Niemi_81 wrote on 2025-10-08, 17:16:

On DOS side it reads CD images just fine, but i can't get any CD Audio. Settlers 2 informs that there are no CD tracks, Homm2 just hangs and gives a black screen..

Can you try Mechwarrior 2 in DOS? It's known to work well and we can figure out if it's an issue with the game or with the setup

wargrip wrote on 2025-10-08, 22:27:

I have a question about running it side by side with a Awe64.

My Awe64 is set to irq 5, dma 5/1, MPU port 300 and I want to use my picogus for midi and then sometimes usb and sometimes gus. I was hoping I could switch between gus and usb in software without messing with jumpers but I'm not sure what irq to use - my understanding is that usb needs irq 3 to be set and gus needs irq 7 - am I wrong? is there an irq setting that could work for both? it is a serial mouse I am wanting to use in usb mode, fyi

Thank you!

Multiple modes of the PicoGUS can occupy the same IRQ as long as the software you are using allows you to select that IRQ. Since only one virtual device on the PicoGUS is ever using that IRQ at a time there are no conflicts. AFAIK using a GUS on IRQ3 is fine (7 is an option- not mandatory). As mentioned just make sure the environment variables and software are set up to look for a GUS on IRQ3.

Also USB mode only requires IRQ3/4 if you are using COM port emulation for a virtual mouse. If that feature isn't enabled you don't need a specific IRQ for USB mode and can use whatever you want for the GUS side.

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-10-08, 23:18:

Can you try Mechwarrior 2 in DOS? It's known to work well and we can figure out if it's an issue with the game or with the setup […]
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Niemi_81 wrote on 2025-10-08, 17:16:

On DOS side it reads CD images just fine, but i can't get any CD Audio. Settlers 2 informs that there are no CD tracks, Homm2 just hangs and gives a black screen..

Can you try Mechwarrior 2 in DOS? It's known to work well and we can figure out if it's an issue with the game or with the setup

wargrip wrote on 2025-10-08, 22:27:

I have a question about running it side by side with a Awe64.

My Awe64 is set to irq 5, dma 5/1, MPU port 300 and I want to use my picogus for midi and then sometimes usb and sometimes gus. I was hoping I could switch between gus and usb in software without messing with jumpers but I'm not sure what irq to use - my understanding is that usb needs irq 3 to be set and gus needs irq 7 - am I wrong? is there an irq setting that could work for both? it is a serial mouse I am wanting to use in usb mode, fyi

Thank you!

Multiple modes of the PicoGUS can occupy the same IRQ as long as the software you are using allows you to select that IRQ. Since only one virtual device on the PicoGUS is ever using that IRQ at a time there are no conflicts. AFAIK using a GUS on IRQ3 is fine (7 is an option- not mandatory). As mentioned just make sure the environment variables and software are set up to look for a GUS on IRQ3.

Also USB mode only requires IRQ3/4 if you are using COM port emulation for a virtual mouse. If that feature isn't enabled you don't need a specific IRQ for USB mode and can use whatever you want for the GUS side.

I sure love Mechwarrior 2, i will try this evening. 😊 Also i could try additional USB sticks if i find them, probably scattered around my room.
I hope we get just a little bit more speed for CD-ROM emulation. I have it on USB mode, and every cutscene is pretty much unwatchable, to the point that HOMM2 Win95 hangs if trying to watch intro.
Of course, Picogus was not created for CD-ROM emulation, so i am very happy with what i got.

Niemi_81 wrote on 2025-10-09, 06:12:

I sure love Mechwarrior 2, i will try this evening. 😊 Also i could try additional USB sticks if i find them, probably scattered around my room.
I hope we get just a little bit more speed for CD-ROM emulation. I have it on USB mode, and every cutscene is pretty much unwatchable, to the point that HOMM2 Win95 hangs if trying to watch intro.
Of course, Picogus was not created for CD-ROM emulation, so i am very happy with what i got.

The windows Creative MKE driver has a ton of overhead and is barely faster than a single speed drive. If you load the DOS drivers in config.sys and autoexec.bat before windows loads it will be closer to a triple speed CD drive and is just enough to play HOMM2. There are a couple of artifacts in the video sequences (because it really expects a quad speed) but it's like 95% there.

I tried couple of different usb sticks, took Mechwarrior 2 medium installation to see how cutscenes perform. Well, it said no Mech2 cdrom found..
I gave up on this, burned Heroes 2 to a good old Verbatim CD-R. Now i am enjoying it in DOS with GUS midi synth and SB Pro digital effects. ( Gus + Gus resulted chopping music when effects were playing. )

Guys, I do not know why you have problems with speed, I have approximately a speed from 3.9x to 5.46x on the images.
Also, if anyone is interested. The maximum flash I got was 32 gigabytes. I bought it on aliexpress and used it through a card reader, as it is small and convenient.

Nice, thanks for the tip. However, im not sure at all if my problems are speed related.

Niemi_81 wrote on 2025-10-10, 07:13:

Nice, thanks for the tip. However, im not sure at all if my problems are speed related.

For example, many games in DOS and some in windows that require a CD only check the first CD drive and ignore any more. So you need to adjust your config so the virtual drive is ahead of the physical drive.

Mr.Hunt wrote on 2025-10-09, 20:34:

Guys, I do not know why you have problems with speed, I have approximately a speed from 3.9x to 5.46x on the images.
Also, if anyone is interested. The maximum flash I got was 32 gigabytes. I bought it on aliexpress and used it through a card reader, as it is small and convenient.

Where might one obtain the CD speed check software? I had a look around and came up empty except for speedsys but it only shows speed in multiples of 150KB/s

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-10-04, 08:32:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-10-03, 15:24:

Just to check - does the audio of the Pico work in Windows? Or is it purely for DOS? With my other motherboard, it has onboard audio, but my current one doesn't. I was able to daisy chain that with my ISA sound card to get digital audio working. But as the motherboard I'm using doesn't have any onboard audio, I can't. So wasn't sure if I should invest in a PCI card to have that option or if the Pico would solve the issue. Thanks.

Mixed results, the devices that the PicoGUS emulates were never that good in the 95/98 environment to begin with since they are pre-directsound. They will produce sound for basic audio playback but you will get stutter and audio dropouts in quite a few programs. If you are planning on spending any decent amount of time in the 95/98 environment I would recommend a PCI card with hardware accelerated directsound buffers anyway.

was just pouring over if there were drivers that worked in windows , but i see the best option is supplementing w/ a good ISA or PCI soundcard for windows n feeding in the PGUS sound into said card's Line-IN.

CaelThunderwing wrote on 2025-10-12, 14:54:

was just pouring over if there were drivers that worked in windows , but i see the best option is supplementing w/ a good ISA or PCI soundcard for windows n feeding in the PGUS sound into said card's Line-IN.

The PicoGUS is modern so it shouldn't have noise issues. But there are inexpensive mixers you can connect everything to and independently control the volume levels of different sound cards all at once.

Here's an example. https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Channel-Audio … g/dp/B07Y2RYHFF

The PicoGUS can be an option for Windows 3.1 as that loaded DOS first and had basic sound support. Once you get into Windows 95/98 hardware acceleration becomes a thing and game started using features like EAX to sound their best. Soundblaster Lives are very cheap, while Audigy cards are creeping up in price but offer slightly better sound than the Lives. Both cards offer Soundfont support to let MIDI playback shine. And lots of games relied on CD audio or just straight digital audio so Adlib and GUS for music fell by the way side.