.

 

[AndyJ]

I'm no expert on this but I think some limited Hardware is able to put out quite different results. Like an Artist interpreting a piece differently. Ever since I heard this System Shock them Version I'm like "that's the way it should sound!":

Goosebumps!
God that takes me back - used to love listening to this intro and the in-game music, it made really good use of the SoundBlaster Pro's FM audio.

Another old favourite was the original Dune game by Cryo Interactive which made excellent use of just a basic Adlib/SoundBlaster FM card:

 

[AndyJ]

Looks like DOSBox-X was mainly developed to run demos? (guessed that mostly because of a config entry)
I didn't knew there was a demoscene on PC - wrong machine (which i noticed on the website)

It's a monster, if i can get it working in DOSBox i will rather post this here, DOSBox-X is for advanced users and not the thing for the common gamer i guess.
Of course most you can leave default and it works just like DOSBox in general.

"After countless hours of hard labour we was able to get the Amiga bouncing ball on our screen" lol.

Well these forked versions tend to add more experimental / edge-case functionality than base DOSBox.
I seem to recall (but I'm likely mistaken) that DOSBox originally resisted adding some hardware support such as Voodoo graphics (Glide) and MT32 midi, also supporting Windows, OpenGL / D3D so other builds started to appear to allow experimentation. I think the built-in configuration menus was something that the older DOSBox left out too. The ones I used to rely on was gulikoza's and then later on, ykhwong's DOSBox-Daum. I've lost track of things this last decade though, lol.

Demos on the PC - YES!
I was at Uni when they were popular and was lucky enough to have a moderately well enough spec'd 486sx25 with SoundBlaster Pro and maybe a Cirrus Labs SVGA card when Future Crew's Panic & then Second Reality demos landed - it was pretty mind blowing at the time on a PC! (finally challenging ST/Amigas)

https://archive.org/details/demoscene_Panic-FutureCrew

https://archive.org/details/msdos_2ND_REAL_shareware

I was looking for a download site for these and was a little gobsmacked to realise that the internet archive doesn't just have zips of them, but will have a good stab at running them in DOSBox within your browser... wow!

 

[Zieman]

Another old favourite was the original Dune game by Cryo Interactive which made excellent use of just a basic Adlib/SoundBlaster FM card:

Space Crusade is one of my favourite AdLib tunes:

 

[Gernot]

Mindblowing, that's true and it doesn't only challenges the amiga or atari it beat it easy to be honest, but it was also already a little later and in the '80s and '90s the progress curve was very steep.

Definately the wrong machine:

As you can read it's based on a C64 Demo and was ported to my beloved Intellivision.
Pardon me for the twitch it used to run very well on my old 32bit XP but i haven't started any of the Inty on my notebook yet since a year, respectively since i have the new notebook (which also means that the strongly miss me on atari age but i can't do all at once). It runs also (of course) on the real hardware and since Chad who is praised here for the intellicart doesn't produces it anymore Joe started another thing called "LTO Flash" which is a flashrom to store all the Intellivision games on.

Short to my XP machine, i recognized that quite many still run this windows version, guys it's definately the last year!
I understand - somehow, Imho Win10 isn't as bad as it's claimed to be.
One could say you just curse the OS as much as you did from 98/ME to XP, after a while you will feel comfortable with it.
At least it works fine on my Dell, it supports the machine well the rest is merely that the buttons aren't in the same place anymore but that should be no reason to curse it. With a little little effort you can give it the look and feel of your beloved XP if that is the reason.

To me the most annoying is that i can't shedule the updates anymore it does it whenever it likes to and that could be when you capture a game or like to do anything else which needs the full power of the machine, but just go offline when you do such and the problerm is solved.

Cmdr Zieman?

No it's not my work i found it in the web.
Also i like better the painted images form the '90s like the cover of "Space Crusade" you posted.
But i fell a little in love with Commander Keen, sure it's sorta lame compared to games for the miggy from the same time but i missed the game back then since i was addicted to the amiga and i like it. It is not overrated as claimed sometimes it's a good series of games and when i re-started 1990 on my dads PC i would have loved it. (i had a pause between Intellivision and computers caused by religious feelings, a fail but also then i lived a sorta a hippie life and computers wasn't important, my friends didn't understood my addiction to computergames - also a fail).

Nice track.
hmm... soundcloud let's see if i can make use of it, some modules i uploaded to the archive but not the one i like to post now.
Because the title music reminded me of a couple of modules made by one who are very close, very limited but nonetheless good it's not the mass which makes the difference it's the talent one has. You can have 128 tracks and produce lame tard or just 4 and it can be special. Perhaps the strong limitation forced them to get more out of it.

 

[Gernot]

https://soundcloud.com/gernot-schrader%2Fphreedom

My young friends use to say it sounds like a ring-tone, erm yes.
A couple of years ago i uploaded some clips of "Pioneer" containing this music then i found them later on a site where they offered ring-tones.

 

[Gernot]

Some FFE & GUS related things

To be honest after the success with Settlers and Lords where the GUS enhanced the sound a lot it turned out quite funny with the FFE score.
The Intro track sounds good but alrady the next is completely wrong, the string ensemble is far to loud and you won't hear the melody it's all just heavy strings they seem not to end proper and it get louder and louder (while Babayaga is problematic also when you use simply a good wavetable synth), it would need a patch but unfortunately there is no patch for this game i would have to create it myself.

Therefore a lot of sites related to the GUS popped up when i searched for patches which i didn't had in my search results before.
It seems it shouldn't be problematic to share you can even download the source which is usually only the case when it's abandoned.

Andys advice works for (common) DOSBox as well, if you follow this GUS will work fine for FFE (relatively fine it works but it's not what one could expect)

Probably it's caused by the HMI format, something strange to me is also that i created once a different score and converted some MIDI to HMP these tracks all work fine with FFE and besides they sound very well with the GUS nothing wrong here, fantastic classical music. Now i took the conversions of Mike Cook which sound a little better and converted them (it was quite difficult and needed several steps).
But they have a strange behave in the game, the tunes won't end, already when you enter the game from the title screen the last note of the intro is still playing and Babayaga starts while this note is still playing on and this happens with each track.

Perhaps i can even fix this behave with the patch because i noticed you can set a lead in and a lead out for the instruments.

As soon as i have a couple of games running well with GUS i will open a thread on Vogons, some idiots will like it.

 

[Gernot]

To make it proof

It really would need a revision of the GUS patch (patches.ini) of FFE, already "qqfront" leaks of the drums and many other tracks sound even wrong.
Sad that there is no custom made patch for it yet which exist else for other games. (except i did something wrong i have no possibility to compare how that would have been with a real hardware). From on 13 minutes you hear how GUS sounds in DOSBox for FFE. The "real action" starts after the still where i playback the music with i newly found player which uses the miles sound drivers it allows me to play the music back over any of the drivers thus i can even emulate now for a player the output via SBFM without that the MIDI would be piped to my hardware. The worst of all to do so but nice for such comparisons.