AFAIK MPU-IPC-T (XT? maybe 4.77 MHz?) was designed for old PCs. The MPU401AT was a later card compatible with faster units. It's likely the SB16 also works fine with faster machines.

Malik is using an MPU-IPC-T in his 486 box (or was in December 2010)... I'm reasonably confident this is a software issue... I've noticed some other glitchy behaviour in Space Quest 4 too... occasional long pauses in the middle of dialogue, missing sound effects.

Might be because I have 64MB of RAM in this box? Maybe I should reduce it to 32 or 16MB?

Give it a go!

And try to slow things down in BIOS. Especially anything IO or bus delay related.

I'm still using the MPU-IPC-T in my 486. 😁

SquallStrife, this maybe a mundane question, but...are you connecting the MPU-IPC-T breakout box to the MPU-IPC-T ISA card or did you connect it directly to your SB16's MIDI/Game Port?

Mine is connected to the MPU-IPC-T ISA card in the 486.

If connected to the MPU-IPC-T card, then try and see if there is an option in BIOS called "8-bit I/O Recovery Time". If you can see it, set the value to 8.

FYI, my PIII 1 GHz Coppermine (underclocked to 500MHz) system runs the Roland CM-500 fine via Music Quest PC MIDI card (100% MPU-401 "intelligent mode" compatible). And this system has 512MB RAM installed.

Malik wrote:

SquallStrife, this maybe a mundane question, but...are you connecting the MPU-IPC-T breakout box to the MPU-IPC-T ISA card or did you connect it directly to your SB16's MIDI/Game Port?

It wouldn't fit, the breakout box has a 25pin connector! 😉

I changed the BLASTER variable to contain P300 instead of P330, so as not to conflict. Like I said, most games are working perfectly with it, even Monkey Island, which previously didn't work unless I disabled the cache or turned off turbo.

Malik wrote:

If connected to the MPU-IPC-T card, then try and see if there is an option in BIOS called "8-bit I/O Recovery Time". If you can see it, set the value to 8.

I've found a few BIOS options relating to 8-bit IO, I'll post some screenies when I get home from work this arvo.

Malik wrote:

FYI, my PIII 1 GHz Coppermine (underclocked to 500MHz) system runs the Roland CM-500 fine via Music Quest PC MIDI card (100% MPU-401 "intelligent mode" compatible). And this system has 512MB RAM installed.

That's good to know.

Say, is X-Wing designed for the MT-32 anyway?

Reckon it would sound better on my DB50XG? (I'm guessing it would run better on my 200MMX box anyway)

This MPU card was bought purely for MT-32 games...

Anyhow, these are the options available to me:

Any ideas?

Usually if the game supports GM, it's meant for GM. Usually that is. There are exceptions...

What's that 'extra AT cycle WS'? maybe that will help.

I remember playing x-wing floppy on my aunt's DX2-66 and if I remember correctly it ran great with details about 75% up. There wasn't a whole lot of difference as you went up though.

Tie Fighter though, you definitely want a Pentium for that so you can play in 640x480 😀

Nope... no joy.

Oh well, everything else works, I'll try X-Wing on my 200MMX box, with the CMI8330 and DB50XG. (Well, XR385 😜)

I'm sure I played X-Wing on a 386SX-40 - towards the end the Death Star levels where almost unplayable, mostly it was fine though.

I can't remember if it lists seperate MT-32 and MIDI/GM ? The Collectors CD version offers more options, IIRC.

I changed back to an ISA video card instead of the VLB one that was in there, and now SQ4 works properly.

X-Wing still acts up, but I'm about to fire it up on my 200MMX.

I'm sure I played X-Wing on a 386SX-40 - towards the end the Death Star levels where almost unplayable, mostly it was fine though.

Turning the 'death star surface detail' down removed all the obstacles from the trench and made the final level of the the 3rd tour amazingly easy 😁 was basically cheating 🤣.
But yeah I played the hell out of that game on my 486SX-25 and never had problems, although I had most details turned down.

X-Wing runs great and sounds pretty good on the XG DB, so I think that will be the solution there. Thanks for the help guys! 😀

I'm still stoked to have a real MPU401.

I think I found another game that required an intelligent MPU401 to work properly: the gimpy DOS release of Street Fighter 2. When I had the MT32 attached to my SB16, I tried to pick "Roland" sound in the setup menu, but the program froze. It now works properly through the MPU-IPC-T.

Adventure games from Legend also need a Roland MPU401. E.g. Gateway, a brilliant game BTW.

Grrrr SQ4 is such a buggy piece of crap!!!

I'm using the unofficial CD-ROM version updare here and the GoSierra patch here, but even now dialogue will occasionally just not play, needing me to hit enter to start the next bit of dialogue, thereby missing bits of information.

Using a DX2/66, but it still does it with turbo off. What's the deal?

SquallStrife wrote:

Formerly, my MT-32 ran correctly off my SB16's MIDI port when playing X-Wing, but connected to the MPU, it plays the three chord notes behind the Lucasarts logo and then hangs with the 1 and 3 highlighted on the MT32's LCD. There is also quite bad clipping when the notes play.

Bumping to say that I've changed motherboard in my 486 system and this still happens.

HOWEVER

Now that I have an SC-55ST, I tried it, attached to the MPU-IPC-T and it worked perfectly!

I'm thinking maybe the Roland music data is corrupt in my installation of X-Wing...

Try a reinstall of Xwing, then. Apply all patches that can be mustered. First generation MT-32s have a buffer overflow bug while receiving instant SysEX messages, that might have a say in the matter as well. Before launching the game, reset the MT-32 (hold down master volume and rhythm, then press 1. A remapp cannot hurt either: hold down master volume and 5 together for 1 or 2 seconds then press 1)

I can do an Xwing test for you on my computer tomorrow. My MPU-IPC-T is in a more advanced system (see my signature) but I can cripple it to the perf. level of a 486SX to rule out the speed issue.

Dunno if this helps but I have an mt32 that I've used with an mpu-ipc-t in my 386, works fine with lost vikings [does have mt32 as a music option].

Will see if I can try it with xwing.