StarControl works with SPEEDSET v1.0.1 and with the EmuPPDAC module (both downloadable from this forum -- do a search for starcontrol).

VDMSound doesn't emulate Tandy -- your best choice here would be DosBox at http://dosbox.cjb.net/ . [edit by: ???? Starcontrol may also work with NAGI].

V.

[edit by Snover: I'm sure he meant to say NAGI that second time. no. really.]

[Edit by vladr: somebody's been editing my message without putying "edit" marks. 😠 Not only that, but that somebody recommended to use NAGI with a non-AGI game, which is kind of... well,... not very smart. 😜 ]

Unregistered wrote:

Also, I'm not sure if VDMSound does this, but does it pipe Tandy 3-voice info to the sound card for such games as Space Quest I and other AGI Sierra games?

1st check Nick Sonneveld's NAGI FAQ at:
showthread.php?s=&threadid=167&highlight=NAGI

He has the links for the program's home page and documentation.
And yes, it supports the three-voice audio in the early Sierra games.

Please respond to bmmpxf@comcast.net, as I'm not always able to check this forum.

We don't have the time to individually email everyone. Registering allows you the option of at least knowing when someone has responded to your message.

Hi this is Mike (bmmpxf) again. Thanks for the responses!

Installed EMUPPDAC by downloading it, placing the code in VDMS.INI, and running that regsrv32 command. I got a windows that said it loaded correctly! And when I "Run with VDMS" Star Control I, it says "EMUPPDAC blah blah loaded fine etc" but then I get zero sound. I'm using the version off the compilation CD given out with SC3. Starcon.com works, but goes pretty fast through the title screen...Starcon.exe wants copy protection. But no sound in any case.

I also loaded SPEEDSET and tried the suggested BAT file with SCII. I get a window that says "SPEEDSET loaded blah DOS sound blah okay" but then I get the "Press a key to continue..." like you do when the program has stopped running...but it never started!!! Doing a regular "Run with VDMS" on Starcon2.COM loads the game, but with no sound (and begins in black and white).

Any thoughts?

Mike

P.S. Next time I'll register. I promise...

If you got SPEEDSET 1.0.1 then just make a .bat file in your STARCON directory that contains the following two lines:

SPEEDSET 5
STARCON.COM

...and "Run with VDMS" this bat file. Note that the syntax for SPEEDSET changed from version 0.5 to 1.0.1, which may explain why you were getting the "Press any key..." behaviour.

Vladr, your suggestion for Starcon didn't work. Besides, doesn't SPEEDSET only change the speed? So, if I wasn't getting sound before, wouldn't I not get sound after? The program loads just fine, and SPEEDSET does change the speed, as indicated, but I get no sound.

Just for the heck of it, here is a short list of programs that I have been able to get working...or not.

King's Quest 4 (SCI)
King's Quest 5 (French NON-CD-ROM version...I can't get the CD version to produce sound)
King's Quest 6 (German NON-CD-ROM version...same thing...game works fine, just no sound.)
Space Quest 4 (great!)

Now, all I need is to get Star Control I & II working, and I will be one *happy camper*. But so far, the advice given, unless I have misunderstood, has not worked. Help?

Mike

(See I told you I'd register!)

Well, you said you set up EmuPPDAC. So once SPEEDSET is also set up everything should work (it does for me). Actually I think it's my fault, I forgot there is a parameter you have to pass to STARCON. So set up EmuPPDAC so that it says that it loads blah blah, then edit your .bat file to read:

SPEEDSET 5
STARCON.COM /s:LPT1

This will tell STARCON to look on port 0x3bc (LPT1) where EmuPPDAC should be waiting for it. 😀

Be warned that SC behaves strangely under NT/2k/XP (you'll see in the first battle you have).

V.

bmmpxf wrote:

Now, all I need is to get Star Control I & II working, and I will be one *happy camper*. But so far, the advice given, unless I have misunderstood, has not worked. Help?

You might want to check this site:
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/
and especially this FAQ.
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/faq/

You're probably not going to get it running natively at 100% perfection. These programs simply require too much "jumping through hoops".

You might try DosBox v0.55, I did some basic testing and it seems to be working for Star Control II. I placed my report in Vlad's compatibility database.
http://vdmsound.sourceforge.net/compat/
NOTE: I only did basic checks as I really don't "know" the game.

Consider that there were multiple version of these games available and you might find emulation to be your answer. Emulation itself has it it's own "hoops" to jump through, but the end results can be very good.

