Wow! Well that's interesting...

HunterZ wrote:

- Maybe try using GM instead of MT-32, as the music in SQ5 was reportedly composed primarily for GM. BASSMIDIDRV is a great Windows soundfont MIDI synth if you need one.

SQ5 is indeed GM.

SQ4 was the last Space Quest with MT-32 exclusive content.

SQ5 works on MT-32, but AFAIK it's just a map to the MT-32's instruments.

(I expect this has a lot to do with the fact that SQ5 was developed outside Sierra at Dynamix, and only involved one of the Two Guys from Andromeda)

Well I agree with the sentiments here.

This is something typical with emulation, you either dump or backup from your own copy or you can just download it. Especially in cases where there is some sort of physical copy protection there are even more barriers.

If it's something from 30 or so years ago, requiring specific hardware to do so...

One way or another, either you care about enjoying the stuff, or strictly following the letter of the law and just let it disappear.

Not withstanding, one can debate this, but I would say simply make it clear that it is forbidden to request them. Give it the same treatment as "abandonware" here on the forums.

Provide a simple hash checksum for those wishing to verify their legally dumped copies and that's that.

DOSBox can still be fully utilized without mt32 roms, just as you could use it with only free (open source and/or freeware) games.

Either way, again I'm impressed with the state of mt32 emulation, it is viable and hopefully one day will perfectly match the original (as much as possible.)

One last thing, Roland could go the route of cloanto (amiga kickstart images), and simply sell the rom images.

The people who want it for free won't pay anyway (trust me.) I'm sure many would like a simple legal alternative, as with things like GOG.

solaz wrote:

One last thing, Roland could go the route of cloanto (amiga kickstart images), and simply sell the rom images.

The people who want it for free won't pay anyway (trust me.) I'm sure many would like a simple legal alternative, as with things like GOG.

Agreed! We have all grown up now and can afford to buy stuff 😀