Cobra! wrote on 2023-09-03, 14:40:

I don't see an audio CD portion/drive when I look at the drives on "My Computer".

That's expected since it's a mixed mode CD. Explorer won't show CD audio tracks for anything but "true" audio CDs. That doesn't mean they don't exist.

Grab a media player that allows you to play/start those tracks and see if you can hear them that way. If that works then it's some issue with the game not properly talking to the drive. If not, i.e. the drive is spinning but silent, and if you were on a desktop, I'd say that you're missing the analog audio cable between the drive and the soundcard, and to install one. On a laptop, uh... whelp.

Another way to go about it would be to rip the disc to an image file (bin+cue format or whatever, not iso) and virtualize it. I know Daemon Tools can do CD audio, but you need to enable the "digital audio" option hidden somewhere. Not sure about others.

Cobra! wrote on 2023-09-03, 14:40:

So I've installed my copy of Earthworm Jim 3D onto a Windows 98SE laptop I have (A Tecra M2, to be exact), and while the game itself runs fine, I've noticed the absence of music. Sound effects work fine, and there were some music cues, so I assumed it was intentional until I saw a gameplay video of the game.

I've noticed the CD drive activity indicator is blinking during certain parts of the game, which seems to indicate it's reading music off the CD, but nothing comes out. I don't see an audio CD portion/drive when I look at the drives on "My Computer".

What do I do?

it seems you forgot to connect the cdda cable from the cdrom to your motherboard/sound card, then you see cd activity but you can't hear the cd music
so purchase/connect such cable
while you can hear the music connecting headphones to the front of your cdrom, most of the old cdroms have a headphone connector while the newest cdroms/dvdroms haven't

elszgensa wrote on 2023-09-03, 15:42:

Grab a media player that allows you to play/start those tracks and see if you can hear them that way. If that works then it's some issue with the game not properly talking to the drive.

I didn't see the track names through media player either, but they have to be there, because PCGW and every other source says you need the CD in the drive for music.

elszgensa wrote on 2023-09-03, 15:42:

If not, i.e. the drive is spinning but silent, and if you were on a desktop, I'd say that you're missing the analog audio cable between the drive and the soundcard, and to install one. On a laptop, uh... whelp.

Yeah... is there anything I can try on the OS/software side to fix this?

Laser wrote on 2023-09-03, 16:38:

it seems you forgot to connect the cdda cable from the cdrom to your motherboard/sound card, then you see cd activity but you can't hear the cd music
so purchase/connect such cable
while you can hear the music connecting headphones to the front of your cdrom, most of the old cdroms have a headphone connector while the newest cdroms/dvdroms haven't

I didn't forget anything? The laptop is pre-built. (obviously)

Cobra! wrote on 2023-09-03, 17:31:

I didn't see the track names through media player either, but they have to be there

I doubt the tracks have actual names, but you should at least have seeen a bunch of audio tracks, numbered starting from 2 (1 is data and should not be played). To make sure, any decent CD imaging software should be able to show (but likely not play) you what's on the disc beyond the data partition.

If there actually is no cd audio whatsoever on the disc then my guess would be you pirated it and got a bad rip.

Cobra! wrote on 2023-09-03, 17:31:

anything I can try on the OS/software side

You could look into what you'd have to do to get it working in Daemon Tools. Iirc, for starters you need to be using WDM sound card drivers instead of VXD, which would allow you to somehwere switch CD audio data transfer to digital, though I'm not sure whether the second part is the OS' or DT' responsibility. If that doesn't end up working out, well, then at least you're already halfway to a working virtual disc setup...

elszgensa wrote on 2023-09-03, 18:26:

I doubt the tracks have actual names, but you should at least have seeen a bunch of audio tracks, numbered starting from 2 (1 is data and should not be played). To make sure, any decent CD imaging software should be able to show (but likely not play) you what's on the disc beyond the data partition.

If there actually is no cd audio whatsoever on the disc then my guess would be you pirated it and got a bad rip.

I don't see any audio tracks whatsoever, and it is a legit copy.

It does look like only part of the disc is written onto, maybe they didn't actually write the red book audio portion for this release?

Those images won't load for me, but if you are correct then that solves the issue: This copy of the game is playing all the CD audio it has 100% properly, all none tracks of it. Want music, get a different release.

elszgensa wrote on 2023-09-03, 20:02:

Those images won't load for me, but if you are correct then that solves the issue: This copy of the game is playing all the CD audio it has 100% properly, all none tracks of it. Want music, get a different release.

Alright, I'll have a look around for a different release. Thanks anyway.

I just looked up whether yours might be an already known copy, and indeed, redump.org lists one of the European releases as having no CD audio at all. What a very odd thing to do. Anyways, you could take a chance at scoring one of the other two EU releases, the US one, or just grab a copy off of GOG. Literally any other than the one you have... Talk about bad luck.

You might even get away using any of those discs in the drive but with your existing game install, in case that one's in some way special to you.

elszgensa wrote on 2023-09-03, 20:19:

I just looked up whether yours might be an already known copy, and indeed, redump.org lists one of the European releases as having no CD audio at all. What a very odd thing to do. Anyways, you could take a chance at scoring one of the other two EU releases, the US one, or just grab a copy off of GOG. Literally any other than the one you have... Talk about bad luck.

You might even get away using any of those discs in the drive but with your existing game install, in case that one's in some way special to you.

That explains it. I got the Dice release...

Alright, I'll be on the lookout for the other release, thanks!

elszgensa wrote on 2023-09-03, 20:19:

I just looked up whether yours might be an already known copy, and indeed, redump.org lists one of the European releases as having no CD audio at all. What a very odd thing to do.

Not as rare as one would think, sadly.

I have the Sold Out release of Tomb Raider 1&2 (bundle) and the first game has no CD audio at all. The second game, from that same release, has a fully functional CD audio soundtrack. Go figure.