This is the link at Internet Archive for this thread, especially to see what was deleted. Good threads should not be forgotten.

What has happened? Why was deleted???
I searched for the "Rise of the Dragon" MT-32 + SB combo what I got here and it disappeared... everything is messed up here too!
What is going on here?

hi guys, I created a talkie version using my GOG copy of Monkey Island 1 and it works ok so far using AWE64. I just run the game with no commands and I get music and the sound effects / speech.

However, I want to use General Midi for the music as I have the S2 Dreamblaster S2 connected to the AWE64 through Midi using the Chilland Phil MPU-401 MIDI port adapter ( https://www.serdashop.com/CHiLLandPhilAdapter ) and want the music to play through that, not build in Midi synthesis on the AWE64.

Is it possible to do this and tell the app to run soundblaster for sounds and general midi on 330 for music?

thanks

bump ... still looking for an answer on above. Anyone please?

The original game didn't have General Midi support. You can choose MT-32 to output to 330, but it will sound wrong on a GM device.

Ok but how do I run the game ? With what parameters so it outputs voice to SB and then music to mt-32?

13.2 Playing it in DOS
2=====================
3- Run "monkey r1" for playing with Roland MT-32 music.
4- Run "monkey r" for playing with General MIDI music.
5- Run "monkey a" for playing with AdLib music.
6- The game can be played either from a harddisk or directly off CD.
7- Hit '[' and ']' to adjust the music volume.
8
93.3 Preferences
10===============
11- CTRL-a toggles narrator mode.
12- CTRL-p toggles Spiffy mode between "SE based VGA", "EGA scan" and "no closeup".
13- CTRL-q toggles subtitle mode between "keep original text" and "match voice acting".
14- Preferences are stored in monkey.cfg, which is loaded automatically whenever a new game is started.
15- Music volume is saved whenever one of those toggles are used.
16- Savegames contain their own settings overiding monkey.cfg when loaded, except for music volume.

"monkey r" will launch the game with GM bgm and if SB is available then you will get speech/fx from it
there is no option that I know off that will select a specific mpu port

monkey /? reveals all options you can pass from command line, seems only roland (mt-32) driver allows to chose port:

I should test this on my Zenith Data Systems Z-Note 325Lc with the DigiSpeech Porta*Sound adapter.

By the by, where do I find the current patch version? For Secret of Monkey Island 1.

I'm bumping this thread to check interest in something. Monkey Island is a series I didn't experience when I was younger, but I've recently discovered and fallen a bit in love with. Initially I was content with the original DOS versions, and the patches NewRisingSun created for them definitely make them a lot better. Once I better understood the Ultimate Talkie versions though, and saw that they can build a DOS-native version with on the fly switching between voice, voice+subtitles, and subtitles only, I feel that it really is a complete superset of the original DOS VGA versions of Monkey Island 1 and 2. Except that, contrary to what I've seen suggested in this thread, the patches from NRS do NOT get MT-32 + soundblaster sounds working on the Ultimate Talkie versions of Monkey Island 1 or 2, while retaining speech. They're unstable when they work at all, and speech never functions.

So NewRisingSun hasn't been seen here in over two years, and he clearly has no interest in the Ultimate Talkie editions, or the modifications he started here either, since he tried to erase them. I've been sharing a fair few game patches on these forums recently that I've made, to fix various issues in older games that interest me, to make them work better on original 486 hardware. I personally have an interest in getting the Ultimate Talkie editions working with sound blaster sounds. While some sounds have been replaced in the Ultimate Talkie version, and do work without mods being made alongside MT-32 and speech (IE, the SCUMM bar door opening/closing at the start of MI1), there are sounds that do not appear (IE, the hammer sound in the workshop near the start of MI2), and some MT-32 substituted sounds from the original where I think the sampled one should be restored like NRS did (IE, the spitting into the glass near the start of MI2). I also have some interest in completing the changes NRS didn't - getting additional FM Towns PCM patches working with MT-32 + sound blaster mode. The starting area in MI1 outside the SCUMM bar is just so dead and lifeless without the sounds of the ocean. That's not restored in the MI1 Ultimate Talkie version for DOS, and the original samples came from the FM Towns edition, which had this sound effect for its original release. I'd like to see that included for DOS.

