kahuna wrote on 2023-08-28, 18:06:

Hi there, […]
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Hi there,

Just wanted to double check something.
Is it OK to leave softmpu running at all times (i.e., loaded in autoexec.bat) even for games that do not require intelligent mode?
Or perhaps should I just only load softmpu when I'm about to play one of those games?

Thanks!

I think the question was answered in subsequent posts but the main goal of SoftMPU is to emulate and intelligent mode MPU-401 MIDI interface. From a gaming perspective, this was basically required only for certain games that supported the MT-32.

So, if your game doesn't require an intelligent mode MPU-401 MIDI interface, then I would say don't load SoftMPU. Also remember that it uses memory which might limit your available memory for other applications.

Apologies, I tested it again and Comanche 2 works perfectly fine in both MT32 and General Midi with SoftMPU loaded.
I guess, I didn't install the patch the first time I ran it, or I did something different that I don't recall. I actually tested, Comanche, Comanche 2 and Comanche 3; all working fine.

From my point of view, if I can leave SoftMPU loaded at all times that would simplify things as I don't have to worry if it's needed or not. There is a previous post by the author indicating that SoftMPU should be able to switch between UART and Intelligent mode as needed. See: Re: SoftMPU 1.1 - Software Intelligent MPU-401 Emulator
Also, it only takes 8KB of RAM and can be loaded in the higher/upper memory area.

Not sure if this is the place to post this, but I'm having difficulty with getting Superhero League of Hoboken working with SoftMPU and an MT32-Pi. According to the SoftMPU compatibility list, it is confirmed to be supported. I know that mysetup can work, as Quest for Glory went without a hitch, but with Superhero League of Hoboken I get no music. Is there any trick to getting it to work? I have a MAD16 Pro sound card, I'm starting SoftMPU with /SB:220 /IRQ:5 /MPU:330, as configured in the MAD16 Pro software. MPU-401 is set to IRQ:2/9 in the software. Not getting any sound whatsoever, nor any messages on the MT-32 (though I don't know whether Superhero League of Hoboken displayed any MT-32 messages).

Any thoughts, has anyone had the same difficulty or had any experience with getting it to work?

PlunderBunny wrote on 2023-10-02, 03:20:

Not sure if this is the place to post this, but I'm having difficulty with getting Superhero League of Hoboken working with SoftMPU and an MT32-Pi. According to the SoftMPU compatibility list, it is confirmed to be supported. I know that mysetup can work, as Quest for Glory went without a hitch, but with Superhero League of Hoboken I get no music. Is there any trick to getting it to work? I have a MAD16 Pro sound card, I'm starting SoftMPU with /SB:220 /IRQ:5 /MPU:330, as configured in the MAD16 Pro software. MPU-401 is set to IRQ:2/9 in the software. Not getting any sound whatsoever, nor any messages on the MT-32 (though I don't know whether Superhero League of Hoboken displayed any MT-32 messages).

Any thoughts, has anyone had the same difficulty or had any experience with getting it to work?

SoftMPU doesn't use the physical MPU-401 IRQ of the sound card in any capacity, it uses the SB IRQ to simulate the MPU-401 one. If available, you should be setting IRQ 5 in the setup program of the game.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-10-02, 03:39:

PlunderBunny wrote on 2023-10-02, 03:20:

Not sure if this is the place to post this, but I'm having difficulty with getting Superhero League of Hoboken working with SoftMPU and an MT32-Pi. According to the SoftMPU compatibility list, it is confirmed to be supported. I know that mysetup can work, as Quest for Glory went without a hitch, but with Superhero League of Hoboken I get no music. Is there any trick to getting it to work? I have a MAD16 Pro sound card, I'm starting SoftMPU with /SB:220 /IRQ:5 /MPU:330, as configured in the MAD16 Pro software. MPU-401 is set to IRQ:2/9 in the software. Not getting any sound whatsoever, nor any messages on the MT-32 (though I don't know whether Superhero League of Hoboken displayed any MT-32 messages).

Any thoughts, has anyone had the same difficulty or had any experience with getting it to work?

SoftMPU doesn't use the physical MPU-401 IRQ of the sound card in any capacity, it uses the SB IRQ to simulate the MPU-401 one. If available, you should be setting IRQ 5 in the setup program of the game.

