The 8850 does support doing 128 polyphony even when using only 16 channels. It also has channels 1b-16b,1c-16c,and1d-16d. When using serial or usb, they are all hooked up when the driver is installer. in midi mode, a is hooked to port 1, and b is hooked to port two, with c and d missing. This is also why the sd-50 is 32/128 instead of 64/128. It only has 2 midi ins.
The vsti2 plugin format only understands 16 channels. period. MAS and TDM plugins, for example are perfectly capable of inserting all of their ports into the DAWS that support them, which usually then will arrange them into "channel banks" you can select in the channel dropdown to apply to the entire track, and the info is saved with sequencer specific meta.
I suspect there's an unofficial standard used by most sequencers to store port info in midi files, and that this winmulti thing is smart enough to detect most versions it knows of, and turns 1b into 17.
Falcosoft midi player is intended only to playback midi composed for a single synth. That includes pretty much any midi you will find on a game music site, or a normal midi site, for that matter. That's why it doesn't bother with more than 4 ports. There's literally no single synth that does it.
Is your objective more polyphony, more parts, or both? I suspect it's the former, and that only because the sc-55 only goes to 24 or 28, because if they went to 32, then four copies would get you to 128. But I'm pretty sure even that everquest midi doesn't go above 80, and four sc55s get you 96, with the mkII going to 112m which is most likely enough. Never mind that that particular midi has voice stealing even on the awe32 it was composed for. That card just uses the proper priority so it sounds fine.
Oh wait, you want to assign each of the 16 channels to a port, don't you? and run 16 instances to make sure there's no voice stealing. 😀
Any midi file that actually uses more than four ports is almost certainly composed for multiple synths, and should just be played in the sequencer/DAW that made it, or edited to work with your sequencer if you obtain the synths it was made for.