VOGONS


First post, by Megadisk

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Howdy!
I own an original copy of the DOS game "Prince of Persia" V1.0 but I'm having a terrible time with the sound when installing it in a 286 12Mhz pc with a Sound Blaster Pro2.
Basically, I think the issue seems to be relate to the SBPro2 drivers that I'm using. The games installs ok but at times, during the intro right at the first princess scut scene (the door opening digitized sound) instead of getting that all I get is a fart noise and the game locks/ crashes immediately after.

I have tested other sound cards like the Aztech NXpro,BXII, Sound Blaster 16 (ct1740) and Vibra16 with their respective drivers and the problem doesn't happen with them. As a matter of fact I tested the SBpro2 with the NXpro drivers (since this card is a SBPro2 clone) and the problem doesn't show with it. Also tried 3 different revisions of the SBpro2 card and the problem remains with all them.

Things I've tried: different combinations of the jumpers (IRQ's, DMA's,etc) different versions of the game found on the net, different versions of the SB Pro2 drivers also taken from the net since I don't own the original install disks to no available. The thing is the SBpro2 is my card of choice and everything else sounds much better with it, but I'm hopping not having to sacrifice "Prince of Persia" because of this.

Is there some sort of fix , sound patch for this game that I'm not aware of?..Any help or ideas are much appreciated.

The problem happens right here:

DSC06694_zps9jyu2c1x.jpg

And the cards that work ok:

DSC05943_zpsftjtgwi4.jpg

DSC06766_zpsoh6sll8v.jpg

DSC06767_zpshazwcu1e.jpg

Last edited by Megadisk on 2016-06-18, 17:37. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 2 of 13, by Megadisk

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
mrau wrote:

test with another version of the driver if possible?

Unfortunately all of the drivers I have tried or been able to find, seem to have been modified (missing files) because they don't appear to be the original SBpro2 card included installation disks 😢 .

Reply 3 of 13, by dr_st

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I seem to recall various issues with Prince of Persia 1.0 and Sound Blaster detection (albeit on much newer and faster systems). Is it possible for you to get version 1.3 or 1.4?

https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/ - Random content on hardware, software, games and toys

Reply 4 of 13, by Megadisk

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
dr_st wrote:

I seem to recall various issues with Prince of Persia 1.0 and Sound Blaster detection (albeit on much newer and faster systems). Is it possible for you to get version 1.3 or 1.4?

I've tried those, no luck 🙁

Reply 5 of 13, by Great Hierophant

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Drivers for the SB Pro are not going to help you here, Prince of Persia uses its own internal driver to communicate with your cards. Except for a very few games, you do not need to install the drivers for the SB Pro in DOS, although the mixer control comes in handy.

If the game crashes right as it is playing the first digital sound effect, either you have an IRQ/DMA issue or a faulty card. Set your Pro to I/O 220, IRQ 7 and DMA 1. Make sure your SET BLASTER=A200 I7 D1 T4 is set in AUTOEXEC.BAT.

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/ - Nerdly Pleasures - My Retro Gaming, Computing & Tech Blog

Reply 6 of 13, by theruler

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I have a similar problem but I experience no crash.
I have a PS/1 IBM 286@10, always used Pop 1.0 and the PS/1 audio card has always been recognized. When I try to use recent versions of the game 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 (1.4 doesn't have IBM PS/1 audio card support) the intro music is correctly played but the effects are not.

Sometime I hear the very first part of the sound but is immediately cut.
I've tried putting the pop 1.0 exe into the 1.3 folder and the issue is gone. I think it is the built-in driver for my old PS/1 card.
Could be the issue buffer related? Is there a modification I could do to the exe to enlarge the buffer?

regards

Reply 7 of 13, by koverhbarc

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Prince of Persia and some other games from 1990-91 only work with sound on IRQ 7, and that's likely the explanation for your results. They may or may not require SET BLASTER, but it can't hurt. Do not load any drivers!

On XP, it's also necessary to disable the built-in SB emulation, which is fixed to IRQ5, the later standard. That's how I first discovered this issue.

Reply 8 of 13, by Jo22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Megadisk wrote:

Howdy!

Howdy. 😀

Megadisk wrote:

I own an original copy of the DOS game "Prince of Persia" V1.0 but I'm having a terrible time with the sound when installing it in a 286 12Mhz pc with a Sound Blaster Pro2.

Im curious, is the bus frequency in sync with the processor ?
Some 286 machines predate the ISA bus specs and and run on higher frequencies than 8~Mhz.
This may or may not cause trouble with later ISA cards also. A few cards, like early EMS boards, supported 10-12MHz operation explicitly.

koverhbarc wrote:

Prince of Persia and some other games from 1990-91 only work with sound on IRQ 7, and that's likely the explanation for your results.
They may or may not require SET BLASTER, but it can't hurt. Do not load any drivers!

On XP, it's also necessary to disable the built-in SB emulation, which is fixed to IRQ5, the later standard. That's how I first discovered this issue.

Right. The reason for this is justified by the design differences of the XT and AT architecture.
On the PC/XT platform, the fixed disk drive controller (usually MFM/RLL style) was mapped to IRQ5.
Running a sound card on this interrupt was considered dangerous at the time (data corruption).

That's why it was initally set to IRQ7. While it was used by printer ports sometimes,
chances where little someone would use a sound card and a printer simultanously.
And even if someone did, any corruption was on paper only and easy to detect.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 9 of 13, by collector

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Issues with old hardware should be asked in Marvin. Marvin, the Paranoid Android

The Sierra Help Pages -- New Sierra Game Installers -- Sierra Game Patches -- New Non-Sierra Game Installers

Reply 10 of 13, by Jo22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

True, I won't argue that point - though the issue is mainly about the Prince of Persia game as far I understand.
And the IRQ5/7 thing I repeated to was just a short explanation as to why old games defaulted to IRQ7.
If I was the one who had created this thread, I probably would also have had put in this forum at first. 😅

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 12 of 13, by deksar

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
koverhbarc wrote:

Prince of Persia and some other games from 1990-91 only work with sound on IRQ 7, and that's likely the explanation for your results. They may or may not require SET BLASTER, but it can't hurt. Do not load any drivers! On XP, it's also necessary to disable the built-in SB emulation, which is fixed to IRQ5, the later standard. That's how I first discovered this issue.

Now, that was a great info! Many thanks, koverhbarc.

Reply 13 of 13, by Jo22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

On XP, it's also necessary to disable the built-in SB emulation, which is fixed to IRQ5, the later standard. That's how I first discovered this issue.

I'm speaking under correction, but I believe on XP, NTVDM processes autoexec.nt, which seems to have a "SET BLASTER=" statement for
configuring the emulated SB 2.0, so it might be possible to change IRQ5 to IRQ7. That beeing said, I haven't tried this so far.
I was already using DOSBox when I heard about XP's hidden -errm- "capabilities". I'd be cool if some brave warrior(s) would check that, though. 😉

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//