For Star Control I, it seems that the best version is a near-tie between the Amiga (computer) version and the Genesis (game console) version. No surprise there as the two have a very similar architecture.

Setting up the Amiga version can be time-consuming if you don't already have a working Amiga emulator. The advantage is that this is the "original". It has all the digital audio samples and digital music that's missing from the PC version (the PC version was limited to the Ad-Lib audio board). You can even run the game from it's "virtual floppies". That, however, is very slow and I recommend a "virtual hard-drive" install.

Setting up the Genesis version is much easier and has (basically)the same digital audio that the Amiga version has... It even has an "attract mode" that demonstrates a lot of the gameplay for you. I had heard a rumor that some of the gameplay was modified for the Genesis, but I can't confirm that...

(Note: There were also versions of Star Control for the Commodore 64 and the Amstrad CPC computers. These, however, were "crippled" when compared to the others due to memory/processor restrictions.)

For Star Control II, there was no Amiga version only the PC and 3DO console versions, The 3DO version had a lot of audio-visual enhancements that weren't in the PC version.

As you have discovered, running SC2 on modern PC is quite difficult. Vlad really had a time getting any audio to work on SC2. Unfortunately emulating the 3DO version isn't an option as there are no 3DO emulators ( I know abouth FreeDO at http://freedo.sourceforge.net/ , but that's still at a pre-alpha status).
(URL for FreeDo corrected).

Your best hope here is something else that you'll have to wait (quite) a while for..., but there's a port/remake of Star Control II in the works:
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/urquanmasters/

Just to give you an idea, here's the Amiga version running in a window:

Here's the Genesis version, running in a window:

I imagine the Genesis version might look better since Gens has the 2xSAI engine. Some people (you know who you are...) don't like the way 2xSAI and Eagle engines improve picture quality, but *I* do, and I think that is the general consensus.

😜

Correct link(s) to FreeDO:
http://www.freedo.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freedo

Stiletto wrote:

Correct link(s) to FreeDO:...

Oops. Too many cut-and-paste actions. Corrected.
I prefer the http://freedo.sourceforge.net/ link as it has the basic information and a couple of screenshots.
Discouraging that the "new" page has almost nothing on it...

vladr wrote:

Be warned that SC behaves strangely under NT/2k/XP (you'll see in the first battle you have).

V.

Did you try that Star Control 2 version that I posted on my web site and see if you get the same problem? I posted the URL a couple of months back. If not, here it is:

http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~diehlr/starcon2.zip

For copy protection, rather than using the starcon2.com crack file, which doesn't appear to passthrough command line parameters onto starcon2.exe (big problem if you are using a custom soundcard configuration like LPT1 audio)... download http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~diehlr/starmap.pdf

Let me know if this fixes the problem with the first Sylandrio probe encounter being the Sa-Matra.

BTW- the above links will only be valid until Oct. 8th.

Yep, seems to work! Except that for some completely !@#$ed up reason SPEEDSET doesn't work properly for me now.

I made a diff of my (broken) copy (in G:\SC2) and yours (G:\SC2_ROB), and I got:

1Binary files SC2\CON1.PKG and SC2_ROB\CON1.PKG differ
2Binary files SC2\CON2.PKG and SC2_ROB\CON2.PKG differ
3Only in SC2_ROB: DEFGRP.DAT
4Binary files SC2\HUMAN.SHP and SC2_ROB\HUMAN.SHP differ
5Only in SC2_ROB: MELEE.CFG
6Only in SC2: MELEE.COM
7Binary files SC2\MELEE.EXE and SC2_ROB\MELEE.EXE differ
8Only in SC2_ROB: RANDGRP.DAT
9Binary files SC2\SETUP.PKG and SC2_ROB\SETUP.PKG differ
10Binary files SC2\STARCON.PKG and SC2_ROB\STARCON.PKG differ
11Binary files SC2\STARCON2.EXE and SC2_ROB\STARCON2.EXE differ
12Only in SC2_ROB: STARINFO.DAT
13Only in SC2_ROB: UPDATE.TXT

V.

Well, at least we know there is a good copy of Star Control 2 floating around out there now. If anyone else wants to mirror it, please do so before Oct 8th 2002, because after that time, the account where it is hosted will be closed.

And fast!
Wasn't there a module addon thing or something?

A module addon? I'm not sure what you're talking about. If you mean the music, somebody did extract all the tracks into their respective mod files.