It's not a DOSBox issue. It's just how this game is. Watch some Youtube videos, and you will notice that the round announcements sound effects are not there, even on the Playstation (which is basically identical to the PC version). And the Babality announcement sound effect from some strange reason is part of the CD audio track that also plays the Babality music. If you don't have the CD tracks, you won't hear it.

dr_st wrote:

It's not a DOSBox issue. It's just how this game is. Watch some Youtube videos, and you will notice that the round announcements sound effects are not there, even on the Playstation (which is basically identical to the PC version).

That is really strange. I have no idea about the Playstation version, but my memory must be failing because I distinctly remember those announcements from back when I used to play the game fanatically on a real DOS machine (and yes, it was MKT and not MK3). I'm still not convinced. The YouTube videos all seem to be from DOSBox users. I wonder if anyone with an actual DOS PC can test this to confirm whether I'm losing my mind? 😜

Edit: The SOUND directory contains RNDONE.WAV, so it must be there for a reason surely? (Although I have no clue about Round 2 and 3... 😕)

dr_st wrote:

And the Babality announcement sound effect from some strange reason is part of the CD audio track that also plays the Babality music. If you don't have the CD tracks, you won't hear it.

Like I said, the failure was intermittent so clearly the CD audio was loaded (especially since the level music was audible). I cannot reproduce the playback failure on demand though.

Heya, I have the Windows version from Point of View (relatively well known software house from the 90's, they did a ton of ports) which also includes a DOS version I believe, are you referring to this version? I could try it on a real PC.

F2bnp wrote:

Heya, I have the Windows version from Point of View (relatively well known software house from the 90's, they did a ton of ports) which also includes a DOS version I believe, are you referring to this version? I could try it on a real PC.

Yes, that is the CD I have too. Please check if the Windows version says "Final" in the About dialog. There were reportedly a few versions released for Windows but I'm not sure whether the DOS version differed between them. Anyway, the final Windows version ought to have the final DOS version included too, so if you can run that on a real DOS PC (what sound card do you have?) then that would be great and would help put my mind at rest. 😀

I ran it on a real DOS PC. There are no round announcements. Your memory must be deceiving you.

If memory serves, this fixes it for the Windows version and will install from your existing disc, although I haven't used the current version: http://home.comcast.net/~heavyweights/games/mkt/

As dr_st says, the sounds are absent from the Playstation version too, so I guess Point of View were being anally faithful with the port.

I didn't check the About dialog, but I did try both the Windows version and the DOS version on a real PC and on DOSBox on my main PC. They all exhibited the same behavior you described. I used to play this game all the time as a kid and I remember noting the differences between my Mortal Kombat 3 DOS version 😁. That version was pretty good, MK Trilogy is alright but it has some issues like the one you've found. I also think some frames of animation are missing and it wouldn't seem particularly surprising to me if some other voice clips are missing as well.

I think the Babality announcement sound effect not playing at random times is clear indication that it is a CD Audio track issue. Playing CD Audio requires the disc to be spun very slowly and modern drives usually hit 40x-48x easily, so it takes time to slow down and sometimes you might get a delay or just the system missing the track entirely. Older drives used to spin much much slower, I think the minimum in 1997 was 4x, but more usually 8x-16x, so it was a non-issue. If you use an CD image you should be able to rid yourself of that issue entirely.

Silanda wrote:

If memory serves, this fixes it for the Windows version and will install from your existing disc, although I haven't used the current version: http://home.comcast.net/~heavyweights/games/mkt/

Wow, that's a very nice patch! I wish they had fixed it for the DOS version as well. The abilities to skip the logos on startup and do a quick reset would be quite welcome, as would the fix of the CD audio, which sometimes stalls.

dr_st wrote:

I ran it on a real DOS PC. There are no round announcements. Your memory must be deceiving you.

Dang, sure seems that way since you guys have confirmed it. Could have sworn otherwise but memory sure does play tricks. Thanks for checking. 😀

Silanda wrote:

If memory serves, this fixes it for the Windows version and will install from your existing disc, although I haven't used the current version: http://home.comcast.net/~heavyweights/games/mkt/

Nice patch, thanks (and to Raul too)! Although I do wish the DOS version could have been similarly fixed.

Silanda wrote:

As dr_st says, the sounds are absent from the Playstation version too, so I guess Point of View were being anally faithful with the port.

Now that's just... 😵 More than likely they just didn't care about such minor issues, or didn't even bother to check.

F2bnp wrote:

I didn't check the About dialog, but I did try both the Windows version and the DOS version on a real PC and on DOSBox on my main PC. They all exhibited the same behavior you described. I used to play this game all the time as a kid and I remember noting the differences between my Mortal Kombat 3 DOS version 😁. That version was pretty good, MK Trilogy is alright but it has some issues like the one you've found. I also think some frames of animation are missing and it wouldn't seem particularly surprising to me if some other voice clips are missing as well.

Thanks for confirming. So strange that the WAV files are there but not played. Also the fact that the patch Silanda linked to can fix this means it was possible but just not implemented properly. Just shoddy programming I guess.

F2bnp wrote:

I think the Babality announcement sound effect not playing at random times is clear indication that it is a CD Audio track issue. Playing CD Audio requires the disc to be spun very slowly and modern drives usually hit 40x-48x easily, so it takes time to slow down and sometimes you might get a delay or just the system missing the track entirely. Older drives used to spin much much slower, I think the minimum in 1997 was 4x, but more usually 8x-16x, so it was a non-issue. If you use an CD image you should be able to rid yourself of that issue entirely.

