It's funny you mention this because I've been trying to figure out why Warcraft 2 has static in its sfx on my ES1868. Doom, MOO and Quest for Glory VGA all sound fine so far. I see about trying Kings Quest VI if I own a copy. I think I used to.

mockingbird wrote on 2023-09-24, 14:43:

I was testing various soundcards in KQVI to try and get WSS working for higher voice quality in-game (and I wasn't successful - but that's a different topic), and during my testing I set the music device to Sound Blaster (but also SBPro).

I observed that with my ES1868 card (It's the good quality Compaq version), I would get static at the very begining of the opening sequence when the Sierra logo is displayed. I then tried two different ES1869 cards, same initialization variables, same volume settings, and the sound was absolutely fine.

Can someone confirm/reject these findings? Are there fixes in ES1869 SB emulation that affected ES1868? The only difference I was aware of between the two was full-duplex operation with the ES1869, but perhaps there were some fixes in the silicon as well.

When you say KQ6, do you mean DOS or Windows version?

Spikey wrote on 2023-09-26, 08:26:

When you say KQ6, do you mean DOS or Windows version?

DOS version.

I have an integrated ess 1888F, not exactly the same thing but I can check my card if you’d like.

midicollector wrote on 2023-09-26, 19:36:

I have an integrated ess 1888F, not exactly the same thing but I can check my card if you’d like.

The ES1888F seems to be an upgraded ES1688F:

"The ES1888 is a feature upgrade to the ES1688 design. In addition to the ES1688 features, the ES1888
adds: full duplex operation using two DMA channels, dual joystick timers, hardware volume control,
and 6 bit (64 steps) master volume control. The ES1888 is not pin compatible to the ES1688."

That's ok, I appreciate the offer.

So I did try this with the Kings Quest VI Sierra Originals disc, in DOS mode, SBPro as the music, and I did not perceive any static in the Sierra logo intro.

Namrok wrote on 2023-09-27, 18:13:

So I did try this with the Kings Quest VI Sierra Originals disc, in DOS mode, SBPro as the music, and I did not perceive any static in the Sierra logo intro.

Interesting, thank you. I ordered an ES1869 IC from China and will try swapping the ES1868 with it to see if the problem goes away.

By the way, can you get through some of the game with the SFX (speech audio) without it crashing with it set to Sound Blaster?

So my music was set to SB Pro, my sfx was set to SB, and I did start a new game, dick around some, hear some narration, etc. Picked up my signet ring, then quit. Didn't leave the first screen though.

I actually tried it again with the music and sfx set to SB, started a new game, picked up the signet ring, then walked to the next screen, no issues.

Namrok wrote on 2023-09-27, 21:37:

So my music was set to SB Pro, my sfx was set to SB, and I did start a new game, dick around some, hear some narration, etc. Picked up my signet ring, then quit. Didn't leave the first screen though.

I actually tried it again with the music and sfx set to SB, started a new game, picked up the signet ring, then walked to the next screen, no issues.

Can you please copy RESOURCE.AUD and RESOURCE.SAV to SIERRA\KQ6CD and then modify these lines in RESOURCE.CFG:

1CD = NO
2audio=c:\sierra\kq6cd
3sync=c:\sierra\kq6cd
4movieDir=c:\sierra\kq6cd\seq
5patchDir=c:\sierra\kq6cd

Then start the game and talk to yourself on the beach... Crashes instantly with me unless I select thunderboard in the audio setup... Works fine if it plays the audio off the CD... Not quite sure what causes it.

On a related note, mockingbird - does modifying the audiosize parameter help the static? For example, changing it from 8K to 24K (as per the README).

The KQ6 readme also says, although I question its relevance:
"SPEECH BREAKUP QUESTIONS:

If you experience audio cutouts during the game you may need to
alter the audio buffer size of the MSCDEX driver located in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You can do this by adjusting the
/m:AUDIOSIZE parameter. We recommend that this value be set to
at least 10. If you experience slow movement or audio cutouts
consistently, you may wish to lower the size of this buffer. For more
tips, please refer to the "OTHER NOTES" section.

(part in OTHER NOTES)
You may need to increase the audio buffer size of the MSCDEX driver
in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on your boot disk. The default size is "/M:2".
If you have over 600K of free memory, try increasing the size to "/M:10".
If you experience slow movement or audio cutouts consistently, you may
wish to lower the size of this buffer. "

Spikey wrote on 2023-09-28, 15:43:

On a related note, mockingbird - does modifying the audiosize parameter help the static? For example, changing it from 8K to 24K (as per the README).

No. I should really test with Warcraft 2 like @Namrok did to confirm the issue is with the IC. But swapping the IC to an ES1869 should also confirm the issue is with the ES1868 in general (and rule out the card).

On a side note, for any fans of the DOS CD version of KQ6, I've found that the best method of running KQ6 with all the bells and whistles while retaining the original character speech portrait art from said version is to use SCUMMVM. Configured correctly, SCUMMVM does a terrific job with great General MIDI passthrough (tested on Win98, but you can also use MUNT on newer OS if you want MT-32), without the hassles of DOS.

The Windows version portraits with higher resolution is just nowhere near on the level of the older, albeit more pixelated art. It should never have passed quality control.

mockingbird wrote on 2023-09-27, 23:50:

Can you please copy RESOURCE.AUD and RESOURCE.SAV to SIERRA\KQ6CD and then modify these lines in RESOURCE.CFG: […]
Show full quote

Namrok wrote on 2023-09-27, 21:37:

So my music was set to SB Pro, my sfx was set to SB, and I did start a new game, dick around some, hear some narration, etc. Picked up my signet ring, then quit. Didn't leave the first screen though.

I actually tried it again with the music and sfx set to SB, started a new game, picked up the signet ring, then walked to the next screen, no issues.

Can you please copy RESOURCE.AUD and RESOURCE.SAV to SIERRA\KQ6CD and then modify these lines in RESOURCE.CFG:

Copy code to clipboard

1CD = NO
2audio=c:\sierra\kq6cd
3sync=c:\sierra\kq6cd
4movieDir=c:\sierra\kq6cd\seq
5patchDir=c:\sierra\kq6cd

Then start the game and talk to yourself on the beach... Crashes instantly with me unless I select thunderboard in the audio setup... Works fine if it plays the audio off the CD... Not quite sure what causes it.

I'll see about that at some point. Currently have all my drives detached from that system for reasons. Now that I think about it, I may have even left KGVI in the drive.

So, I got my 486 with the ES1868 put back together, and it turns out with the software I currently have installed, copying over the CD-ROM sized RESOURCE.AUD to my 512 MB compact flash card is a no go. Not enough free space. Getting a larger CF card or deleting stuff until I have the room is a bit more effort than I planned on putting in. Sorry.

I replaced the ES1868F IC (B356) with an ES1869F and the static is gone, which leads me to conclude that the ES1868 had some errata in the silicon which was fixed with the ES1869. Some of the Compaq ES1868 Audio Feature Boards come with an ES1869, so there's that, but the Compaq Premier Sound (also called "ES1869 Audio Feature Board") should be avoided because the wavetable connector pinout is non-standard.

Another thing to note is that my card has an 93lc66 EEPROM and it still identifies as an ES1868 in the PnP device listing on boot-up because of the stored EEPROM data, but that's fine, it works either way.