So I'm posting here to take a straw poll of interest, and for some moral support. I don't have a massive amount of free time, so I'd have to chip away at this as I'm able (and between other projects), and I'd have to educate myself a lot about the SCUMM engine. I've taken a look at what NRS did for his patches though, and it's not too complex. He basically glued the existing MT-32 and SB drivers together into one composite audio driver, and did a handful of small script/resource patches for MI2. I have to look more at exactly how speech was integrated with the Ultimate Talkie edition, but I believe it should be possible to replicate his fixes for that version without too much trouble. As for the FM Towns PCM sounds, I'll have to restart that research and see what can be done, but it's definitely possible to make it work, it's just a question of how much work will be involved.

If I was to take this on, who else would be interested? If I go ahead, I'll make a new thread for my changes, but this thread is what everyone who googles this topic or searches on the forums will find, so I wanted to start the conversation here.

DivByZero wrote on 2025-06-20, 06:15:

I'm bumping this thread to check interest in something. Monkey Island is a series I didn't experience when I was younger, but I' […]
Show full quote

I'm bumping this thread to check interest in something. Monkey Island is a series I didn't experience when I was younger, but I've recently discovered and fallen a bit in love with. Initially I was content with the original DOS versions, and the patches NewRisingSun created for them definitely make them a lot better. Once I better understood the Ultimate Talkie versions though, and saw that they can build a DOS-native version with on the fly switching between voice, voice+subtitles, and subtitles only, I feel that it really is a complete superset of the original DOS VGA versions of Monkey Island 1 and 2. Except that, contrary to what I've seen suggested in this thread, the patches from NRS do NOT get MT-32 + soundblaster sounds working on the Ultimate Talkie versions of Monkey Island 1 or 2, while retaining speech. They're unstable when they work at all, and speech never functions.

So NewRisingSun hasn't been seen here in over two years, and he clearly has no interest in the Ultimate Talkie editions, or the modifications he started here either, since he tried to erase them. I've been sharing a fair few game patches on these forums recently that I've made, to fix various issues in older games that interest me, to make them work better on original 486 hardware. I personally have an interest in getting the Ultimate Talkie editions working with sound blaster sounds. While some sounds have been replaced in the Ultimate Talkie version, and do work without mods being made alongside MT-32 and speech (IE, the SCUMM bar door opening/closing at the start of MI1), there are sounds that do not appear (IE, the hammer sound in the workshop near the start of MI2), and some MT-32 substituted sounds from the original where I think the sampled one should be restored like NRS did (IE, the spitting into the glass near the start of MI2). I also have some interest in completing the changes NRS didn't - getting additional FM Towns PCM patches working with MT-32 + sound blaster mode. The starting area in MI1 outside the SCUMM bar is just so dead and lifeless without the sounds of the ocean. That's not restored in the MI1 Ultimate Talkie version for DOS, and the original samples came from the FM Towns edition, which had this sound effect for its original release. I'd like to see that included for DOS.

So I'm posting here to take a straw poll of interest, and for some moral support. I don't have a massive amount of free time, so I'd have to chip away at this as I'm able (and between other projects), and I'd have to educate myself a lot about the SCUMM engine. I've taken a look at what NRS did for his patches though, and it's not too complex. He basically glued the existing MT-32 and SB drivers together into one composite audio driver, and did a handful of small script/resource patches for MI2. I have to look more at exactly how speech was integrated with the Ultimate Talkie edition, but I believe it should be possible to replicate his fixes for that version without too much trouble. As for the FM Towns PCM sounds, I'll have to restart that research and see what can be done, but it's definitely possible to make it work, it's just a question of how much work will be involved.

