VOGONS


First post, by starquake

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So I bought a 486DX-100 to play some DOS games. It came with a IPC IPS 16. At first I was quite impressed with the sound, until I started Prince of Persia. I can hear the gate close but after that my steps can not be heard. Some sounds get through but some sounds can not be heard.

Then I started GODS. The intro of that game is even worse! There are cracks and the singing doesn't start.

I tried setting the card to A220 I7 D1 and setting the BLASTER environment variable accordingly. I also tried A220 I5 D1, but it does not resolve the issue.

Anyone else have similar experiences with Media Magic IPC IPS16. Any tips on how I should proceed?

Reply 1 of 8, by Jo22

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starquake wrote:

Anyone else have similar experiences with Media Magic IPC IPS16. Any tips on how I should proceed?

Sorry, no. Can you post a picture of your card, please ? I googled and mainly found ads for a webcam model (IP camera). 🙁

starquake wrote:

Then I started GODS. The intro of that game is even worse! There are cracks and the singing doesn't start.

A while ago, we discussed that game on vogons to learn about balance settings and filtering (synth/wave).
Maybe that thread will help you to figure how to configure your sound card accordingly.
You can read it here : FM and PCM Volume Balance of SB Cards

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 2 of 8, by starquake

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Thanks for your reply. I've read the thread you linked but it's not clipping I'm hearing. The digital voices are out of tune.

I'll post a picture of my card and maybe even record a video of what's happening later.

Reply 3 of 8, by starquake

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Here are some pictures of the front and the back:
http://imgur.com/a/LR2hB

And here's what's happening:
Prince Of Persia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZccB9jy6c
Sometimes on the first time the music doesn't work. If that is the case the guy stays crouched and I can't do anything. Second time some sounds are missing.

GODS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zetr7Jt3aNg
There's a lot of cracks and pops and the singing is out of tune, the drums are too slow. So I think the samples are played at a too low sample frequency.

Any ideas to what I could do? There are 25 other games that work just fine. Pinball Dreams 1+2, Warcraft,

BTW, don't think too long about it. I can't find anything about this sound card and I saw a YAMAHA SM-718 with IDE for $5 so I decided to order that one.

EDIT: Fixed imgur link

Reply 4 of 8, by Jo22

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Hi, thanks for the photos! Your card looks well-built and has a true OPL3, by the way! 😀

Also thanks for the recording of GODS! It really sounds, uhm, "special".. 😉

I'm not sure what's the exact problem, though.

If I had to guess, I would say it is some kind of IRQ problem.
Or maybe the card is not 100% SB compatible and these games are just making use of uncommon features.
Like using strange block-sizes, DMA tricks or somehting along these lines.

In case of Prince of Persia, it could also be related to the IRQ setting.
That games is a true classic and expects the card at IRQ7.

As for GODS.. Well, I'm not so familiar with the game, ie. I haven't really played it so often.

It's not much, but here are a few ideas:

a) Configure the card to IRQ7, Port 220, DMA1.
Set the card to SB1.5 or SB2 (not Pro) compatibility, if possible.

b) Try to disable your LPT1 printer port.
Because it is usually on IRQ7, too.

c) Run NSSI and let it detect the sound card.
You can get it here: http://www.navsoft.cz/products.htm
Note: You may have to unload shells like Norton Commander (ncsmall) before running it,
because NSSI is a bit paranoid and mistankenly believes there's a memory-resident debugger active. 😁

Edit: Your card has got a crystal codec (cs4231-kl), just like the Gravis Ultrasound MAX!
So it is apparently Sound Blaster Pro 2 and also WSS compatible.
http://www.amoretro.de/2012/06/gravis-ultraso … ax-rev-1-8.html (English translation)

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Last edited by Jo22 on 2017-07-18, 01:46. Edited 1 time in total.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 5 of 8, by Kippesoep

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The crackling on Gods seems to be when there is something fading in/out. Have you played around with the graphics card settings? Specifically the palette snoop and bus mastering settings. Now I'm also wondering what the gfx card is.

Oh, and it's not unheard of for interference to be audible depending on which slot the sound card is in. Moving it away from the graphics card (or to any other slot from the one it is currently in) may be beneficial in some cases.

My site: Ramblings on mostly tech stuff.

Reply 6 of 8, by starquake

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Wow thanks for all the tips! I will try all the things you guys mention and report back.

I do want to say again though: almost everything else I throw at it runs just fine. Pinball Dreams 1+2, Warcraft, Doom, Wolfenstein3d,

So I'm afraid it's just incompatibilities with the SBPro emulation. But we will see!:

Reply 7 of 8, by starquake

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Today a Yamaha YM812 based card came in. I installed the card and hoped things. It did improve but it's not 100% without issues yet.
First: After you disable the 3D and amplifier, and put the volume down to 3 (of 7) it sounds great! Better than the MediaMagic. Much clearer sound. Also I like that the drivers can be found on the Yamaha site.

I put the SB card on port 220 IRQ 7 DMA 1 and WSS on port 530 IRQ10 DMA 0.

Prince of Persia runs without issues. GODS has improved, the out off tune sounds are gone but the crackling is still there. The cracking is exactly when the palette changes. This is becomes very clear in Magic Pockets at the last screen where there is palette cycling to create an animation effect. Tried another ISA slot but that didn't help.

I cannot disable the LPT port. I do not have settings in the BIOS for palette snoop or bus mastering.

You can see the result of the NSSI tool here: https://paste.ee/p/gIB2s

Thanks very much for the help so far! Any ideas where to go next?

Adding this so anyone else can find this:

EDIT: Here's what the videocard / controller card looks like: http://imgur.com/o4fMPPq
EDIT2: This looks relevant: http://www.bf.lu.lv/ftp/pub/OS/I_O/Goldstar/V … gg_Prime_2.html
EDIT3: On the board it says: PALM VL-BUS REV B.3

Found this at http://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic390063.html (tried JP1 and it does disable IDE so I think these are right)

Goldstar Prime 2

JUMPER DESCRIPTION 1-2 2-3
JP1 IDE Enable Enabled Disabled
JP2 FDD Enable Enabled Disabled
JP3 Game Port Enabled Disabled
JP4 IDE Port Primary Secondary
JP5 ASYNC2 Port COM2 COM4
JP6 ASYNC2 Enable Enabled Disabled
JP7 ASYNC1 Port COM1 COM3
JP8 ASYNC1 Enable Enabled Disabled
JP9 Printer Port LPT1 LPT2
JP10 FDD Port Primary Secondary
JP11 Printer Enable Enabled Disabled
JP12 IDE Interrupt Primary (14) Secondary (15) (Open = Disable IRQ)

EDIT4: There are clock settings described on the motherboard. Lot's of other jumpers that have no description.
EDIT5: I shuffled cards like a magician but no order did the trick.

BTW. A few games that didn't work before, do work now with the OPL3-SAx card. For example SkyRoads (That music is amazing).

EDIT6: Disabling HIMEM and EMM386 did not help either.

Reply 8 of 8, by starquake

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I think I'm going to check if there are any IRQ or DMA conflicts with this tool I saw mentioned in another post: https://www.hwinfo.com/download.php

@kippesoep: I have been reading up on bus mastering and palette snooping but isn't that only relevant for PCI based systems? Mine is ISA/VLB.