Ultrasound emulation problems with Dual Module Player 4.00

Posted on 2010-10-31, 18:11

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by aitotat

in DOSBox Development

in DOSBox Development

I've tried Ultrasound emulation many times with different builds but I never got it working (it sounds like samples start playing but very soon some random data gets played). I just tested ykhwongs latest SVN build (20101030) and the problem was still there. I decided to do some testing with …

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Re: compact flash ide adapters

Posted on 2010-10-24, 13:37

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by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

See 250608281056 at ebay. Those are the good Hitachi Microdrives I mentioned. No way you get fast CFs that cheap.

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Re: compact flash ide adapters

Posted on 2010-10-24, 10:30

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by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I strongly recommend Hitachi Microdrives instead of CF cards for DOS systems. Hitachi and Seagate Microdrive transfer rates are as fast as PIO-4 goes so that is not a problem. Hitachi has better seek times (about 12ms avarage) but Seagate has 2MB cache. Unfortunately Seagates do not work as slave …

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Re: 3DBENCH CPU Benchmark Database

Posted on 2010-10-19, 16:54

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by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Here is 486DX4-100 results with the same VLB graphics card that I previously tested in a 386. The CPU is Intel with Write Back cache enabled. Intel - 486DX4 - 33 - 3 - 100 - Asus - VL/I-486SV2GX4 - SIS471 - 256kiB - VLB - #9 GXE64 (S3 864) - 2MiB - aitotat - 66.6 I decided to play with BIOS settings …

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Re: external mpu401 and mt32: confused

Posted on 2010-10-16, 16:57

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by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't overclock anything anymore. It gives nothing but trouble. So the ISA clock is 8 MHz as it should. I did found the problem! Since disabling Turbo helped, it was logical to assume that the problem is related to timings. It turned out that I had to adjust two BIOS settings: AT Cycle Wait State …

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Re: external mpu401 and mt32: confused

Posted on 2010-10-15, 18:43

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by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If the pauses are controlled by software timing loops, then CPU speed matters. I need to disable Turbo for some games if I want to use MT-32 with 486DX4-100. I would need to disable Turbo anyway since DX4-100 is too fast for older games. Back to the Midiman. Notes gets stuck even during gameplay. I …

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Re: external mpu401 and mt32: confused

Posted on 2010-10-15, 18:18

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think I found what the problem is. Everything seems to work when I disable Turbo. MT-32 does not show buffer overflow like with fast 486 so maybe the Midiman does not work properly with fast CPUs. I wouldn't call 386DX-40 fast though. I'll need to try Roland MPU-401AT on this 386. Larry 3 is a …

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Re: external mpu401 and mt32: confused

Posted on 2010-10-15, 17:52

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Cool! Let us know if it worked! I had lots of problems (I hate soldering DIN connectors) but I was finally able to get it to work. I needed to switch wires 4 and 5 on the DIN connector to get it work. I'm sure I connected it correctly since the pin numbers are marked on the soldering sides for both …

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Re: FM Synth (Soundblaster) comparison using Monkey Island 2!

Posted on 2010-10-11, 07:50

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

SB 1.5 sounds the best and AWE64 worst. I've always thought that FM sounds best on cards with real OPL2. You should find any sound card that uses OPTi931 chip. It has the worst FM sounds I've ever heard so it would have been great for comparisons.

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Re: Which is the best sbk GM soundfont available for AWE32/64?

Posted on 2010-10-10, 09:19

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by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I tried some .SBK soundfonts may years ago with Sound Blaster 32. I had GUS long before SB32 and I could not find anything that would have sounded better or even close to GUS. Aweutil wasn't as good as Mega-EM so lack of good .SBK soundfont didn't matter. One soundfont I found was FINEGM.SBK. It is …

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Re: 3DBENCH CPU Benchmark Database

Posted on 2010-10-04, 17:05

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The VLB Graphics Card I used for testing has 2 (not 3) MiB RAM (386 table lines 3, 9 and 11). Only the ISA card has 3 MiB. Can you make background color a bit darker for every other line? It would make the tables more readable.

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Re: Anyone with a REAL 386 and 486 - Please post your 3dbench v1.0 results here!

Posted on 2010-10-03, 16:37

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

We are talking around 17% better performance! True! I guess I'm so used to modern FPS readings that less than 3 FPS feels like something that could fit in a margin of error. I'm not even sure anymore that the S3 864 is faster at all. S3 864 has 64-bit internal bus but standard VGA cannot benefit …

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Re: Anyone with a REAL 386 and 486 - Please post your 3dbench v1.0 results here!

Posted on 2010-10-03, 14:48

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does you mainboard have a jumper for 33 or 25 MHz (instead of 40)? It does and 25 MHz is the slowest it supports. Here are results for 25, 33 and 40 MHz. I also tested with VLB card since I wanted to know is there any benefit from having VLB on a 386. There isn't. I got only a little better results …

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Re: Initial "time machine" benchmark results

Posted on 2010-10-02, 15:18

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Great project! How many of those benchmarks are 16-bit programs? Since slow down is usually needed to run old 16-bit games, I recommend to focus on 16-bit benchmark programs. I also recommend to run them with and without emm386 or similar memory managers since there might be some difference when the …

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Re: Anyone with a REAL 386 and 486 - Please post your 3dbench v1.0 results here!

Posted on 2010-10-02, 10:27

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

3Dbench gave 15.8 fps for below system: CPU: AMD 386DX-40 MHz MOBO: MB-4D50L (OPTi 82C495 SX chipset), 256 kiB cache RAM: 4 x 4 MiB 60 ns Graphics card: #9GXE (S3 928) ISA That motherboard is 386DX/486 hybrid motherboard and it has two VLB slots. I could try some VLB cards if you are interested how …

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Re: Creative Labs Test Point connector.

Posted on 2010-09-26, 08:28

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Would it be possible to use Creative Test Point connector to connect Sound Blaster to any CD-audio input on GUS? That would leave GUS Line In free for Roland sound cards. I don't want to connect anything to Sound Blaster Line In. Try to connect GUS to Sound Blaster Line In and the GUS will sound …

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Re: external mpu401 and mt32: confused

Posted on 2010-09-23, 18:31

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank you! That is all I need to build my own cable.

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Re: external mpu401 and mt32: confused

Posted on 2010-09-23, 18:09

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

DBob: Are you sure that you are using IRQ 2 and port 330h on the Roland MPU-IPC-T? Some games require those and won't work with any other settings. Mau1wurf1977: I see you have Midiman. I have one too but without cable. Could you possibly check the wiring if you have multimeter? That would help me …

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Re: Roland SCC-1A : how rare are they?

Posted on 2010-09-21, 07:59

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by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the information and the midi file. As expected, the SCC-1 turned out to be the 317 tone version. I'm not going to do recordings since that midi file is all that is needed. Either the two chords sound the same or not. The difference can be easily heard with SCD-15.

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Re: Roland SCC-1A : how rare are they?

Posted on 2010-09-20, 09:39

by

by aitotat

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm the one who won the bidding on the SCC-1 with Bonus Pack manual. If the SCC-1 FAQ cannot be trusted, then does anyone have MIDI files that I could use to check if this is 317 or 354 sound version? I have MPU-401AT + SCD-15 combination so I have 354 sound version for comparison. I can do some …

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