I have an update to my issue.

If I run "DOSMID /COM1 TEST.MID", I get output to the MT32-Pi with it connected to the serial port...

But if I run "DOSMID /MPU=330 TEST.MID", I get nothing.

I also tried setting SOFTMPU to port 320 and DOSMID on the same port, but nada.

Next, I am going to attempt to remove my soundcard to see if it's blocking SOFTMPU from working properly.

EDIT: Nope. Removing my ES1688 did nothing.

Just as another follow-up to my request to add support for 386MAX to SoftMPU:

The source code to 386MAX was released last summer: https://github.com/sudleyplace/386MAX

I'm not sure if anybody has been able to build that code base yet, let alone with an open-source toolchain such as Open Watcom v2.

But if SoftMPU could be verified (and if necessary, tweaked) to work properly with this EMM manager as well, that would be another puzzle piece towards having SoftMPU usable without any dependency on closed-source software. (The remaining missing part being the current dependency on closed-source assembly/build tools.)

Again: 386MAX is supposed to support the same I/O port trapping API as that of EMM386 (with some improvements on top of that, if I'm not mistaken), so it really shouldn't be much work, right?

mockingbird wrote on 2023-01-06, 01:24:

I have an update to my issue. […]
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I have an update to my issue.

If I run "DOSMID /COM1 TEST.MID", I get output to the MT32-Pi with it connected to the serial port...

But if I run "DOSMID /MPU=330 TEST.MID", I get nothing.

I also tried setting SOFTMPU to port 320 and DOSMID on the same port, but nada.

Next, I am going to attempt to remove my soundcard to see if it's blocking SOFTMPU from working properly.

EDIT: Nope. Removing my ES1688 did nothing.

Yea, it's definitely the Goldstar Prime2C serial ports on my VLB I/O card... I tested a different card "pic P4020" and "p4021" and it worked perfectly...

I can get General Midi to work with SoftMPU USB to Serial mode with the Goldstar ports, but not MT32 mode. In MT32 mode, I get "unexpected MIDI status".

spiffythedog wrote on 2022-12-06, 03:16:

Here are a few more games that seem to require intelligent mode to run correctly. I tested these on a virtual Intel Pentium 75 v […]
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Here are a few more games that seem to require intelligent mode to run correctly. I tested these on a virtual Intel Pentium 75 via the MPU-401 interface of an emulated SBAWE32 PnP using Munt, loopMIDI and 86Box (I get inconsistent results using PCem and DOSBox ECE or similar forks):

• The Bard's Tale Construction Set
• The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate
• Car & Driver
• Cartooners
• Centurion: Defender of Rome
• Daughter of Serpents
• Gods
• Hard Nova
• The Immortal
• Indianapolis 500
• Keef the Thief
• The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes
• Low Blow
• Lure of the Temptress
• Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen
• Might and Magic: Swords of Xeen
• Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen
• Might and Magic: World of Xeen
• Sierra On-Line Christmas Card 1988
• Spot: The Video Game
• Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2 - Martian Dreams
• Wing Commander: Academy
• Worlds of Legend: Son of the Empire
• Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire

All of these games either crashed or were silent (silent after the logo in the case of the M&M Xeen series) without running SoftMPU first. Strangely enough, both Ultima VI and Bad Blood seem to output MT-32 just fine on this build without having to load SoftMPU, despite them being documented as requiring intelligent mode. Chalk it up to the emulation maybe? Or does a UART interface cause crashes and other irregularities later on in the game?

Any updates on this? I'd be quite surprised if such a long list of classic games were still unsupported.

Rincewind42 wrote on 2023-01-26, 12:04:

spiffythedog wrote on 2022-12-06, 03:16:

Here are a few more games that seem to require intelligent mode to run correctly. I tested these on a virtual Intel Pentium 75 v […]
Show full quote

Here are a few more games that seem to require intelligent mode to run correctly. I tested these on a virtual Intel Pentium 75 via the MPU-401 interface of an emulated SBAWE32 PnP using Munt, loopMIDI and 86Box (I get inconsistent results using PCem and DOSBox ECE or similar forks):

