i've never heard of this bug before and a quick search suggests it was introduced with the recent ports like on ps4. so just play the original pc version.

also there's specific support for AWE32/64 soundfonts and XG here, so either of those is the way to go over the SC-55, which would just play the generic GM versions.

Soulreaper wrote on 2021-02-20, 05:06:

on my windows 98 machine.

The one in your sig? No one was running FFVII PC at 2.0 GHz when it was first released, so if you're looking for "as unaltered as possible", you're already way off the mark.

The original windows port introduced this bug when you come out of battle the overworld music does not pick play where it left off, instead it just starts at the beginning of the song. Just wondering if I can fix this and play the original midi. I know about the sound fonts. I know about the xg I am looking at getting a mu80 I would like to know if this bug has a way to be fixed that I have not found yet before I get another midi module that I would probably only use for ff7. I am also aware that my machine is overkill.

Soulreaper wrote on 2021-02-20, 06:28:

I am also aware that my machine is overkill.

Word of caution, some mini games like the bike chase play way too fast even on my Celeron 466 machine. This makes it very hard to complete those sections.

As others have said, you want either an XG capable device or a Sound Blaster AWE with at least 4 MB of on-board RAM for the best music in the PC version of FF7. Using the latter is the only way to get vocals to play during One Winged Angel. I've described some of my experiences with that game in this thread: Re: Late 90s Celeron + Voodoo 3 retro rig

Soulreaper wrote on 2021-02-20, 06:28:

The original windows port introduced this bug when you come out of battle the overworld music does not pick play where it left off, instead it just starts at the beginning of the song.

I could have sworn that was only a problem introduced in newer ports of the game. It's not mentioned here, for instance, until it gets to the PS4 port:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dckf-r8seks

But I found this video series after some searching and now I am not so sure.
https://youtu.be/FKEvOHwoxBE?t=981

So I have played through on the pc 3 times I am aware of all the bugs. I actually have a back up of all the patches I used back in the day to fix all the mini games. The audio bug never bothered me at the time frankly I never noticed it since I only played the psx version a hand full of times. From my understanding square took the 98 retail port and used that version to port to modern systems that's why the music bug is there in the latest versions. I have used those other suggestions that have been given I have used the supplied yahmaha xg midi player with the sound fonts but the audio bug still exists. Anyway I have pulled the entire soundtrack from the game and have played them in a midi player on my desktop and I just want to do a run with my roland hardware. I know there are fixes for the bug but those removed the midi files and you use your own prerecorded .ogg files.

Soulreaper wrote on 2021-02-20, 08:07:

So I have played through on the pc 3 times I am aware of all the bugs. I actually have a back up of all the patches I used back in the day to fix all the mini games. The audio bug never bothered me at the time frankly I never noticed it since I only played the psx version a hand full of times. From my understanding square took the 98 retail port and used that version to port to modern systems that's why the music bug is there in the latest versions. I have used those other suggestions that have been given I have used the supplied yahmaha xg midi player with the sound fonts but the audio bug still exists. Anyway I have pulled the entire soundtrack from the game and have played them in a midi player on my desktop and I just want to do a run with my roland hardware. I know there are fixes for the bug but those removed the midi files and you use your own prerecorded .ogg files.

Could you upload the patches somewhere? I am pretty sure I don't have them anywhere.

Is your retail version the normal release or the Trapezoid box? Any differences that you know of between the 2? I have the trapezoid version which I pre-ordered.

I don't know what version I have I bought mine used in blank cases. Here is the page you can find the MGP files this makes the mini games playable.http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=5124.0
Here is the Chocobo patch https://www.moddb.com/games/final-fantasy-vii … s/chocobo-patch. This was all I used 15 years ago to play on my xp machine at the time which was a athlon 64 3300+ I was able to play through with these. If you are unaware of the reunion mod its really good just in my case it disables the midi files which I want to use. I have used the reunion mod on my 98 machine and it works just fine. I have not gone through all the patch notes so I am not sure of all the fixes but I would think the mini games are fixed with that mod.

Ok, so your discs are different than mine. Mine are all black.

There is/was a patch out there to fix rendering on I think 3dfx cards.. or maybe it was for D3D. It has been so long I forget, but it made the actual characters be 3d rendered which it had major issues with on the initial release.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-02-21, 06:07:

There is/was a patch out there to fix rendering on I think 3dfx cards.. or maybe it was for D3D.

That was the Riva 128/TNT patch, which despite the name actually provided generic D3D rendering.

It has been so long I forget, but it made the actual characters be 3d rendered which it had major issues with on the initial release.

The initial release merely supported a very narrow range of video cards.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with music looping.

Soulreaper wrote on 2021-02-20, 08:07:

From my understanding square took the 98 retail port and used that version to port to modern systems that's why the music bug is there in the latest versions.

