IBM Music Feature Card/Yamaha FB-01

[bjwil1991]

I hooked up my AWM device to my Roland UM-ONE and it's working. Thanks.

[Scali]

I hooked up my AWM device to my Roland UM-ONE and it's working. Thanks.

Did you try running some games? And how did it sound?

[bjwil1991]

Sounded better than the Adlib cards and some of the Sierra games I've bought from GOG.com work with it as well. I also installed the FB01 driver on there to see how it works since some of the games require MIDI channel 1 to be the main one.

I got the real unit today as well and that works with it, too. Even the battery is still good (not bad for a 30+ year old device).

[Scali]

Excellent, so IBM Music Feature Card emulation is now officially a thing in DOSBox

[Scali]

Here is a blog with a history/overview of this project so far, and the first release: https://scalibq.wordpress.com/2019/03/2 ... aha-fb-01/

[awgamer]

MAME just added the Yamaha MU80(non working,) first XG module(1994,) compared to the DB50XG(1995,) 32/64/729/21 vs 16/32/676/21(parts/poly/tones/drums,) and already has the SC-55(non working) ~scc-1, though not the SC-55mkII/scc-1a.

[Scali]

I released a simple music disk for the IBM Music Feature Card at Revision this weekend:
https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=81106

I made sure that my code is compatible with the DOSBox and AMAME setup that I posted a few weeks ago.

Let's say it was fun to hear that IMFC blasting through the huge speakers in the party hall, and hundreds of sceners listening to an IMFC for the first time

[Scali]

Here's a blog with some background info on the music disk for the IMFC:
https://scalibq.wordpress.com/2019/05/0 ... sion-2019/

[Trembyle]

Excellent, so IBM Music Feature Card emulation is now officially a thing in DOSBox

On your blog you mention that your custom build will work for all Sierra games. Is that by using loopMIDI (because Sierra doesn't send large enough SysEx commands to crash it)? Or does it require you to use a physical loopback cable at the moment?

Any recent progress on the emulator? I'm hoping that the loopback functionality can be incorporated into the application, so that it's as easy to use as Munt.

Would IMFC / FB-01 be a selectable feature? Or would a supported game need to be patched to recognize one or the other?

[Scali]

On your blog you mention that your custom build will work for all Sierra games. Is that by using loopMIDI (because Sierra doesn't send large enough SysEx commands to crash it)? Or does it require you to use a physical loopback cable at the moment?

I was talking only about the DOSBox part there, which only emulates the IMFC hardware, and sends/receives MIDI data.
You still need an FB-01 at this point, either real or emulated. And the only emulated one I know of currently, is the MAME one, which afaik still has the bug that it won't work with loopMIDI for large SysEx commands.
The Sierra games I tested with, send entire voicebanks, which are SysEx commands of about 6k in size.
So if you want to use the MAME FB-01, you'd still need a physical loopback as far as I know.

Any recent progress on the emulator? I'm hoping that the loopback functionality can be incorporated into the application, so that it's as easy to use as Munt.

There hasn't been any progress lately, but yes, the idea is to create an FB-01 module similar to Munt, which won't require any loopback.
I actually based my virtual FB-01 driver on Munt, and the MIDI stuff works. The part that doesn't work correctly yet is the actual synthesis.
But the MAME FB-01 emulator is a workable temporary solution.

Would IMFC / FB-01 be a selectable feature? Or would a supported game need to be patched to recognize one or the other?

For DOSBox it doesn't make a difference really.
The IMFC is basically an alternative MIDI interface, which exists side-by-side with the MPU-401.
If games support the FB-01 directly, they normally support it via MPU-401.
So if you have an FB-01 connected to DOSBox, it should receive data both from software using the IMFC and software using the MPU-401.