VOGONS


First post, by frenks

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i've installed earth 2140 in dosbox and it works fine without sound.

i've tried every soundcard that's available to select and in the installation i hear the sound fine.

but when i start the game in dosbox the soundcard is jamming the game from starting up. it says something like soundcard not detected. while in the installation it works fine.

somebody familliar with this problem?????

thanx frenks

Reply 1 of 9, by MiniMax

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DON'T TYPE IN UPPERCASE - IT HURTS MY EARS!

I have fixed your post, but next time you scream like that your thread will be closed.

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Reply 2 of 9, by MiniMax

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Do you see an option for selecting Sound Blaster? If so, which values do you specify?

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Reply 3 of 9, by frenks

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yes i can select diffrent sounblasters and in the installation program every
soundblaster works but not in the game

the values are

soundblaster IRO: 7 DMA: 0 HDMA: - PORT: 220
soundblaster pro the same values
soundblaster 16 also the same except HDMA: low
gravis ultrasound all values -
windows sound system IRO: 7 DMA: 3 HDMA: - PORT: 530

Reply 5 of 9, by SKARDAVNELNATE

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Sorry for raising the thread but I believe Earth 2140 has an issue with the cycles value.

DOSBox 0.74 after using Reset Options to make sure all settings are at default.

While running the installer autodetection works and it selects Soundblaster 16 at 7 1 5 and 220. But then testing the sound card produces a "failed to initialize" message. I changed cycles from auto to 20000 and the sound test worked. However the installer locked up before starting the video mode test. I had to force DOSBox to close.

I then tried 40000 cycles and both test worked but it looked slow. Next I tried 60000 cycles and this also installed while at a good speed.

Still at 60000 cycles I attempted to run the game. The sound card failed to initialize and DOSBox returned to the prompt. The same happened with 40000 cycles. I then tried 30000 cycles and was able to start playing.

Summary:
I used 60000 cycles to run setup.
I use 30000 cycles to play.

Edit 1:
I still don't here any music in game but now the sound effect are there at least.

Edit 2:
Ah ha, music is off by default. I had to turn it on in Game Control once I selected my campaign.

Last edited by SKARDAVNELNATE on 2010-12-20, 17:37. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 6 of 9, by Mau1wurf1977

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Heart of China has a similar behavior. If the machine is too fast it can't initialize the sound driver.

This is reproducible under DOSBox and on real Vintage hardware.

My website with reviews, demos, drivers, tutorials and more...
My YouTube channel

Reply 7 of 9, by Gamecollector

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Tested with my own Earth 2140 cd (unfortunately - AU/NZ version) and 0.74.
Looks like if you press sb16 "test" button SEVERAL TIMES - the test work.
Or you can lower the cycles percentage.
Still no luck with GUS. Work in progress. 😀

Reply 8 of 9, by SKARDAVNELNATE

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I got a look at the "XP version" which is just the original plus 2 expansions running in DOSBox 0.73.

The CONF has cycles=auto and sets Soundblaster 16 at 5 0 5 and 220 with opl3 and emu=old. I doubt this makes any difference as the autoexec section has a choice command asking if the user wants to restart in case sound initialization fails. Also they disabled the startup intro movie. It's accessible from the menu and still has a cycles issue. The intro movies for the expansions appear to work just fine.