Just bought a Roland MT-300S for $30. It was sold as a music learning aid, but it has general midi, so I think it could work as a poor man's SC-55. There isn't a ton of information about this model, but some people have used it for DOS games. It seems like it's a bit flaky, but does work well for some games. Roland has even been kind enough to host the manual on their website, despite this being from the 90s.

Are you using an MPU-401 card, SoftMPU, or the Roland UM-One MKII MIDI2USB adapter? And $30 for that? You, my friend, hit the luck lottery.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2023-07-29, 01:19:

Are you using an MPU-401 card, SoftMPU, or the Roland UM-One MKII MIDI2USB adapter? And $30 for that? You, my friend, hit the luck lottery.

I've never played around with midi hardware, so I haven't figured out the details yet. My main retro rig has a sound card with a game port. I plan on getting a DB15-to-MIDI cable to use with it. I would like to use a raspberry pi as a virtual mt-32/midi device, so I also plan on picking up that USB to midi adapter that you mentioned. I'm excited to try this out. I only had pc speaker for most of my childhood, so this will be a treat for me.

Don't forget: games tend to run on Intelligent mode and the MIDI IRQ needs to be set to 2/9 since a lot of games don't like anything that is not IRQ 2/9. Speaking from experience.

For SoftMPU, http://bjt42.github.io/softmpu/ is where you'll get the latest version. I've used this for years and the one game I would play didn't have all of its music, so I switched the code around, posted the version here on Vogons, and the version he compiled fixed that exact issue.

Basically coded from DOSBox's line of code and it's a nice alternative to an MPU-401 card. However, my 386 and 486 all have MPU-401 cards and they're amazing. The one game requires delay for the SYSEX due to my MT-32 complaining about it, but I have it set to mark the program for the TSR and close when I exit the game so my system doesn't crash on me.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2023-07-29, 02:06:

Don't forget: games tend to run on Intelligent mode and the MIDI IRQ needs to be set to 2/9 since a lot of games don't like anything that is not IRQ 2/9. Speaking from experience.

For SoftMPU, http://bjt42.github.io/softmpu/ is where you'll get the latest version. I've used this for years and the one game I would play didn't have all of its music, so I switched the code around, posted the version here on Vogons, and the version he compiled fixed that exact issue.

Basically coded from DOSBox's line of code and it's a nice alternative to an MPU-401 card. However, my 386 and 486 all have MPU-401 cards and they're amazing. The one game requires delay for the SYSEX due to my MT-32 complaining about it, but I have it set to mark the program for the TSR and close when I exit the game so my system doesn't crash on me.

Thanks. I appreciate the advice. I didn't think that I needed SoftMPU, but I'll check that out. I haven't done much research yet, but wanted to grab the device before any else does.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2023-07-29, 02:06:

Don't forget: games tend to run on Intelligent mode and the MIDI IRQ needs to be set to 2/9 since a lot of games don't like anything that is not IRQ 2/9. Speaking from experience.

For SoftMPU, http://bjt42.github.io/softmpu/ is where you'll get the latest version. I've used this for years and the one game I would play didn't have all of its music, so I switched the code around, posted the version here on Vogons, and the version he compiled fixed that exact issue.

Basically coded from DOSBox's line of code and it's a nice alternative to an MPU-401 card. However, my 386 and 486 all have MPU-401 cards and they're amazing. The one game requires delay for the SYSEX due to my MT-32 complaining about it, but I have it set to mark the program for the TSR and close when I exit the game so my system doesn't crash on me.

The ONLY games that need intelligent mode are most of the ones that use the MT-32. General MIDI games have no need for intelligent mode at all.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-07-29, 00:22:

Just bought a Roland MT-300S for $30. It was sold as a music learning aid, but it has general midi, so I think it could work as a poor man's SC-55. There isn't a ton of information about this model, but some people have used it for DOS games. It seems like it's a bit flaky, but does work well for some games. Roland has even been kind enough to host the manual on their website, despite this being from the 90s.

roland_mt300s.jpg

Cool. I have one of those... I used to have it in my kids' room to play music for them. Just load up a floppy with good MIDI files and stick it in shuffle mode.

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-07-29, 02:34:

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-07-29, 00:22:

Just bought a Roland MT-300S for $30. It was sold as a music learning aid, but it has general midi, so I think it could work as a poor man's SC-55. There isn't a ton of information about this model, but some people have used it for DOS games. It seems like it's a bit flaky, but does work well for some games. Roland has even been kind enough to host the manual on their website, despite this being from the 90s.

roland_mt300s.jpg

Cool. I have one of those... I used to have it in my kids' room to play music for them. Just load up a floppy with good MIDI files and stick it in shuffle mode.

That's cool. Get them interested in older tech while they are young!

cyclone3d wrote on 2023-07-29, 02:33:

bjwil1991 wrote on 2023-07-29, 02:06:

Don't forget: games tend to run on Intelligent mode and the MIDI IRQ needs to be set to 2/9 since a lot of games don't like anything that is not IRQ 2/9. Speaking from experience.

For SoftMPU, http://bjt42.github.io/softmpu/ is where you'll get the latest version. I've used this for years and the one game I would play didn't have all of its music, so I switched the code around, posted the version here on Vogons, and the version he compiled fixed that exact issue.

