Kekkula wrote on 2024-09-06, 14:22:

It would be nice if someone who has skills and time to maintain the thread. Would make thread here in vogons, that contains picogus compatibility with games and hardware.
I don't have any hardware issues but most of the games I would like to play doesn't work with picogus, so I mainly use it in mpu401 role.

Honestly, it's almost been a year daily fiddling with it and I only found ONE game that I could not make work with my Picogus: Rebel Assault 1. The rest is just a matter of finding the right patch, settings and knowing when to load ultramid and loadpats.

What I think we should do is to breakout the PicoGUS topic into sub-themes (troubleshooting, tips&tricks, etc)... Not easy navigating through such mega-thread.

The compatibility list in github is not updated, which is understandable because there is only one person updating it.
I think what we could do as a community is, we could make up to date list here.
It would be beneficial to polpo too, as he can't have unlimited amount of hardware or software.

Kekkula wrote on 2024-09-07, 15:15:

The compatibility list in github is not updated, which is understandable because there is only one person updating it.
I think what we could do as a community is, we could make up to date list here.
It would be beneficial to polpo too, as he can't have unlimited amount of hardware or software.

Good idea. It might be helpful to if we helped with the GitHub page to avoid having information in two places

It's awesome to see community enthusiasm to contribute to the docs. It's probably the most efficient, viable way for a broad maintainable knowledge base to accrue. Discussions to date have floated a few ideas.

And Ian himself may have something in progress. We should certainly chat to him, over the next couple of weeks (he is at VCFMW this weekend), about the notion of which-if-any docs could potentially be delegated out for drafting up, and what form they'd take.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-09-07, 21:43:

Kekkula wrote on 2024-09-07, 15:15:

The compatibility list in github is not updated, which is understandable because there is only one person updating it.
I think what we could do as a community is, we could make up to date list here.
It would be beneficial to polpo too, as he can't have unlimited amount of hardware or software.

Good idea. It might be helpful to if we helped with the GitHub page to avoid having information in two places

it takes just few clicks to sent git pull request with updates

Been pretty happy with the PicoGUS 2.0 and was toying with using it as the only card in this rig, swapping between GUS and SB modes, but struggling with one or two games.

Getting Monkey Islands working with the MPU->MT32 + Adlib patches is great, got Dune 2 working with voice.
Ran into a roadblock with DOTT and all the demos on the same CD, Roland works great but SB2.0 mode results in garbage noise any time digital effect is to be played.
Tested on two systems, P200MMX and P2-350, with setmul and/or dottfix. Soundblaster works great with an AWE32 so I know it's not a corrupt game file either.

Starcon2 using GUS mode on the P200mmx rig has a hanging sound effect on the initial lightbar menu where it hangs on the end of the sample when you highlight an option.

Can someone else test the Amnesia and Saga demos and report whether they work with Soundblaster mode? They both lock up for me much like this dosbox soundblaster bug report from a long time ago. Amnesia locks completely on black screen, Saga has a burst of static and locks at black screen.

https://github.com/joncampbell123/dosbox-x/issues/146

Amnesia:
https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=2902

Saga:
https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=2585

I just tested them, and Amnesia does actually work, but you need to boot without memory managers. That is, also without HIMEM.SYS. It doesn't seem to like those.
I thought that I had Saga working, but I forgot in between testing to use my PicoGUS instead of my real Sound Blaster. Whoops…

digistorm wrote on 2024-09-10, 08:43:

I just tested them, and Amnesia does actually work, but you need to boot without memory managers. That is, also without HIMEM.SYS. It doesn't seem to like those.
I thought that I had Saga working, but I forgot in between testing to use my PicoGUS instead of my real Sound Blaster. Whoops…

It works fine with an ESS 1868F card, locks up with Picogus. Everything else I've tried has worked perfectly!

Amusingly, I just stumbled across my Ultrasound PNP Pro and installed it alongside the Picogus to test out whether the gus problems are inherent to my system or special to picogus.

With GUS PNP installed and unconfigured amnesia works perfectly. If I configure it with unisound (even disabled with /D) or remove it from system completely, amnesia breaks.

old computers are so much fun...

Should "ultramix" let you set volume with picogus?

polpo wrote on 2024-01-05, 16:28:

When the PicoGUS 2.0 powers on or is reset, the LED sequence should go On -> Off -> On, and then once the card receives valid commands from the bus the LED will toggle on/off. Is the LED on or off when the card is unresponsive? Also: does this only happen on GUS firmware? If the card gets "stuck" with the LED off and this only happens on GUS firmware, it may be a known issue that affects maybe 5% of boards and I'll need to send you a new one. I test all boards I send out for this issue, but there's a chance I missed this one. I'm currently working on a firmware fix for this issue, but I don't want you to have to wait for that if that's what you're experiencing.