I did try using a CD image with MOUNT/IMGMOUNT in fact and had the same issues, which is why I suspected DOSBox because the physical drive was taken out of the equation. But if it's the game itself that's so buggy (seems likely now, especially when I read the patch's notes) then there's nothing to be done about it. Wish there was a corresponding patch for the DOS version which I prefer...

MKT has some minuses when compared to MK3/UMK3, among them the missing animations/sound effects mentioned. MKT is still my fave among the legacy MK games because you could play as any character from MK1-MK3, including bosses! Then there's the built-in cheats (auto-combo, one-button fatalities/babalities, health recovery, etc.). We had lots of fun with this title back in the PS1 days.

I was disappointed with MKT DOS/Windows especially since it was hard to find (pre-Ebay days) and I ordered it from some game site I never heard of. Even on Windows 98 I experienced CD audio problems. The DOS version requires you to install Scitech Display Doctor even if your graphics card supports the VESA 2 modes required by the game. Just what you need in DOS - another unnecessary TSR.

The best MKT port is the PS1 IMO so I'm willing to live with MKT's shortcomings on the PS1 (including the god awful slow loading times, especially if you're playing Shang Tsung and try to morph) but I think the PC version sucks.

Norton Commander wrote:

The DOS version requires you to install Scitech Display Doctor even if your graphics card supports the VESA 2 modes required by the game. Just what you need in DOS - another unnecessary TSR.

I don't recall having to install any TSRs. I think you needed to run it once to configure, and then you just run the game. Nothing had to stay resident.

Norton Commander wrote:

The best MKT port is the PS1 IMO so I'm willing to live with MKT's shortcomings on the PS1 (including the god awful slow loading times, especially if you're playing Shang Tsung and try to morph) but I think the PC version sucks.

Considering that the DOS port is basically identical to the PS1 version (minus the awful loading times), I find this position somewhat illogical. 😉

dr_st wrote:

Norton Commander wrote:

The DOS version requires you to install Scitech Display Doctor even if your graphics card supports the VESA 2 modes required by the game. Just what you need in DOS - another unnecessary TSR.

I don't recall having to install any TSRs. I think you needed to run it once to configure, and then you just run the game. Nothing had to stay resident.

The game comes with UVConfig but I'm not sure whether that's the same as the full UniVBE TSR though.

Edit: Apparently MKT uses a built-in version of UniVBE (UVBELib) according to this post, which also provides a fixed UniVBE.drv file for modern video cards.

Norton Commander wrote:

The best MKT port is the PS1 IMO so I'm willing to live with MKT's shortcomings on the PS1 (including the god awful slow loading times, especially if you're playing Shang Tsung and try to morph) but I think the PC version sucks.

When it comes to the home ports of the first four games I've only played the DOS/Windows versions of MK 1-4 and Trilogy so far. However after reading up on this (including a whole bunch of reviews/comparisons) I'm wondering whether the best course of action might be to dump DOSBox (just for this!) and all these ports and simply relive my arcade days by switching to MAME instead?

Generally speaking, the Arcade versions of MK1/MK2/MK3 are the best, and IMO the DOS versions are second to them, better than all ports.

Now, there is UMK3 for the arcade, which is almost the same, but not quite as MK Trilogy (no Klassic characters, no playable bosses, Rain is not playable). There is no MK Trilogy for the Arcade.

I still prefer the arcade UMK3 over the DOS MKT because it feels like a more complete and polished game. MKT just feels rushed, as if they stuck everything they possible could in it, without taking care of the finishing touches.

Despite the technological advantage of the arcade versions, there are some niceties in the DOS ports. I actually prefer the MIDI music of MK1, and MK2 has a nifty hidden options menu. Then again, the MK2 arcade version has the Challenger hack which gives some awesome features...

IMO it's best to have access to both sets of games. 😀

dr_st wrote:

Despite the technological advantage of the arcade versions, there are some niceties in the DOS ports. I actually prefer the MIDI music of MK1, and MK2 has a nifty hidden options menu.

Are you talking about the CD version of MK1? Didn't it have CD audio and not MIDIs?

dr_st wrote:

Then again, the MK2 arcade version has the Challenger hack which gives some awesome features...

Never played this one in any arcade; will check it out.

Which arcade versions of each game would you recommend? Latest official releases or some hacked versions?

oldskoolgamer wrote:

Are you talking about the CD version of MK1? Didn't it have CD audio and not MIDIs?

No, the floppy. The CD version doesn't have CD audio per se, but it uses the digital music tracks like the arcade version, which I kinda like less. However, it is also more faithful to the arcade version in other, good ways (like sounds).

dr_st wrote:

Which arcade versions of each game would you recommend? Latest official releases or some hacked versions?

Latest official releases, and for MK2, also the challenger hack.

Here are the changes for MK2 challenger:

-More difficult fight ladder that often begins with Kintaro or a hidden character -Dead Pool Fatality where you can punch the op […]
Show full quote

-More difficult fight ladder that often begins with Kintaro or a hidden character
-Dead Pool Fatality where you can punch the opponent out of the acid and make them stick in the air
-Johnny Cage has full time red shadow moves and all of the secret characters can appear on the fight ladder
-Super extended time to perform fatalities
-Fight Noob a lot sooner
-Play Pong a lot sooner
-Uppercuts are faster

dr_st wrote:

Here are the changes for MK2 challenger

Thanks, sounds interesting and yeah, I looked up http://www.mksecrets.net/mk2/eng/mk2-arcade.php too after your earlier post. 😀