Basically coded from DOSBox's line of code and it's a nice alternative to an MPU-401 card. However, my 386 and 486 all have MPU-401 cards and they're amazing. The one game requires delay for the SYSEX due to my MT-32 complaining about it, but I have it set to mark the program for the TSR and close when I exit the game so my system doesn't crash on me.

The ONLY games that need intelligent mode are most of the ones that use the MT-32. General MIDI games have no need for intelligent mode at all.

Oh, yeah. You're right. I haven't used my machines in 2 years and I gotta fix up my room and have it as a computer lab.

Whooops. Bought a faulty cusl2-c with a p3/933. We'll see what it needs to get going

Random thrifting thoughts...

So do Goodwill move "stale" stock around between stores at all?? ... Just Thursday I was in a GW and saw a compaq keyboard in a Fellows MM KB box, and I swear I saw that same thing in another Goodwill in the town over a month prior. It feels that that particular combo was a bit hard to mistake, and very high odds of it occurring organically. Maybe it was returned to this location? I don't know if they do cross store returns, but all the GW in this area are in the same group or region or whatever they call it.

Wasn't much for me there that day, did pick up a DMS 59 to VGA splitter in case my HD3450 cards ever need it. Already got a VGA for one card and a DVI for the other... Wondering though whether to carve one of them up, to use the DMS plug sawn in half for that freaky AIW connector, think the pitch is the same, but shape different.

A rather uncommon Voodoo Rush from an obscure japanese manufacturer. It looks very elegantly and efficiently engineered. It isn't even bigger than a Voodoo Graphics.
It has an interesting SLI-like port.

Today's thrift outing pickup was just an Interlink/laplink cable in RadioShack/Tandy package. I've had the one for ages that's "my preciousssss" because of how useful it is for transferring stuff when options are slim. While I now have a couple of machines with no other networking options so I can permanently dedicate one to that. Part number 26-8032 if anyone particularly wants to look for one. I guess I could have made one with other parallel cables I have around, but I am paranoid I'll accidentally use a unicorn one that belongs to something with no pinout online or something.

JustJulião wrote on 2023-07-29, 18:25:

A rather uncommon Voodoo Rush from an obscure japanese manufacturer. It looks very elegantly and efficiently engineered. It isn't even bigger than a Voodoo Graphics.
It has an interesting SLI-like port.
IMG20230729202047.jpg

Sweet, let us know if the image quality seems better than what is considered normally bad for Rush cards.

Finally got seller to accept a offer and purchased a Adventech ISA SBC. On this, it is SiS chipset with 10 x 32K cache (dual tag configuration all installed). But what nice about it is either 386DX (empty pads) or 486 socket, but it has holes for the 387DX. This was languishing on the ebay for forever.

Cheers,

A nice looking Chaintech Ti4200 Special Edition in box.

Meatball wrote on 2023-07-30, 15:07:

A nice looking Chaintech Ti4200 Special Edition in box.

That's one fancy looking card!

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-07-30, 15:19:

Meatball wrote on 2023-07-30, 15:07:

A nice looking Chaintech Ti4200 Special Edition in box.

That's one fancy looking card!

Back in the day, it would have been a shame for this card to be stuffed in a restrictive beige box, never to see the light of day until retirement.

Meatball wrote on 2023-07-30, 15:52:

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-07-30, 15:19:

Meatball wrote on 2023-07-30, 15:07:

A nice looking Chaintech Ti4200 Special Edition in box.

That's one fancy looking card!

Back in the day, it would have been a shame for this card to be stuffed in a restrictive beige box, never to see the light of day until retirement.

Back in the day when these cards came out beige boxes were pretty much thing of the past, with silver and charcoal/black boxes ruling the scene. Also most modders/tweakers/overclockers were never putting side panel on the case anyway and the "gaming" cases already started to feature small acrylic windows from the factory (and if not - case modders were putting them theirselves).

HanJammer wrote on 2023-07-30, 16:44:

Meatball wrote on 2023-07-30, 15:52:

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-07-30, 15:19:

That's one fancy looking card!

Back in the day, it would have been a shame for this card to be stuffed in a restrictive beige box, never to see the light of day until retirement.

Back in the day when these cards came out beige boxes were pretty much thing of the past, with silver and charcoal/black boxes ruling the scene. Also most modders/tweakers/overclockers were never putting side panel on the case anyway and the "gaming" cases already started to feature small acrylic windows from the factory (and if not - case modders were putting them theirselves).

Yes, and back in the day, it would have been a shame for this card to be stuffed in a restrictive beige box, never to see the light of day until retirement.

I just picked up a Fujitsu Lifebook E-5140. I don't know much about this laptop, but it was only $20, so I grabbed it before anyone else did. I've also been really happy with each Fujitsu device that I've owned so far.

There's a neat little LCD screen right above the keyboard that shows some system information.

The manual says it should come with a Celeron processor, but a Pentium III shows up when booting, so I assume it got upgraded at some point. Someone also bumped the memory to 256Mb as well. This should make a fun little Windows 98 machine. I'm hoping that it will work for DOS too, but I'm not sure what it's using for sound. The manual just mentions that it has a "SoundBlaster Pro-compatible 32-bit stereo PCM/FM sound chip". The only problem is that the BIOS is locked, but it seems like you can unlock it with a master password.

I now have a nice little Pentium laptop family with a PI, PII, and PIII.

From left to right they are: a Hitach M-120D, a Toshiba Satellite 4060XCDT, and the new Fujitsu.