VOGONS


Reply 40 of 87, by Dimitris1980

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skate323k137 wrote on 2022-02-10, 20:23:
Very nice, Thank you! […]
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Very nice, Thank you!

To clear up any past mistakes I might have made, I started with a fresh OS9 install.

The Roland / Edirol UM-2 Worked first try. I did follow the instructions -very carefully- from the manual.

After I had a working OMS profile for that, I installed the M-Audio drivers again. After getting a better understanding of OMS, while setting up M Audio it shows 2 devices, one with the icon of a MIDI port, the other a keyboard with a question mark over it. You must pick the keyboard with the quesiton mark, NOT the one with the MIDI port Icon. Also, you should re name it! Otherwise both are called the same thing in other menus with no icons.

The Roland seems much easier and straightforward, but this M Audio interface will be fun for me in other ways I'm sure.

So, Now I have both of them able to out put to a SC-55 or whatever module I plug them into. I have only tested with midi file players to now, since I just got it working. Now, I must try to get some games working!

I am really glad with your news! I hope you have also good results with the games. For Sierra Online games i use especially Mac OS 8.1 which is very stable and all the games run normally with Roland MT32 or General Midi. Of course some of these games run even better on Motorola Macs because they are made for this cpu so you don't have system errors all the time. I confirm that with my LC475. On Mac OS 9, as i remember, only on Gabriel Knight i have issues. It seems that it does not save the music/midi options when you choose what do you want to use so the music plays always from the computer system.

P.S. Yesterday i was playing the 11th Hour on my Macintosh Permorma: Mac OS 8.1, Roland Sound Canvas SC88, Sonnet G3 500mhz.

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 41 of 87, by skate323k137

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Glad to know that is working on a G3 sonnet, I have one or two of those for my 7500's. It may be time to make space for one of those, because I'm afraid I have gone past the era of MT-32/GM with the Pismo and USB interfaces. PPC Midi players themselves work great but I've not been able to get any games going with the MIDI output, sierra or otherwise. I know the stuff which uses quicktime especially really -should- work on the Pismo, but it just seems difficult to make work since a lot of these games were made way before OS9.

I think at this point it is time to just use an older machine with a serial / macman interface. Or perhaps even try putting an SC-88 in MAC mode on the back panel and connecting it to the modem/printer port. (Is that what you did? Sorry if you made that clear already, I wasn't sure if there was a macman between your machine and SC88). I have some SCSI2SD prepared for the 7500 with os 7/8/9 available which should give me a much better chance here.

Reply 42 of 87, by Dimitris1980

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- Sierra Online games that support Roland MT32 and General Midi run perfectly also on my Power Macintosh G3 Minitower which has serial port. All these games run on Mac OS 8.1 but on Mac OS 9.2 i can't manage to work it with Gabriel Knight. But some of the games that i followed the mentioned procedure in order to use the General Midi sound via the Quicktime and Canvas do not play and i don't know why. On my Performa 6116 everything runs great.

Both of my Macs are connected with the midi devices via a Macman Macintosh Midi Interface. which is connected with the modem port of the computer. The one that is connected with the Performa 6116CD is the interface with the 3 x out ports and 1 x in port and right now i have connected the Roland MT32, the Roland CM500 and the Roland Sound Canvas SC88.

The other Macman Midi Interface is the one with the 1 x midi in port and 1 x midi out port and i have the Roland CM500 connected with the Power Macintosh G3 Minitower.

I use a simple midi switch with two positions in order to have the CM500 connected on both computers. It has A and B position. I use the A position when i want to use the CM500 with the Performa and the B position when i want to use it on the G3 Minitower.

