Another option regarding serial MIDI output for protected-mode titles, and in lieu of SoftMPU, is to modify the MPU driver/routine for a particular game or sound system to natively provide that support.
Cloudschatze wrote on 2021-03-01, 18:00:Another option regarding serial MIDI output for protected-mode titles, and in lieu of SoftMPU, is to modify the MPU driver/routine for a particular game or sound system to natively provide that support.
That's indeed an option, but that would require the development of game-specific patches.
But then again, many protected mode games used standard drivers such as MIDPAK, AIL/32, AIL3, HMI and SCI32 (Sierra games). I guess you'd have to patch each driver type only once, which would be a lot less work to support a large number of games. That would still leave a lot of protected mode games with proprietary drivers or routines that would require individual patches, though.
It would still be more convenient to develop an emulation solution that would work with protected mode games, since such a solution could then perhaps also be used to implement Sound Blaster emulation for systems lacking ISA slots.
I'm curious if there is a comprehensive list somewhere of all protected mode DOS games ever released, along with the sound driver model each one uses, if any.
MobyGames has searchable game database, but not all information in it is accurate. It could perhaps provide a starting point, though.
Just curious - most protected mode games only came out after 1993, when General MIDI was already the standard for games and none required an intelligent mode MPU-401 MIDI interface.
Why do you then need SoftMPU? Just route the MIDI straight from any sound card with an onboard UART mode MIDI interface.
digger wrote on 2021-03-05, 23:30:Cloudschatze wrote on 2021-03-01, 18:00:Another option regarding serial MIDI output for protected-mode titles, and in lieu of SoftMPU, is to modify the MPU driver/routine for a particular game or sound system to natively provide that support.
But then again, many protected mode games used standard drivers such as MIDPAK, AIL/32, AIL3, HMI and SCI32 (Sierra games). I guess you'd have to patch each driver type only once, which would be a lot less work to support a large number of games.
Exactly this. I have some experience modifying routines for serial output, and plan to take a look at some of the later drivers as I have time.
jesolo wrote on 2021-03-05, 23:39:Just curious - most protected mode games only came out after 1993, when General MIDI was already the standard for games and none required an intelligent mode MPU-401 MIDI interface.
Why do you then need SoftMPU? Just route the MIDI straight from any sound card with an onboard UART mode MIDI interface.
The context here isn't intelligent mode support, but rather, MIDI over RS-232, which is useful for systems lacking a discrete MPU solution (laptops, expansion-limited systems, etc.). SoftMPU provides this functionality/redirection, but cannot be used with protected-mode software.
