VOGONS


First post, by Akuma

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In one of my favorite games: Rick Dangerous 2 😁
there is an option to use AdLib for sound.

Normally I would load 'sound.com' and then 'main.exe /a /e' not using the menu, for speed purposes 🙄

Today I found 'sb-sound.com' , Creative Labs solution to play these games with AdLib compatibility. However the music becomes terribly slow, so my first thought is a driver issue, AdLib's 'sound.com' works fine.

Could this be DOSBox related ?

Reply 1 of 18, by ripsaw8080

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The README file included with SB-SOUND.COM mentions "The Game of Harmony", and in that game the speed is the same with either driver. If it was a DOSBox issue, I'd expect consistent results. I guess the driver is not as compatible as Creative hoped, and in the case of RD2 it is noticeable. Perhaps keropi or some other forum member can see what happens on a real DOS system.

Reply 3 of 18, by keropi

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I just tested it quickly since I am already testing stuff 😁
with both a CT1350 and Oprheus loading SB-SOUND.COM results is slow music playback with Rick2.
AdLib's SOUND.COM works fine in both cases.

hope this helps! if I need to test more soundcards please tell me

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 4 of 18, by Akuma

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I could only find two versions 1.00 and 1.00b and both have the same problem.
It seems sb-sound.com is indeed not that compatible which makes 'sound.com' the preferable solution.

@keropi: much appreciated 😁

Reply 5 of 18, by Cyberdyne

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Does Adlib sound.com function with a modern Opl3 clone?

I am aroused about any X86 motherboard that has full functional ISA slot. I think i have problem. Not really into that original (Turbo) XT,286,386 and CGA/EGA stuff. So just a DOS nut.

Reply 6 of 18, by Akuma

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Look what I found in Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All The Girls: READ.ME:

Sound Blaster users:

We have included a sound driver from Creative Labs, which will
allow you to hear the AdLib music. The driver is called
SB-SOUND.COM and is located on SYSTEM DISK 2. This driver,
however, is not 100% compatible with the AdLib driver, so if you
have a copy of the AdLib SOUND.COM, you should use it.
If you
don't have the AdLib driver, you should type the following
command before running S101:

sb-sound /b24

If your machine has only 512K, you may not be able to load this
sound driver and play the game. If you get a warning message
when you boot up the game that says that you do not have enough
memory to play the game, you should not use this sound driver.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2020-09-18, 08:07:

Does Adlib sound.com function with a modern Opl3 clone?

Orpheus Soundcard has OPL3 iirc but you better ask keropi about that.

Reply 7 of 18, by keropi

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Adlib sound.com works with OPL3 no problems

I tested with /b24 and it did nothing for Rick2... I have to see if the S101 version of the driver is different though

edit:
S101 sb-sound is v1.00
I also tested with v1.00B
both behave the same and give slow music with Rick2

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 8 of 18, by Akuma

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keropi wrote on 2020-09-18, 15:25:
... I tested with /b24 and it did nothing for Rick2... I have to see if the S101 version of the driver is different though […]
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...
I tested with /b24 and it did nothing for Rick2... I have to see if the S101 version of the driver is different though

edit:
S101 sb-sound is v1.00
I also tested with v1.00B
both behave the same and give slow music with Rick2

Yes, that was to be expected /b24 reserves a 24k buffer for SB-SOUND.COM,
it seems 'SOUND.COM' is the only way to go.

List of games that require AdLib's 'SOUND.COM':

  • Bug Bomber (1992)
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus - Virgin (1990) credit: _Rob
  • Locomotion (1992)
  • Punisher, The (1990)
  • Rick Dangerous 2 (1991)
  • Space 1889 (1990)
  • Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All The Girls (1990)
  • The Adventures of Maddog Williams in The Dungeons of Duridian (1992)
  • The Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in Dr. Doom's Revenge!, The (1989)
  • The Game of Harmony/E-motion (1990)
  • Wild Streets (1990) credit: Ripsaw8080
  • X-Men (1989)
  • X-Men II: The Fall of the Mutants (1991)

EDIT: List is getting updated, if something is missing let me know.

Last edited by Akuma on 2020-09-18, 17:50. Edited 5 times in total.

Reply 9 of 18, by _Rob

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Thanks, that had a few more games that I did not know about. Here is my list so far...

Games needing sound.com or the SB equivalent.