Greetings! I’m having an issue similar to what you describe. Just got my PicoGUS at VCF and had a chance to play with it yesterday on my 286. After getting some sweet tunes out of it, it stopped responding after a reboot. The amber LED was blinking steadily and could not be detected by pgusinit. Several reboots and slot changes didn’t help. I shut it off and came back to it 16 hours later and it worked again, briefly. It seems to keep getting stuck but this time with the LED off as you describe. Seems like a Rpi2040 issue? It doesn’t respond as a USB device on my laptop for firmware, which is latest stock. Attached photo where you can see amber LED is not lit and screen shows not detected. Any suggestions?

alexkb9lhn wrote on 2024-09-19, 11:45:

polpo wrote on 2024-01-05, 16:28:

When the PicoGUS 2.0 powers on or is reset, the LED sequence should go On -> Off -> On, and then once the card receives valid commands from the bus the LED will toggle on/off. Is the LED on or off when the card is unresponsive? Also: does this only happen on GUS firmware? If the card gets "stuck" with the LED off and this only happens on GUS firmware, it may be a known issue that affects maybe 5% of boards and I'll need to send you a new one. I test all boards I send out for this issue, but there's a chance I missed this one. I'm currently working on a firmware fix for this issue, but I don't want you to have to wait for that if that's what you're experiencing.

Greetings! I’m having an issue similar to what you describe. Just got my PicoGUS at VCF and had a chance to play with it yesterday on my 286. After getting some sweet tunes out of it, it stopped responding after a reboot. The amber LED was blinking steadily and could not be detected by pgusinit. Several reboots and slot changes didn’t help. I shut it off and came back to it 16 hours later and it worked again, briefly. It seems to keep getting stuck but this time with the LED off as you describe. Seems like a Rpi2040 issue? It doesn’t respond as a USB device on my laptop for firmware, which is latest stock. Attached photo where you can see amber LED is not lit and screen shows not detected. Any suggestions?

The attachment IMG_4382.jpeg is no longer available

Is your PicoGus a version 2.0 as well or one of the 1.x variations? Where did you purchase it from?

Delphius wrote on 2024-09-19, 13:11:

alexkb9lhn wrote on 2024-09-19, 11:45:

polpo wrote on 2024-01-05, 16:28:

When the PicoGUS 2.0 powers on or is reset, the LED sequence should go On -> Off -> On, and then once the card receives valid commands from the bus the LED will toggle on/off. Is the LED on or off when the card is unresponsive? Also: does this only happen on GUS firmware? If the card gets "stuck" with the LED off and this only happens on GUS firmware, it may be a known issue that affects maybe 5% of boards and I'll need to send you a new one. I test all boards I send out for this issue, but there's a chance I missed this one. I'm currently working on a firmware fix for this issue, but I don't want you to have to wait for that if that's what you're experiencing.

Greetings! I’m having an issue similar to what you describe. Just got my PicoGUS at VCF and had a chance to play with it yesterday on my 286. After getting some sweet tunes out of it, it stopped responding after a reboot. The amber LED was blinking steadily and could not be detected by pgusinit. Several reboots and slot changes didn’t help. I shut it off and came back to it 16 hours later and it worked again, briefly. It seems to keep getting stuck but this time with the LED off as you describe. Seems like a Rpi2040 issue? It doesn’t respond as a USB device on my laptop for firmware, which is latest stock. Attached photo where you can see amber LED is not lit and screen shows not detected. Any suggestions?

The attachment IMG_4382.jpeg is no longer available

Is your PicoGus a version 2.0 as well or one of the 1.x variations? Where did you purchase it from?

That's a TX, correct? Looks like a 2.0 installed. I'll pop mine back into my TL and give it a whirl, but I had it in there for a few days and it ran fine.

An interesting fact: If you configure a tandy sound card at the NORMAL address on a non-AT machine you'll get tandy audio through internal speaker AND through the tandy 1000 add-on card 😁

Delphius wrote on 2024-09-19, 13:11:

alexkb9lhn wrote on 2024-09-19, 11:45:

polpo wrote on 2024-01-05, 16:28:

When the PicoGUS 2.0 powers on or is reset, the LED sequence should go On -> Off -> On, and then once the card receives valid commands from the bus the LED will toggle on/off. Is the LED on or off when the card is unresponsive? Also: does this only happen on GUS firmware? If the card gets "stuck" with the LED off and this only happens on GUS firmware, it may be a known issue that affects maybe 5% of boards and I'll need to send you a new one. I test all boards I send out for this issue, but there's a chance I missed this one. I'm currently working on a firmware fix for this issue, but I don't want you to have to wait for that if that's what you're experiencing.