• The Bard's Tale Construction Set
• The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate
• Car & Driver
• Cartooners
• Centurion: Defender of Rome
• Daughter of Serpents
• Gods
• Hard Nova
• The Immortal
• Indianapolis 500
• Keef the Thief
• The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes
• Low Blow
• Lure of the Temptress
• Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen
• Might and Magic: Swords of Xeen
• Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen
• Might and Magic: World of Xeen
• Sierra On-Line Christmas Card 1988
• Spot: The Video Game
• Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2 - Martian Dreams
• Wing Commander: Academy
• Worlds of Legend: Son of the Empire
• Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire

All of these games either crashed or were silent (silent after the logo in the case of the M&M Xeen series) without running SoftMPU first. Strangely enough, both Ultima VI and Bad Blood seem to output MT-32 just fine on this build without having to load SoftMPU, despite them being documented as requiring intelligent mode. Chalk it up to the emulation maybe? Or does a UART interface cause crashes and other irregularities later on in the game?

Any updates on this? I'd be quite surprised if such a long list of classic games were still unsupported.

I think that these games would be better tested on a real machine, emulators aren't suited for this.

There is a site where some tests were done and does mention that Ultima VI requires a sound card supporting the ACK message: https://dosdays.co.uk/topics/mt32_game_compat.php

More information related to this here: Midi-Module patches for Systems with no Hard-MPU401 and no Soft-MPU support (XT/AT). It mentions that some of these games listed by spiffythedog works fine on the SB16's UART MPU-401 implementation without having to use SoftMPU after a small workaround.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-01-26, 12:59:

More information related to this here: Midi-Module patches for Systems with no Hard-MPU401 and no Soft-MPU support (XT/AT). It mentions that some of these games listed by spiffythedog works fine on the SB16's UART MPU-401 implementation without having to use SoftMPU after a small workaround.

Cheers, that's an interesting find. Although he doesn't explain his method of patching the drivers (I assumed he used a disassembler).

Hi there.
Sorry i'm new to SoftMPU. I would like to know if there is an older version that could work with MSDOS5 and EMM386 v4.44.
I'm trying to use SoftMPU to output midi music from PCTask 4.4, PC 486 emulator for Amiga which has no sound card emulation apart from pc biper but can use the COM port of the Amiga, which is connected to a bunch of MIDI external synth.

spiffythedog wrote on 2022-12-06, 03:16:

Here are a few more games that seem to require intelligent mode to run correctly. I tested these on a virtual Intel Pentium 75 v […]
Show full quote

Here are a few more games that seem to require intelligent mode to run correctly. I tested these on a virtual Intel Pentium 75 via the MPU-401 interface of an emulated SBAWE32 PnP using Munt, loopMIDI and 86Box (I get inconsistent results using PCem and DOSBox ECE or similar forks):

• The Bard's Tale Construction Set
• The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate
• Car & Driver
• Cartooners
• Centurion: Defender of Rome
• Daughter of Serpents
• Gods
• Hard Nova
• The Immortal
• Indianapolis 500
• Keef the Thief
• The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes
• Low Blow
• Lure of the Temptress
• Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen
• Might and Magic: Swords of Xeen
• Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen
• Might and Magic: World of Xeen
• Sierra On-Line Christmas Card 1988
• Spot: The Video Game
• Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2 - Martian Dreams
• Wing Commander: Academy
• Worlds of Legend: Son of the Empire
• Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire

All of these games either crashed or were silent (silent after the logo in the case of the M&M Xeen series) without running SoftMPU first. Strangely enough, both Ultima VI and Bad Blood seem to output MT-32 just fine on this build without having to load SoftMPU, despite them being documented as requiring intelligent mode. Chalk it up to the emulation maybe? Or does a UART interface cause crashes and other irregularities later on in the game?

Did some more testing using the same method as last time but also alternating between a 486 and an early Pentium machine. Here's the updated list:

