I have an update to my issue.

If I run "DOSMID /COM1 TEST.MID", I get output to the MT32-Pi with it connected to the serial port...

But if I run "DOSMID /MPU=330 TEST.MID", I get nothing.

I also tried setting SOFTMPU to port 320 and DOSMID on the same port, but nada.

Next, I am going to attempt to remove my soundcard to see if it's blocking SOFTMPU from working properly.

EDIT: Nope. Removing my ES1688 did nothing.

Just as another follow-up to my request to add support for 386MAX to SoftMPU:

The source code to 386MAX was released last summer: https://github.com/sudleyplace/386MAX

I'm not sure if anybody has been able to build that code base yet, let alone with an open-source toolchain such as Open Watcom v2.

But if SoftMPU could be verified (and if necessary, tweaked) to work properly with this EMM manager as well, that would be another puzzle piece towards having SoftMPU usable without any dependency on closed-source software. (The remaining missing part being the current dependency on closed-source assembly/build tools.)

Again: 386MAX is supposed to support the same I/O port trapping API as that of EMM386 (with some improvements on top of that, if I'm not mistaken), so it really shouldn't be much work, right?

mockingbird wrote on 2023-01-06, 01:24:

I have an update to my issue. […]
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I have an update to my issue.

If I run "DOSMID /COM1 TEST.MID", I get output to the MT32-Pi with it connected to the serial port...

But if I run "DOSMID /MPU=330 TEST.MID", I get nothing.

I also tried setting SOFTMPU to port 320 and DOSMID on the same port, but nada.

Next, I am going to attempt to remove my soundcard to see if it's blocking SOFTMPU from working properly.

EDIT: Nope. Removing my ES1688 did nothing.

Yea, it's definitely the Goldstar Prime2C serial ports on my VLB I/O card... I tested a different card "pic P4020" and "p4021" and it worked perfectly...

I can get General Midi to work with SoftMPU USB to Serial mode with the Goldstar ports, but not MT32 mode. In MT32 mode, I get "unexpected MIDI status".

spiffythedog wrote on 2022-12-06, 03:16:

Here are a few more games that seem to require intelligent mode to run correctly. I tested these on a virtual Intel Pentium 75 v […]
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Here are a few more games that seem to require intelligent mode to run correctly. I tested these on a virtual Intel Pentium 75 via the MPU-401 interface of an emulated SBAWE32 PnP using Munt, loopMIDI and 86Box (I get inconsistent results using PCem and DOSBox ECE or similar forks):

• The Bard's Tale Construction Set
• The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate
• Car & Driver
• Cartooners
• Centurion: Defender of Rome
• Daughter of Serpents
• Gods
• Hard Nova
• The Immortal
• Indianapolis 500
• Keef the Thief
• The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes
• Low Blow
• Lure of the Temptress
• Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen
• Might and Magic: Swords of Xeen
• Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen
• Might and Magic: World of Xeen
• Sierra On-Line Christmas Card 1988
• Spot: The Video Game
• Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2 - Martian Dreams
• Wing Commander: Academy
• Worlds of Legend: Son of the Empire
• Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire

All of these games either crashed or were silent (silent after the logo in the case of the M&M Xeen series) without running SoftMPU first. Strangely enough, both Ultima VI and Bad Blood seem to output MT-32 just fine on this build without having to load SoftMPU, despite them being documented as requiring intelligent mode. Chalk it up to the emulation maybe? Or does a UART interface cause crashes and other irregularities later on in the game?

Any updates on this? I'd be quite surprised if such a long list of classic games were still unsupported.

Rincewind42 wrote on Yesterday, 12:04:

spiffythedog wrote on 2022-12-06, 03:16:

Here are a few more games that seem to require intelligent mode to run correctly. I tested these on a virtual Intel Pentium 75 v […]
Show full quote

Here are a few more games that seem to require intelligent mode to run correctly. I tested these on a virtual Intel Pentium 75 via the MPU-401 interface of an emulated SBAWE32 PnP using Munt, loopMIDI and 86Box (I get inconsistent results using PCem and DOSBox ECE or similar forks):

• The Bard's Tale Construction Set
• The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate
• Car & Driver
• Cartooners
• Centurion: Defender of Rome
• Daughter of Serpents
• Gods
• Hard Nova
• The Immortal
• Indianapolis 500
• Keef the Thief
• The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes
• Low Blow
• Lure of the Temptress
• Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen
• Might and Magic: Swords of Xeen
• Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen
• Might and Magic: World of Xeen
• Sierra On-Line Christmas Card 1988
• Spot: The Video Game
• Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2 - Martian Dreams
• Wing Commander: Academy
• Worlds of Legend: Son of the Empire
• Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire

All of these games either crashed or were silent (silent after the logo in the case of the M&M Xeen series) without running SoftMPU first. Strangely enough, both Ultima VI and Bad Blood seem to output MT-32 just fine on this build without having to load SoftMPU, despite them being documented as requiring intelligent mode. Chalk it up to the emulation maybe? Or does a UART interface cause crashes and other irregularities later on in the game?

Any updates on this? I'd be quite surprised if such a long list of classic games were still unsupported.

I think that these games would be better tested on a real machine, emulators aren't suited for this.

There is a site where some tests were done and does mention that Ultima VI requires a sound card supporting the ACK message: https://dosdays.co.uk/topics/mt32_game_compat.php

More information related to this here: Midi-Module patches for Systems with no Hard-MPU401 and no Soft-MPU support (XT/AT). It mentions that some of these games listed by spiffythedog works fine on the SB16's UART MPU-401 implementation without having to use SoftMPU after a small workaround.

Gmlb256 wrote on Yesterday, 12:59:

More information related to this here: Midi-Module patches for Systems with no Hard-MPU401 and no Soft-MPU support (XT/AT). It mentions that some of these games listed by spiffythedog works fine on the SB16's UART MPU-401 implementation without having to use SoftMPU after a small workaround.

Cheers, that's an interesting find. Although he doesn't explain his method of patching the drivers (I assumed he used a disassembler).