I have also another midi switch with two positions where i have connected the Roland MT32 with my Performa and with my Dos/Windows 95 PC 😀

https://mindburner-midi-products.my-online.st … 77_4139176.aspx

The Performa is great. The configuration: Sonnet G3 500 mhz installed, Apple 8100 4mb video card, 24x scsi Apple cd rom drive, 72gb hard drive, Apple M3501 keyboard, Macally mouse, Gravis Mouse stick II, Macintosh Color Display M1212 Monitor, 136mb ram, Mac OS 8.1 for gaming and Mac OS 9.1 Greek version for Classilla, Appleworks and for more demanding games (for instance Simon the Sorcered II doesn't run on Mac OS 8.1). This period i am into conversation for more ram, 2 x 128mb in order to have 264mb. Then i don't know. I think the computer has almost the maximum. It's my favourite Mac that i own and it has the most spending hours since i bought it in 2009 from USA 😀

Jeremy has done a great video for Macintosh and Midi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buHZa85CO08&t=186s

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 43 of 87, by skate323k137

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Thanks so much for all of that! The video is awesome to see, and also motivation 😀

Before giving up entirely on the pismo I am still going to mess with quicktime a bit more. I'm still a bit confused as to why it's not working but that is this era of Macintoshes for you 😜

I now have quicktime itself playing a standard MIDI file on the sound canvas, via the M Audio USB, which is a huge progress at least.

Reply 44 of 87, by dr.zeissler

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I have a different MIDI-Adapter but it has also serial-din to midi-ports. I think it colled midi-man? I should have a look.
Thx for the video, I did not knew that there exists MIDI-Sofzware (Games?) for the IIgs?

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 45 of 87, by skate323k137

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I am not sure what if any games on the IIgs used MIDI, but yes the macintosh / midiman works great. I have really only used it with SynthLab. I would love to find more uses for MIDI on that machine though, it would be neat.

Reply 47 of 87, by Dimitris1980

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skate323k137 wrote on 2022-02-11, 21:42:

Ugh, I have no mouth and I must scream doesn't want to run on OS 9.2.2. It's taunting me, the music files open in quicktime and play beautifully on the SC-55.

I have the same problem with this game on Mac OS 9. Tested on Mac OS 9.04 and Mac OS 9.1 on Performa 6116 and 9.2 on G3 Minitower. On both computers the game runs on Mac OS 8.1 and even on Mac OS 7.6 on the Performa. That's why i use especially 8.1 for these old games. I find it more stable.

The music on the game sounds better, louder and more impressive with the Canvas SC88. I like Gorrister's and Elen's themes. Unfortunately with the G3 Minitower i don't have music on some parts (for instance at the introduction). With the Performa the game runs like a dream.

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 48 of 87, by Dimitris1980

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There are two games that i would like a lot to have the Roland sound but I can't find a solution:

1. Under a Killing Moon:
The game has a directory with the midi files and they play through the canvas and a midi player (tested with qmidi and midigraphy). They Sound so much better and louder. But in the game the sound comes from the computer's system.

2. Simon the Sorcerer II:
As the manual mentions, the music is missing due to technical problems but it's provided in midi format. The game doesn't have music at all, only sound effects and speech. I think the Amiga version doesn't have also music. In the game directory there are music midi files which play perfectly with the Canvas via a midi player. The quality coming from the Canvas is also amazing on this game and it's really a pity that we are missing all this good stuff. I have the game original for Mac.

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 49 of 87, by Dimitris1980

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https://youtu.be/pZa949LPUAE

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 50 of 87, by dr.zeissler

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Great! Thx. Actually I do not use MIDI on my Mac's because mostly I love how the sound/music is done "macstyle" like on SQ3.
Mainly I use my MT32/SC-55/CM32L on my A2286/8 Amiga Bridgeboard, but I will take out the two MIDI-MAN and hook up
my favorite 68K Mac (LC1/68020/16/512KB-Vram) and check out some cool games with MIDI support. Thx for the list!

My 6100/66 is not my favorite machine. I see that you use such a machine. I think it's "weder fisch noch fleisch" as we
call it in germany which means, to fast for 68K Emulation and way to slow for PPC games. Mine has the 486/66 integrated,
but I am playing much much more with my LC. (I also have two LC475 one is modded to 33Mhz, man is that thing fast)

One of my favorites on the LC is that it can run MacOS6! MacOS6 provides a "single finder mode" so that all icons/windows
will be blanked out if you start a game. If you are using 640x480 and not 512x384 then this feature a GREAT!

Beside that, MacOS6 is FAST on LC where MacOS7 is a lot slower and consumes more Ram. Beside that my LC has also a IIe inside 😀
but that is another story.

