I presume you read the readme and specificly the part
"To run resource-demanding games: "

if so:

1. wait till we get a faster cpu core
2. get a faster pc

maybe in reverse that 😀

I've been able to run nearly any game on my PC when I had 98. (not SE) I could run 4 color games all the way to Rise of Nations.

Duke Nukem, Death Rally, Tyrian 2000, Ultima Underworld 1 & 2, Ultima 0 - 9 (running 8 was a bitch, and 0 is Alakabeth), Shadow Warrior, Blood 1 and 2, Zone 66 (This one takes the prize), Lamborghini American Challenge, Albion, TES: Arena & Daggerfall, Betrayal at Krondor & Antara, Return to Krondor (its 3d but its ok), and Crystal Caves.

All those ran with Digital Sound (if allowed) and Midi. They also played at full speed! And not a single one crashed except Zone 66... It was hard to get it running, but I won in the end.

Now for your problems, just get a Sound Blaster 16 PCI for $10-20 from http://www.newegg.com It runs any game in DOS and it fast.

I use an Ensoniq Soundscape PCI for my DOS sound, not an SB Live! 5.1. But the SB Live! has DOS support I believe.

Well, anyways, a soundcard that has DOS support like an Ensoniq or a Sound Blaster will work great for you under win 98 (even if not in dos mode)

Nearly all those games ran in Windows 98 (gui, not dosmode) too.

-Kain

I guess that sb 16 pci doesnot have adlib sound.., used by a lot of games.
😠

but most games have support for a Sound Blaster Pro or 100% compatible card... and some also had SB 16 PCI support.

Kain: Your 100% right about SB Live being dos compatible as it comes with sb16/sbpro dos emulator drivers.

Ok, I'll dual/install 98 and not have to worry about hardware profiles anymore (although I never tried them)

However those drivers are only COMPATIBLE! As is the card. But it isn't """"COMPLIANT"""". It's like a GeForce 2, it is compatible with direct x 9, but it dosn't do any of the snazzy effects.

Or like a B&W TV, it shows the picture, but it isn't color, even if the signal comes in color.

Hmm. I dunno. I don't want to go through all the hassle of buying a soundcard just to get DOS games to work with sound. I'll try and find DOS sound drivers for the built-in sound card in the P4 motherboard first.....

Also, have you tried downloading those demos? Fluid Motion works well. CTRL-F12 to speed it up. It's sweet. Can't wait til Solstice and the rest work under DOSBOX.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/kevingpo/resurrect/
(see bottom of page for demos (the coder demo scene).

Don't expect demos to run well on any machine other than the kind for which they were originally designed. So far, DosBox only consistently works with real-mode 386 programs. Anything else is a gamble with a CVS release. And you can expect running a demo within an emulator to require exponentially more resources than running the program natively in your OS.

So basically your options are:
1) Use an "old" PC, close to the system requirements of the demo.
2) Set up a Dual-boot on your PC with a soundcard that supports DOS-level audio.
3) Use a program that provides "full PC emulation" like DosBox and use an extremely powerful processor.

Odds are, to run all the demos you like, you'll end up using all of these options.

I do have bunch of intros (oldskool ones) runnin on 0.58 not CVS

Predator wrote:

I guess that sb 16 pci doesnot have adlib sound.., used by a lot of games.
😠

The SB16 has adlib sound, which is the very basic midi-emulation used by most 'cheap' sound cards at that time.

It does not, however, have an MT-32 or General MIDI sequencer sound, which is much richer in sound.

Originally posted by Predator I do have bunch of intros (oldskool ones) runnin on 0.58 not CVS

Which means they use 386 real-mode or earlier and you are using the third option. Other demos won't be as cooperative.

ClémentXVII wrote:

The SB16 has adlib sound, which is the very basic midi-emulation used by most 'cheap' sound cards at that time.

It does not, however, have an MT-32 or General MIDI sequencer sound, which is much richer in sound.

sb 16 *PCI* .

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Which means they use 386 real-mode or earlier and you are using the third option. Other demos won't be as cooperative.

Third option ? w000t?

Predator wrote:

Third option ? w000t?

so how's not reading the thread working out for you?

I thought the real SOUND BLASTER 16 PCI (newest DOS SB) had Mt-32 sound...

The SB16 and newer ISA cards have an MPU-401 compatable interface on the joystick port that can be used with an external synthesizer such as the MT-32. Older cards has a proprietary interface that required a special cable or something along those lines.

As for "emulating" and MT-32, only SoundBlasters with wavetable synths (AWE32/64, PCI128, 64PCI?, Live) can simulate MT-32 sounds by loading instrument banks containing MT-32 sounds.

As far as I know, the SB16 PCI is just a PCI PnP SB16, so it would only have an OPL3 chip and a 16-bit 44KHz DAC. I'm pretty sure that only the 32/64/128/Live cards have wavetable synths - I could be wrong though. Of course, there's also that WaveBlaster daugther card that you can attach to the SB16 to give it a wavetable synth, but I don't know much about it (I imagine it's similar to the AWE32/64 synth).

Lastly, as I have already mentioned, the SB16 and older use OPLx chips, which are FM synthesizers made by Yamaha. They don't really have much to do with MIDI except that old games and cheap electronic keyboards used them to produce music. FM synthesis was also widely used in 8- and 16-bit video game consoles as the primary music hardware.

I could go on, but I'm sure that's more than anyone in this thread wants to know about it 😉

What about an ensoniq soundscape PCI? It gave me the best sound out of sb16/live!/onboard.

PS. Nice signature HunterZ... http://www.nma-fallout.com/forums if you want to get some tidbits about Fallout 3.

I don't know much about the ESS or other Ensoniq cards, but I do know that Creative bought out Ensoniq so that they could base their PCI technology on the work that Ensoniq had done. Creative seems to get all of their new innovations that way nowadays 🙁 I think the DOS drivers for the PCI128 and SB Live are based heavily on Ensoniq drivers as well, as they use Ensoniq Waveset (.ECW) files for wavetable MIDI in DOS. Unfortunately that is an obscure format, so you're stuck with the default 2, 4, or 8MB wavesets that Ensoniq and Creative released with (some of) their cards.

As for Fallout, it's the greatest. [brag]You should look for my Ammo & Armor FAQ that's all over the place[/brag]. I'm not holding my breath for a Fallout 3 because most of the original team left Interplay and formed the company Troika, which just released Temple of Elemental Evil and is also known for Arcanum and Vampire: The Masquerade. Brotherhood of Steel, besides being a RTS instead of an RPG, was made by a totally different development team, which explains why it isn't nearly as fun as Fallout 1 and 2 (and why I haven't managed to stick with it long enough to beat it).

I have a mobo with ISA... I'll get an ISA card with General Midi or Mt-32 someday!

PS. Fallout Tactics is great! If you play it without cheats its a very good game that leaves you wanting for more!