• The Adventures of Maddog Williams in the Dungeons of Duridian
• Alien Breed
• Back to the Future Part III
• Bad Blood (MPU interrupts?)
• Balance
• The Bard's Lore: The Warrior and the Dragon
• The Bard's Lore II: The Dark Tower
• The Bard's Quest: Dungeons of the Unknown
• The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate
• The Bard's Tale Construction Set
• Breach 2
• Cadaver: The Payoff
• Cannon Fodder
• Captive
• Car and Driver
• Cartooners
• Centurion: Defender of Rome
• Challenge of the Five Realms
• Champion of the Raj
• Champions of Krynn
• Cool Croc Twins
• Cover Girls Strip Poker
• Crisis in the Kremlin
• Cyber Empires (aka Steel Empire)
• Daughter of Serpents
• Deathbringer
• Dusk of the Gods
• Elf
• Even Better Than the Real Thing (scene demo)
• F29 Retaliator
• Freakin' Funky Fuzzballs
• Face Off!
• Falcon 3.0
• Fire & Ice (MPU interrupts?)
• Floor 13
• Global Effect
• The Godfather
• Gods
• Hard Nova
• Heimdall
• Hook
• The Hunt for Red October (1990)
• The Immortal
• Indianapolis 500: The Simulation
• Infestation
• International Open Golf Championship (prototype/alternate version)
• John Madden Football II
• Keef the Thief
• The Killing Cloud
• Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2: Gas Pump Girls Meet the Pulsating Inconvenience from Planet X
• The Legend of Billy the Kid
• The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes
• Low Blow
• Lure of the Temptress
• The Magic Candle II: The Four and Forty
• Magic Pockets
• The Manhole: New and Enhanced (floppy version)
• MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients
• Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen
• Might and Magic: Swords of Xeen
• Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen
• Might and Magic: World of Xeen
• Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight
• Mr. Blobby
• Obitus
• Oil's Well
• Operation Neptune (aka Super Solvers' Operation Neptune)
• Pacific Islands
• PowerMonger (MPU interrupts?)
• Predator 2
• Pushover
• Reader Rabbit 1 (1991)
• Reader Rabbit 2
• The Return of Medusa (aka Rings of Medusa II: The Return of Medusa)
• RoboCop 3
• The Rocketeer (MPU interrupts?)
• Rome: Pathway to Power
• Rules of Engagement
• Santa's Xmas Caper (MPU interrupts?)
• Savage Warriors
• Shadowlands
• Shuttle
• Siege
• The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants
• Sink or Swim (MPU interrupts?)
• Spot: The Video Game
• Stellar 7 (floppy version)
• The Summoning
• Super Tetris
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Trog!
• Twilight 2000
• Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2 - Martian Dreams
• Vaxine
• Veil of Darkness
• Virtual Reality Studio 2.0
• Viz: The Game
• Wing Commander: Academy
• Wordtris
• Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire
• WWF Wrestlemania
• XF5700 Mantis Experimental Fighter

There are six games (Bad Blood, Fire & Ice, PowerMonger, The Rocketeer, Santa's Xmas Caper and Sink or Swim) that seem to rely on interrupt-driven timing to sound correct. But since I'm currently only relying on emulation for my 'research', someone else will need to verify these games on actual hardware. I've marked them all as requiring intelligent mode on the MT-32 games list on the VOGONS wiki for the time being, but if anyone can prove otherwise I'll gladly undo them.

I'm interested in some of these games, so I'll test them on real hardware using SoftMPU at some point. To be honest, I'd be surprised if they didn't work because SoftMPU seems to be quite popular and I find hard to believe so many games aren't compatible with it (of course, I believe your results, but that's emulation which can be slightly or very different).

i can post some success, with caveats, for the ess es688 (non-pnp) and aztech azt2320 (pnp). neither of these cards require dos drivers on my systems to work. i tested with ultima 6.

the es688 has an emulated mpu-401 port so i only use softmpu with the /output:com option. it loads fine with only the /mpu option specified and no drivers loaded, but locks up when /sb and /irq are used until the card is initialized with drivers (i use unisound with the /nopnp option).

the azt2320 works with only the /mpu option specified whether dos drivers are loaded or not; /sb and /irq lock it up. this is a complicated pnp card that requires either a pnp bios or the intel pnp configuration manager. the dos drivers only work with a pnp configuration manager and, since my bios is pnp with no way to disable, the intel pnp configuration manager conflicts rendering the dos drivers completely unusable to me. luckily, unisound can work here, although it's not necessary unless you want to change the address settings (aztpnp also works which i think was released for modem cards). additionally, the card has 2 internal mpu-401 ports and is purported to actually support a subset of intelligent mode commands (not just fake acknowledge like the ensoniq and mediatrix cards). in any case i got ultima 6 working with the onboard wavetable (gs compatible) although i couldn't get the mt-32 instrument mapping to stick.