Yes, that is also acknowledged in the first video I linked to, but that video also suggests that the music bug is new to the PS4 version. (Of course the video could be wrong.)

I give up I am playing the steam version with the reunion mod high quality psx soundtrack and the remako ai upscaled textures looks great. Still wish I could play it on one of my legacy machines with music working properly. I guess I could still use my psx version with epsxe. Here is a "complete" list of ff7 mods not sure if they are all here for anyone looking http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=12503.0

Appoligize for the Thread Hijack While this has nothing to do with the music looping

I've played this game in original iso without patches on period hardware. 98se Voodoo 3+ awe64 gold best combo

tnt2 with original tnt2 patch and a real Yamaha XG PCI is the poor mans combo these are the 2 configs or any combo of them that works on 98se.

The Original Eidos tnt 2 patch doesn't work with drivers newer than 12.xx on 98se out of the box. If you use newer drivers you have to disable 8bit textures with riva tuner for the patch to work. I have the patch somewhere the original one. Should work with tnt2, gf2 I never tested it with geforce 3 or 4 or 5.
ill go on a limb and say it might work with 3 and 4.

PS i never needed any patches to play the game on 98se with voodoo 3 and awe64 gold thats the hardware the game is specifically ported to. You need at least a PIII 600.. 800 is better.

if u want the original Eidos patch let me know.

the game wasn't designed to work with roland GS. It actually sounds the best on the awe64 gold because thats how Edios ported it . YMF7x4 is also terrific much right up there with the awe64 but you need power ymf with extended bank for full quality. Dont use the shitty soft synth.

For Awe64 Gold the game installs an update and it uses a custom soundfont that Eidos ported the game it utilize the full potential of the hardware.

For YMF7x4 i believe its native You want to download Power YMF and the extended bank from phils site then you can use the full 4MB sound font in high quality.

Also run 98se

PS I actually do not think roland hardware will sound better than the awe64 gold. The game was specifically ported to this card. And in the case of the YMF7X4 PCI with power ymf and ext bank I believe the games midi port is supposed to sound right on that and on roland it will sound off. It acutally sounds 10 times better on "REAL" XG hardware as opposed to the softbank Thats how it is. Like as in normally you play a midi that was taylored for Orland on XG it might sound a little off in this case i believe its the opposite.

TLDR
Best Build
So anyways 98se PIII 800, Voodoo 3, Awe64Gold, 256MB ram The game will just run vanilla with best experience.

2nd best Build Poor mans build
98se PIII 800, Ge-force 2 (driver 12.xx OG TNT2 patch) Yahama YMF 754/744PCI +Power YMF + EXT bank from phils site.

The songs sound amazing on the roland I have pulled the midi files from the game and can play them on the desktop. Here is how they sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEbW78xTbCY maybe i'm crazy. From my research I believe the music was composed on an sc-88. I mean everything works great (other than one winged angel as there is no choir that can be played back on the roland hardware) I just want the overworld music to play properly after battle. I find it annoying that I don't hear the full song. I do have a piii 800 I just got from the thrift store just need a sound card and ram for it not even sure if it works maybe I can get that running then without all the speed fixes for the mini games. Could CPU speed effect this music looping problem? Maybe I'll try to downclock the cpu and see if that makes a difference.

all I know for certain the PC port was converted to XG "The conversion of the nearly 100 original musical pieces to XG format files was done."

The game featured separate General MIDI and Yamaha XG MIDI files; a Yamaha S-YXG70 software synthesizer was provided on the install disc, which was, according to the readme, specially made for the game by Yamaha to make the XG MIDI files playable on computers without appropriate hardware. Additionally, the game is one of the very few Windows titles with support for Creative Labs' Sound Blaster AWE32/AWE64 ISA sound cards, as it provides a custom soundfont for their EMU8000 synthesizer.

"We have been able to compact the sound data, provide superior virtual-reality sound to that available on electronic game devices, and to achieve enhanced music quality for the game itself. We're certain that players will enjoy the difference," said Tomoyuki Takechi, president of Square Soft, Inc.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080202054141/ht … s/98042102.html

That being said personally to my ears the creative EMU8000 soundfont sounds the closest to the ps1
------------------------------------------------------------
Heres the proof the awe64 is the most faithful port to the ps1

PS1 Final Fantasy VII Crazy Motorcycle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19OECgt-pIw

(Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold) Final Fantasy VII Crazy Motorcycle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwKz7UjOJ4s

GM roland Final Fantasy VII Crazy Motorcycle
https://youtu.be/xEbW78xTbCY?t=2388

XG Final Fantasy VII Crazy Motorcycle
https://youtu.be/X5Ycnjhw1Uk?t=2238