Re: Retro confessions. What are yours?

Posted on 2021-01-25, 17:14

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Milliways

in Milliways

Sometimes people confuse General MIDI and FM synth. I used to do that as well. Blame '90s game setup menus which labeled any kind of game music that wasn't CD audio or PCM as "midi music". For comparison, here's what FM synth usually sounds like and here's one example of how General MIDI can sound .

---

Re: ESFM details

Posted on 2021-01-25, 07:34

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Found two more games which support ESFM Enhanced music: Z - https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/z Theme Hospital - https://www.mobygames.com/game/theme-hospital Granted, I'm not familiar with either of these, but it seems like the implementation was handled properly. The music sounds much nicer using …

---

Re: Using Audigy drivers with a Sound Blaster Live

Posted on 2021-01-24, 18:27

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

khyypio wrote on 2021-01-24, 17:53: I wonder how this driver configuration would go with Audigy SB0090? It might work, but I have never tested that. Note that the stock drivers for the SB0090 already support using soundfonts for General MIDI music in DOS games. Phil showcases that in this video.

---

Re: Using Audigy drivers with a Sound Blaster Live

Posted on 2021-01-24, 17:37

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I´d love to try this method but is DirectX 9 necessary? I´m asking this because I have a DX8 card (GF4 Ti4200) and I´ve been told that it is recommended to stick with a DirectX that´s period-correct with my GPU... I'm using DirectX 9 mainly because that's what ships on the Audigy2 ZS driver …

---

Re: CT4810 DOS Sound Issues (horrible)

Posted on 2021-01-24, 05:56

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

FM Synth emulation on the AudioPCI and also on all Creative Live!/Audigy cards is really bad . The Audigy/SBLive emulation is not nearly as terrible as the AudioPCI. At least it tries to sound like OPL3, albeit with an annoying metallic undertone. AudioPCI cards are in a league of their own. There …

---

Re: Using Audigy drivers with a Sound Blaster Live

Posted on 2021-01-22, 14:32

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Phil gave a quick shoutout to this guide in his latest video . He also said that he might make another one where he goes over the entire process in more detail. Phil, if you're reading this, it would be an honor to have the guide featured on your channel! Especially since your videos are the main …

---

Re: ESFM details

Posted on 2021-01-22, 09:34

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Bondi wrote on 2021-01-22, 09:11: There have to be more games that support the enhanced mode, I guess. Magic Carpet 2 seems to support it as well. I'm not familiar with that game, so I can't really tell if the implementation is good or bad. The music is very unusual, no matter what sound card you …

---

Re: Native DOS games with framerate display built in

Posted on 2021-01-22, 06:17

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in DOS

in DOS

The 3D accelerated versions of Tomb Raider have a FPS counter built in. It's usually activated by pressing F2. I can confirm that this works at least with the Voodoo Rush and S3D executables.

---

Re: Athlon 64 build for 2001-2006 Windows XP gaming

Posted on 2021-01-21, 11:01

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Yup, the CPU is the main bottleneck. That said, 2006 was somewhat of a transition year, with Vista coming into the picture and removing EAX hardware support. Fortunately, most games released from that point onward tend to work fine on newer systems, with EAX being handled through ALchemy / OpenAL, …

---

Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2021-01-21, 05:57

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Milliways

in Milliways

Finally done with Tomb Raider 2. It was ok, but not as good as the first game. Too much combat and too little exploration of ancient ruins. It didn't help that the same, blocky bad guys kept popping up all the time. Near the end, things got so repetitive that I barely forced myself to complete the …

---

Re: New sound card project: AWE64 Legacy

Posted on 2021-01-20, 15:42

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

appiah4 wrote on 2021-01-20, 13:26: They were manufactured in the 80s and nobody knows who manufactured them and how. More like mid '90s, which is conveniently the timeframe when the original FM synthesis patent expired. Some info on these 1:1 OPL3 copies can be found here: http://www.os2museum.com …

---

Re: Using Audigy drivers with a Sound Blaster Live

Posted on 2021-01-20, 08:39

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Soulreaper wrote on 2021-01-20, 07:02: Is this a solution for me to use my sound canvas with my live! card? in windows 98! I haven't personally tried to connect my SBLive to an external MIDI device (since I don't own one), so my knowledge on the subject is limited.

---

Re: Using Audigy drivers with a Sound Blaster Live

Posted on 2021-01-20, 08:31

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Great guide OP. I have an SB0100 and will try this out next time my Win98 system is on the bench. I went through the wringer trying to get my SB1070 (low profile Sound Blaster VX) working last week with no success. Reckon it's worth trying this method with that card, or is the CA0106 chip a dead …

---

Re: Bought these games today

Posted on 2021-01-20, 03:47

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Milliways

in Milliways

Besides Gothic II (which I own the non-Gold edition box for too) and Starship Titanic I have never played any of the rest so beyond just collecting I am excited to eventually play these titles. Nice haul! A physical copy of Gothic II is well worth having, especially for the ability to install the …

---

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2021-01-19, 15:32

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just got my first CF to IDE adapter and I used it to set up a DOS 6.22 install. Remarkable how little noise these retro rigs produce when you get rid of old IDE hard drives. Also, I put a NOS Speeze copper core cooler into my AthlonXP system. It's much quieter than its stock AMD counterpart which I …

---

Re: ESFM details

Posted on 2021-01-19, 14:52

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Stretch wrote on 2021-01-19, 12:40: Have you tried a newer ESFM.MDI driver? Maybe that will fix the music. Just tried that. I overwrote ESFM.MDI in the WarCraft2 folder with the one from the Heroes2 folder. No change. WarCraft2 with ESFM Enhanced music still sounds bad.

---

Re: ESFM details

Posted on 2021-01-19, 09:56

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

My memory failed I guess. I vaguely remember Tomb Raider 1 also having an ESS option? Yup, many games support ESS cards for digital sound, including Tomb Raider. However, only a few games seem to natively support Enhanced ESFM for music. We're trying to figure out which ones do it properly and …

---

Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2021-01-19, 09:51

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Milliways

in Milliways

Let me start out by pointing out the elephant in the room: I am not at all versed in, or even remotely interested in, a subset of RPGs that are more often simply called JRPGs. This subset of the genre rubs me the wrong way in every aspect imaginable, I can not stand any single one of them fore more …

---

Re: ESFM details

Posted on 2021-01-19, 08:39

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

appiah4 wrote on 2021-01-19, 08:25: Descent and Screamer do. Descent does support ESS688 for digital sound, but it has no native ESFM support for music. At least not in version 1.4 that I'm using.

---

Re: ESFM details

Posted on 2021-01-19, 06:38

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Very nice, thank you for the records! Enhanced ESFM sounds great in comparison. Cheers! If you want to check which other titles might support it, here's a list of games which use the Miles Sound System: https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/sound-engine-ailmiles-sound-system/offset,0/so,1a/ I'm not …

---