Oh! Excellent, okay, I didn't realize that that was the case, I assumed it'd use the MPU-401's IRQ. So to clarify, I imagine it worked fine for Quest for Glory because, looking at the compatibility list, SLH uses MPU interrupts but Quest for Glory doesn't?

Regardless, partial success doing that! Changed the SLH MT-32 IRQ settings to 5, and now when I start up SLH, it shows "Superhero League" on the MT-32 screen, so I know it can communicate with it! Buuuut... still no music. Any ideas why that might be the case? Thanks for the help, I'm still very new to using actual hardware for MT-32/MIDI stuff, even if that hardware IS just a pi running emulation software 😜

PlunderBunny wrote on 2023-10-02, 05:56:

So to clarify, I imagine it worked fine for Quest for Glory because, looking at the compatibility list, SLH uses MPU interrupts but Quest for Glory doesn't?

Exactly.

Regardless, partial success doing that! Changed the SLH MT-32 IRQ settings to 5, and now when I start up SLH, it shows "Superhero League" on the MT-32 screen, so I know it can communicate with it! Buuuut... still no music. Any ideas why that might be the case? Thanks for the help, I'm still very new to using actual hardware for MT-32/MIDI stuff, even if that hardware IS just a pi running emulation software 😜

Digitized sound effects? I remember that this caused IRQ conflicts with a different game that needed MPU-401 interrupts.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-10-02, 13:30:

Exactly.

Awesome, glad to know that I'm understanding it better!

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-10-02, 13:30:

Digitized sound effects? I remember that this caused IRQ conflicts with a different game that needed MPU-401 interrupts.

That was my first thought too, I tried disabling digitized sound in the setup and it didn't help. Tested with digitized sound enabled just to check that I got sound effects and that things weren't extra weird, and if enabled, the sound effects work fine.

Still haven't been able to get MT-32 sound working with Superhero League of Hoboken.

I've tried everything that I can think of, including switching the IRQ channel for my sound card to every available option (short of 2/9, which doesn't seem to be available... if I try to do so, it says that there's a hardware conflict that I can't pin down, and if I use the modern Opti sound card drivers it doesn't even seem to support the option for selecting IRQ 2/9), and have tried each IRQ both with and without digitized sound effects selected in Superhero League of Hoboken's setup. I even tried using the LEGMPU.COM program that I found to fix the timing errors that seems to be present with Legend Entertainment games, didn't help. I haven't tried any other Legend Entertainment games, but I'm curious to try some other ones now as well because it seems they commonly present problems.

So, as it stands, I still have the same problem I was having:
On startup, MT32-pi display shows "Superhero League" message
Never transitions off of that message, never begins playing MIDI music, doesn't seem to be receiving any MIDI signals
Soundblaster sounds work just fine if I have them enabled, and Soundblaster music will work if I configure it for that
On leaving the game, MT32-pi display message changes to "Legend Entertainment"

Can anyone else confirm that they've been able to get Superhero League of Hoboken MT-32 music working with SoftMPU? Would someone else be willing to test and see if they're able to get it working? I'm wondering at this point if it isn't actually compatible, and SLH ended up on the compatibility list in error.

I will test it tomorrow and report here. I wasn't familiar with this game, looks somewhat interesting 😀

Reporting back.
It works! well kinda... Using the MT32-Pi and SoftMPU, the voice over makes the music stop and hang.
Hear the difference between Sound Blaster and MT-32 below. Apologies for the bad quality, I recorded this using my phone and then amplified it a bit.

The legend.ini configuration file of the game looks like this in my case.
MT-32:

1MOUSE=MOUSE
2MUSIC=MT32 5 330
3SOUND=BLASTER 5 220
4GAMEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\
5VOCDATA=E:\HOBOKEN\
6SAVEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\

Sound Blaster:

1MOUSE=MOUSE
2MUSIC=MUSIC
3SOUND=BLASTER 5 220
4GAMEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\
5VOCDATA=E:\HOBOKEN\
6SAVEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\

I believe the issue could be that the SoundBlaster and the MT-32 are using the same IRQ?
I tried to configure different IRQs, but there was no music at all.
Loading "legmpu.com" didn't change anything, same behaviour with the voice over interrupting and making the music hang.