If I was to take this on, who else would be interested? If I go ahead, I'll make a new thread for my changes, but this thread is what everyone who googles this topic or searches on the forums will find, so I wanted to start the conversation here.

Seems like a very worthwhile endeavor. I'd say go it!

DivByZero wrote on 2025-06-20, 06:15:

[...]
If I was to take this on, who else would be interested? If I go ahead, I'll make a new thread for my changes, but this thread is what everyone who googles this topic or searches on the forums will find, so I wanted to start the conversation here.

are you joking? 🤣
creating the Super Ultimate Monkey Islands versions is a worthwhile cause! these games come alive with the talkie patch so improving on that is just awesome!

Would love to get a super duper talkie version!

Yes, please!

Sounds like a great idea!

Totally worth it! I think you would have huge support!

It's late, and I just want to put this out here for testing. I've built a new sound driver that works for the Ultimate Talkie versions of Monkey Island 1 and 2. Replace "ROL_330.IMS" with this attached driver and run with "MONKEY.EXE r1" or "MONKEY2.EXE r1" for MI1/2 respectively, using the same driver for either game. The Ultimate Talkie DOS versions are both running in the later "Fate of Atlantis" version of the SCUMM engine, so it's the same for either. This driver will give MT-32 + SB + Speech.

For MI2, you can run the "APPLY.BAT" file from the "mi2_mtsb.zip" patch from NRS to patch the game resources to restore the sampled "spitting" sounds, just don't use his "SOUNBLAS.IMS" file. Not all the changes the NRS patch attempts are still valid, so ignore the couple of warnings that appear in the console about a search string not found. The remaining changes still "seem" valid, and from about 3 minutes of testing appear to function correctly, however I'd appreciate it if others who know the game better than me would give this a try. If you run into issues, please compare with the patches vs without, so I know if it's an issue with the patch or the driver.
EDIT: Subsequent testing has shown the NRS resource patches aren't required, and cause problems on the Ultimate Talkie edition of MI2. Just use the new sound driver as mentioned above.

I probably won't have time to do anything more on this for a number of days, but I'm hoping this gives parity with the NRS patches for the DOS Ultimate Talkie versions. That would just leave the research on FM Towns PCM sounds for a later time.

Cheers! I'll test this on my 386 tomorrow 😀

I just finished my first(!) playthrough of Monkey Island 2 last night. Is it weird that I hacked the game before I played it? Took awhile over a few days since I was trying to do it without any spoilers, hints or walkthroughs, although I did reach for answers just a couple of times when I was quite stuck (Mixing the bar drinks for the spitting? Shoving a dog in your pockets? The "monkey wrench"?). Also still not sure how I feel about that ending.

Anyway, when using the NRS resource patch on the Ultimate Talkie version with my custom sound driver, I did find one thing that wasn't great. The spitting sound of the barkeep interrupts the dialog, so any dialog not involving him stopping and talking to you (IE, narration while you look around the bar and do other things) was getting interrupted. This is only a problem with the NRS resource patch, because otherwise a MIDI sound effect is used. I'll have to play again and see if other spitting effects in the game sound different without the resource patch, because they didn't cause audio problems. If the spitting sound in the bar remained a midi resource, but the other ones were the same as the playthrough I did, I think that would be ideal. Still, never having played the game before, other things might have been missing or just plain "wrong" that I didn't pick up on. I'd welcome any other people's experiences to point out anything I've missed.

I did a speedrun of MI2 this morning without the NRS resource patches, and I can confirm it works better without that. None of the other fixes he did appear relevant for this version of the game. We still want the MT-32 sound effect for the barkeep spitting as I mentioned above, which does work on this version, it's just more subtle. Other spitting sounds in this edition of the game work fine without any resource patching. I didn't notice anything else missing. If anyone does find anything, just let me know here, and I can prepare a separate, more targeted resource patch for MI2TE. Right now though, I can't see anything broken that needs fixing.