In short, I love the 68K more and therefore I tend to play the 68K games on my LC. It's a bit slow on the 256color games, but who cares.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 51 of 87, by Dimitris1980

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dr.zeissler wrote on 2022-02-12, 08:59:
Great! Thx. Actually I do not use MIDI on my Mac's because mostly I love how the sound/music is done "macstyle" like on SQ3. Mai […]
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Great! Thx. Actually I do not use MIDI on my Mac's because mostly I love how the sound/music is done "macstyle" like on SQ3.
Mainly I use my MT32/SC-55/CM32L on my A2286/8 Amiga Bridgeboard, but I will take out the two MIDI-MAN and hook up
my favorite 68K Mac (LC1/68020/16/512KB-Vram) and check out some cool games with MIDI support. Thx for the list!

My 6100/66 is not my favorite machine. I see that you use such a machine. I think it's "weder fisch noch fleisch" as we
call it in germany which means, to fast for 68K Emulation and way to slow for PPC games. Mine has the 486/66 integrated,
but I am playing much much more with my LC. (I also have two LC475 one is modded to 33Mhz, man is that thing fast)

One of my favorites on the LC is that it can run MacOS6! MacOS6 provides a "single finder mode" so that all icons/windows
will be blanked out if you start a game. If you are using 640x480 and not 512x384 then this feature a GREAT!

Beside that, MacOS6 is FAST on LC where MacOS7 is a lot slower and consumes more Ram. Beside that my LC has also a IIe inside 😀
but that is another story.

In short, I love the 68K more and therefore I tend to play the 68K games on my LC. It's a bit slow on the 256color games, but who cares.

All these are really interesting 🙂 and i like the fact that you prefer older computers. Although i have a Powermac G5 and G4 i prefer older and more retro computers. Let me tell you my personal opinion about the Performa 6116 (aka Powermac 6100):

I think that this machine is very slow if you don't install an accelerator and not a good choice of computer (depending of course what you want to do). When I bought it i didn't know anything and then I asked at forums why it's so slow where I've been told that games and programs that are made for Motorola cpu run with a kind of emulation on PPC. As a result you have a slow to very slow speed. I haven't used speed doubler to be honest although i downloaded recently from Macintosh garden via classilla but it asks for original disk when I try to install it. The following are some games that are really slow on my Performa:

Monkey Island 1 and 2
Indiana Jones and Fate of Atlantis (not cd PPC version)
King's Quest VII
Gabriel Knight

Also games like Doom, Heretic, Dark Forces. You have to use lower screen size and low resolution.

My Macintosh LC475 seems faster and the above mentioned adventure games run great. If I had to choose, i would choose the LC475.

I solved the speed problem with the Sonnet G3 accelerator 500mhz. It's literally another system. The above games run with full speed even with graphic details to the maximum. It runs great more demanding games like Riven the Sequel to Myst, Morpheus, Quest for Glory V etc. It has only one Nubus slot for upgrade but you can really boost the speed with the Sonnet. Even Unreal and Carmageddon run with an acceptable speed. I have a huge hard drive and lot of ram for these games. Every midi device works perfectly. Games like Larry 6 cd version (which has svga graphics), Gabriel Knight and Freddy Pharkas are so enjoyable with Roland MT32 or general midi. The Macintosh Color Display monitor has beautiful and sharp picture which makes every game look fantastic. I have my pc next to Mac and the graphics on many games look poor. The power of the PC dos is the many games that support Roland and general midi. Rex Nebular, Monkey Island 2, Codename iceman, Police Quest 2, Heart of China are some examples that have great music quality. Lure of the Temptress has extra sound effects with Roland CM64. Thunders, dogs, water, birds effects.

I would like an Apple Audiovision Display 14" Monitor but it's very difficult to be found and also very expensive. I had the opportunity to buy one from the same store from America that i bought the Performa back to 2009 but i found a typical Philips vga 14 monitor from my job. I regretted it later.

Right now the Performa is my favourite between the Macs that i own. For some period the G3 Minitower was close to become my preference 😀

I believe that there are two computers that they could become my favourites. Macintosh Quadra 950 which I love it's huge size and also the 20th Macintosh Anniversary which is really special and beautiful 😀

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 52 of 87, by skate323k137

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There is a 20th Mac on eBay right now in great shape but of course the price reflects that 🤣.