Hope it helps!

kahuna wrote on 2023-10-19, 00:05:

Reporting back. It works! well kinda... Using the MT32-Pi and SoftMPU, the voice over makes the music stop and hang. […]
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Reporting back.
It works! well kinda... Using the MT32-Pi and SoftMPU, the voice over makes the music stop and hang.

[...]

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1MOUSE=MOUSE
2MUSIC=MT32 5 330
3SOUND=BLASTER 5 220
4GAMEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\
5VOCDATA=E:\HOBOKEN\
6SAVEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\

The game might actually require IRQ 2. If your soundcard can't be configured to IRQ 2, configure it to IRQ 9 instead (through a jumper or software, whatever your card supports) and use:

1MUSIC=MT32 2 330
2SOUND=BLASTER 9 220

Maybe it will help, since IRQ 2 and 9 are actually the same, I believe.

Has anyone tried the game with an actual MPU401 and MT32? It's an obscure enough game that it might be worth double checking to make sure it works correctly at all.

kahuna wrote on 2023-10-19, 00:05:

Reporting back. It works! well kinda... Using the MT32-Pi and SoftMPU, the voice over makes the music stop and hang. Hear the d […]
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Reporting back.
It works! well kinda... Using the MT32-Pi and SoftMPU, the voice over makes the music stop and hang.
Hear the difference between Sound Blaster and MT-32 below. Apologies for the bad quality, I recorded this using my phone and then amplified it a bit.

The legend.ini configuration file of the game looks like this in my case.
MT-32:

Copy code to clipboard

1MOUSE=MOUSE
2MUSIC=MT32 5 330
3SOUND=BLASTER 5 220
4GAMEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\
5VOCDATA=E:\HOBOKEN\
6SAVEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\

Sound Blaster:

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1MOUSE=MOUSE
2MUSIC=MUSIC
3SOUND=BLASTER 5 220
4GAMEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\
5VOCDATA=E:\HOBOKEN\
6SAVEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\

I believe the issue could be that the SoundBlaster and the MT-32 are using the same IRQ?
I tried to configure different IRQs, but there was no music at all.
Loading "legmpu.com" didn't change anything, same behaviour with the voice over interrupting and making the music hang.

Hope it helps!

Thank you so much for taking the time to test this!

First off, I would highly recommend playing through Superhero League of Hoboken if you have any kind of interest, it is in my opinion vastly underrated! 😁

Secondly, my configuration is exactly the same as yours (minus a different CD drive letter and different install directory), and I get no music whatsoever. I'm thinking that it could be a quirk of my sound card, what sound card are you using, out of curiosity? As I said in my previous posts, I know there is SOME communication happening between PC and MT32-pi because "Superhero League" pops up on the MT32-Pi's display, but I never get any music.

Right as I'm about to post this, another thought has occurred to me... I built my own GPIO interface circuit for my MT32-pi by following the MT32-pi wiki, I'm wondering if hypothetically I could have screwed up when I was making it, potentially in such a way that the sound card can send signals to the MT32-pi, but the MT32-pi can't send signals back to the sound card, and maybe that's causing problems? I'm pretty sure that couldn't be the case, since going by the GPIO interface schematic the UART TXD header pin isn't even connected to anything, so the MT32-pi should never be able to transmit any signals over the MIDI cable, but... I dunno, maybe I'm not understanding this as much as I think I am.

Kahuna, what does your setup look like, how are you connecting to your MT32-pi? Did you buy a MIDI interface hat for your pi, or are you a weirdo like me and built a GPIO interface yourself? 😆

realnc wrote on 2023-10-19, 10:44:

The game might actually require IRQ 2. If your soundcard can't be configured to IRQ 2, configure it to IRQ 9 instead (through a […]
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The game might actually require IRQ 2. If your soundcard can't be configured to IRQ 2, configure it to IRQ 9 instead (through a jumper or software, whatever your card supports) and use:

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1MUSIC=MT32 2 330
2SOUND=BLASTER 9 220

I was thinking the same thing, that it might want IRQ 2/9 in order to work correctly, but unfortunately my sound card's software won't let me change it to IRQ 2/9 for whatever reason... as far as I can tell, my Opti Mad16 Pro just doesn't allow for being on IRQ 2/9.

