you could even ask if you need mt32 for 486 at all 😉
or are there any sound canvas/gm games that use intelligent mode 😉

you have too many LA devices vetz and I have too few 🤣

on topic though, I can't remember any game that *needs* a LA synth and requires a cpu better than a 386... usually stuff that benefit from a 486 support also GM or GS...

There is a certain speed and responsiveness advantage with the 486 but there arent many arcades / sims which need the 486 CPU for smooth running. Late DOS-era "backport" patches for Comanche and Ultima games come to mind, also X-Wing... - games which were written for general MIDI in the first place. But as far as I know, intelligent mode is not required for these.

I myself keep the LAPC-I in a K6-3+ rig for now but only because it has the most reliable PSU.

Yeah, that was what I thought.

I guess later games (for the 486) that do support the MT32 do not need intelligent mode and will be just fine running from UART. The card is going into my 386 then 😀 Now I just need to find a case for it! heh, easier said than done! Getting the case might turn out harder than all the other parts combined....

keropi: I only have two LA devices at the moment (CM32L and CM500), so I'm not like Mau1wulf1977 or some other members here on Vogons 🤣.

I also agree 😀

If we look at specific games we can see that Wing Commander 1 and 2 supported the MT-32 but Strike Commander and Privateer already had General MIDI support. Same goes for Sierra (Space Quest 3 and 4 MT-32, Space Quest 5 General MIDI) and Lucasarts (Monkey Island 2 and Fate of Atlantis MT-32, DOTT and Sam & Max General MIDI).

Would be interested to know whether the games you mention (Strike Commander, Privateer, SQ5) were intended primarily for MT-32 or GM. Pretty sure Privateer was composed on GM as it sounds great on the XR385.

accorging to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MT-32-co … _computer_games
strike commander is a mt-32 game
sq5 doesn't matter as it doesn't need 486.

When it comes to Strike Commander I've tested both GM and MT-32 mode on it. I personally think MT-32 mode sounds better, but the game does not require an intelligent MIDI connection so it doesn't matter in this case.

I'm running a MPU-401 "intelligent" card - MusicQuest PC MIDI card in my Pentium II 400MHz machine. I just set the 8-bit I/O Recovery Time in BIOS to 8, to avoid speed related issues. Unfortunately, not all motherboard BIOS has this option. It is currently connected to the CM-500.

I still play Heart of China - just for the music actually, in this setup. (I don't play the arcade sequence with this setup. I just click to win the sequence.) GODS' CM-32L specific banks are played accurately. DOS running speed is at 400MHz.

I don't have a 386, but my 486DX2-66 currently runs with the LAPC-I. I just set the Turbo Button to off to play early Sierra games. The games play well and the LA synth works as it should, and I don't think there will be requirement differences in using a 386 or 486 for this purpose. If I still needed to slow this 486 for gameplay reasons, I set the internal cache to off, using ICD.EXE. When it comes to LA synth, it is not affected at any speed in this 486.

Playing with internal cache and the turbo button, I can create a spectrum of system speed from a 2.9MHz and 8MHz PC XT like system, to a ~25MHz 386DX-like system upto the max 66MHz 486. More info : The 486, The Turbo Button And The Internal Cache - Rudimentary Speed Analysis

EDIT : The system specs will vary since they are written at different times, but focus on specific issues.

EDIT2 : All the above systems use a PSU with the -5v rail.