Get sound working for DOS games on Windows 98 \ VOGONS

Get sound working for DOS games on Windows 98

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First post, by Matombo

Posted on 2020-06-02, 16:53

Matombo Offline

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Hi,
so i dug up an old PC from 2002 from the basement and wanted to make it a Dos retro gaming machine using Windows 98.
However sound does work in windows itself but not in dos games. The PC does not have a dedicated sound card but an integrated "ALi Audio Accelerator" on the mainboard: http://www.motherboard.cz/mb/soyo/SY-K7ADAv10.htm
The driver I use is the ULi Integrated 2.13 https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/uli-drivers/ (the installer for 2.20 crashes every time)
I read that dos games need a vxd driver and most windows 98 drivers are wdm, but when i look in the driver info on my system i see 3 files: ali51wdm.sys, VMM32.VXD, and MMDEVLDR.VXD
Seeing both files with wdm and vxd i gues the driver should support both systems?
Are there alternative drivers I can install? like unbranded realtek drivers? (nowadays most integrated audio chips are realtek anyways but not all are labled as such, was it the same back in the days of win98?)
The 2 Games i tried are Hugo Gold (German Edition) and The Smurfs (German Edition). Hugo is only supported on NT and 95 offically and The Smurfs only on Dos and Windows 95.

Reply 1 of 5, by 1541

Posted on 2020-06-02, 19:42

1541 Offline

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Did you try the games in real DOS or in a DOS command prompt window inside Windows 98?

💾 Windows 9x resources (drivers, tools, NUSB,...) 💾

Reply 2 of 5, by Matombo

Posted on 2020-06-02, 19:48

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Hugo does not start in real DOS mode.
Smurfs also doesn't have sound in real dos mode.
Maybe a note here: Smurfs has 2 exe files: one that run in dos and windows mode fullscreen and one that does only run in windows mode in a window.

Reply 3 of 5, by 1541

Posted on 2020-06-02, 20:03

1541 Offline

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I doubt there are DOS drivers for a AC97 "Sigmatel STAC9700 Chip" around.
What happens if you start the games within Windows 98?
Does the BIOS have an option like "SB Legacy Emulation"?

💾 Windows 9x resources (drivers, tools, NUSB,...) 💾

Reply 4 of 5, by Matombo

Posted on 2020-06-02, 21:29

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Both when i start the games from windows 98 or dos there is no sound.
The Swurfs windows executable does actually give a generic error message that it failed to set up sound. But does not tell me why.

I couldn't find an audio related options in the bios beside disabling/enabling the onboard soundchip.

Next weekend i will try to install windows 95 and see if it works there (hope the graphics driver runs on windows 95, it is a graphics card from 2002, and to make it run on 98 i already had to use a beta driver xD)

Reply 5 of 5, by darry

Posted on 2020-06-02, 21:39

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Matombo wrote on 2020-06-02, 21:29:
Both when i start the games from windows 98 or dos there is no sound. The Swurfs windows executable does actually give a generic […]
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Both when i start the games from windows 98 or dos there is no sound.
The Swurfs windows executable does actually give a generic error message that it failed to set up sound. But does not tell me why.

I couldn't find an audio related options in the bios beside disabling/enabling the onboard soundchip.

Next weekend i will try to install windows 95 and see if it works there (hope the graphics driver runs on windows 95, it is a graphics card from 2002, and to make it run on 98 i already had to use a beta driver xD)

AC97 devices connected to a motherboard southbridge usually do not have any provision for pure DOS support (i.e Sound Blaster emulation). The only exception that I am aware of consists of certain specific VIA southbridges .

Windows 98 SE has Sound Blaster Pro emulation for DOS applications running under Windows on audio devices running WDM type drivers .

Windows 95 will be no different under pure DOS and will not have the Sound Blaster Pro emulation for DOS applications running in Windows .

EDIT: The motherboard manual mentions Sound Blaster compatibility in the South Bridge . Maybe you just need software to enable it under DOS .

~~EDIT2: I could not find any software for DOS . There is a Windows 95 (VXD) driver in this thread : Getting sound to work on windows 98 laptop for DOS .~~

Filename: mk7ada10.pdf
File size: 3.39 MiB
Downloads: 91 downloads
File license: Fair use/fair dealing exception

[/s]

EDIT3 : Found some DOS drivers for Trident Trident 4DWave . They might work with your audio chip http://vsynchmame.mameworld.info/4dwave_dos.zip
from this thread : Which PCI sound card is best for DOS/98SE games?

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