VOGONS


First post, by root42

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I am trying to get Spellcasting 101 to run with my MT-32 and keropi's PC MIDI card. It hangs after the warning and the logo screen. I see the Guitar patch flashing on the device, and that's it. Silence. Spellcasting 201 works just fine. Any ideas?

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Reply 1 of 16, by Jo22

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Hm.. Spellcasting 101? I remember it needed the rearely used sound.com for AdLib support.
Not sure what it needs for MT-32, if there's anything it needs.
Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All the Bugs

"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

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Reply 2 of 16, by zarkon

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I have just tried it, though my use case is different to yours (DOSBOX ECE R4191 -> Windows 10 -> USBtoMidi -> CM-64).

Using "S101 MT32" to start it got me music and I got into the game with no issue. I can try my MT-32(old) tomorrow if it's useful to you. I ran the GOG version of the game which has the following size/files for 101:

6,080 BELCH1.RS
9,984 BIP1.RS
25,024 BIRDS1.RS
6,800 CASTBAD2.RS
10,240 CASTGD1.RS
27,818 CHAPTER1.RS
33,232 CROWD4.RS
25,319 DOOR1.RS
8,653 HEART2.RS
12,864 HORSE2.RS
14,208 MONSTER1.RS
6,656 MONSTER4.RS
213,488 MUSIC.RS
1,712 RAT3.RS
776 READ.ME
13,463 RESTART.DAT
23,424 ROTTEN3.RS
4,060 S101.BNK
71,906 S101.EXE
327,904 S101MAIN.EXE
247,328 S101MAIN.OVL
106,273 S101STR.DAT
83,879 S101_C1.PIC
81,465 S101_C2.PIC
83,789 S101_C3.PIC
88,667 S101_C4.PIC
76,898 S101_C5.PIC
86,554 S101_C6.PIC
225,893 S101_E1.PIC
207,880 S101_E2.PIC
229,169 S101_E3.PIC
245,584 S101_E4.PIC
223,547 S101_E5.PIC
234,178 S101_E6.PIC
36,614 S101_M1.MUS
62,479 S101_M2.MUS
43,810 S101_M3.MUS
16,710 S101_M4.MUS
20,321 S101_M5.MUS
24,903 S101_M6.MUS
954 S101_R1.RGN
1,566 S101_R2.RGN
1,296 S101_R3.RGN
1,362 S101_R4.RGN
960 S101_R5.RGN
1,338 S101_R6.RGN
7,123 SB-SOUND.COM
3,653 SCREAM1.RS
16,986 SCREAM2.RS
16,986 SEX1.RS
13,631 SEX2.RS
8,653 SEX3.RS
16,986 SIGH1.RS
5,760 STAMP2.RS
25,415 VOCAB.DAT
28,480 VULTURE2.RS
56 File(s) 3,420,701 bytes

Reply 3 of 16, by root42

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Thanks, I will check. It might be that dosbox changes something though.

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Reply 4 of 16, by BloodyCactus

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I have different card (midiman mm401) but my original S101 talks to my MT32 just fine. There is little music in S101, mostly its sound effects through the 'realsound' crap.

also remember Legend games are very speed dependant with their MIDI implementation (and its a bit non standard from memeory)

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Reply 5 of 16, by keropi

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ofcourse it does not work, it's made by hired monkeys that programmed for Legend 🤣
I did not pay attention to this thread because I don't care for those types of games... I only use Gateway to do an extra test for pcmidi cards and that's about it for me.
Now I realize it was involving PCMIDI 😀

So I tried spellcasting 101 on my 386DX40 test system. It froze. 😵
Then I removed the PCMIDI and installed a SCC-1 I had nearby. It froze. 😵 😵
Both times after the warning, like root42 mentions above.

I tried to google and could only find a relevant post here: Re: MPU-401 Intelligent mode

puttesnutte wrote:
Congratulations! I can't even get David Wolf to play MT-32 music using a real MT-32 connected to a real Roland MPU-401 interface […]
Show full quote

Congratulations!
I can't even get David Wolf to play MT-32 music using a real MT-32 connected to a real Roland MPU-401 interface installed in my 486 DX2-66 running MS-DOS 6.22...

