Re: Cirrus Logic Eagle II 8-bit VGA card

Posted on 2020-02-23, 23:45

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

In case anyone is still interested, the DIP switches: switches 1-4: monitor type MDA: on on on on CGA: off on on on EGA: on off on on TTL: off off on on VGA: off on on off PS/2: on on on off switch 5: adapter primary/secondary primary: on secondary: off switches 6-8: configuration auto: on on on MDA …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-26, 23:49

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by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

FWIW I finally managed to make a TSR that works for remapping the IRQ, at least well enough that Laser Squad works using the remapped IRQ. However, the performance impact is no longer negligible since it needs to poll the Programmable Interrupt Controllers to sync the IRQ masks, and it doesn't seem …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-18, 00:50

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

you want to jmp to IRQ 3 address, not call INT 0x0A. I've see things check stack address to see if the return address pointed to previous INT, this tests if it was software called or hardware called. also if your in V86 mode, this may not bubble up to the top. This applies only to a few old games …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-17, 18:03

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by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Indeed this might be possible, by installing a TSR which handles IRQ 3 and then in turn calls the handler for IRQ 2... Well, for what it's worth I tried writing such a TSR this weekend, but it doesn't seem to work with any games (or the mqdiag.exe utility). Laser Squad seems to be a good test case …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-14, 12:30

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by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

However, I found a utility for sierra games that'll allow you to change the port number from 330 to 300, for example. Out of curiosity and since the original problem was the unavailability of IRQ 2/9, when is the port 330h not available? The only setups that come to mind are a SCSI controller hard- …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-14, 00:41

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

tbh I never saw a complete list of games that are hardcoded to use IRQ2/port330 , is there one somewhere? Maybe it's not that bad, maybe several share the same sound engine so patching will be easier. I don't know of a complete list (although one could be useful), but it can't be particularly long …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-13, 19:16

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

IMHO the speed impact of such TSR would not make this an attractive solution... especially for 386 systems It would be better patching irq values to hard-coded games rather than a tsr - IMHO again. I agree that patching the games would be a better option, but it requires per-game reverse …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-13, 13:22

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I see... I think nothing can be done then for IRQ2 on this system... maybe IBM did something different with cascading :neutral: If we assume that it's IBM's weird implementation but the IRQ itself is actually free, do you (or anyone here) know if it is possible to somehow remap it in software? That …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-13, 10:54

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Is it the same with another unused IRQ? Did you check IRQ3 that we know for sure works? You don't have a scsi card installed or a network adapter, right? There are no other cards installed at all, i.e., it's either the MPU or no cards. There is also no SCSI or network integrated on the motherboard. …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-13, 00:40

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

it just doesn't make much sense to me if IRQ3 for example works and IRQ2 does not - provided IRQ2 is truly free. Can you probe it without the mpu installed at all, does it perhaps show some activity during system usage? Yes, I actually already did that. The logic probe shows it as permanently high …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-12, 22:48

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I developed a little tool for it some time ago, when I wanted to investigate how many EGA/VGA cards have a working vsync IRQ. Thanks! I tried the utility, but it just shows "IRQs: 0" on the PS/2, so it shouldn't be a case of VGA stealing it. Not sure what to try next, though. (edit: Well, one thing …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-12, 13:03

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Something it generating IRQs in your system, I have no experience with PS/2 systems (only have a PS1/pro 386sx that is ISA and irq2 is free on it) but maybe it's the vga? Have you checked if there is an IRQ jumper for it? Scali also has a 286 that cannot use IRQ2, I have yet to find a board that …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-12, 10:25

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

An unrelated question: I'm now running this card in an IBM PS/2 model 35, and the Music Quest software is unable to detect it when configured to IRQ 2/9, even though I don't know of anything using IRQ 9 in the system (mouse, HDD, serial and parallel are the only things enabled/installed, and they …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-12, 09:56

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I suppose the idea is that both the MPU-401 and the IMFC are semi-professional solutions, and the PC would normally be used as a MIDI sequencer, and as such, would provide the master clock for all devices. Yes, based on the MPU-401 technical reference manual, I believe the intent is indeed that …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-11, 22:51

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

allright then since you solved it and are happy because it works with your setup like you want it then I am happy as well :blush: No worries, and thank you again for this great product! This behaviour of the real MPU-401 was just unexpected for me (and I still consider sending out a random tempo as …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-11, 21:12

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Actually it turns out the MPU stops sending the clock when switched to UART mode: C:\>debug -O 331 3F All that is needed is writing 0x3F to port 0x331 (assuming the card is at 0x330). Resetting it (write 0xFF to the same port) restores the clock. This, at least, allows me to stop the clock output …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-11, 20:59

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Please do not confuse hardware connection clock signals with software ones, that's not how things work. Clock is required in hardware level in the midi protocol so devices sync. I'm sorry, but this is just plain incorrect. As a warning, this is going to be a long post, but I hope it will be …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-11, 00:32

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

This is a non-issue and basically the way it is supposed to be as per midi protocol standards, the mpu is a master device so clock is always ticking to sync slave (=midi modules) devices. Well, it can be an issue when multiple computers are connected through a patchbay/merger to the same devices, …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2019-02-10, 20:38

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Since I have accumulated (too much?) MIDI gear, I decided to hook them up through an 8-port MIDI "patchbay". In doing so, I noticed for the first time that this card is flooding MIDI realtime messages constantly as its default behaviour, presumably the MIDI clock. I can't seem to find a way to turn …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2017-08-10, 22:32

by

by Arkku

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Hi, I added myself to the list.

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