The table you are referring to is indeed a good place to start: https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_ … _computer_games. It certainly helped my getting the right command line or patches to have my games to work with my wavetable.

There is another thread worth checking here: Mt-32 is working on some Sierra games, but not all.

PS: 572kb sounds certainly low... On most of my PCs I can get around 610kb in DOS with mouse, cdrom, VESA TSR and sound card TSRs for multiple sound cards loaded.

Simon the Sorcere requires a Intelligent Mode MPU-401 interface, you need to check if the sound card you are using supports this mode, perhaps you can try using SoftMPU or HardMPU to get Intelligent Mode MPU-401 support.

I have an Aztech Sound Galaxy Washington 16 which according to this source should support UART:

All 3rd-gen cards have an MPU-401 UART-compatible MIDI interface

I saw that other thread but this isnt exactly my problem, no Sierra game works on me, older games say "Couldnt initialize your sound system" whereas newer games (1990+) just play werid sounds and hang forever. I want to try that MT32 patch but my floppy drive seems to have died on me now 😅 Feels like I shouldnt need it though?

kelmer wrote on 2024-09-25, 11:43:

I have an Aztech Sound Galaxy Washington 16 which according to this source should support UART:

All 3rd-gen cards have an MPU-401 UART-compatible MIDI interface

I saw that other thread but this isnt exactly my problem, no Sierra game works on me, older games say "Couldnt initialize your sound system" whereas newer games (1990+) just play werid sounds and hang forever. I want to try that MT32 patch but my floppy drive seems to have died on me now 😅 Feels like I shouldnt need it though?

To be clear, the EGA games (LSL3, PQ2, QFG1 etc) are giving the "Unable to initialise your audio hardware" error? Sounds like the sound card is having trouble interfacing with the driver. No idea what your autoexec.bat setup is (and no idea of what it should be), but Sierra games are usually intended to be used with MIDI port 330 I think.

What speed machine are you using? If it's faster (P1+) then try this:
http://sierrahelp.com/Utilities/SoundUtilities/GOSiERRA.html

To be clear, the EGA games (LSL3, PQ2, QFG1 etc) are giving the "Unable to initialise your audio hardware" error?

Correct.

I have a Pentium 200 with 32Mb RAM, and my roland is working through the 330 port 😒

It does sound like a problem interfacing with the device, however other games do interact properly with it so thats whats confusing me. I will try those patches as soon as I manage to revive my floppy (or burn a CD otherwise)

Ended up burning a CD with those patches, but no improvement 🙁

Still cant manage to run the game with both Roland and SB for sound effects, due to memory issues

To illustrate the problem, here's how vanilla (no patches) sq4 sounds with my roland mt-32. Note the midi message always on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOjLZAuN5Mo&a … _channel=kelmer

Could this be related to the computer speed? Like its "only" a 200Mhz Pentium but still... Will try Moslo

I had a Pentium 166, that was fast enough to cause problems - yours is even faster. I'd try 40-50% with Moslo if your P2 is 200MHz. Other than audio, you will get serious timer bugs with SQ4 CD version, make sure to use the NRS patch if you're playing this version - https://www.spacequest.net/sq4/patches/
It is one of the games worst affected by timer issues (especially in Xenon, Skate-o-Rama, Super Computer).

The audio from your video is not super helpful - I'm actually curious now if you have a train station near your house!

Still, it's evidently not correct what's happening. Does the MT-32 always lock up like that - with all channels engaged on VGA games?
What appears to be happening is the first note is getting played and then hanging, presumably that is speed related or some IRQ or other conflict.
Does the SysEx send correctly to the unit? For example, do you see "...SPACE QUEST IV..." on the MT-32 display as the game loads? What instruments are loaded? (You can press 1-8 to check them.)

Spikey wrote on 2024-10-01, 14:05:

I had a Pentium 166, that was fast enough to cause problems - yours is even faster. I'd try 40-50% with Moslo if your P2 is 200M […]
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I had a Pentium 166, that was fast enough to cause problems - yours is even faster. I'd try 40-50% with Moslo if your P2 is 200MHz. Other than audio, you will get serious timer bugs with SQ4 CD version, make sure to use the NRS patch if you're playing this version - https://www.spacequest.net/sq4/patches/
It is one of the games worst affected by timer issues (especially in Xenon, Skate-o-Rama, Super Computer).

The audio from your video is not super helpful - I'm actually curious now if you have a train station near your house!

Still, it's evidently not correct what's happening. Does the MT-32 always lock up like that - with all channels engaged on VGA games?
What appears to be happening is the first note is getting played and then hanging, presumably that is speed related or some IRQ or other conflict.
Does the SysEx send correctly to the unit? For example, do you see "...SPACE QUEST IV..." on the MT-32 display as the game loads? What instruments are loaded? (You can press 1-8 to check them.)

Monkey Island 2 for instance works just fine (really nice music coming through the MT-32), and I see "Lucasfilm Games" on the device. Pretty much every LucasArts game I've tried works okay. The Legend of Kyrandia works fine too. Simon the Sorcerer doesn't crash but doesn't play any music either, so it's a bit hit and miss.

Sierra games don't seem to be communicating properly with the card, I see no messages on the Roland and then the problem I showed happens. I tried Moslo and the same thing happened; tried both SCI0 games and newer, VGA ones like SQ4, Dagger of Amon Ra and Leisure Suit Larry 6.

I have now since installed Windows 98 and it lets me select the midi output, which makes playing midi files through winamp or the media player go through the MT-32 just fine (although it doesn't play nicely i suspect because the MIDI files arent designed for the MT-32).

However my Aztech won't play digital sound under Windows, since it seems to have an IRQ conflict, because I also have an Ethernet card and the integrated sound chip (SB Vibra 16), which I can't manage to disable on the BIOS (i dont even think it has that option). I can however change the params for IRQ, DMA etc. on the BIOS so Ill test changing those soon.

Dude just run SoftMPU with the /DELAYSYSEX option. You should be good to go.

Just tried SoftMPU and I do see the midi messages "Insert Buckazoid" "Calling Roger Wilco", but then I hear no music (digital sound effects do work through the sound blaster driver) even though the instrument indicators do light up 😒

It does definitely look like it might be the buffer overflow error when not using SoftMPU?

Sounds like two errors, one is the buffering error, and then the other is a port conflict when trying to use digital audio and MIDI, maybe they're both trying to use the same port.
If the MT-32 is receiving MIDI data though, I'm confused why it's not able to send the audio data. Do you have a 1/4" headphone you can try in the headphone or L/R jack of the MT-32 (HINT: Turn the volume way down before you do!)

I did some further testing and it looks like after using SoftMPU with Leisure Suit Larry 6 the audio just goes silent (but the Roland does seem to be "playing" something). IF i dont run that one game all sierra games start working with both midi and digital audio.

This makes me happy already, although I feel i should be able to play without the tool! are there any downsides of using it?

I mean whatever works, man! Getting games working on older hardware is much more difficult than emulation.

I will say LSL6 is not a MT-32 game, so play it with a Sound Canvas if you have one.

Note it is best to power off/power on the MT-32 when jumping between different games. Some games leave the MT-32 to its default instruments and other program some to their own. Power-cycling the MT-32 ensures it's in the state every game expects it to be when run.