Yesterday I tried stunts 4ds, pinball fantasies, lotus3, ...
Stunts has so nice FX and music. Lotus Fx is horrible, music is nicer but it is better on FM.

In a ESS Solo1, with success. I have used midi cable and connected to mt32-pi.

Mobygames has a good list of games.

This is already on the compatibility list, but I just wanted to mention I tested softmpu with an MT32 on a Compaq Presario 4704 which has an ESS 1888F built in to the motherboard. Worked great on Ultima 6 and Space Quest 3. I also tried it on several general midi games with no problems (Arena, Doom, Underworld 2), but U6 and SQ3 are the only MT32 specific games I had on hand and working. I used the motherboard's built-in gameport, and ran SFX through the sound card at the same time with no issues.

The ESS-1888F is a spectacular sound card IMO, btw. If I had known how good it was, I wouldn't have even bothered to get an SBPro 2. Haven't even installed the SBPro 2 because I've been enjoying the ESS so much.

Here's the options I used: SOFTMPU.EXE /SB:220 /IRQ:5 /MPU:330 /DELAYSYSEX

Hi there,

Just wanted to double check something.
Is it OK to leave softmpu running at all times (i.e., loaded in autoexec.bat) even for games that do not require intelligent mode?
Or perhaps should I just only load softmpu when I'm about to play one of those games?

Thanks!

And… I just found one that doesn’t work when SoftMPU is loaded: Comanche 2
My PC freezes when I try to run it and SoftMPU is in RAM. Commenting out the SoftMPU line from autoexec.bat does the trick.

Do we know of any other games that present this behaviour?

Thx!

kahuna wrote on 2023-08-29, 07:02:

And… I just found one that doesn’t work when SoftMPU is loaded: Comanche 2 My PC freezes when I try to run it and SoftMPU is in […]
Show full quote

And… I just found one that doesn’t work when SoftMPU is loaded: Comanche 2
My PC freezes when I try to run it and SoftMPU is in RAM. Commenting out the SoftMPU line from autoexec.bat does the trick.

Do we know of any other games that present this behaviour?

Thx!

I tested with SoftMPU. I have it set as follows: "softmpu /mpu:330 /output:com1". It doesn't freeze my machine but I don't think it works either because I don't see anything on my MT32 LCD. Either that or it is working but just set up not to output to the LCD. The only way to make certain is to remove my wavetable daughterboard and see if I still get music.

The Comanche series were protected mode games, which SoftMPU doesn't support.

Which brings us to a possible proposal to the SoftMPU developers: would it be a good idea to integrate SoftMPU's functionality into crazii's SBEMU project (or Baron von Riedesel's VSBHDA fork), which works with both real mode and protected mode games?

I think it would make sense to have a unified DOS utility that would be able to emulate all popular sound standards of the DOS era (notably Sound Blaster and MPU-401), preferably with a pluggable architecture that would allow people to pick either a modern sound device or a software emulation backend (or a combination of both) to route the sound output to, while supporting both real mode and protected mode games.

Why have separate utilities for these things at this point?

kahuna wrote on 2023-08-29, 07:02:

And… I just found one that doesn’t work when SoftMPU is loaded: Comanche 2 My PC freezes when I try to run it and SoftMPU is in […]
Show full quote

And… I just found one that doesn’t work when SoftMPU is loaded: Comanche 2
My PC freezes when I try to run it and SoftMPU is in RAM. Commenting out the SoftMPU line from autoexec.bat does the trick.

Do we know of any other games that present this behaviour?

Thx!

Does Comanche 2 actually require SoftMPU? In other words, is it a game whose in game music specifically supports the MT-32 or is it a General MIDI game?

Looking at the release date of the game (1995/1996), at that time practically all games supported General MIDI.

jesolo wrote on 2023-08-30, 06:45:

Does Comanche 2 actually require SoftMPU?

Re: SoftMPU project needs your help! (game & sound card testing)

The first game in the series, Comanche: Maximum Overkill, did support MT-32, so it would be kind of a downgrade if the successor to that game did not support either MT-32 or General MIDI.

digger wrote on 2023-08-30, 15:34:

The first game in the series, Comanche: Maximum Overkill, did support MT-32, so it would be kind of a downgrade if the successor to that game did not support either MT-32 or General MIDI.

That specific game has a patch that adds support for General MIDI and makes the MT-32 option to work with any MPU-401 compatible device.