PlunderBunny wrote on 2023-10-25, 18:11:

Thank you so much for taking the time to test this!
First off, I would highly recommend playing through Superhero League of Hoboken if you have any kind of interest, it is in my opinion vastly underrated! 😁

Sure, I'll definitely give it a go, caught my eye for sure 😀

PlunderBunny wrote on 2023-10-25, 18:11:

Kahuna, what does your setup look like, how are you connecting to your MT32-pi? Did you buy a MIDI interface hat for your pi, or are you a weirdo like me and built a GPIO interface yourself? 😆

I have two hats, one that I built myself following this:
https://github.com/chris-jh/mt32-pi-midi-hat
And a commercial one by Serdaco:
https://www.serdashop.com/MP32L
Both of them work perfectly fine. I'm currently using the Serdaco one because I feel it's more reliable as the DAC is nicely integrated on the PCB, rather than using a Chinese module with a fragile audio connector.
As for the sound card, it's a Sound Blaster 64 Gold.
Perhaps you can try your setup with any other game that requires intelligent mode. Budokan is a good example.

PlunderBunny wrote on 2023-10-25, 18:11:

realnc wrote on 2023-10-19, 10:44:

The game might actually require IRQ 2. If your soundcard can't be configured to IRQ 2, configure it to IRQ 9 instead (through a […]
Show full quote

The game might actually require IRQ 2. If your soundcard can't be configured to IRQ 2, configure it to IRQ 9 instead (through a jumper or software, whatever your card supports) and use:

Copy code to clipboard

1MUSIC=MT32 2 330
2SOUND=BLASTER 9 220

I was thinking the same thing, that it might want IRQ 2/9 in order to work correctly, but unfortunately my sound card's software won't let me change it to IRQ 2/9 for whatever reason... as far as I can tell, my Opti Mad16 Pro just doesn't allow for being on IRQ 2/9.

Yeah, I'm not eager to reconfigure IRQs just to get MT32 music on a single game (sorry Plunder).

midicollector wrote on 2023-10-24, 03:23:

Has anyone tried the game with an actual MPU401 and MT32? It's an obscure enough game that it might be worth double checking to make sure it works correctly at all.

Totally agree! I don't have one, so I'll leave it to others who can test it.

kahuna wrote on 2023-10-26, 22:45:

Sure, I'll definitely give it a go, caught my eye for sure 😀

Glad to hear you're giving it a try! It's a fun, goofy little game, lotsa corny jokes and some fun dumb superhero concepts. The RPG elements are pretty simplistic, but satisfying enough to keep me entertained between story/puzzle portions. It has its fair share of clunky bits, but its earnestness to do anything for a laugh goes a long way with me.

kahuna wrote on 2023-10-26, 22:45:

Yeah, I'm not eager to reconfigure IRQs just to get MT32 music on a single game (sorry Plunder).

Hahaha, definitely don't blame you for that, it's a hell of a hassle.

kahuna wrote on 2023-10-26, 22:45:

I have two hats, one that I built myself following this: https://github.com/chris-jh/mt32-pi-midi-hat And a commercial one by Se […]
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I have two hats, one that I built myself following this:
https://github.com/chris-jh/mt32-pi-midi-hat
And a commercial one by Serdaco:
https://www.serdashop.com/MP32L
Both of them work perfectly fine. I'm currently using the Serdaco one because I feel it's more reliable as the DAC is nicely integrated on the PCB, rather than using a Chinese module with a fragile audio connector.
As for the sound card, it's a Sound Blaster 64 Gold.

Thank you for the info! Might be something strange on my end, gonna keep retooling my setup to make sure I've done everything properly. Or maybe there's some weird sound card deep magic going on and causing problems on my end, I know I've seen people make comments of having difficulties with Opti based cards.

kahuna wrote on 2023-10-26, 22:45:

Perhaps you can try your setup with any other game that requires intelligent mode. Budokan is a good example.

The only other intelligent mode game I've tried it with is Quest for Glory 1, but that worked without a hitch! I'll give it a try with Budokan when I get a chance and see how that works out.

midicollector wrote on 2023-10-24, 03:23:

Has anyone tried the game with an actual MPU401 and MT32? It's an obscure enough game that it might be worth double checking to make sure it works correctly at all.