Greetings! I’m having an issue similar to what you describe. Just got my PicoGUS at VCF and had a chance to play with it yesterday on my 286. After getting some sweet tunes out of it, it stopped responding after a reboot. The amber LED was blinking steadily and could not be detected by pgusinit. Several reboots and slot changes didn’t help. I shut it off and came back to it 16 hours later and it worked again, briefly. It seems to keep getting stuck but this time with the LED off as you describe. Seems like a Rpi2040 issue? It doesn’t respond as a USB device on my laptop for firmware, which is latest stock. Attached photo where you can see amber LED is not lit and screen shows not detected. Any suggestions?

The attachment IMG_4382.jpeg is no longer available

Is your PicoGus a version 2.0 as well or one of the 1.x variations? Where did you purchase it from?

It’s a 2.0 card running the current firmware (2.1.0 I believe?) I bought it from Ian’s booth at VCF Midwest a few weeks ago.

keenerb wrote on 2024-09-19, 13:52:

Delphius wrote on 2024-09-19, 13:11:

alexkb9lhn wrote on 2024-09-19, 11:45:

Greetings! I’m having an issue similar to what you describe. Just got my PicoGUS at VCF and had a chance to play with it yesterday on my 286. After getting some sweet tunes out of it, it stopped responding after a reboot. The amber LED was blinking steadily and could not be detected by pgusinit. Several reboots and slot changes didn’t help. I shut it off and came back to it 16 hours later and it worked again, briefly. It seems to keep getting stuck but this time with the LED off as you describe. Seems like a Rpi2040 issue? It doesn’t respond as a USB device on my laptop for firmware, which is latest stock. Attached photo where you can see amber LED is not lit and screen shows not detected. Any suggestions?

The attachment IMG_4382.jpeg is no longer available

Is your PicoGus a version 2.0 as well or one of the 1.x variations? Where did you purchase it from?

That's a TL, correct? Looks like a 2.0 installed. I'll pop mine back into my TL and give it a whirl, but I had it in there for a few days and it ran fine.

An interesting fact: If you configure a tandy sound card at the NORMAL address on a non-AT machine you'll get tandy audio through internal speaker AND through the tandy 1000 add-on card 😁

That’s a pretty neat trick! My machine is a TX model with the memory upgrade to 768k. Trying to find software that works well with both Tandy graphics and GUS audio… seems a lot of things require EGA or better. When it was working briefly, I launched Test Drive 3 which doesn’t support CGA/Tandy graphics, so I only got a blinking cursor, but I could actually launch the game, start a race, change radio stations in the car and hear it all through the PicoGUS through blind keystroke memory. It sounded great and was quite amused it kept going despite graphics not working. 🤣

I do know that most tandy devices already use IRQ5, it's either the video card retrace or xt ide controller. I'm not sure if an irq conflict will interfere with it, but an intermittent issue like that sounds like it could be the issue...

keenerb wrote on 2024-09-19, 19:36:

I do know that most tandy devices already use IRQ5, it's either the video card retrace or xt ide controller. I'm not sure if an irq conflict will interfere with it, but an intermittent issue like that sounds like it could be the issue...

My gut tells me it’s a defective card… I should be seeing the LED come on at power on but it’s just dead now. And pulling the card to plug it into my Windows laptop over USB doesn’t work, card is just dead, does nothing. 🫤

alexkb9lhn wrote on 2024-09-19, 20:37:

keenerb wrote on 2024-09-19, 19:36:

I do know that most tandy devices already use IRQ5, it's either the video card retrace or xt ide controller. I'm not sure if an irq conflict will interfere with it, but an intermittent issue like that sounds like it could be the issue...

My gut tells me it’s a defective card… I should be seeing the LED come on at power on but it’s just dead now. And pulling the card to plug it into my Windows laptop over USB doesn’t work, card is just dead, does nothing. 🫤

id try updating the card through the micro usb and see if a computer sees the pi-pico hardware

Pickle wrote on 2024-09-19, 21:35:

alexkb9lhn wrote on 2024-09-19, 20:37:

keenerb wrote on 2024-09-19, 19:36:

I do know that most tandy devices already use IRQ5, it's either the video card retrace or xt ide controller. I'm not sure if an irq conflict will interfere with it, but an intermittent issue like that sounds like it could be the issue...

My gut tells me it’s a defective card… I should be seeing the LED come on at power on but it’s just dead now. And pulling the card to plug it into my Windows laptop over USB doesn’t work, card is just dead, does nothing. 🫤

id try updating the card through the micro usb and see if a computer sees the pi-pico hardware

I tried hooking it up to a computer with micro usb but it’s dead; does nothing.