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SBPCI128 no sound with Cannon Fodder and Alien Breed

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First post, by tiben

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(i crosspost here from "DOS" as @collector suggested me)

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Hi all,

This is my first post but i come often here, especially since i built a quite old PC for DOS/Win9x/Xp gaming.

In true MS-DOS (7.1 from windows 98), i successfully configured dos drivers for my sbpci128 using theses available from vogons. It works pretty well on a lot of games i tried but not for theses :

- Alien Breed
- Cannon Fodder

Theses two games share a really similar "AVM Configuration program". Setting up sound/music with "Roland" or "Adlib" works but not Soundblaster/soundblaster Pro.
I get a "Error initialising Soundblaster card".

Is there some known compatibilities issues i'm not aware of ? Do i need to tweak something ?

Reply 3 of 7, by James-F

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These games have problem with detecting the sound card in a system faster than a 486, games like that called "speed sensitive games" around here.
The solution is to disable L1 cache to slow down to 486 speed if you have a Pentium, this will not work on a Pentium II.


my important / useful posts are here

Reply 4 of 7, by brostenen

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Confirmed here, that they have problems on even a 5x86-133.
And you need an ISA sound card for that, to avoid other issues.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

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Reply 5 of 7, by tiben

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Thanks for your replies.

So I tried to disable the L1 cache using "setmul" tool and run some tests. My proc is an Athlon64 3000+. The behavior is strange but somewhat encouraging:

- I successfully heard something the first time i tested through the configuration menu of Cannon Fodder. But only the first time. following tests gave the same error as reported on the first post.
- I then tried to run Cannon fodder. It froze next to the first logo screen.
- I rebooted, relaunch setmul then launch cannon fodder and YEAH it worked!

- I then rebooted, relaunch setmul and was able to hear something from alien breed config menu but, next reboot, can't launch it.

So , maybe i need to run more tests to be sure, but it seems i have only one try per boot.

Reply 7 of 7, by gaffa2002

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Sorry for reviving an old thread but I guess the information I have may be useful:
I was able to run Alien Breed on an Athlon 750mhz with both sound and music. Had to:
- Disable L1 cache with setmul
- Run the config program and auto detect sound card (if the cpu is too fast the config program will freeze when selecting sound blaster so make sure l1 cache is disabled BEFORE running it).
-Once sound was setup, run SBCOMP (not sure if every version has this file, the GOG one has it).
-Run ALIEN. If the game remains frozen after the copy protection screen it means you have too much XMS memory, so limit it by using himemx or XMSDISK (In my case, limiting to 16mb did the trick)
-For every time you reboot, you need to run SBCOMP, so creating a batch file to run it is recommended.

LO-RES, HI-FUN

My DOS/ Win98 PC specs

EP-7KXA Motherboard
Athlon Thunderbird 750mhz
256Mb PC100 RAM
Geforce 4 MX440 64MB AGP (128 bit)
Sound Blaster AWE 64 CT4500 (ISA)
32GB HDD

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