Wish I owned some actual hardware that I could try it with, fingers crossed that someone here will be able and willing to test it out.

PlunderBunny wrote on 2023-10-27, 08:55:

midicollector wrote on 2023-10-24, 03:23:

Has anyone tried the game with an actual MPU401 and MT32? It's an obscure enough game that it might be worth double checking to make sure it works correctly at all.

Wish I owned some actual hardware that I could try it with, fingers crossed that someone here will be able and willing to test it out.

I have filled out the pre-order form for the PC MIDI MPU ISA card: http://pcmidi.eu
I really hope to get one!
That would be the closest I can get to a real MPU401 and MT32 (at least in my case).

I received recently my PCMIDI ISA card and I cannot be happier 😀
It's an MPU card that supports both intelligent and UART mode. Legend of Hoboken works as expected with it as you can hear in the attached mp3 rough capture.

The PCMIDI is configured by jumpers on IRQ 2 and address 330H.
Here is my configuration on the legend.ini file.

1MOUSE=MOUSE
2MUSIC=MT32 2 330
3SOUND=BLASTER 5 220
4GAMEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\
5VOCDATA=E:\HOBOKEN\
6SAVEDATA=D:\2GAMES\H\HOBOKEN\

So, maybe we missed something on the SoftMPU configuration. If that's not the case, there is some room for improvement on SoftMPU to make it work even closer to a hardware MPU.

Enjoy!

Hi there,
I'm trying to build null modem mt32emu system with the scheme follows:
EP-7KXA DOS 6.22 softmpu com1 -> null modem cable -> com1 (shuttle ds61 win10) -> hairless MIDI -> MUNT
I can't get things working, so the question is:
1. In SoftMPU code COM port init 38400 8n1 (what flow control ? none, soft, hardware for windows com port parameters ) Answer: 38400 8-n-1 NONE set in hairless MIDI preferences, not in windows control panel
2. what null modem cable (simple 3wires/handshake 7wires) ? Answer: rx/tx swap + ground three wires
In Duke Nukem 3D setup I got "Could not detect MPU-401" Answer: Because not supported by SoftMPU

DOSMID.EXE /MPU=330 TEST.MID plays midi files okay

georgel wrote on 2021-09-15, 21:26:

Here is my preliminary build of SoftMPU that under QEMM (QEMM V9 tested only, EMM386 fails with AWEUTIL /EM:xxx but otherwise is usable to some extent) supports separate I/O ports for virtual and physical MPU-401's thus allowing usage of AWEUTIL /EM:xxx with your favorite soundbanks . Apart from utilizing AWEUTIL this allows you to have very flexible sound setups. If you specify on the command line same (overlapping) ports for virtual and physical MPUs then this works exactly like conventional SoftMPU 1.91 but such setup prohibits AWEUTIL from operating.

Hi! Are the possibility to recompile this version with additional VMPU and MPU ports?
Currently I try to setup sound card with YMF278 chip and PCM MPU-401 interface on 0x380 port (try to redirect from 0x330 to 0x380 but there is 0x350 as max for available)

A couple of compatability / bug reports from me, the first is a game not in the list:

Hardware setup:
AMD 5x86 133
Dos 7.1
HIMEM + EMM386
ISA ESS1868F + WP32McCake + mt32pi

Config.sys
No sound drivers in config.sys

Autoexec.bat
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4 P330
UNISOUND /C2 /VC80

Softmpu
LOADHIGH softmpu.exe /mpu:330 /sb:220 /irq:7

First game:

BloodNet

- Confirm there's no music without SoftMPU loaded: No MIDI output at all when SoftMPU is not running
- Is there music with SoftMPU loaded (SB on IRQ2/9 if available)?: Not tested
- Is there music with SoftMPU loaded (SB on IRQ5 or 7)?: Yes, both GM-mode and MT-32 music is played back correctly from the mt32pi after loading SoftMPU (depending on which music device is selected in the setup).
- Does the game allow a user-specified IRQ?: Untested
- Does the game produce buffer overflows on a Rev.0 MT-32?: Untested - no visual output on my mt32pi install