Re: Significant differences with certain MIDI files across Roland synthesizers

Posted on 2022-02-01, 15:18

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Well, another thing is that the format in the game is XMI rather than MID and we don't know how this file was adapted. I'll probably attempt some comparisons.

---

Re: Significant differences with certain MIDI files across Roland synthesizers

Posted on 2022-01-30, 16:55

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Decent GM compatibility in composition would certainly mean it didn't sound like crap on all three of SC-55, SC-88 and MU-50. 😀 No high-end MIDI synth, just the Creative hardware they composed it for. AWE32 magic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwh7C4OzA5c

---

Re: Significant differences with certain MIDI files across Roland synthesizers

Posted on 2022-01-30, 13:48

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

They all sound bad, the composition just doesn't have good GM compatibility. It's probably intended for AWE64 & Live! and sounds the best like that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyKIuB_bZKI

---

Re: Orpheus Soundcard: a new DOS soundcard with SPDIF/OPL3/MPU support

Posted on 2022-01-26, 16:56

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Orpheus I v1.0j

---

Re: Are we opening sealed copies of old games?

Posted on 2022-01-26, 12:13

by

by firage

in Milliways

in Milliways

I don’t own anything for resale or show in a sealed retail package. Buying sealed sometimes just to know I get a complete item and maybe for the full experience of opening a fresh item.

---

Re: Orpheus Soundcard: a new DOS soundcard with SPDIF/OPL3/MPU support

Posted on 2022-01-25, 20:02

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I received my Orpheus today! Thank you for delivering on a great retro sound card, guys. I'm excited to try it out with a bunch of other gear soon. It appears we have a new revision v1.0j with a surface mount MPU EEPROM. This package must be a lot easier to source. The card looks neater, although …

---

Re: YOUR favorate game era.

Posted on 2021-12-25, 16:14

by

by firage

in Milliways

in Milliways

It's definitely 1990-2003 for me; from the Super Nintendo and VGA graphics until the Xbox and PS2, I guess. GTA peaked with Vice City and The Elder Scrolls with Morrowind. Game design was limited by primitive technology in the 80's and, on this side of the era, I've been jaded to the flavor-of-the- …

---

Re: CRT Displays Choosing for DOS

Posted on 2021-12-21, 09:30

by

by firage

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

CRT's that were specifically designed for 50 or 60 Hz had slower decaying phosphor than PC displays. BIOS and DOS prompt modes default to 70 Hz; for Win9x 75-85 Hz was the norm, and there were options up to 120 Hz. You only saw 60 Hz desktops (past the mid-90's) due to misconfiguration, by my …

---

Re: CRT Displays Choosing for DOS

Posted on 2021-12-19, 14:45

by

by firage

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I absolutely agree CRT flicker at 60Hz is obnoxious. 70Hz, just fine.

---

Re: Win98se Mechwarrior4 copy protection error running from DeamonTools

Posted on 2021-11-24, 16:06

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Thanks, very good to know! I've tested more builds of Alcohol 120% today and it seems I have to correct myself on where it lost compatibility with DT 3.47. Version 1.9.6.5429 still works (under XP). The first version producing MDS files that wouldn't mount was 1.9.7.

---

Re: Win98se Mechwarrior4 copy protection error running from DeamonTools

Posted on 2021-11-24, 14:52

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Seems promising. Virtual CloneDrive might be a freeware alternative to DT if you're creating images on modern systems. Appears they dropped pre-XP support in 5.5.1.0? Will have to check out how it works sometime.

---

Re: Win98se Mechwarrior4 copy protection error running from DeamonTools

Posted on 2021-11-23, 14:36

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Thanks, firage, for the info. I got the Alcohol 120% 2.0 from Phil's Computer Lab, installed it on my main win7 PC, and ripped the 2 CDs for MW4. After transferring the new images to the Win98 PC DaemonTools can't read them. I quickly found that the last Alcohol for Win98 is a 1.9.5.x, so I found a …

---

Re: Win98se Mechwarrior4 copy protection error running from DeamonTools

Posted on 2021-11-21, 16:06

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

The program and its read settings can make a difference, but BIN + CUE just doesn't replicate advanced copy protection schemes such as Safedisc past a certain version. DT 3.47 supports the CloneCD (CCD + IMG + SUB) and Alcohol 120% (MDF + MDS v1) image formats that were the most popular for …

---

Re: Is there a VLB card that supports > Mode 3 or UDMA support?

Posted on 2021-11-07, 18:29

by

by firage

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I commend pshipkov’s disk controller benchmarking effort in his mega-thread: Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations There’s a bunch of soft facts and very little good data on this area in general. It didn’t really matter for DOS or most 90’s era use cases.

---

Re: Is there a VLB card that supports > Mode 3 or UDMA support?

Posted on 2021-11-06, 10:20

by

by firage

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have both of these Promise cards and they’re not that super fast. It might be motherboard BIOS dependent, but the fastest configuration option using the EIDE2300Plus is MWDMA set via driver and I can just beat 11 MB/sec. Good enough. The onboard jumper selections are for pre-EIDE speed settings. I …

---

Re: One year anniversary of NVIDIA "cancelling" their old tech demos

Posted on 2021-10-25, 08:22

by

by firage

in Milliways

in Milliways

I don’t blame them for removing old demos at this point. Stuff is lost all the time and usually for worse reasons than objectionable taste. Businesses have few reasons to defend obsolete material to their customers, employees and partners, at their expense; they aren’t museums. Preservation is up to …

---

Re: 486 Woes. Is my motherboard dying?

Posted on 2021-10-21, 13:06

by

by firage

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The 486's 32-bit bus only needs a single 72-pin SIMM. Pentium required them in pairs.

---

Re: GUS Max 2.1 and CR-563-b CDROM (Panasonic interface) not detecting

Posted on 2021-09-27, 16:57

by

by firage

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm using the GUS MAX 2.1 Panasonic interface with a Teac drive and it has its own drivers. I can definitely confirm that the jumper has to be enabled. The drive flashing and ejecting isn't too dissimilar from a floppy drive with its cable connected upside down. Haven't had anything like that myself …

---

Re: Overclocking PC133 SDR RAM: What is the best SDR memory?

Posted on 2021-09-24, 12:00

by

by firage

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the research. This makes for a good reference. Hynix appear to have a massive quality difference between the HY57V28820 HC T and HY57V28820 A T series. The HCT stuff isn't even close to the same potential here, although on paper, HCT-K is actually binned faster than AT-H. (Hynix -H and -K …

---

Re: My Big Red Switch 486

Posted on 2021-09-06, 10:59

by

by firage

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I love the beastly towers with red switches. They're majestic. :) Nice one! I used to have that exact same casing housing my 286 and later my 386 DX clone and am actually trying to find one to build a retrogaming PC. That's cool, I've only ever seen the case once elsewhere. I had a feeling it was …

---