Does it work on a real system?

I don't know. Unless Tandy 1000 supports a cd rom driver, or later Tandy computers (3000, 5000, ... support 3-voice). I don't own any Tandy systems so I can't tell you. Sorry.

"true" is not a valid value for the tandy= setting, and will result in the default of tandy=auto being used, which means the Tandy sound support will not be enabled for machine=svga_s3, so use tandy=on.

The Tandy music driver in Settlers 2 (TANDY.MDI) will only initialize if the string "Tandy" is found in the system BIOS. In DOSBox the string will only be found with machine=tandy. I tried patching the string into the emulated BIOS when the tandy= setting is "on", which might not be a good solution in general because it could cause system misidentification in other cases, but it did satisfy the driver's test. Of course you can also hack the driver file to eliminate the string check. It seems a bit strange to behold 1024x768x256 VESA graphics with Tandy music playing over it.

I just played Settlers 2.

In dosbox.conf

machine=svga_s3

tandy=on

In dos, I used THEXVGA3.COM

I still get the same error when selecting tandy 3-voice in setup.
It won't save it.

So I edited mdi.ini using notepad.

MDI.INI
;
;Miles Design Audio Interface Library V3.03 of 7-Nov-95
;

DEVICE Tandy 3-voice sound
DRIVER TANDY.MDI
IO_ADDR -1
IRQ -1
DMA_8_BIT -1
DMA_16_BIT -1

I have no sound and no music in the game.

Bad luck. Check it on a real system and if it really is supposed to work, report back.

That TSR program is a hack for Thexder only, it won't do anything for other games.

If you're comfortable with using a hex editor type of program you can do this: in TANDY.MDI at offset 0A17 change F2 AE to EB 16. With the hacked driver, machine=svga_s3 and tandy=on, you'll be able to experience Tandy music in Settlers 2, for whatever that's worth.

I should also point out that tandy=on conflicts with the SB16's 16-bit digital audio, so don't try to use the SB16 driver with the Tandy driver, but the SB Pro driver should work.

This driver is obviously a vestige of the Miles Sound Drivers. There is only one Tandy 1000 that could conveivably run the game, the 1000RSX. I think more likely that a Tandy Snssation user could run it.

However, having an option to change the BIOS type would be a useful thing for advanced users. This would allow some games to work with EGA or VGA adapters while continuing to use the Tandy sound. For example, Thexder will work just fine in a real Tandy 1000 with an EGA card for high resolution graphics and Tandy sound. You can also finagle it to work with MCGA graphics as well with a PS/2 BIOS option. Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken (low resolution versions) will also work with this combo. giving nicer text and finer cursor granularity.

ripsaw8080 wrote:

That TSR program is a hack for Thexder only, it won't do anything for other games.

If you're comfortable with using a hex editor type of program you can do this: in TANDY.MDI at offset 0A17 change F2 AE to EB 16. With the hacked driver, machine=svga_s3 and tandy=on, you'll be able to experience Tandy music in Settlers 2, for whatever that's worth.

I should also point out that tandy=on conflicts with the SB16's 16-bit digital audio, so don't try to use the SB16 driver with the Tandy driver, but the SB Pro driver should work.

I just downloaded a hex editor. The hack works fine. I agree. Most songs play wrong with tandy 3 voices. Some notes are missing.

Songs 2 and 4 play best with 3 voices.