VOGONS


First post, by Zuon

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I don't know if this is the correct place to post this, but I'm working on a personal music mod for an old DOS game, and I was wondering if there were any way to convert MIDI files to XMI format and have it play back in DOS. I've searched all over, and found XMI2MID, but I need the reverse of that. Can anyone give me some pointers? My understanding of old technologies like this is somewhat mediocre, but I'm always interested in learning how things work.

Reply 1 of 5, by gerwin

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Attached is what you need. The main thing is MidiForm.exe from the Miles Sound System SDK.
I use it myself to play ordinary midi files with the miles drivers and tools, for that any midi file has to be converted to XMI first. I added an example bat file to show how it works.

(Probably dos4gw.exe is required, just get that one from somewhere...)

Attachments

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 2 of 5, by Zuon

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Sorry for the delay in replying, but thank you very much! I was waiting to get back to you until I had something to show for it. I've been experimenting by making a music mod for the DOS version of MegaMan X. The original compositions are very weak and lackluster, so for fun, I took some midis from VGMusic, edited them, chopped them up, and compressed them for use as replacements in the actual game. Here are the fruits of my labor if you wish to check it out. Simply overwrite the existing XMI files with these new ones. So far, all that is changed is the Main Menu, Save Menu, and first stage. Every other stage is untouched so far.

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  • Filename
    XMI.zip
    File size
    12.66 KiB
    Downloads
    141 downloads
    File comment
    MegaManX DOS Better Music Mod
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 3 of 5, by gerwin

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Glad it worked out and thanks for sharing the result. Some of the tunes are catchy. But I don't have the Megaman game myself. Is this MT-32 specific or wil General Midi work as well?
Maybe you should keep track of which tracks from VGmusic you used, and add a text file with that info to the package.

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 4 of 5, by Zuon

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gerwin wrote:

Glad it worked out and thanks for sharing the result. Some of the tunes are catchy. But I don't have the Megaman game myself. Is this MT-32 specific or wil General Midi work as well?
Maybe you should keep track of which tracks from VGmusic you used, and add a text file with that info to the package.

This was designed with General MIDI in mind. It made with the SGM 2.01 soundfont in mind for DOSBOX, but it also sounds phenomenal with a Gravis Ultrasound in native DOS. Honestly, you'll even notice a better balance between the instruments using Sound Blaster, when compared to the originals, just not as vast of an improvement.

And yes, I will keep track of the midis I've pulled from VGMusic. I plan to include the credits in the full package when it is done. I probably should have done so here as well. I will update it with time.

And if you want to try the demo version of the mod out anyway, there's a free demo of Megaman X floating around on the web, consisting of the first stage. You can copy the music in the same way, just ignoring "DR_2.XMI." That's the only track not in the demo stage.