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Reply 23 of 419, by bjt

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Had a nasty problem with PS/2 mouse interrupts in Gateway (what else?) but version 1.0 is finally done:

*START HERE* SoftMPU 1.91 - Software Intelligent MPU-401 Emulator

Reply 27 of 419, by PARUS

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Hi people! Sorry for my English 😀
First I want to say MUCH thanx to bjt !!! This is a great unique project which never had analogs in world's retro community!
I'm very glad to see this excellent work. Now I've got stimul to buy Roland MT-32 for my retro PC. Thank you very much again!

I want to ask some questions about it.
1) If a game needs Intelligent Mode and at the same time doesn't work with EMM386 how to decide this problem?
2) Can SoftMPU load and unload through some key without reboot OS to quick switch between UART and Intelligent?
3) A big question. I have no MT-32 yet and I can't check it today.
Can I set SoftMPU IRQ not same IRQ of my SB-compatible card? I have a card Terratec EWS64XL with extension module. I switched its IRQ to 5. But this card has two MPU-401 channels and can let user to set IRQs for each other channel plus to base IRQ5. For example, IO=220 IRQ=5 MPU=330 IRQmpu=9. So can I set at SoftMPU command prompt IRQ=9 (not base 5)?

Thank you very much for your answers! Thank you for this nice program again! Best regards.

Reply 28 of 419, by Jolaes76

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ad 1) buy a Roland MPU 401 interface or compatible. A less perfect alternative: Ensoniq ISA and AudioPCI cards also have a brute/dumb workaround trick
ad 2) you mean a simple unload option. Bjt might implement that - at the cost of increased memory occupation...

"Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima iactura arte corrigenda est."

Reply 29 of 419, by bjt

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Thanks for your kind comments Parus.

1) I think all intelligent mode games work with EMM386, happy to be corrected though!
2) SoftMPU will switch between UART and intelligent mode automatically, just like a real MPU-401 interface. An unload feature is possible but I'm not sure it's worth the effort compared to CTRL-ALT-DEL 😀
3) Because SoftMPU uses the SB DSP to generate interrupts, it will always use the SB IRQ rather than any separate MPU IRQ.

Reply 30 of 419, by Jolaes76

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ad 1) If it turns out that there is no EMM386-allergic intelligent mode MT32 game, that will be awesome... Roland interfaces will make their last stand on 286 and lower machines, as GH said 😀

"Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima iactura arte corrigenda est."

Reply 31 of 419, by PARUS

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3) It is no secret: as a rule, most SB-games, especially SB16-games absolutely don't like IRQs more than 7 (as IRQ9 is) and in many cases there are attempts to set IRQ=2 at SB to work out in games but game's setup don't want to work with this setting often.
So for gaming with Roland we must always reinit SB card with IRQ=2/9, and for gaming with SB also always reinit SB with IRQ=5/7, right? If a game can work with SB-SFX and LA-MIDI together we usually could not use this possible because IRQs must be different for these two interfaces. Right?

Reply 32 of 419, by bjt

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So for gaming with Roland we must always reinit SB card with IRQ=2/9, and for gaming with SB also always reinit SB with IRQ=5/7, right?

Not always - there are a small number of games that are hard coded to IRQ2/9. Most allow the user to specify the MPU IRQ. In addition, many intelligent mode games don't require MPU interrupts.

I know of only one game that uses both SB digital sound and intelligent mode MPU (Wing Commander II), and it doesn't use MPU interrupts anyway.

The SoftMPU compatibility list being built at the moment includes information about which games require MPU interrupts, and of these, which are hard coded to IRQ2/9:

http://github.com/bjt42/softmpu/wiki/Compatible-Games

Reply 33 of 419, by PARUS

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Thanks for interesting thoughtful answers! I ask these questions because I don't like too many configurations in one computer, large .BAT files with switching parameters. I always try as it's possible to tune settings for most or all cases.

By the way: I know one more game - The 11th hour. It can play SFX through SB and MIDI through LA together.

Reply 35 of 419, by PARUS

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Yes, right! I don't know many details because I never had MT-32. I didn't want to use it without most old games requiring Intelligent mode and I didn't want to give one ISA slot for real MPU-401 controller. ISA slots are very scarce and precious for other 'must have' devices. Now with SoftMPU and not needed separate ISA slot I decided to buy MT-32! Thank you!!!

Reply 37 of 419, by Mau1wurf1977

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bjt wrote:

Bump - new release, see first post for details.

Funny how the universe works 😀

I'm working on a video about your project, because more should know about your awesome contribution.

Ran into some issues (not related to your program), but then finally when it came to trying it out it would just hang.

Was just about to write you a PM and saw the new version. Space Quest 3 works like a charm 😀

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

Reply 38 of 419, by carlostex

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Awesome project!!!!

Too bad it takes a little performance out of my 386 DX40 machine. What's funny is that actually Wing Commander I plays at the right speed when using SoftMPU while it runs a tad fast if SoftMPU is not loaded. Other games become slightly slower, i guess a 486 DX-33 becomes the sweet spot for playing these old games while using SoftMPU!

Amazing job bjt!!! 😎

Reply 39 of 419, by carlostex

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bjt wrote:

I know of only one game that uses both SB digital sound and intelligent mode MPU (Wing Commander II), and it doesn't use MPU interrupts anyway.

You can add Dune 2 to that list. But you need that patched setup file, so you can select roland for music and SB for digital sound!