First post, by chenke
I have two Roland MT-32 devices: one is an old version (firmware 1.07), and the other is a new version (firmware 2.x). They are daisy-chained using a 1-meter DIN5 cable, with the MIDI signal first going into the new version and then passing to the old version via the chain.
My test PC setup is a Pentium II computer with an MS-6199 (Intel 440BX) motherboard. The MIDI signal output device is a Roland MPU401/AT ISA card. I’m testing the MIDI music for the DOS game The Legend of Kyrandia (first installment).
When the game initializes the MT-32 at the start, I notice that the LCD panel on the new MT-32 displays "Westwood Studios" followed by "Presents." However, the daisy-chained old MT-32 doesn’t display "Westwood Studios" at the same time, though it does display "Presents" simultaneously with the new one. This feels strange to me—I think the LCD panel information on both MT-32 units should be synchronized.
I did some further testing last night, and here are the results:
1. I reversed the daisy-chain order, with the MIDI signal going into the old MT-32 first and then passing to the new MT-32. The old MT-32 still exhibited the issue of not displaying "Westwood Studios."
2. I connected the old MT-32 alone, without any daisy-chaining, and it still failed to display "Westwood Studios."
3.I noticed that the old MT-32 randomly fails to display "Westwood Studios"—there doesn’t seem to be a clear pattern. In both setups mentioned above, the old MT-32 can correctly display "Westwood Studios" at times, but during my testing, the number of times it successfully displayed "Westwood Studios" was less than the times it failed to do so. Meanwhile, I haven’t observed any instances of the new MT-32 failing to display "Westwood Studios."
4.I tried changing the motherboard’s FSB frequency from 100 MHz to 66 MHz, but it didn’t affect the test results.
I’d like to ask everyone: what could be causing this? Is there some kind of bug in the old MT-32?
