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.

I've only now gotten around to trying my PicoGUS and it's giving crackling/popping out of one of my speakers (sounds bizarre - I know - almost a crackle in time with the music). I have a bunch of other MIDI devices and SB AWE64 and none of them experience anything like this - I only hear it when I play back anything with the card in GUS mode and then only out of 1 speaker. I've connected my headphones directly to the audio out of the GUS and removed all other ISA cards and it does the same thing. Moved slots. Tried all sorts.

I've tried DMA 1 and 3, IRQs 3,5 and 7 and all combinations of above.

Any ideas before I send this thing back?

wargrip wrote on 2025-10-16, 21:06:

I've only now gotten around to trying my PicoGUS and it's giving crackling/popping out of one of my speakers (sounds bizarre - I know - almost a crackle in time with the music). I have a bunch of other MIDI devices and SB AWE64 and none of them experience anything like this - I only hear it when I play back anything with the card in GUS mode and then only out of 1 speaker. I've connected my headphones directly to the audio out of the GUS and removed all other ISA cards and it does the same thing. Moved slots. Tried all sorts.

I've tried DMA 1 and 3, IRQs 3,5 and 7 and all combinations of above.

Any ideas before I send this thing back?

What is the motherboard chipset of the machine concerned? Is the ISA bus speed standard? Asking for general compatibility reasons.

The symptom does sound like a possible hardware fault, if such environment factors can be ruled out.

Shreddoc wrote on 2025-10-16, 22:13:

wargrip wrote on 2025-10-16, 21:06:

I've only now gotten around to trying my PicoGUS and it's giving crackling/popping out of one of my speakers (sounds bizarre - I know - almost a crackle in time with the music). I have a bunch of other MIDI devices and SB AWE64 and none of them experience anything like this - I only hear it when I play back anything with the card in GUS mode and then only out of 1 speaker. I've connected my headphones directly to the audio out of the GUS and removed all other ISA cards and it does the same thing. Moved slots. Tried all sorts.

I've tried DMA 1 and 3, IRQs 3,5 and 7 and all combinations of above.

Any ideas before I send this thing back?

What is the motherboard chipset of the machine concerned? Is the ISA bus speed standard? Asking for general compatibility reasons.

The symptom does sound like a possible hardware fault, if such environment factors can be ruled out.

I have this board which has the VIA Apollo Pro 133:

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/gigabyte-ga-6vxe-2

From the picogus docs its meant to be compatible as far as I am aware.

wargrip wrote on 2025-10-16, 21:06:

I've only now gotten around to trying my PicoGUS and it's giving crackling/popping out of one of my speakers (sounds bizarre - I know - almost a crackle in time with the music). I have a bunch of other MIDI devices and SB AWE64 and none of them experience anything like this - I only hear it when I play back anything with the card in GUS mode and then only out of 1 speaker. I've connected my headphones directly to the audio out of the GUS and removed all other ISA cards and it does the same thing. Moved slots. Tried all sorts.

I've tried DMA 1 and 3, IRQs 3,5 and 7 and all combinations of above.

Any ideas before I send this thing back?

My gut feel is a hardware issue with the DAC on the card, but does it happen in all the PicoGUS modes or just GUS mode?

Very interesting. I don't use picogus for GUS emulation, only for CD, but I have a real PNP in my system and it also crackles when playing sounds. There are no problems with music. VT694T (Apollo Pro 133T).

Say is there any progress on supporting SBPro in PicoGUS' SB mode?

Or will this have to wait until a future generation that would be powered by RP2350 (Pico 2) as RP2040 may not be powerful enough for that (considering other features that can be active at the same time with SB mode)?

LSS10999 wrote on Yesterday, 08:24:

Say is there any progress on supporting SBPro in PicoGUS' SB mode?

Or will this have to wait until a future generation that would be powered by RP2350 (Pico 2) as RP2040 may not be powerful enough for that (considering other features that can be active at the same time with SB mode)?

I believe Ian has got the SB16/WSS DSP working, but OPL3 is currently too much for the RP2040 unless someone can optimise the hell out of the emulation core. Maybe it would be worth releasing SB16 lite which does 16-bit digital audio but only OPL2. Most games with SB16 support will allow you to independently set the music device as OPL2 or 3.

Can’t wait for MPU + CDROM emulation at the same time.

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-10-18, 12:23:

wargrip wrote on 2025-10-16, 21:06:

I've only now gotten around to trying my PicoGUS and it's giving crackling/popping out of one of my speakers (sounds bizarre - I know - almost a crackle in time with the music). I have a bunch of other MIDI devices and SB AWE64 and none of them experience anything like this - I only hear it when I play back anything with the card in GUS mode and then only out of 1 speaker. I've connected my headphones directly to the audio out of the GUS and removed all other ISA cards and it does the same thing. Moved slots. Tried all sorts.

I've tried DMA 1 and 3, IRQs 3,5 and 7 and all combinations of above.

Any ideas before I send this thing back?

My gut feel is a hardware issue with the DAC on the card, but does it happen in all the PicoGUS modes or just GUS mode?

I also have an AWE64 in my PC so I've never tried the SB mode but I just did and it's the same thing - maybe it's even worse. I've attached an audio click - just recorded from the speaker output using my phone but it's so bad it's quite easy to hear (standing still in Doom just firing the gun occasionally - hopefully the clicks are obvious). MPU401 sounds fine, of course, since it's only sending MIDI commands elsewhere and I assume doing very little actual processing itself. I also have another PicoGUS on the way which should arrive this week - if it does the same thing that's going to be terrible because it means it's probably an incompatibility with my mainboard. Will report back either way.

PicoGUS is indeed picky about the usb flash drive - I have several drives which are refusing to cooperate with PG (timeouts with /cdlist, and refuse to read data at all).
Today I got 2 drives that actually work - A-Data UV240 32GB USB2.0 and a Sandisk Ultra Dual Drive 32GB (has type-c and type-a connectors, which is handy).

Found one interesting issue - there are .ISO files where root catalog is read but you can't access neither files nor directories there. And what's very noticeable is the letter's case - filenames have mixed case, not uppercase-only. These are the ISOs:

https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/arc … usinesscard.iso
https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/arc … 386-netinst.iso
(The installation disks also behave the same, but they need jigdo-lite for downloading and I suppose no-one will care)

List of available ISOs on the flash drive:

Directories and files are not accessible, other than the root catalog:

My setup: PicoGUS HW v2.0, firmware v3.7.1, DOS 6.22

Just to be very clear - this is not a heart-breaking issue for me. Just noticed and reported it, in the name of the common good.