C0deHunter wrote:

Hello all,
Most Delphine games (Operation Stealth, Cruise for a Corpse, etc.), Bitmap Brothers (Magic Pockets, SpeedBall2) , and others that use MT-32 (or LAPC-1) simply either do not produce a sound, or do not run at all.

sounds to me that these games need an intelligent mode MPU-401 normal sound cards only do uart MPU-401. Some older games hang when they try to use a nonexistent intelligent mode MPU-401.

C0deHunter wrote:

Worst is Monkey I and 2, as they produce weird sounds. (and I use the correct DOS command prompts to launch them, ie: Monkey v r, Monkey2 v r)

that is MT-32 emulation for you and this is most likely as good as it gets. The SC-55 only supports the default instruments of the MT-32 but many if not most games use custom sounds that can't be done on the SC-55 because it lacks the flexibility of the MT-32. In my experience the MT-32 emulation is pretty much worthless.

C0deHunter wrote:

One thing I noticed that older games tend to choose IRQ7 as default (and I have IRQ5 set at default). Could this be the culprit?

unlikely. Older games use IRQ 7 because it was the default setting of early soundblaster cards (I believe some had fixed IRQ 7).

C0deHunter wrote:

Worst is Monkey I and 2, as they produce weird sounds

That is normal. The Sound Canvas is not MT-32 compatible. The only thing it can do is use an MT-32 instrument map, but that's it. It does not actually emulate MT-32 synthesis nor does it recognize MT32-specific commands. Monkey Island 2 uses MT-32 commands to upload custom sounds to the MT-32 and change synth parameters. None of that is handled by the SC-55, so you get random sounds instead.

(I've seen many retro-focused YouTubers who made videos about the SC-55 claim it's MT-32 compatible, so I guess that's why so many people think it is. It isn't.)

Your only options are getting an MT-32 compatible device, or use Munt (an excellent and extremely accurate MT-32 emulator) in another machine and connect a cable to it (there's videos on how to do this.)

As for games that do not send any special MT-32 commands and just use the MT-32 in its default state, they should work, unless they expect a special IRQ for the MPU port, and also expect an intelligent mode MPU. You can install the SoftMPU DOS tool to emulate intelligent mode MPU. This should allow the game to talk to the SC-55. On an AWE32 card for example, that is using port 220, IRQ 5 and MPU port 330, you would start SoftMPU like this:

LH SOFTMPU.EXE /MPU:330 /SB:220 /IRQ:5

Most MT-32 games should now be able to talk to the SC-55. They will still sound completely wrong though if they happen to use special MT-32 commands, as mentioned above.

Note what you still need to use SoftMPU even when using the Munt emulator on another machine. Unless you go and buy a real Roland MPU-401 module, which is expensive and hard to find. So just use SoftMPU.

Thanks for your responses, I really appreciate it. I was also informed that these machines are simply too fast these older DOS games.

I have anther system, that is a Pentium-MMX 233MHz, hopefully that one would be able to work with these older games.

C0deHunter wrote:

I have anther system, that is a Pentium-MMX 233MHz, hopefully that one would be able to work with these older games.

It will still be too fast for most. However, the Pentium MMX can be slowed down by a lot to approach 486 and 386 speeds. As usual, Phil has a video on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8s0H5_-SRU

Thank you so much, I installed SoftMPU, and now most games seem to run at least! Can I install MUNT on my Win98SE box? Does it have a DOS version?

C0deHunter wrote:

Can I install MUNT on my Win98SE box? Does it have a DOS version?

I think there's a version of Munt floating around that can run on W98. I have no idea how you'd make a native game output MIDI to Munt on the same machine though. Normally, you run the game on your retro machine, and you run Munt on your modern machine. You then connect your retro machine to your modern one using a MIDI to USB cable. The retro PC just thinks it's talking to a real MT-32.

Note that Munt is a modern emulator. If your PC is only the PIII-750MHz you posted, then I'm not sure it will be able to run in real-time. It emulates the MT-32 extremely faithfully, but it does need a lot of CPU power to do that (well, not a "lot" in modern terms, but a hell of a lot if you're trying it on a Pentium 3...) For comparison, I'm on an Intel i5 CPU running at 3.3GHz, and munt uses up to 40% of one of the cores. At low quality settings though it might be able to run on a P3.

At this point, I am not ever sure why I bought the Roland SC-55 MKII, as in Windows, the AWE64 Gold takes over 99% of the MIDI based apps/games, and in pure DOS, I also get AWE32/GMIDI for most games (which AWE64 can handle). I wish I had bought a Roland MT-32 instead!

IMHO, the AWE64 General MIDI wavetable sounds terrible. Its horrible sound is what made me get into MIDI Synths to begin with. I think that the SC-55mkII, my first MIDI Synth utterly destroys it.

The first level of Duke Nukem 3D sealed it for me.

AWE 64
SC-55

C0deHunter wrote:

At this point, I am not ever sure why I bought the Roland SC-55 MKII, as in Windows, the AWE64 Gold takes over 99% of the MIDI based apps/games, and in pure DOS, I also get AWE32/GMIDI for most games (which AWE64 can handle). I wish I had bought a Roland MT-32 instead!

I don't think any AWE can hold a candle against the sound of the SC-55. In my opinion, of course. I did own an AWE32 in the 90s and it just sounds off in the majority of games. I would recommend disabling GM emulation in the AWE control panel in Windows and let the SC-55 do the job. The AWE really should only be used in the couple games (I think there's like 2 or 3 of them) that specifically target it.

You can also set up a Raspberry Pi or ODROID with Munt and use a MIDI-USB cable.