Well it certainly had music (could of been fm synthesis)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu7dxRtePHM

It had music when I played it in DOSBox.

Mobygames says it only supports Soundblaster:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/syndicate/techinfo

Shagittarius wrote:

Mobygames says it only supports Soundblaster

Right you are, I should have checked Moby. Oh well it's still sound pretty cool via my OPL chip.

Thanks.

I just got it from GOG.com and it doesn't have an INSTALL or SETUP file just like in Wing Commander.

You play the intro and single game track over a midi device with xmiplay. but it sounds bad.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I just got it from GOG.com and it doesn't have an INSTALL or SETUP file just like in Wing Commander.

That's a shame, I do like GOG but would it hurt to include an optional version of the original game disks for those of us not using Dosbox?

My understanding is that the original setup program created a BAT file for you which calls the EXE with the relevant switches to set IRQ, etc.

I recall playing it without sound back in the day because the version I had was not legit (hey I was a pennyless teenager) and therefore didn't include the setup program.

Hmm if it created a BAT file then there should be command line parameters for MAIN.EXE. There is also INTRO.EXE in the GOG.com version but that's about it.

Yes missing installers, missing expansion packs or other surprises (CD version of the game / floppy version) are common with GOG.com releases. Sometimes you hear about this in forums but not always.

The Wing Commander release is quite disappointing. No expansion packs and no installer so you're stuck with Sound Blaster. A real shame because you can get the full game for free (illegal) and while I did buy all the Wing Commander games from GOG.com it's still quite disappointing to be honest.

EDIT:

Found this from, guess where, VOGONS 😀

main.exe >nul: /iirq7 /idma1 /iio$220 /c0

Link: Re: No sound in Syndicate

PS: At least we have a quite modern DOS game with OPL3 sound!

AFAIK Syndicate only supports Adlib/SoundBlaster. It never had any setup.exe in any release.

This is the content of my synd.bat:

intro /irq5 /idma1
main >nul: /h /irq5 /idma1

If you look into the DATA directory, you will find a file called GAMEFM.DLL.

This is internally a MILES driver so theoretically it should be possible to switch it for a General MIDI or MT32 one. I Never tried it personally, though.

This site has some alternate drivers you can use: http://syndicate.lubie.org/synd/html/synd_patches.php

I tried the MT-32 one and it doesn't sound very good. Obviously the game's music is not arranged for MT-32. Unfortunately the driver pack didn't come with a General MIDI driver.

Here is something I collected:

a32mt32.dll - MPU401 General Midi driver (despite its name)
gusdig32.dll - GUS digital driver
gusmid32.dll - GUS MIDI driver
a32ardg.dll - ARIA chipset digital driver
a32arxm.dll - ARIA chipset MIDI driver

bristlehog wrote:

Here is something I collected: […]
Show full quote

Here is something I collected:

a32mt32.dll - MPU401 General Midi driver (despite its name)
gusdig32.dll - GUS digital driver
gusmid32.dll - GUS MIDI driver
a32ardg.dll - ARIA chipset digital driver
a32arxm.dll - ARIA chipset MIDI driver

That MPU-401 driver doesn't seem to work with Syndicate Plus. Didn't try the others.

The original game has an INSTALL program, but it only allows to select "Sound Blaster" and "No sound". The XMIDI files lie open in the game directory, but they sound bad with both General MIDI and Roland MT-32, as gerwin already mentioned. Injecting a driver from another game will at most only get you the same bad sound.

AFAIK it only has FM music. But very good one nevertheless! I still listen to mission music sometimes when I work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QxYku4VVZk