I am awaiting an Edirol branded SC-88VL in the mail, I'll have to try the I have No Mouth and I Must Scream midis when I get it. Thanks for posting the video!

Reply 53 of 87, by dr.zeissler

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Ok that means you use the internal gfx of the PM6100 but accerlerated through the G3-Upgrade.
As I mentioned I have a 48 card installed in that PDS Slot and this is not compatible with any accelerator on that system.
You are right apple provided an 68K emulator on early PPC macs. But it's SLOWWWW, so upgrade to conneticx speed doubler that has 30-50% more performance in his 68K Emulator. Very noticeable on Yeager e.g. Beside the there exist different Versions for MacOS7 and MacOS8. My 6100/66 has also the cache card 25K which provides a noticeable speed boost as well. But Marathon seems still better on fast 68040 than early PPC601.

For PPC from 200Mhz and above my G4-Cube is the way to go. Fantastic machine! I only use the 6100 to put Data on the external SCSI-Drive in oder to get Games on the LC (2GB SCSI2CF).

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 54 of 87, by Dimitris1980

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skate323k137 wrote on 2022-02-12, 12:58:

There is a 20th Mac on eBay right now in great shape but of course the price reflects that 🤣.

I am awaiting an Edirol branded SC-88VL in the mail, I'll have to try the I have No Mouth and I Must Scream midis when I get it. Thanks for posting the video!

I have to sell a part of my body to buy this Mac 😀

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 55 of 87, by Dimitris1980

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dr.zeissler wrote on 2022-02-12, 13:54:
Ok that means you use the internal gfx of the PM6100 but accerlerated through the G3-Upgrade. As I mentioned I have a 48 card in […]
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Ok that means you use the internal gfx of the PM6100 but accerlerated through the G3-Upgrade.
As I mentioned I have a 48 card installed in that PDS Slot and this is not compatible with any accelerator on that system.
You are right apple provided an 68K emulator on early PPC macs. But it's SLOWWWW, so upgrade to conneticx speed doubler that has 30-50% more performance in his 68K Emulator. Very noticeable on Yeager e.g. Beside the there exist different Versions for MacOS7 and MacOS8. My 6100/66 has also the cache card 25K which provides a noticeable speed boost as well. But Marathon seems still better on fast 68040 than early PPC601.

For PPC from 200Mhz and above my G4-Cube is the way to go. Fantastic machine! I only use the 6100 to put Data on the external SCSI-Drive in oder to get Games on the LC (2GB SCSI2CF).

G4 Macs run Mac OS 9 really fast. I have seen the Cube on the guy that sold me the Power Macintosh G3 Minitower. He has two of them and probably Cube is his favourite Mac. The design is incredible. Small and beautiful, plexiglass etc. When he got the second G4 cube, he called me one night and he was very happy. Why is that? The G4 Cube had a sonnet accelerator installed and even the seller didn't know it. 😀

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 57 of 87, by skate323k137

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Great news, I was able to land a 16mhz accelerator for my SE! I also put in a math coprocessor which is awesome.

Thexeder runs much better, so when I have time, I shall try other games again.

Reply 58 of 87, by Dimitris1980

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skate323k137 wrote on 2022-03-13, 00:22:

Great news, I was able to land a 16mhz accelerator for my SE! I also put in a math coprocessor which is awesome.

Thexeder runs much better, so when I have time, I shall try other games again.

This is definely great! Thexder must be great with the accelerator and Roland sound!

- Macintosh LC475, Powerbook 540c, Macintosh Performa 6116CD, Power Macintosh G3 Minitower (x2), Imac G3, Powermac G4 MDD, Powermac G5, Imac Mid 2007
- Cyrix 120
- Amiga 500, Amiga 1200
- Atari 1040 STF
- Roland MT32, CM64, CM500, SC55, SC88, Yamaha MU50

Reply 59 of 87, by skate323k137

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Dimitris1980 wrote on 2022-03-13, 09:51:

This is definely great! Thexder must be great with the accelerator and Roland sound!

It's much better, completely playable computer wise, the sound never had a problem thankfully.

Haven't gotten back to trying new games much yet, but, you may appreciate this program for the Mac that Korg made for managing the 05R/W MIDI module. I was able to get it working:

https://imgur.com/a/BFzSQOB