I don't know if these games use intelligent mode, but I had problems getting the following early Legend Entertainment games to work with the hardware mentioned above:

Spellcasting 101, 201 & 301
Gateway 1 & 2
Eric the Unready
TimeQuest

I think I changed some IRQ-setting on the 486's IO-card to get them to work. Most other games supporting the MT-32 had worked perfectly without having to change this.

And (as I mentioned somewhere else in the forum) all Sierra SCI0-games (King's Quest 4, Space Quest 3, Larry 2 & 3, Police Quest 2, Quest for Glory 1 & 2, Codename Iceman, Colonel's Bequest, King's Quest 1 Remake, Conquests of Camelot, Hoyle 1 & 2) fail to work with an MT-32 connected to the MIDI-port of a SoundBlaster. (there is a patch to fix this)

So we are not alone in this. Second result here: Spellcasting 101 CD + MT32 Fix

FeedingDragon wrote:

I was having problems getting the MT32 to work with Spellcasting 101, and found others with the same problem here. I didn't find a solution here (or on the web,) but in desperation (ok frustrated anger,) did some experimentation. I finally got it working, but the old threads were to old. So, for anyone interested here is the very easy fix.

Edit the Legend.bat file (or your config file if you are like me and bypass the bat file.) Remove the "2 330" part of the command line so that it reads (in my case,) "S101 SVGA XMOUSE BLASTER 7 220 MT32" and after a MT32 notice screen the game loads and plays MT32 just fine.

So there is a CD-ROM compilation that ALSO needs some tinkering to get it going. WTF Legend!?! 😵
I first tried the compilation on DOSBox, and it does indeed freeze if you don't remove "330 2" from LEGEND.BAT
Then I installed the games on my test 386DX , edited LEGEND.BAT and Spellcasting 101 finally worked! 😊

A simple comparison shows that the CD-ROM compilation uses a newer/fixed/unified/whatever-I-don't-care game engine at least for Spellcasting 101 that fixes all those mpu issues provided you edit LEGEND.BAT 🤣 🤣 🤣

So there you have it people, use the updated CD-ROM versions for these games... 😎

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Reply 6 of 16, by root42

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Hm, the CD ROM version seems to use a new release of the Legend game engine. S101 only supported EGA 350 lines originally. So the SVGA option is definitely out of place.

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Reply 7 of 16, by keropi

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Cdrom still offers ega and mono options for older people/builds 🤣
maybe it's the same engine as Gateway2

TvPhEi1.png

Last edited by keropi on 2019-02-12, 18:22. Edited 2 times in total.

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Reply 8 of 16, by BloodyCactus

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keropi wrote:

I first tried the compilation on DOSBox, and it does indeed freeze if you don't remove "330 2" from LEGEND.BAT

well having it use IRQ 2 ofcourse will hang... (acpi depending I guess). I run 330 3 on my SS7 machine with cache disabled on k62+... been a while since I tested this but I think that was right.

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Reply 9 of 16, by keropi

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No I tried in dosbox, it hangs if you don't edit legend.bat
On ss7 the irq2 issue is well documented 😀

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 11 of 16, by Dimitris1980

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Well, i haven't found solved the problem with Roland on these following Legend games:

S101
S201
S301
Companions of Xanth (floppy and cd)
Gateway 2

Spellcasting series are from the cd collection, all three games with install file and also a Roland MT32/CM 32L option for music.

I use Keropi's PC Midi card.

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 12 of 16, by keropi

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for spellcasting trilogy CDROM, did you remove ""330 2" from LEGEND.BAT ?

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 13 of 16, by Dimitris1980

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Yes, but no success.

Attachments

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 14 of 16, by Jo22

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Speed issue? I remember playing Gateway+MT-32 with 5000 to 9000 cycles (fixed) in DOSBox, for example.

"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 15 of 16, by keropi

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Or it could be irq2 is not really free
or even the cyrix cpu , these games are not known for their good programming...

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Reply 16 of 16, by Jo22

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keropi wrote on 2022-12-03, 20:09:

Or it could be irq2 is not really free
or even the cyrix cpu , these games are not known for their good programming...

Cyrix CPU ? Like in the Media GX chip ? 😁
DOSIDLE can help maybe. It has several extra features for Cyrix CPUs!

Edit: Here's a copy, I think : https://archive.org/details/dosidle

"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//