First post, by megatron-uk
I have completed a big audit of all ~250 games installed on my newly built 486 system. It uses a very basic ESS 1868F card:
It is being initialised by unisound, using the ubiquitous A220 I7 D1 T4 P330 J201 parameters. I also have an MT32Pi equipped on a WP32McCake on the waveblaster header. In almost everything that supports Adlib, Soundblaster and Soundblaster Pro 2, it is working really well. When using games needing SoftMPU, I use softmpu /mpu:330 /sb:220 /irq:7.
However I have a small number of games where I just cannot get (mainly digital audio) on the ESS card to work properly:
Command Keen in Keen Dreams
No Adlib music or effects. Soundblaster option in the in-game menu is blocked out. In Keen 4, 5 and 6 the Adlib and/or Soundblaster functionality works.
Dune (CD release)
Adlib music works okay. Digital audio via the Soundblaster or Soundblaster Pro option results in the introductory video with Princess Irulan locking up immediately . If you manage to skip the cinematic, then the first line or so of narration during the opening animation may be heard, but then the digital audio simply stops (music and animation keeps playing). MT-32 MIDI playback using SoftMPU with the WP32McCake works perfectly.
Flashback
As detailed here, I cannot get Soundblaster effects to work in this game. Adlib music and Adlib effects are fine, as is Adlib effects plus SoftMPU + WP32McCake on the waveblaster header.
Inca
Digital audio starts to break up part way through the intro animation. Sometimes it will crash the PC, other times it will make it through to the initial space flight combat sequence, but digital audio is usually lost at some point.
Tyrian and Tyrian 2000
Both versions of Tyrian fail at digital audio playback when Soundblaster is chosen for effects. Occasionally I have had the first few menu select sounds playback in Tyrian 2000, but it always goes silent after a few menu buttons are clicked. FM music playback is always fine, as is GM MIDI playback via WP32McCake in fluidsynth mode on the waveblaster header (no SoftMPU).
Wing Commander Privateer (talkie version from the combined Strike Commander / Privateer release)
All digital audio played during the opening cinematic is missing (spacecraft sounds, pirate radio chatter). All speech and digital effects are missing during the game. FM music playback is always fine, as is GM MIDI playback via WP32McCake in fluidsynth mode on the waveblaster header (no SoftMPU).
Has anyone else with an ESS1868F based card had any similar problems? Do any of these games do anything strange to play back digital audio?
I'm not too bothered about some of the titles (Keen Dreams I can live without), but Tyrian, Privateer and Dune are some of those that I definitely wanted to run on this system.
I'm booting DOS 7.1 made from a Win 98SE boot floppy, along with the rest of the dos utils from the Win 98 cd.
Config.sys is bare bones: just himem and emm386:
[MENU] MENUITEM STANDARD, HIMEM and EMM386 MENUITEM NOEMS, HIMEM Only MENUDEFAULT STANDARD,3 […]
[MENU]
MENUITEM STANDARD, HIMEM and EMM386
MENUITEM NOEMS, HIMEM Only
MENUDEFAULT STANDARD,3[STANDARD]
dos=high,umb
device=c:\dos\himem.sys
device=c:\dos\EMM386.EXE ram
INCLUDE BASIC[NOEMS]
device=c:\dos\himem.sys
INCLUDE BASIC[BASIC]
fileshigh=40
buffershigh=20
stacks=9,256
lastdrive=i
SHELL=C:\TOOLS\4DOS\4DOS.COM C:\TOOLS\4DOS\ /P
Autoexec.bat:
@ECHO OFF SET PROMPT=$P$G SET TEMP=C:\TMP SET TMP=%TEMP% SET PATH=C:\DOS;C:\DRIVERS\TLBMM;C:\TOOLS\4DOS;C:\DRIVERS\UNISOUND SET […]
@ECHO OFF
SET PROMPT=$P$G
SET TEMP=C:\TMP
SET TMP=%TEMP%
SET PATH=C:\DOS;C:\DRIVERS\TLBMM;C:\TOOLS\4DOS;C:\DRIVERS\UNISOUND
SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\DRIVERS\CTMOUSE;C:\DRIVERS\MIDI;C:\TOOLS\VOLKOV
SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\TOOLS\MTCP;C:\TOOLS\SHSUCD;C:\TOOLS\ISOMOUNT
SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\DRIVERS\VESA;C:\DRIVERS\JEMM;C:\TOOLS\BIN
LOADHIGH LBACACHE
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4 P330
CALL UNISOUND.BAT
CT20 /P /B
LOADHIGH C:\TOOLS\4DOS\KSTACK.COM
Hardware specs:
AMD 5x86-133
Advantech PCA-6145L SBC ISA motherboard with 128kb level 2 cache
C&T 65550 VLB 1MB VGA
Printer port is disabled, so IRQ7 is not in conflict, neither is anything else on DMA1. I have one single other card installed, an RTL8019 ISA NIC, currently without a driver loaded. It's a pretty bare-bones system. All problematic games have been tried with both level 1 cache enabled and disabled.
My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net