  • Bug Bomber - Paragon Software (1992)
  • Locomotion - Prestige (1992)
  • MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy - Paragon Software (1990)
  • MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients - Paragon Software (1991)
  • Millennium: Return to Earth - Paragon Software (1991)
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus - Virgin (1990)
  • Rick Dangerous 2 - Core Design (1991)
  • Space: 1889 - Paragon Software (1990)
  • Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All The Girls - Legend Entertainment (1990)
  • The Adventures of Maddog Williams in The Dungeons of Duridian - Game Crafters (1992)
  • The Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in Dr. Doom's Revenge! - Paragon Software (1989)
  • The Amazing Spider-Man - Paragon Software (1990)
  • The Game of Harmony/E-motion (1990)
  • The Punisher - Paragon Software - Paragon Software (1990)
  • Troika - Paragon Software (1991)
  • Twilight: 2000 - Paragon Software (1991)
  • X-Men: Madness in Murderworld - Paragon Software (1989)
  • X-Men II: The Fall of the Mutants - Paragon Software (1991)

And those needing CT-VOICE.DRV

  • Elf Land - Volume One - Carl Erikson (1992)
  • Eye of the Storm - Rebellion (1994)
  • Elvira the Arcade Game (1991)(Flair)
  • Innocent Until Caught - Divide By Zero (1993)
  • Pizza Connection - Software 2000 (1995) (German original only)
  • Prehistorik - Titus (1991)
  • Stick Fighter 1 & 2
  • Der Clou! - Neo (1994)
  • Traffic Department 2192 - Safari Software (1993)

And those needing CMSDRV.COM

  • Miami Vice - Capstone (1989)

Reply 10 of 18, by Akuma

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_Rob wrote on 2020-09-18, 16:30:
Thanks, that had a few more games that I did not know about. Here is my list so far... […]
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Thanks, that had a few more games that I did not know about. Here is my list so far...

Games needing sound.com or the SB equivalent.

  • The Amazing Spider-Man - Paragon Software (1990)
  • MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy - Paragon Software (1990)
  • MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients - Paragon Software (1991)
  • Millennium: Return to Earth - Paragon Software (1991)
  • Troika - Paragon Software (1991)
  • Twilight: 2000 - Paragon Software (1991)

Afaik, these do not have a 'sound.com' requirement and work ootb or do not support adlib,
am I missing something ? Special startup parameters ?

Reply 11 of 18, by ripsaw8080

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Another one for the SOUND.COM list: https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/wild-streets

Not only do you not get music if the driver isn't loaded, but also no sound effects because they're done with FM. If the silence wasn't bad enough, the game just skips the Titus developer/publisher screen when it's unable to play the music there!

Reply 12 of 18, by Akuma

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ripsaw8080 wrote on 2020-09-18, 17:16:

Another one for the SOUND.COM list: https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/wild-streets

Not only do you not get music if the driver isn't loaded, but also no sound effects because they're done with FM. If the silence wasn't bad enough, the game just skips the Titus developer/publisher screen when it's unable to play the music there!

Nice !

Adding it to the first post, which I will be updating now 😁

Reply 13 of 18, by Calvero

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_Rob wrote on 2020-09-18, 16:30:
And those needing CT-VOICE.DRV […]
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And those needing CT-VOICE.DRV

  • Elf Land - Volume One - Carl Erikson (1992)
  • Eye of the Storm - Rebellion (1994)
  • Elvira the Arcade Game (1991)(Flair)
  • Innocent Until Caught - Divide By Zero (1993)
  • Pizza Connection - Software 2000 (1995) (German original only)
  • Prehistorik - Titus (1991)
  • Stick Fighter 1 & 2
  • Der Clou! - Neo (1994)
  • Traffic Department 2192 - Safari Software (1993)

Street Fighter II uses CT-VOICE.DRV for the digital sound effects, but the file should be renamed to SBDRIVER.DRV.

Reply 15 of 18, by ripsaw8080

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I found the reason that Creative's SB-SOUND doesn't work like AdLib's SOUND with RD2 is that the game does not call any of the timing/tempo functions of the driver, so it relies on the post-initialization defaults. Therefore you will probably find games fall into two categories with SB-SOUND: sets tempo and works as expected, doesn't set tempo and plays at wrong speed.

Reply 16 of 18, by Akuma

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ripsaw8080 wrote on 2020-09-23, 19:45:

I found the reason that Creative's SB-SOUND doesn't work like AdLib's SOUND with RD2 is that the game does not call any of the timing/tempo functions of the driver, so it relies on the post-initialization defaults. Therefore you will probably find games fall into two categories with SB-SOUND: sets tempo and works as expected, doesn't set tempo and plays at wrong speed.

Is there a way to port the defaults from the AdLib sound.com, or should we only use sound.com ?

Reply 17 of 18, by ripsaw8080

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Perhaps with enough reverse-engineering and hacking the SB-SOUND driver could use an equivalent default tempo, but I don't see a reason for the exercise at this point. I suppose the unload feature is nice for real systems, but not so much for DOSBox, and there is MARK and RELEASE to unload TSRs that don't have the feature.