VOGONS


First post, by SubV

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Hello.

While searching for the old dos games with MT-32/CM-32L support, I found this one: the Universe by Core Design.

Almost every site claims that this game has Roland support, along with Adlib and Sound Blaster. However, when I started the game, it produced only Adlib music. The game has no sound setup or any other configuration program.

Please answer if you managed to run this game with Roland music and sounds. Thank you in advance.

Last edited by SubV on 2014-02-11, 23:27. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 12, by Mau1wurf1977

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Haven't got the game, can't help out 😵

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Reply 2 of 12, by collector

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SubV wrote:

The game has no sound setup or any other configuration program.

If this is a game that you downloaded from some abandonware site, it is likely missing files.

The Sierra Help Pages -- New Sierra Game Installers -- Sierra Game Patches -- New Non-Sierra Game Installers

Reply 3 of 12, by SubV

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collector wrote:

If this is a game that you downloaded from some abandonware site, it is likely missing files.

Not exactly. I've installed the game from original floppy disk images. The directory where I've installed the game consists of two files, UNIVERSE.EXE and UNIVERSE.EPF, nothing more.

Reply 5 of 12, by SubV

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collector wrote:

Original images? Check the physical disks themselves.

It seems you don't understand. I've got the original floppy images (5 floppy disks) of the game. I've installed the game under DosBox. But, there's no option to select a sound card.

The system requirements for Universe are:

386SX-16 Mhz or better, Min 570 Kb free, 2 MB EMS or XMS memory, MS-DOS 5.0, Hard drive, CD-ROM drive for the CD-ROM version, VG […]
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386SX-16 Mhz or better,
Min 570 Kb free, 2 MB EMS or XMS memory,
MS-DOS 5.0,
Hard drive,
CD-ROM drive for the CD-ROM version,
VGA 256 colors graphic card and monitor,
Microsoft or 100% compatible mouse,
Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Roland sound cards supported.

It'd be highly appreciated if someone could explain the way to select the MT-32 as sound card in this game.

Reply 6 of 12, by Gamecollector

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I have the CD version of this game (cd creation date is 3 Nov 1994). The cd contains 1 data track (6 MB). 6 files, universe.exe/epf, file.abs/.bib/.cop (abstract, bibliography and copyright for the cd) and 0lioader.bin.
Unfortunatedly - can't find the manual... 🙁
The game uses Adlib by default. No FX, only music.

Asus P4P800 SE/Pentium4 3.2E/2 Gb DDR400B,
Radeon HD3850 Agp (Sapphire), Catalyst 14.4 (XpProSp3).
Voodoo2 12 MB SLI, Win2k drivers 1.02.00 (XpProSp3).

Reply 7 of 12, by collector

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SubV wrote:

It seems you don't understand. I've got the original floppy images (5 floppy disks) of the game. I've installed the game under DosBox.

Then you meant disks, not images. The actual disks are not images. While the disks can be imaged, they are not the same thing.

The Sierra Help Pages -- New Sierra Game Installers -- Sierra Game Patches -- New Non-Sierra Game Installers

Reply 8 of 12, by sergm

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Anyway, if there is no setup utility (I saw a few games like this, e.g. Overkill shareware), I'd try to play with command line. Things like "A"/"R"/"adlib"/"roland"/"mt32" may work. Searching for these in the .exe may also help.

Reply 10 of 12, by SubV

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Mok wrote:

Universe doesn't support anything except adlib. A few years back I extracted music and sound code to make a hoot driver and there was no trace of any code or external file accessing mpu-401.

Thank you.

Reply 12 of 12, by Mok

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Cebion wrote:

I know old thread.
But I wonder why the Devs of Universe put the tag Roland support on the game even if it's not supported?

I had the same problem with Demoniak.

Unlike Universe, Demoniak actually does have MT-32 music. It's been a long time but I vaguely remember the driver is initialized incorrectly or something similar so it doesn't work out of the box.